The Crucible

This is horrifying. A good read for October.
It is a nightmare, anything you say will be used against you, it will be twisted, it will not only be used against you, it will be used against everyone you hold dear, and you will be doomed and judged and condemned, because someone said something against you... and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
How people cannot feel the horror, I can't understand!
Maybe they seriously don't understand the horror of McCarthyism.

Just remember, when the Abigails get all the Rebeccas and Elizabeths hanged and burned and executed, you get to live with Abigail... and she WILL turn on you. One day you will be tried and found dealing with devils.

It doesn't say a thing about witchcraft, puritans, Christianity, Catholicism, or anything. It could be set anywhere. It's about people. It's about simple ideas that grow into mass hystery flamed by “good intentions”, “morality”, all kinds of things that are “good”. We all do it.

About Abigail's “sex mania”. I have known a lot of young women who think “love” - how ever it is defined - excuses everything, even murder. There is no more wicked thing than a teenaged girl. A teenaged boy can be more cruel, but they have the “benefit” of having more physical power and higher societal status in patriarchy than girls, so girls have to use their brains to get what they want. They have still the childlike amorality and cruelness and curiosity - the fairy quality - but they are old enough to understand the human nature.