¶ … movie, The Crucible, was derived entirely from the book entitled, Salem Possessed: the Social Origins of Witchcraft by Paul S. Boyer, with only a few differences, owing to technical limitations in movie production. The movie had to reduce the number of characters of the books in order to produce it on cinema. Time lapses were shortened, due again to cinematic limitations in presenting the events. Furthermore, the nature of the charges against Giles Corey was not identical. In the book, he is charged with contempt of court for refusing to plead either innocent or guilty. In the movie, he is charged with contempt for refusing to name the person who told him about Thomas Putnam's intent to buy land by means of false accusation. And while Abigail Williams is presented as an 11-year-old girl in the book, she is 17 years in the movie in order to justify or make credible her being the lust object of John Proctor.
In all other aspects, details and views, the movie and the book are identical. They both talk about the same people: the "afflicted" girls Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Tituba, Ann Putnam, John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth, Mary Wolcott, Samuel Parris, Judge Danforth, Giles Corey, and many others. The setting was Salem Village in Massachusetts in 1692. Both discuss the events that led to the Salem witch trials that killed 19 by hanging and one by crushing.
Both the movie and the book begin by stressing that the community was devoted to the service of God, as it existed during Puritanical times. In this Village lived young girls who felt bored with their elders' stringent ways and tried something more exciting, which then was also in fashion: fortune-telling, magic and spiritism. That was January in 1692. One of the girls was the 9-year-old daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris' daughter, while another was his niece, 11 (or 17-) -year-old niece, Abigail Williams, an orphan. These girls wanted to find out who their husband would be and these men's occupations. Instead of the future, they saw "a specter in the likeness of a coffin." (qtd. In Boyer 5 par 2).From thereon, these girls showed signs of disturbance, which the physician called in by Rev. Parris concluded was caused by witchcraft, then a capital offense. Finger-pointing finally led to Tituba, a slave girl from Barbados in the Caribbean, and later to a beggar, Sarah Good; and to a sickly old woman, Sarah Osborne. These three were jailed. But instead of ending the trouble, the witch trials simply began.
The reason why is clearer in the book because it is longer, had more characters and told more events than the movie. The book says that an outbreak of small pox, the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter by Charles II and frequent Indian attacks were perceived by the early Puritans as God's punishment for the practice of witchcraft in their Village. And so they believed that they had to clean the Village up of all witches to appease His anger.
That March, one of the girls, Ann Putnam, charged Martha Corey, a regular bur unpopular churchgoer, of witchcraft. She - and the other troubled young girls - did the same to a kind and old lady, Rebecca Nurse, then 71 years old, whom they managed to get hanged with four other women on Gallows Hill that July. These four other women were Sarah Good, Sarah Wilds, Elizabeth How, and Susannah Martin.
Both the movie and the book establish that Abigail Williams, one of the afflicted girls, had an affair with a 60-year-old married farmer and tavern owner, John Proctor. He insisted that the girls' misbehavior could be easily corrected by harsh discipline. The movie emphasizes Abigail's desire for him and for revenge in accusing John's wife, Elizabeth, of witchcraft. John, instead of Elizabeth, was hanged, and Elizabeth was freed because she was pregnant. Although...
and, so that brought in a whole new perspective. I had never realized the degree to which they were afraid of us and often feel as though - now the situation becomes very life threatening for them. Because often they don't know how to follow the protocol, how to properly respond to police officers. and, so it just supercharges the whole event." The training] gave us an opportunity to ask
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