Betty Parris is ill, and it seems as though she cannot wake up because her eyes remain closed. Doctor Griggs is baffled by her condition and can find no physical cause, and so he advises Betty's father, Reverend Parris, to "look to unnatural things for the cause of it." There is also a rumor circulating, told by Mrs. Putnam when she arrives, that Betty flew "over Ingersoll's barn, and come down light as a bird...
Betty Parris is ill, and it seems as though she cannot wake up because her eyes remain closed. Doctor Griggs is baffled by her condition and can find no physical cause, and so he advises Betty's father, Reverend Parris, to "look to unnatural things for the cause of it." There is also a rumor circulating, told by Mrs. Putnam when she arrives, that Betty flew "over Ingersoll's barn, and come down light as a bird [...]." Parris assures everyone, at first, that her illness has nothing to do with witchcraft, as this is what Abigail, his niece, tells him. She says, "when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it." However, Parris doubts Abigail and continues to question her about her reputation in town.
A while later, Betty does wake up and try to "fly to Mama," running suddenly for the window. She shouts at Abigail that she didn't confess everything to Parris, and she knows that her cousin "drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor." Thus, because she was able to hear Abigail and awake when she chose, it seems that her "illness" is merely a guilty conscience.
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