The Ethical Dilemmas In Amsterdam

Ian McEwan is a renowned British contemporary writer, known as the’national writer’of Britain. Since working in writing in1970s, McEwan has devoted himself to digging abnormal emotions of human beings, especially the abnormal sex between men and women, to explore the forbidden zones of social ethics and the dark side of human nature. Amsterdam, as the turning point of his works, focuses not only on excavating humanity, but also provides a mirror of social class and situation. The combination of human mind and social circumstances in his work made his writing more skilled. In1998, Amsterdam won The Booker Prize, earned McEwan international reputation. Amsterdam is a black comedy centered on heroine Molly, whose lovers initiates a war of fame, money, power, status, and the two heroes, Clive and Vernon, eventually murdered each other in Amsterdam in the name the invitation of euthanasia. In an ironic and joking style, the fiction shows multiple ethical dilemmas of modern society, and people’s struggle and suffering in those dilemmas, uncovering the ugly side of society and humanity.Based on the study of literary theory, this paper aims at analyzing three ethical dilemmas of the novel, exploring entanglements of human nature and their ethical choices in multiple ethical dilemmas.The paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter will analyze the relationships dominated by women. Centered on Molly, it will respectively analyze the complicated sexual relationships between Molly and her husband George, Molly and her lovers, which mixed with morality and immorality, rationality and irrationality. The second chapter will analyze the ethical dilemma in the development course of modern society, the confusion and anxiety of middle-aged people, distortion and variation of interpersonal relationships, the deficiency of professional ethics and faith, which constitute the modern society and the modern civilization that people do resist, but have to live in. Chapter three will analyze the ethical dilemma in the choice of life and death. Facing the torture of disease and the loss of dignity, should he passively waiting for the death or ending his own life to safeguard the dignity? Clive and Vernon encountered career crisis and fall into the fear of the death without dignity, murdered each other in Amsterdam in the name of euthanasia eventually. McEwan used concise and ironic words and a light-hearted tone to narrate a story that two old friends, Clive and Vernon, murdered each other. In fact, the fiction displayed all sides of humanity and the modern society, full of deep thinking and sharp satires. In this novel, the author expressed his resentment at the hypocrisy, violence, deceitfulness and injustice of the society, unveiling the ugly essence of the modern civilization under the cover of splendid appearance.