An Analysis Of Jerusalem The Golden From The Perspective Of Narrative Ethics

As one of the most influential female writers, Margaret Drabble has establishedher literary status in the world by her continuous creative works. After the publicationof her first novel, A Summer Bird Cage in1963, Drabble has never been out of publiceyes. Jerusalem the Golden is one of Drabble’s early works and attracts more attentionin the area of literature, and because of this novel she got the James Tait BlackMemorial Prize in1967.Researches on Jerusalem the Golden are mainly centered on feminist studies andthematic studies, but little attention has been given to the complex ethical connotationsin the novel. This thesis intends to study the novel from the perspective of narrativeethics, and the analysis mainly concentrates on the story ethics and narrative ethics.There are complex ethical connotations in Jerusalem the Golden, and the fourthchapter of this thesis focuses on the story ethics by pursuing the heroine’s moralreflection during her psychological growth. The fifth chapter is centered on thenarrative ethics revealed by a specific study of the narrative techniques: the narrator’sethical intervention, the employment of non-focalization, the sustained inside view andthe change of the points of view. This study of the contents and the forms of the ethicsin this narrative tries to guarantee that the heroine Clara is commented on objectivelyinstead of being judged morally.Through an objective analysis of this novel’s narrative structure and its internalmechanism, readers are allowed to participate into the novel to experience Clara’sindividual fate, and Clara is able to escape from being morally judged and is vividlydepicted as a young intellectual female who experiences the spiritual journey fromconfusion to maturity. Clara’s complex inner feelings about life and humanity arepresented to the readers: she is just a common character who dares to challenge socialtradition and seek self-value, and her own needs are the common mental needs in thedepth of human soul. Although the theory of narrative ethics is a newly developed theory, the analysis of the narrative ethics in Jerusalem the Golden is a scholarly trialwith Drabble’s works in literary criticism, which opens a new vista for Drabblestudies.