Harmony · Equality · Freedom: The Ethical Concerns In Lessing's The Summer Before The Dark

Doris Lessing(1919—2013),born in Persia of British parents,was regarded as the greatest female writer after Virginia Woolf and the evergreen tree in English literature.She was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007 and became the eleventh female and the oldest winner of it as the Swedish Academy hailed her “epicist of the female experience,who with skepticism,fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny”(Anonymity,2007).As a prolific female writer,Lessing created many masterpieces concerned with female issues in her life career,and The Summer Before the Dark was one of them which being regarded as the best novel since One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez by New York Times.The novel focuses on a middle-aged,upper-middle-class pretty woman,Kate,who goes to a summer journey because of the losing of her ethical identity.In the course of her journey,she attempts to choose the right ethical identity,and after experiencing so many incidences,she finally manages to discover her values outside marriage and society's guidelines,thus awakens her ethical consciousness by self-reflection and self-discovery.After its publication in 1973,The Summer Before the Dark has drawn extensive attention of researchers and readers at home and abroad,but few of them analyzed this novel from the ethical literary criticism.Adopting the method of ethical literary criticism,this thesis analyzes The Summer Before the Dark from the three levels: ethical environment,ethical identity and ethical consciousness.Returning to the ethical environment triggering Kate's leaving home,this thesis discusses the dislocation of ethical identities in this novel through the study on different relationships,and analyzes the awakening of ethical consciousness via the exploration of the main ethical line of Kate's journey,thus the author's ethical concerns would be uncovered successfully.The thesis consists of five chapters as follows:Chapter one is an introduction of the thesis,which consists of the brief introduction towards Doris Lessing,the novel The Summer Before the Dark as well as the literature review of the novel.And then the main contents of ethical literary criticism,along with the rich ethical connotations implied in the novel The Summer Before the Dark would be presented systemically in this part,which in turn reveals the great significances of the ethical literary criticism on this novel.In pursuit of harmony,chapter two goes back to the temporal ethical environment and reveals the defects of the society from the aspects of class and gender in the The Summer Before the Dark.By presenting the different values in the novel such as hedonism,conservation and pessimism,the striking class distinction at that time would be vividly exposed.Besides,the thesis points out the sharp conflicts among different genders,the female as “the other” and the male as “the dominator”,which directly shows the unequal gender relation and the miserable living condition of the female.Therefore,the author's pursuit on a harmonious society is fully uncovered on the process of analyzing the corruptive ethical environment in the novel,and the reason for the dislocation of ethical identities is explained to readers.For the seeking of equality,chapter three discovers how their ethical identities became dislocated by reconstructing the ethical identities of different characters in The Summer Before the Dark via the analysis of the relationships between couples,lovers,friends,and family members.By the description of the inequality,hypocrisy and prejudice relationships,it presents the incurable spiritual crises existing in Kate's marriage and daily life,thus reflects the author's ethical concerns of equality in the human relations.In aspiring for freedom,chapter four depicts the whole process of Kate's leaving home,traveling and returning home as well as her psychological changes during the journey,which reflects clearly how she makes ethical choice—from “angle in the house” to “desperate housewife” till the “free woman” via the self-reflection and self-discovery,and gradually awakens her ethical consciousness.It is the belief in freedom that helps Kate return home by keeping balance between real self and ethical identity,mind and body,alienation and involvement,which indicates Lessing's pursuit on freedom.Chapter five comes to a brief conclusion.This thesis explores Lessing's ethical appeal of harmony,equality and freedom by means of restoring the temporal ethical environment,reconstructing the ethical identity and penetrating the ethical consciousness.The unreasonable ethical values and gender prejudices in the British society lead to the displacement of the ethical identities in marriage,friendship and family thus causes the ethical predicament and the confusion of the ethical consciousness.Fortunately the protagonist awakens her ethical consciousness step by step in the course of her journey,and finds her real self and value.So the interpretation of the novel The Summer Before the Dark from the angle of ethical literary criticism provides reader a better understanding toward this novel as well as reflects Lessing's ethical concerns towards society,human and self,which would contribute to the building of a free,equal,and harmonious society.