morality in literature quest as quest for term
Excerpt from Term Paper:
Morality in Literature
Trip as quest for ‘true’ morality: Literary analysis of works coming from William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Moliere, Dante, and Samuel Coleridge
More than depicting the nature of humankind, literature in addition has seen the preponderance of artistic works that look into the morality of individuals. Society has been exposed to the dichotomy and conflict among goodness and evil, or perhaps, more concretely, between what is considered as right or wrong. The standard of morality prevalent in the society was noticeably distinguished among right or wrong; ultimately, humanity should only make, behave, and think ‘rightly’ – that is, actions must benefit the higher good.
Certainly, contemplation on humanity’s constant pursuit for committing moral actions and behaving and thinking morally has been construed in well-known works of literature. Although other functions centered on the ‘rightness’ of what contemporary society considers because moral serves and habit, other literary works possess focused on providing a multilateral rather than bilateral point of view of humanity’s sense of morality. Ultimately, these several perspectives result in only one prevalent theme, which can be that humankind is permanently looking for the actual meaning of morality. Specifically, an individual always face the reality that s/he can be confronted with various meanings (‘versions’) of morality everyday. In essence, people, within their pursuit intended for meaning anytime, as represented in literary works, are actually seeking true morality – that is certainly, eternally giving meaning to their actions, tendencies, and thoughts.
This idea was proven and explicated in the functions of Shakespeare, Jonathan Speedy, Moliere, Dante, and Samuel Coleridge. A great analysis from the main styles shown in each of the author’s works reflected a similar contemplation of humanity’s pursuit for ‘true morality. ‘ The main theme that emerged in the works of those authors is that, indeed, presently there had been various depictions of humanity’s pursuit for the case morality. Only, these pursuits were symbolically represented by simply journeys the main personas of the story had been in. Thus, this paper posits that the fictional works “Othello” by William shakespeare, “Gulliver’s Travels” by Swift, “Tartuffe” by Moliere, “Inferno” by Dante, and the poems “Life, inches “Dejection: an ode, inch and “Hexameters” by Coleridge showed the protagonist’s pursuit for accurate morality during their journeys. These kinds of journeys had been illustrated as an opportunity to get the leading part or primary character to reflect on his life and re-discover your self, therefore serving as the catalyst to achieve the person’s own meaning of true morality.
William shakespeare highlighted humanity’s faults in pursuing the authentic meaning of morality in Othello’s figure in the play, “Othello. inch Events that led to Othello’s commitment of murder to Desdemona was triggered during his lack for a voyage, which acquired given Iago the chance to develop plans that later required a cost in Othello and Desdemona’s future. Shakespeare showed Othello’s loss in his pursuit of authentic morality when he decided to believe Iago’s accusations, and tough Desdemona in the act without experiencing her part of the history. He believed that Desdemona’s actions have been immoral, believing that she had an affair with Cassio, while all the way up it was Othello who had been wrong, and Desdemona and Cassio, the meaningful ones. Othello’s repentance and recognition of his wrong act and thoughts was explicated in his confession in the last act of the play, wherein he revealed that, “Speak of me?nternet site am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then must you talk about one that adored not wisely but too well; Of 1 not quickly jealous, nevertheless being wrought Perplex’d inside the extreme… inch
A similar interpretation of the damaging effects and consequences of immoral works and thoughts to the individual was seen in Dante’s “Inferno. ” In it, Dante had supplied a glimpse of the outcomes if human life is being lived immorally. Symbolically showed by Dante’s journey in “Inferno” or perhaps hell, immorality was jointly reflected throughout the following wrong behavior characterized among human beings: “… her angry paramour Did scourge her… In that case full of envy, and fierce with difficulty, He loosed the list… ” From this passage, anger, wrath, and jealousy will be among the man qualities that had been depicted wrong, hence bringing on human struggling and lack of the path to achieving the true morality.
Dante, by representing suffering and restlessness with the soul because grave implications of immoral acts, experienced in effect extended to his readers his own meaning of values. That is, any act, patterns, or thought is considered ethical and correct if these do not tarnish or diminish the pureness of the heart and soul. Notice that Dante’s sense of morality includes more than ensuring that a great act is perfect for the greater very good: he went beyond his analysis to include acts and thoughts that had been not only beneficial to society, although more importantly, towards the self or perhaps individual. Not being able to perform good functions for the advantage of both culture and the self would result to the degeneration of the soul, and in result, leads to immorality.
Moliere, publisher of the enjoy “Tartuffe, inch had indicated his criticism of society’s standards of what is right or wrong, or each, what is meaningful or immoral. Through the character of the journeying impostor Tartuffe, the play had demonstrated how morality was hard to evaluate when depending on explicit findings only. Tartuffe’s character put both ethical and immoral qualities of humankind: on one hand, he was viewed by Prana as a pious and moral individual; alternatively, he was portrayed by Orgon’s family and relatives as a treacherous individual. Certainly, Orgon’s portrayal of Tartuffe and his ‘blindness’ to the man’s true motives to his wealth were based on his biased observations: “He came to church each day… Kneeled, on both equally knees… The fervour of his praying to bliss; With deep-drawn sighs and great ejaculations… ” Entirely basing his judgment in Tartuffe’s spiritual behavior, Orgon had mistakenly considered him as a very good man rather than an impostor. Moliere designed this loss of sight to previous until the end of the play, revealing an important lesson pertaining to Orgon and Moliere’s audience: morality includes not only specific acts of goodness, yet must also consist of acts of goodness to one’s personal.
Like Dante’s depiction of morality in “Inferno, ” Moliere’s “Tartuffe” emphasizes the value of displaying moral amazing benefits not only to other people, but likewise to one’s self as well. Tartuffe’s innate immoral personality surfaced shortly after he previously gained Orgon’s trust; his treachery got cost him not only his wealth, but his pride and personality as a member of his traditional and meaningful society too. His treatment reflected Moliere’s belief in retributive justice as the way towards reaching true values: “He was standing revealed ahead of our monarch’s eyes A scoundrel regarded before by simply other brands, Whose horrid crimes, comprehensive at length, might fill A long-drawn history of a large number of volumes. inch
Interestingly, the fact that was portrayed in the works of Shakespeare, Dante, and Moliere was authentic morality can easily be achieved by using a ‘spiritual journey’ – a contemplation and reflection on the life since s/he experienced lived that. Othello, Dante, and Tartuffe were made to realize their errors in life by simply experiencing the serious consequences with their immoral serves, thoughts, and behavior. Yet , these realizations were made only after seeing these detrimental or negative effects of values. Neither in the protagonists realized and experienced true values through it is innateness in the individual – that is, these were portrayed since sinful individuals who only achieved morality through repentance and self-reflection, we. e., a spiritual journey through their particular respective lives.
Coleridge displayed morality in its explicit and manifest form in his poetry “Life, inches “Hexameters, inch and “Dejection: an ode. ” Through these poetry, he was able to show his sense of morality in the purest and positive form, and not by simply illustrating it is opposite qualities. This was noticeable in his louange of human life in the poem “Life, ” which usually he Lifestyle as follows: “New scenes of Wisdom might each step postpone, And Expertise open because my times advance!… My eye shall dart thro’ infinite area… ” The exhilaration noticeable in the composition showed just how Coleridge was more concerned about the importance of life lived meaningfully and morally rather than fearing the consequences of immoral acts and thoughts dedicated during a person’s lifetime. In essence, Coleridge was more concerned together with the kind of religious journey the individual got rather than concentrating on the end in the journey alone (as Dante, Shakespeare, and Moliere experienced shown within their works).
Another manifestation of Coleridge’s natural belief in the goodness of humanity was reflected in “Dejection: an ode, inch wherein, in spite of the apparent loneliness felt by the Voice, Coleridge was able to consider the positive part of solitude or dejection. Dejection to get the poet person comes with a new opportunity to encounter joy, and positively thinking of happiness following feelings of dejection was reflective of Moliere and Dante’s idea that a meaning individual is usually one who likewise considers the goodness of his/her spirit, mind, and heart.
As the first 4 authors (Shakespeare, Dante, Moliere, and Coleridge) illustrated all their respective understanding of morality through
