Dilemmas On Duties In Alice Munro's Short Stories

The themes of Alice Munro's short stories are the heated issues in Munro's criticism. Both domestic and foreign scholars have focused on feminist theme, realistic theme, or emotional theme in Munro's writings. However, the moral duty, as another important theme of Munro's short stories, has been ignored by many critics. Therefore, this thesis discusses the theme of dilemmas on duty in Alice Munro's 30 short stories from the perspective of Kantian moral philosophy. It reveals the hidden reason and significance of dilemma on duty. The thesis consists of three parts:introduction, body and conclusion. The introductory part includes literature review, research questions, methodology and organization of the thesis. In this part, studies abroad and at home concerning Alice Munro's short stories are analyzed in detail. After an introduction in definition and interpretation of the concept "dilemmas on moral duty", three research questions are presented. According to three research questions, the thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter analyzes the moral dilemmas on duties to oneself in Munro's eighteen short stories, like "My Mother Dream", "The Office" and "Run Away". This chapter attempts to point out that Munro presents the dilemmas on duties which related with murdering himself, giving up the development of natural perfection, sexual inclination and excessive consumption of food and drinks with a narration of fragment to reveal the moral anxiety of people in their seeking for identity. The second chapter analyzes the moral dilemmas on duties to others in Munro's five short stories, like "Ticks", "Post and Beam" and "Child's Play". This chapter attempts to point out that by the narrative techniques of flashback and interposed, Munro presents the dilemmas on duties of respect, love and virtue and the evil consequences when one violates the corresponding moral maxims. The third chapter analyzes the moral dilemmas on duties to parents, marriage and works in "The Love of a Good Woman" "Nettles", "Run Away" and other four short stories by taking people as a social being. This chapter tries to point out that Munro adopts the open ending in her writings. She examines the contradiction between emotion and morality to reveal the complexity of the real life and the ambiguity of moral maxims. Finally, in the conclusion part, the thesis points out clearly that Munro breaks the traditional moral imperatives. She presents the moral dilemmas on duties to oneself and others by adopting the narrative technique of fragments and open endings in her short stories. The thesis reveals that it is the ambiguity of moral maxims that causes the dilemma on duties. At the same time, it explores the literary value and the writer's potential ethical motivation, that is, to arouse people's concern on moral issues by her short stories.