激情年代1996

1.为什么Elizabeth在法庭上不承认丈夫lechery？如果她的证词一致，可能能挽救许多性命。

2.John做了正确的、不愧良心的行为，但错过最佳的时机（事件一开始），犹豫导致败北。

3.Mr Hale和其中一位法官都是守序中立，虽心有不忍，但不愿以身犯险，亦无能为力。

4.Elizabeth最后的自白很感人，是真正意义上的confess，”It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery. You take my sins upon you.”

John的心声：I’ve given you my soul. Leave me my name. He has his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.

可能很多人不理解真实的现实为什么这么煽情，这是没有联系到宗教背景。事实上，信仰的力量是巨大的，可以让恶人心安理得（认为自己的一切罪孽都是为了上帝，虽然上帝才不愿意背黑锅呢），行善者甘愿赴死（认为以身殉是最佳的自我辩白）。人性有求生欲，不仅是求自己生还，也求他人。神性扭曲了人性，如果善恶两方中任何一方是无神论者，那么这件事的剧烈程度会减轻，但正是这吊诡的真实、艺术的现实，能广为流传、感染人心。

5.

John如果在最后时刻confess保命，按后续发展，会发生什么？如果不死，一年内就能翻案，而且因为他这个最有力度的证人还活着，翻案的可能性和力度都会更大，所以即使要以一死力证清白，也应该等两年再自杀。事实上回顾真实的历史，在重要证人都死绝的情况下，萨勒姆女巫案能翻案，一定程度上是出乎意料的。所以最后的“Because it is my name, because I cannot have another in my life.” 说服力不大，真正原因在于第4点。

摘抄：

It’s not on a ship we will meet again, Abigail, but in hell.

He has his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.

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.