An Analysis Of The Human Stain From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Philip Roth is one of the most famous contemporary writers in the United States.His works have won almost all awards in American literature, including the Pulitzer Prizefor many times. In2001, Roth was chosen as “Best American Novelist” by Timemagazine.In Roth’s works, the “American Trilogy” attracts much concern of scholars both athome and at abroad. Among this trilogy, the last one The Human Stain is a complex andmeaningful work. The novel shows the readers the living conditions of people of allwalks in American social reality. Because of its deep exploration of American society,this work gets a series of literary awards, including Faulkner Award, the WH SmithLierary Award, etc. The analyses of the domestic and foreign scholars on this work aremainly from the perspective of American dream, or the themes of identity and alienation.There are also some researchers who focus on the issues of race, the influences onindividuals from history and politics, as well as the conflicts between two generations,and so on. This thesis attempts to use the ethical literary criticism to explore the ethicalideas embodied in The Human Stain from the perspective of ethics, especially the familyethical ideas and the social ethical ideas. In this work, Philip Roth not only createsdifferent characters with unfortunate fates, but also describes a great many absurd livingsituations. He aims to allow the readers to think more about human nature. The reasonwhy this thesis interprets The Human Stain from the perspective of ethical literarycriticism is also based on that the readers can feel the literary as well as ethical values ofthis work at the same time.This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part is introduction, which gives a brief presentation of the writer PhilipRoth and his mojor works, and also elaborates Roth’s literary achievements. In addition,this part highlights the novel The Human Stain, and the academic research as well ascommentary on this work both at home and at abroad in recent years. Roth’s works havealways been highly concerned by literary critics. The Human Stain is no exception. Theintroduction section summarizes a number of researches on this work, including themes,identity issues, the American Dream, etc. The second part is the main body of this thesis, which is divided into three chapters.Chapter One introduces the research method of this thesis——the ethical literarycriticism and Roth’s ethical ideas in detail. The ethical literary criticism is a researchmethod or a way of thinking with the target of literature. It mainly studies the literaryissues or literature-related problems from the perpective of ethics. Most of Roth’s workshave depicted the dark side of society. Behind the dark side usually implies some ethicalideas. Roth also would like to express his desire for such a kind of society full ofsincerity, equality, fairness and justice through his works.Chapter Two analyzes the ethical ideas on family and marriage embodied in TheHuman Stain. First, the conflicts between two generations are highlighted through thedescription of the contradictory in Coleman family, Delphine family and Faunia family.The younger generation want to get rid of the control of their parents while the oldergeneration suffer much misery because of their children’s misunderstanding. Theseconflicts exist in families of all walks in the society. What’s more, there are not only loveaffairs or marriage of Coleman and three women at different periods of his life, but also afailed marriage of Faunia and her ex-husband. Through these description, Rothdenounces the utilitarianism in the marriage, and praises the pure love.Chapter Three analyzes the social ethical ideas embodied in The Human Stain. First,through Coleman’s “spook” event and his scandalous affair, as well as the miserable lifeof the veteran Lesley, this thesis reveals some political issues, including the hypocrisy ofpolitical correctness, the interests behind the political activities and hypocritical morality,and so on. Next, this part reveals an important issue in the society——inequality. Theinequality exists not only between different races, but also between different classes. Thepursuit of fair rights and opportunities is also analyzed. At last, through the discord in therelationship between the individuals and society, the conflicts of ethics on therelationship between the individuals and society in contemporary American society areexposed, and the moral stain in society is also unfolded.The final part is conclusion, which gives a brief summery of the ethical ideasembodied in The Human Stain. The dark side of the society is condemned and the brightside is praised. Meanwhile, the thesis also shows the practical significance of using theethical literary criticism to analyze literary works. The generation gap, love and marriage relations, political issues, code of ethics and other issues still give people the inspirationof ethics in today’s society.