Ethical Dilemma And Ethical Choice: A Study Of Miss Lonelyhearts

Miss Lonelyhearts is the novel written by American famous writer Nathanael West(1903-1940)in the 1930 s.As the last genius among the writers of “lost generation”,West enjoys the equal popularity with Fitzgerald as “the rare writers with conscientiousness and creation talent in both America and other places”.His master work Miss Lonelyhearts even was listed into contemporary American literary classics and translated into more than ten languages,which is highly praised and affects profoundly.Taking literature ethics as research perspective and centering on the utilitarian ethics,this paper deconstructs the ethic dilemma as well as ethic choice in the novel.This paper mainly includes five parts.The first part is introduction,which mainly describes the importance of West in American literary circle;meanwhile,after sorting out the researches on West,it explains the purpose and significance of the topic.The second part focuses on the definition and development of the utilitarian ethical concept,and its shortcomings in the practical application process.It also analyzes the connection between utilitarianism and the protagonist Miss Lonelyhearts whose name is the same as the book in the works;And the third part,by means of analyzing the ethical dilemma and morality test in Miss Lonelyhearts,points out that the protagonist encountered his morality dilemma when facing the utilitarianism morality,so he was caught in the ethic dilemma of sacrificing himself to help others or pursuing for personal comfort.The fourth part discusses about the protagonist's ethic choice under the test of morality.Although,at the beginning,he tried to keep away from those “help seekers” making him feel painful since he also was a wretched man dropped in bitterness,he finally chose to help the “cripple”.This behavior,under the interpretation of utilitarianism,is not worthy of praise,but in the view of ethic environment at that time,Miss Lonelyhearts undoubtedly interpreted the comprehension of human lofty ethic and morality.The last part concludes that despite of modification and replenishment of utilitarian ethics during its constant development,the unsatisfying and even selfcontradictory aspects will still emerge during application.The ethical choice made by Miss Lonelyhearts under the ethical dilemma at that time was undoubtedly the moral choice.