Resumo de The Crucible - Arthur Miller

The slaughter of many innocents due to a vindictive and childish prank is the crux of Arthur Millers classic; The Crucible. Set in the burning times when witch hunting was at its peak, Miller takes us into the town of Salem and its parishioners,some good, some bad and some just plain evil. Young Abigail Williams is intrigued by the nightly ritual of their coloured servant girl Tituba and so gathers a group of friends and follows her into the forrest. There she sees Tituba chanting in strange languages and dancing by the moonlight. The girls, intrigued by what they had seen take it upon themselves experience this mysterious spritual rite by taking of their clothes and revelling under the huntress moon. Much to their dismay the girls are caught in their naked revelery by the reverend Parris, whose daughter at this very point falls into a coma. To save her own skin Abigail then concocts a story of witchcraft and convinces the rest of the girls who were present that night to go along with her fabrication of the events. To convince the reverend of their story the girls lead by Abigail begin to accuse many of the town folk of witchcraft which leads to the trail and execution of many innocent and honourable people. The hysteria of witchcraft in the town reaches fever pitch where even those folk seen as beyond reproach are accused and found guilty of dealing with the devil, such as Rebbeca Nurse, a pillar of the Salem community. Well, every story has a hero and The Crucibles is the corageous and stoic John Proctor who in the past had fallen for the villeneous and seductive charms of Abigail culminating in an affair he clearly regrets.Knowing that Abigail still harbours affection for him, John secrets her away for a private discussion in which he discovers the truth aboutthe witchcraft accusations. This knowledge gives John the power to stop the slaughter of innocent towns people but to do so he must admit his indiscretion. Of course heroes never fail us and neither does John bearing his soul for all to see. Abigail does not take this lightly and finally accuses John Proctor of witchcraft where he is given the ultimation to confess or die? What will he choose? To save his soul or his life? TheCrucible is a tale of love, betrayal and courage like all good stories but it is also a social commentary on the ignorance of religions that do not appear to be mainstream and the danger of hysteria related to this which can cause genocides around the world. This makes The Crucible very poigniant for todays society where religious villification appears to be ever increasing. If we take Arthur Millers lesson into our hearts maybe we will be less likely to conform to common opinion based on heresay and learn the facts before deciding on a course of action that can change the world forever, And not in a good way.

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