激情年代

As we know, there is a famous saying: “Tragedy is to tear up something valuable in front of people.” The Crucible is no doubt a tragedy like this, those villagers who are kindhearted and honest are all finally condemned to death while those dishonest and selfish villagers are still alive. The symbol of morality, conscience and faith is destroyed at last. The ironic ending of the story makes me think about what has caused the tragedy.

Obviously, we may blame on the rumors. There is an idiom in Chinese which goes “three men may become a tiger”, it means a rumor may seems real if many people believe in it. Without the rumor about the witch, there would not exist panic in Salem, and people may focus on finding the treatment for the illness rather than finding the fictitious “witch”.

On the other hand, what has caused Proctor and other people’s death is the conscience and moral principles themselves. “To be or not to be, that is the question.” In fact, Proctor is facing the same problem as Socrates: if he insist on his conscience and morality, death is the only choice. At last, Proctor have made the same choice as Socrates too. Hemingway’s sentence: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated” is exactly describing this kind of confliction.

Of course, we can also blame on the lack of science or those outworn ideas in people: if people in Salem have a good education of science, they would not believe in the existence of witch, then the ridiculous witch trail would not happen at all.

However, even though people are all equipped with science, won’t the “Salem Witch Trail” happen again?

If the answer is “yes”, we may find it difficult to explain the following phenomena. In Nazi Germany, those scientists who are knowledgeable were using their science to make all kinds of machines to kill people, which is legal in Nazi Germany. During “The Culture Revolution” in China, many scholars and professors were making up all kinds of lies and slanders. When Stalin was in control of the Soviet Union, it is common that people usually applaud for 15 minutes or more because no body is brave enough to become the first to stop……

Yes, as you can see, the real problem is the Mass Irrationality. In this kind of situation, people may easily tend to not take the responsibility of their behaviors, what they are chasing for is not the satisfaction of their conscience but the identity in the mass. Obviously, this may easily cause a danger consequence.

Therefore, The Crucible is not only a parable of McCarthyism, it’s a alarm bell to all eras.How to deal with the Mass Irrationality? I think only keep moral principles can’t solve the problem.Everyone should be suspicious of the surroundings,we should always introspect. Skepticism is a useful weapon against the Mass Irrationality.

当我刚开始看电影作品的时候，里面让人眼花缭乱的情节让我甚至难以继续看下去，我觉得这部剧简直就像闹剧一样荒唐可笑。直到我一步步更接近它的主题，感受到渗透在剧中的情感主旨，我的心才逐渐沉重，让我陷入了沉思。

看似荒唐的背后实际上也藏着必然，即利益与人性的考量。剧中的Judge Danforth和Parris并不是完全没有意识到孩子们的谎言。起先Parris明显是不相信魔鬼的说法，更惮于会因此被其他派别的敌人赶下台，但当他发现承认魔鬼存在反而能为自己带来好处，他便安心的支持这一说法。为了维护自己的权威与尊严，Danforth便顾不上什么公正，哪怕是最后意识到了问题的严重性，也只是想到要威逼利诱让被逮捕的人承认与魔鬼的交易。而那些小女孩们，原本不被人注意，没有发言权，但是在这一事件中，她们显然成为了主角，一次次出庭作证指认别人，在这一过程中他们的地位明显得到了提高，他们好像更受人尊重甚至拿捏着别人的生死。于是从她们的本心出发便也不愿意放过这个机会。在我看来这部剧很沉重的一个方面就是把人性的丑恶、黑暗、贪婪暴露的淋漓尽致，我们可以看出人能为自己考虑到何种地步，为了自己的利益如何泯灭了让我们之所以称之为人的东西。

按照经典说法，这部剧以十七世纪在美国麻州沙林村发生的女巫事件为背景，影射和讽刺麦卡锡主义的恐共疑云，即红色恐慌时期美国政府以抓捕共产主义分子为名对大众的迫害。我对于麦卡锡主义可能知之甚少，但学了那么多本国历史，我知道文化大革命。剧中大家为了活命，不惜装疯卖傻，承认魔鬼的存在，出卖自己的邻居甚至朋友的行为像极了当时文革时期人们为了保全自己不受迫害，说假话，出卖他人的做法。发生在不同的国家，但事件的性质是相似的。经历过这样漫长折磨的人们，无论是否被迫害过，他们的内心深处一定会藏着深深的痛，这样的创伤根本难以愈合。当人深处一个黑白颠倒的年代，当人需要昧着良心向邪恶和虚假忏悔的时候，如何才能真有勇气拿生命来捍卫人格？怎样才能有勇气不向黑暗出卖自己的灵魂？这显然异常艰难，可能也正因为如此，像John Proctor那样坚守自己的善良，不为了苟安而出卖他人的做法才尤为可贵，本以为最后他会因为妻子的劝说而妥协，但是内心深处的良知让他选择了放弃生命，世间的确有比生命更宝贵的东西，那便是良善和尊严。

“I have three children _ how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends?”

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang ! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name! ”“”“”

当他用那种灵魂深处的，浸满血泪的绝望之声吼出这几句话的时候，我想近乎泪目的我深深被打动了。没有人不会崇敬这样一个伟大的灵魂，当人们把英雄送上绞刑架的时候，整个世界都黯然失色。John Proctor在剧中无疑扮演了殉道英雄的角色，在一切的混乱和绝望当中他仍然不放弃自己对这个世界最本真的看法，仍然不愿意将自己的良知和名誉出卖。

剧中的女巫事件可以看作是由居心叵测的个体误导，所形成的群体不理性的动乱。在完全的宗教统治和愚民政策下，人们没有办法自由追求真理甚至是一点点真实。或许Abby本身的恶是事件的导火索，但最终造成19条生命的惨剧却不是她一人之力，宗教的绑架，专制独裁者的利用，一切的一切共同塑造了这一悲剧。如今的我们只有更多用理性和科学指导生活，才能避免悲剧的重演。

或许上帝已死，但希望人性不会泯灭。