The answer to this question can be found in the extra
information that Miller provides about the character of Putnam when we first meet him in
Act One, and in particular, his grasping, vindictive nature that is so centred on his
own personal betterment and enrichment. Consider what we are told about the past
incident of Putnam and Burroughs:
Another former Salem minister, George Burroughs,
had had to borrow money to pay for his wife's funeral, and, since the parish was remiss
in his salary, he was soon bankrupt. Thomas and his brother John and Burroughs jailed
for the debts the man did not owe. The incident is important only in that Burroughs
succeeded in becoming minister where Bayley, Thomas Putnam's brother-in-law, had been
rejected; the motif of resentment is clear
here.
Thus the narrative of
how Burroughs was wrongfully persecuted by Putnam because of the way that Putnam had
felt slighted because his brother-in-law did not get the position that he had wanted him
to receive prepares us for the way in which Putnam looks upon the witch trials as a
curious way to get revenge against other perceived slights he believed himself to have
suffered and to better his own position.
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