A Study Of Family Ethical Problems In The Love Of A Good Woman

As a “master of the contemporary short story”,Alice Munro continues to present scenes of family life and interpersonal relationships,evoking a continued interest in ethics in literature.The Love of a Good Woman was published in 1998,and dramatizes complicated ethical problems involved between family members.The four short stories in this collection depict the ethical dilemmas faced in different relationships-the distorted marital relationships in “The Children Stay” and “Rich as Stink” and the alienated intergenerational relationships in “My Mother’s Dream” and “Save the Reaper”,expressing Munro’s deep concern for human survival.According to the data listed in CNKI and Web of Science,within the study of Munro’s stories,research from an ethical perspective is still in its early stage.Existing research in this field is largely restricted to her more famous works such as Runaway,leaving considerable scope for widening ethical enquiry to cover other stories by Munro.This thesis will mainly employ ethical literary criticism,with reference to psychoanalysis,textual and cultural analysis,to present the the different ethical problems of the characters in the four short stories,to probe the underlying reasons,and then to reveal the ethical value in the literary works.Firstly,the thesis analyzes the ethical dilemmas in marital relationships and parent-child relationships: in marriage,the relationships are challenged by unequal status and infidelities;the mothers’ negligence of their ethical identity and the incomplete family environment cause the alienation of parent-child relationship.Secondly,the thesis discusses the reasons why the family members are in trouble: the negative influence of the transformation of Canadian society indirectly led to the weak individual moral will and the abandonment of traditional family ethics,moreover,the lack of ethical responsibility of family members is also one of the important reasons.Finally,the thesis finds out that,by exploring the family ethical problems,Munro gradually develops the “Munro-style” ethical idea interwoven with the features of autobiography,nationality as well as times,which is rich in ethical connotation.Besides,Munro penetrated the inside of characters,triggering contemporary people to re-examine moral,family,responsibility and other ethical issues,and it is of great importance for maintaining the ethical order of society.