Mrs. Putnam makes this statement in reference to the fact that she has lost seven out of eight babies within a day of their birth. She and her husband have sought answers, have prayed about it, but to no avail. The Putnams and Rebecca Nurse are discussing what Rebecca calls the "prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits" as a result of Mrs. Putnam's admission that she sent her only surviving daughter, Ruth, to Reverend Parris's Barbadian slave, Tituba, to conjure the spirits of Ruth's dead siblings in an effort to learn what caused them to die.
When Rebecca suggests that the community must look to themselves for the cause of such deaths, Mr. Putnam says, "I am one of nine sons; the Putnam seed have peopled this province. And yet I have but one child left of eight! -- and now she shrivels!" Mrs. Putnam questions Rebecca as to whether she believes it is God's work that Rebecca would never lose a child or grandchild, and yet the Putnams have lost all but one. Mrs. Putnam clearly believes that this is not God's work -- why would God punish her so cruelly? -- and so it must be the Devil's.
When she then says that "There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!" what she means is that there are secrets at work, conspiracies and plots among those townsfolk who are in league with the Devil and who do his work for him. When Tituba names Goody Osburn as a witch at the end of Act One, this confirms all Mrs. Putnam's suspicions. She says, "I knew it! Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times [....]. My babies always shriveled in her hands!" It is easy to believe because Mrs. Putnam wants so badly to believe it. She wants there to be an answer to her question, and this would seem to be one.
She means that things are not the way they seem from the outside. Inside there are other things going on as well that are driving the trial. I also wonder if it isn't a Biblical reference to Ezekiel who has a vision that included wheels within wheels.
The quote is an example of irony because Mrs. Putnam is one of the people keeping the trials alive by making accusations for her own selfish reasons. The accusations being made are all for selfish reasons, none are genuine.
Mrs. Putnam says that there “are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!” Explain what she means.
Mrs. Putnam has been completely unhinged by the loss of her infant children. She's as devout a Puritan as anyone in Salem, and yet she still hasn't been blessed with a child; all her babies have died within a day of being born. Mrs. Putnam cannot believe that this is God's work; after all, her husband is one of nine sons. So she figures that there are dark forces at work; the Devil is responsible for her loss.
But the Devil can't work alone; he needs human helpers. Mrs. Putnam gets it into her...
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head that there must be a gigantic conspiracy between the Prince of Darkness and some of the supposedly God-fearing folk of Salem. That's what she means when she says "There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!" She's emphasizing how Satan's accomplices are hiding in plain sight, masquerading as godly Puritans, when in actual fact they're actively in league with the Devil.
What does Ann Putnam mean when she tells Rebecca: "there are wheels within wheels in the village and fires within fires"?
Since Mrs. Putnam is an antagonist and Rebecca is a protagonist in the story, Mrs. Putnam is probably trying to threaten Rebecca. Mrs. Putnam is jealous of Rebecca because Rebecca had so many children and Mrs. Putnam didn't. Mrs. Putnam subtly tries to suggest that maybe Rebecca had help from the devil in having so many children. She also is suggesting that there are mysterious forces operating beneath the surface of Salem, and maybe some of these forces and relationships among citizens have a hidden purpose.