Analysis Of The Sea Wolf From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Jack London (1876–1916) is one of the greatest realistic writers in Americanhistory. As a prolific writer, He experiments with various literary forms and createsover fifty books of novels, essays, poems and short stories. His best-selling novel TheSea Wolf depicts a powerful and gripping saga of a gentleman author—Humphrey VanWeyden, rescued by a sea-hunting schooner and enslaved as an unwilling sailor at thehands of Wolf Larsen—a violent brute with intellectual talent. In fact, this novel is apenetrating criticism of American social reality at the turn of20thcentury, whichreflects London’s ethical concern for human’s existing status. Ever since itspublication, The Sea Wolf has been examined from various perspectives. Rareresearches, however, analyze this novel form the perspective of ethical literarycriticism. As a critical approach, ethical literary criticism inclines to study theliterature, writers and readers from the ethical point. It is integrated with times closely,so it has a strong practical significance. This thesis attempts to expound ethical issuesunderlying the complex relationships in the novel by means of ethical literarycriticism.The thesis falls into five parts. The introduction firstly provides a brief accountof Jack London’s life, his works and The Sea Wolf. Next, it introduces the theory ofethical literary criticism, including the background, content and related research.Finally, the literature review discusses the domestic and foreign studies of this novelin recent years. Chapter One examines the relationship between human and naturefrom three aspects—human’s aggression, nature’s retaliation and human’s return,pointing out the harmony between human and nature is an eternal theme in humansociety. Chapter Two thoroughly explores the relationship between an individual andothers in the micro-world of the schooner Ghost. The ethical conflicts are constituted by Larsen’s cruelty, Humphrey’s goodness and other sailors’ numbness, which aremirrors of the age under the impact of industrial civilization. It calls upon compliancewith ethical rules and pursuit of goodness to establish a healthy human-otherrelationship. In the third chapter, Larsen’s sphinx factor and Humphrey’sreconstruction of ethical identity will be analyzed in terms of human-self relationship.In contrast to the final death of Larsen, Humphrey successfully realizesself-redemption. It fully demonstrates realistic value of ethical choice on individualdevelopment. The final part concludes the whole thesis. It summarizes the ethicalcrisis and solutions from three dimensions and points out that ethical literary criticismis an effective approach to enhance human’s ethical consciousness.