Love And Forgiveness:A Study On Sweet Tooth From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Ian McEwan(1948—)is one of the most critically-acclaimed and influential contemporary British writers.As a prolific writer,he never gives up exploring the ethical issues in his works.Sweet Tooth,as his penultimate novel,is such a remarkable achievement in his mature period of literary creation.Uncovering its mask of a spy thriller,this novel actually contains lots of ethical and emotional elements.However,the significant study on this novel from the perspective of ethics in China has been limited so far.One of the remarkable features of ethical literary criticism is that it interprets literary works from the perspective of ethics,and seeks the objective ethical factors that influence characters' destiny in literary works.So this thesis will choose ethical literary criticism as its theoretical basis,by analyzing representative characters' ethical predicament behind different ethical identities and their final ethical choices in Sweet Tooth,it aims at revealing the ethical standpoint of the author Ian McEwan,and further expects to provide a new perspective for the study on Ian McEwan.This thesis suggests that the continuous shift between dual ethical identities is not only the main cause for representative characters' ethical predicament,but also the underlying cause for their betrayal and deceit.Under the guidance of ethical consciousness,the characters in the novel finally make appropriate and lofty ethical choices—strive to seek love and forgiveness,which presents their precious ethical virtue.Five chapters altogether are concluded in this thesis.Chapter one is introduction.It mainly introduces Ian McEwan and his Sweet Tooth,and the significance and structure of this thesis.In addition,the literature review on Sweet Tooth at home and abroad is also presented in this chapter.Chapter two is theoretical basis.It mainly introduces ethical literary criticism,which provides a theoretical framework for the analysis.Chapter three is the main body of this thesis.Difficult ethical choices of the three representative characters will be analyzed to explore their ethical predicament caused by the shift of their ethical identities,and further to reveal their request for true love.Chapter four is also the main body of this thesis.It aims at analyzing the writing behaviors driven by ethical consciousness,and further revealing that both three fictional characters in the novel and the author Ian McEwan value true emotion and expect to seek forgiveness.Chapter five is the conclusion.By previous analysis,it can be concluded that in Ian McEwan's ethical concept,love is not only the foundation of marriage and family,but also the powerful impetus to achieve forgiveness.Therefore,he appeals to establish equal gender relations so as to achieve true love.