Death, Dignity And Discourse In Amsterdam

With Ian McEwan's reputation as one of the most important contemporary British novelists growing steadily, the last two decades have seen the emergence of a number of studies on him and his works. However, Amsterdam, the Booker-winning novel of 1998, enjoys unproportionately little space in its already huge repertoire of criticism. For instance, here in China, the only article available is Professor Lu Jiande's "The Essence of Modern Existence", which trenchantly points out the satirical elements against the so-called "the essence of modern existence". Yet, his argument that the conversation at the opening of the novel between Clive and Vernon about Molly's death is of meaningless conventionality sounds somewhat biased and prejudiced.As a matter of fact, the conversation plays a crucial role in emplotment and brings forth the important theme of interrelatedness between death and dignity. At the outset of the novel, the death of Molly, who is absent throughout the novel, flings her former ex-lovers Clive and Vernon into fear of death. In order to avoid death without dignity, they enter into a mutual euthanasia pact, which turns out to be merely a tranquilizer and even a future trouble. For the upper-class men in Amsterdam, need for dignity is quite great, which drives them to make decisions that change their fates. This thesis intends to make a detailed analysis of the three main characters, namely, Clive, Vernon and George (Molly's husband).The kind of dignity that comes on the top of the list for these men is social dignity. While they are pursuing this kind of dignity, moral and virtuous dignities are discarded, and some of them even transgress against others' humanity dignity. Moreover, such kind of value orientation is commonly shared by the society on the whole. However, though people seldom show virtues in their deeds, they try to present themselves as morally and virtuously dignified. The thesis then analyzes some discourses in the novel in order to display how discourse is used to construct dignified images and hence people could either satisfy their self-esteem or fight for their interests. Some people and groups can easily manipulate the media and public opinion, and media workers are all the vicar of Bray of no principles, consequently making the truth elusive. It seems that truth is not important in this society; what matters is how it is uttered and articulated. The distorted conception of dignity of the society is what McEwan satirizes in Amsterdam. Through characterization and arrangement of their fates, McEwan seems to suggest that true dignity is aglow with rationality and moral will. Finally, the thesis points out that in today's world where euthanasia has begun to become a trend, people should keep rational against the influence of discourses of "death with dignity", bearing in mind that death with dignity cannot be divorced from a dignified life.