scribing one of his sermons the amazed townspeople claimed, “…nor had inspiration ever breathed through mortal lips more evidently than it did through his” (170). Society, deceived by the lies of Dimmesdale, became a hypocrite in its treatment of two violators of the same Puritan law. It took two adulterers, Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, and raised one on the pedestal of respect and placed the other on a scaffold of shame. Hypocrisy in Salem similarly raised a sinner to a highly respected position, the scheming Abigail Williams. Abigail led the “inflicted” girls into a tangled web of lies and deception because of her desire to have John Proctor and her fear of being punished for what she did in the forest. Abigail instilled fear into the town, so that her words and accusations became the only believable testimony. Elizabeth describes the extent of Abigail’s deceitful power saying, “where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel” (50). The town continues to believe the one lying child over honorable victims and even respected the enforcement of strict sentences because they were in accordance with the Bible. Society is again a hypocrite when many people who had previously been caught up in the girls’ act suddenly thought twice about such strict punishments. Their change of heart came on because they or their own loved ones were now the people put in jail and facing trial. Giles Corey, who had once mentioned during a conversation about witches that his wife had a habit of reading peculiar books, regretted his incriminating comment later. When his wife was taken to jail for witchcraft, he remorsefully pleaded, “I never said my wife were a witch, Mr. Hale; I only said she were reading books!” (69). Hypocrisy reaches even to the highest authorities near the end of the trials, when people begin to see that innocent people are about to hang and need to be ...
