ime it was against such things as dancing and other premature acts. The reputation of the family was very important to the members of the community. When the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just themselves but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil took them over and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw members of the town standing with the devil. A community living in a puritan society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a difficult time dealing with what they consider to be the largest form of evil. Salem's hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs that they were trying to strictly enforce. The church lost many of its parishioners because the interest of the town was now on Abigail. People wanted to know who was going to be named next. The justice system is designed to protect the people that it serves but during the trials, the accused witch had two choices, death or imprisonment. The punishment of death was given to all people that pleaded not guilty; the other option was to plead guilty and go to jail. John Proctor gave his view of the justice system when he said, "I like not the smell of this 'authority' "(29). There were so many people executed that Hale commented, "There are orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere..."(130) Salem was turning into a ghost town. With Abigail controlling the community, the church no longer getting the whole town to prayer, and an unjust legal system, it was natural that the people were in a state of total chaos. The unexplained was caused by the devil, so some members of Salem used the unexplained to their advantage. Mrs. Putnam told the truth when she said, "There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!"(26) Rumors happened because people did not want an...
