The Crucible

Salem 1692. The young Abigail, seduced and abandoned by John Proctor, accuses John's wife of being a witch in revenge. It will be the beginning of a series of witchcraft trials and a dark moment in American history. Salem, 1692. Industrious farmer, John Proctor, has twice made love to 17-year-old Abigail, a youth he and his wife have taken in. (His wife Elisabeth has rebuffed him for seven months; she is puritanical and cold.) When she finds John and Abigail embracing, she sends the lass from her home and John, feeling damned, agrees. Abigail vows revenge. Her chance comes when she accuses Elisabeth of witchcraft and manipulates younger girls to support her claims of seeing spirits. The town's minister and politicians want a cause: ridding the town of witchcraft is the ideal repression. John too, is accused; Abigail offers him a way to avoid hanging. Elisabeth has her own confession. —<jhailey@hotmail.com> In the beginning of the XVII Century, certain protestant sects left England heading to North America. In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts, was one of the most powerful and austere colonies. After seven months of sexual abstinence by his wife Elisabeth, the hard-working farmer, John Proctor, has sex twice with seventeen year-old virgin servant Abigail Williams who is infatuated with him. When the other servant Mary Warren sees John sneaking into Abigail's room during the night, she tells Elisabeth who in turn sends Abigail back to her uncle's home. When a group of women are accused of witchcraft, the manipulative and wicked Abigail manipulates Mary and other hysteric girls to take their revenge against Elisabeth, suggesting she is a witch. The local Reverend Paris, the Governor Danforth and other politicians support the accusation expecting to increase their power against the repressed inhabitants. John and other dwellers are imprisoned and only a confession can save them from the gallows. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil