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- Title
An Ethical Interpretation of Extramarital Love in Pinter's Betrayal.
- Authors
Liu Hongwei
- Abstract
Betrayal, written by Harold Pinter in 1978, is an ethical drama. From the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism, the "extramarital love" between Jerry and Emma demonstrates that Man is an existence of Sphinx factor, fully embodying the ethical conflicts among rational will, free will and irrational will. Their extramarital relationship results from the uncontrolled free will as well as the irrational will overcoming their sense of moral obligation. Jerry's choice of going back home shows the return of his ethical consciousness, and the power of the rational will. By the use of flashback, Pinter tries to guide readers back to the ethical situations of the 1960s and the late 1970s, to illustrate how the conflicts of wills cause or restrain the extramarital love in different ethical contexts. The ethical edifications involved in the play could be of referential value to the construction of harmonious marital relationship in contemporary China.
- Subjects
BETRAYAL in literature; ADULTERY in literature; FREE will &; determinism in literature; ETHICS in literature; LITERARY criticism
- Publication
Foreign Literature Studies, 2013, Vol 35, Issue 6, p26
- ISSN
1003-7519
- Publication type
Article