"There are wheels within wheels in this village"

[karembi38]

In act I, Mrs. Putnam angrily states, "There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!" (Miller 28). This quote effectively describes the situation in Salem, as one problem leads into another, with webs of grudges and accusations.
How do you interpret this quote? At which points of the play do you think this statement is most relevant?

[emhutch38]

This quote is describing how each problem constantly keeps turning into more and more problems; ultimately creating chaos. The point that most accurately displays this quotes is in during Act III when Proctor is attempting to plead his wife's innocence to the court. It quickly turns into a chaotic environment when Proctor uses Mary Warren as a witness in order to prove that his wife is not a witch because Mary sees her constantly at home. Abigail then takes advantage of Mary's weak nature in order to disregard Proctors plea and creates more problems such as causing Mary to then change her mind and confess. This causes the court to question Proctor even more. Therefore, you see how the court can be related to a wheel spinning downward

[camasci35]

I interpret this quote to mean that everything keeps "snowballing" out of control due to the excitement and contagiousness of the situation. With one accusation Abby can make any situation worse, as seen when she accuses Elizabeth Proctor. She not only makes the sitution between her and Proctor come into the public eye, she puts Elizabeth on death row. I also interpret "fires within fires" to represent the hidden motives the Puritans have for calling eachother witches. The fire may have already been started as is the case between the Nurses and Putnams but the witch accusations adds fuel to the flame (Miller 26).

[wicary35]

i agree with what has been said. To me the fires within fires means that from a casual surveyor one may think that Abigail accuses Elizabeth because she believes her to be a witch. This would be one "fire" or a fight, but there are fires within fires because Abigail's real motive is to take Elizabeth's place at Proctor's side. The wheels within wheels shows how each one of these accusations and conflicts furthers the conflict that is Salem currently. They spin and move forward advancing their problems into bigger problems.

[mitrope38]

When I first read this quote I thought about the "snowball effect" as well, but I have been looking far into the "wheels within wheels" part as it as a biblical reference to Ezekiel's vision. I have been reading that it is essentially a metaphor for the dominance and power of the Word of God, which does not exactly make sense in the context of the play. If that is what Mrs. Putnam is trying to say then she would be justifying the fact that she has lost all of her children because it was God's will, which is not what she means at all. Unless the actress playing the part of Mrs. Putnam is meant to speak that line with somewhat of a sarcasm as if mocking Rebecca.

If anyone is interested in looking into this I got most of my information here:
www.biblewheel.com/wheel/ezekiel_wheels.asp

I would be interested to see what other people think about the religious reference because I cannot quite figure it out.