A Comparative Study Of Jerusalem The Golden And The Robber Bride From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Margaret Drabble(1939-)is a famous British female writer who has won many British and American literature awards.Meanwhile,Margaret Atwood(1939-),Canada’s literary queen,is also an influential novelist,poet and critic.As outstanding contemporary female writers,both Drabble and Atwood enjoy a highly literary reputation around the world.Their works are hotly debated in the field of literary criticism.A large number of scholars and critics at home and abroad have researched the novels of Drabble and Atwood from the perspectives of themes,feminism,writing skills,narrative techniques and post-colonialism.Under the guidance of ethical literary criticism,this thesis aims to make an analysis of the ethical ideas in detail in Jerusalem the Golden and The Robber Bride and reveal two writers’ ethical ideas and humanistic spirits.Ethical literary criticism as an approach,first put forward by Professor Nie Zhenzhao in China,focuses on the ethical factors in literary works that generate social events and influence characters’ fates,it illustrates and evaluates the process and results of characters’ ethical selections.Based on the two authors’ circumstances,this thesis attempts to reveal the similarities and differences that exist in "interpersonal ethic",“family ethic” and "survival ethic" by exploring the interconnection between human and human,between human and society.In the aspect of interpersonal ethic,this thesis analyzes the different ethical emotions in the novels and reveals the ethical demands of the two writers for the harmonious relationship between human beings.In the aspect of family ethic,the thesis describes distorted relationship between parents and children,husband and wife and other family members,which can cause great trauma to family members,emphasizing the family members who must abide ethical obligations and responsibilities so as to promote the harmonious development of the family relations.In the aspect of survival ethic,this thesis explores the ethical selections of the protagonists in different ethical predicaments,and reveals that those selections that are consistent with ethical consciousness and ethical identity can promote the growth of human beings.Ethical literary criticism emphasizes the return to the ethical environment at that time,and analyzes Jerusalem the Golden and The Robber Bride dialectically,and excavates the ethical predicaments and causes of each character and the ultimate growth and fall after they make ethical selections.As female writers,Drabble and Atwood,who are both acutely aware of voice of the times;as humanists,although they have different focuses,they also show same deep concern for social moral ethics.In the works,Clara and the three heroines are the representatives of growing-up,they perfect and find themselves in the ethical selections,and work hard all the time.Instead,Mrs.Maugham and Zenia are the representatives of the fall,who gradually lose themselves in the ethical selections,violating the harmony of human ethic.So far,few people have compared these two writers from the perspective of ethics.This thesis concludes that ethical literary criticism can offer a new approach for studying Drabble and Atwood in the future.