A Study On Toni Morrison’s Love From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Toni Morrison(1931-) who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1931 is honored as one of the most outstanding and influential contemporary African-American writer. As a black female writer, she epitomizes the contradictions and spiritual predicaments within black communities in her novels, of which the protagonists are mostly black women. Love, Morrison’s eighth novel published in 2003, is no exception. This thesis, analyzing the ethical environment, ethical identity and ethical choices of three protagonists Bill Cosey, Heed and Christine, endeavors to uncover that Love is a masterpiece of ethical tragedy within the black community which is caused not only by domestic oppression of racial persecution and sexual discrimination, but also by the uncontrollable irrational will and internal confusions of ethical identity. The protagonists’irrational wills generated during their dilemma of ethical identity lead them to the violation of moralities and ethical order, eventually to the tragedy.Adopting ethical literary criticism, this thesis firstly probes into the initiator of evil-Bill Cosey. It explores the ethical environment and his neglecting of ethical rules in the male-dominant ethical relationship between black males and females. His death, doomed, symbolizes the appearance of an alternative ethical relationship, reflecting Toni Morrison’s ethical concern. Then this thesis analyzes Heed’s confusion about her family identity and social identity, which prompts her unethical choices. Next, this thesis makes analysis on Christine’s denial of her changed ethical identity and her attempts to reconstruct her family identity and social identity. At last, this thesis further examines the ultimate reconciliation between Heed and Christine. It is because of love, an ethical choice under the control of rational will, that they reconcile and restore the ethical order. It is implied that this novel lays stress on love regarded from an ethical perspective, that is, to love while bearing in mind the importance of ethical order and moral norms. Thus, this novel offers moral enlightenment for black people in the process of pursuing love, equality and of reconstructing their ethical identities and meanwhile provides guidance for blacks to jointly fight against racial discrimination in a real sense based on a new ethical relationship between men and women.This thesis, exploring the ethical nature of Toni Morrison’s Love and of love itself, expects that the interpretation from the perspective ethical literary criticism can provide a new researching way for internal contradictions and spiritual predicaments within black community.