The Putnams bear some responsibility for the witch hysteria because, in Act I, they are eager to believe a witch is to blame for the deaths of seven of their eight children. They repeat their suspicions again and again, fueling rumors of witchcraft in the town, and express their immediate certainty of the guilt of the women Tituba names.
Tituba and Abigail Williams are partially to blame for the hysteria as well because Abigail first names Tituba as a witch to shift blame away from herself, and then Tituba confesses and names two others as witches to save her own life. At this point, Abigail confesses to witchcraft, too, and she and her cousin Betty Parris go on to name many others as witches.
The group of girls consisting of Abigail, Betty, Mercy Lewis, Ruth Putnam, and their friends are also to blame because they continue to accuse people they know are innocent. We must include Mary Warren in this group because she initially participates, though she tries to tell the truth later. When she fears being accused, Mary then accuses her employer, John Proctor, of being a witch and tempting her away from God.
We must even fault Proctor for the hysteria because he knew the girls were lying early on—Abby told him herself—and he kept this information to himself until it was too late. Likewise, we can blame Mr. Hale because he knew the court was corrupt and failed to speak out against it soon enough, to stay in Salem and try to prove the innocence of those accused. What he did was too little, too late. For obvious reasons, we can blame Judges Danforth and Hathorne because they choose to believe the girls' accusations, seeming to enjoy the immense power their position enabled them to wield over others, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Really, very few, if any, characters are without blame.
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