The Crucible Yellow Bird Quotes

ABIGAIL: You will not! Begone! Begone, I say!
…MERCY LEWIS: It’s on the beam! Behind the rafter!
DANFORTH: Where!
ABIGAIL: Why – ? Why do you come, yellow bird?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Abigail screams up to the ceiling of the courtroom, pretending to see a demonic bird on the rafters. The other girls follow her head. Abby blames the bird on Mary Warren. This is a ruse to whip up hysteria and undermine Mary’s deposition stating that she and the girls lied when they claimed they saw the Devil. Abby is demonstrating her power over the girls by using the satanic bird to psychologically control them.

DANFORTH: What is it, child? (But Abigail, pointing with fear, is now raising up her frightened eyes, her awed face, toward the ceiling – the girls are doing the same – and now Hathorne, Hale, Putnam, Cheever, Herrick, and Danforth do the same.) What’s there? (He lowers his eyes from the ceiling, and now he is frightened; there is real tension in his voice.) Child! (She is transfixed – with all the girls, she is whimpering open-mouthed, agape at the ceiling.) Girls! Why do you – ?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. The "yellow bird" scene in the courtroom shows how easily mass hysteria can grip an entire community and wipe out rational thought and common sense. It also shows how Abigail Williams exercises power over the girls and court officials. At the centre of the illusion is master manipulator Abby. As she imagines and invents a demonic bird on the courtroom rafters, even the learned and experienced Judge Danforth is taken in and petrified.

PARRIS: Cast the Devil out! Look him in the face! Trample him! We’ll save you, Mary, only stand fast against him – .
ABIGAIL: Look out! She’s coming down!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. When the girls led by Abby pretend that Mary Warren’s spirit is attacking them in the form of a bird, Parris joins in. He acts as if he were with the forces of good fighting against evil. Like Abby, he too is manipulating the court to undermine Mary’s evidence that she and the girls lied about seeing witches and the Devil.

She and all the girls run to one wall, shielding their eyes. And now, as though cornered, they let out a gigantic scream, and Mary, as though infected, opens her mouth and screams with them. Gradually Abigail and the girls leave off, until only Mary is left there, staring up at the "bird," screaming madly. All watch her, horrified by this evident fit.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. The stage directions give a graphic portrayal of how Abigail Williams provokes mass hysteria and sets up a chain reaction in the witch trials courtroom. She is pretending to see an imaginary demonic bird in the rafters.
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