A Study On The Quest For Virtue In Marianne Moore’s War Poems

Marianne Moore is regarded as the exemplar of female poet in modern American poetry of the 20~thh century.Moore strengthens the significance of virtue,and attaches importance to the condition of survival for human by inspecting the consequence of the 20~thh century wars.Domestic and foreign researches on Moore’s poems mainly concentrate on biographical criticism,feminism,modernism,and cognitive poetics,but few researches focus on the exploration of virtue in Moore’s war poems.Therefore,this thesis attempts to explore Moore’s war poems in light of virtue theories in three aspects:the quest for the virtue of courage,the virtue of humility,and the virtue of justice.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One outlines Moore’s poetic achievements,literature review of Moore’s poems,theoretical framework on virtue theories,and thesis statement.Chapter Two mainly explores the virtue of courage:questioning heroic courage and advocating thoughtful courage with self-control and practical wisdom to resist the violence of war.Chapter Three focuses on the virtue of humility from two aspects:the pursuit of self-knowledge and the respect for others to eliminate pride and prejudice against violence of war.Chapter Four concentrates on the virtue of justice including the pursuit of equality and the quest for friendship in favor of negating injustice of war.Chapter Five concludes and restates that Moore’s war poems concentrate on the exploration of humanity virtues,reflect her concerns for human and human survival,and criticize the violence of war.