The Light Of Redemption In The Nothingness Of The World

Arthur Miller(1915—2005) is a universally recognized American modem social dramatist who has led the postwar new drama.Arthur Miller,having dedicated all his life and energy to play writing and studies,won many prizes including Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1949.He makes special concern to plays' social and moral function and is honored as the American Consciousness and the moral voice of American stage.Miller loves life and cares about the moral situation of a society with sympathy and humanistic spirit.He thinks highly of human virtues,finds the purity and morality from common people,and abominates all evils and immoral behaviors,just as reflected in The Crucible.Goldbeerg(1993) thinks literature is kind of necessary moral thinking form with its own feature no matter at past or present.Literature has moral duty and responsibility to society and human.Thus,some literature scholars in China under the leading of Nie Zhenzhao make many active attempts to find a new criticism on the basis of traditional ethical criticism.Though many scholars have researched on literature canon with ethical literary criticism,few of them studied The Crucible with ethical literary criticism.The thesis will analyze the ethical relationships including relationships of human-oneself,human-human,and human-society in 17^th century to deconstruct the Puritan ethical system and illustrate the features of Puritan life and Miller's moral intention and deep ethical significance reflected in the play.The author tries to points out the greatness of common people and brings some ethical inspiration.This thesis consists of six chapters.The first chapter is an introduction including the background of the study and Miller's life, masterpieces,pointing out that one of Miller's masterpieces—The Crucible as a moral allegory shows Miller's implication of ethics and morality.The following parts in this chapter are the purpose and framework of the study.Chapter Two illustrates theoretical basis and literature review.Section one illustrates the theoretical basis—ethical literary criticism including significance,theoretical frame, methodology and so on.Section two makes a review on the studies of ethical literary criticism both abroad and at home.On the basis of the materials' analysis the author did,the author of the thesis found few people having studied The Crucible with ethical literary criticism in China. Section three concentrates on the literature review concerning The Crucible.The scholars have analyzed The Crucible from many different perspectives,for example the researches on characters or themes from political or historical angles.Though some scholars applied woman ethics or business ethics to analyze the play,the researches on the ethical relationships are not comprehensive. Chapter Three analyzes the relationship between human and oneself.The author illustrates the nothingness of oneself in detail to appeal the public attention to the inner self and seek the true self.This chapter is divided into three parts.Firstly,the author of the thesis discusses how the anti-human Puritan principles oppress oneself and the nothingness of oneself,especially the lost and degeneration of Abigail.Secondly,the author describes Proctor's way of seeking true self after a period of lost to point out Miller's intention to encourage people to recognize their true selves.Thirdly,summary section makes a brief conclusion about human-oneself relationship which points out the importance of self-salvation in the insane world.Chapter Four interprets the relationship between human and human.The author of the thesis reveals the hypocritical human-human relations through endless conflicts among Puritan people, and advocates the purification of the soul.Section one describes the hypocritical relations including friends,foes,neighbors,the rich and the poor.Because of the limited-saved principle, people utilize all the methods to gain their Puritan goal.Section two illustrates the methods to improve the human-human relations,be good to everyone and make friends heartily.Section three is a summary of the above two sections and points out that Miller's concerning of human-human relationship and the interpersonal ethics in this play have guiding function in modern society.Chapter Five focuses on the relationship between human and society including sadness in the family and disorder of the community.In the first section,the author attempts to reveal the main reasons having caused the cold and loneliness embodied in the Puritan family,which is the faith in Puritanism.Section two illustrates the disorder of the community.The hard and oppressive ethical thoughts cover the whole Puritan community and break the balance of social ethics.Section three mainly discusses the people fight with Puritanism and insists on the justice to make efforts to construct the ethical orders and harmonies of a society.The last chapter is the conclusion part.There are five sections in this chapter.Section one is a summary of the thesis.The author finds the play is a tragedy,but this kind of tragic victory can encourage people to fight for their cheerfully ideal life,and the humanity will eventually rise. Section two is about the limitation of the paper.Because of the limited knowledge and material, the research is not systematic and comprehensive which should be improved in future.The remaining parts in this chapter are the trend of the research and conclusion of this chapter.In one word,the author of the thesis thinks Miller embodied his ethical and moral ideas in the play and feels Miller's strong sense of social responsibility and the care of common people. He encourages people to seek the new ethical orders and reconstruct an ethical coordinate,to fight against the evil,and to get rid of the nothingness and lost.The aim is to purify the souls and gain the real happiness.