MORAL ACTION IN ANTHONY TROLLOPE'S NOVELS: THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MILIEU, PERSONALITY, AND ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES.
Item
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Title
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MORAL ACTION IN ANTHONY TROLLOPE'S NOVELS: THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MILIEU, PERSONALITY, AND ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES.
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Identifier
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AAI8112753
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identifier
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8112753
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Creator
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ENGELBERG, BETTY JEAN ROSENBERG.
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Contributor
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Morton. N. Cohen
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Date
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1981
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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For Anthony Trollope and many, perhaps most, of his Victorian contemporaries, the concepts of good and evil had great power. To Trollope, the art of living is behaving morally, whatever one's circumstances. Any action which can be described as right or wrong, good or bad, can be described as moral action.;In Trollope's novels, moral action is largely shaped by three factors. First is the social milieu of the character, which influences moral actions through accepted social practice and social pressures. The personality of the character, whether he is strong or weak, flighty or serious, deep or shallow, is the second factor. The third factor is one which many twentieth-century authors might hesitate to include--abstract principles. For Trollope's Weltanschauung includes a realm of ideas which exist independent of social milieu, personality, or the interaction of the two. Through their effects on a character's heart and mind, abstract concepts concerning good and evil influence his moral actions.;Each chapter of this study presents one aspect of life in terms of moral action. Each of the six chapters--"Religion," "Choosing a Mate," "Marriage," "Money," "Power," "Politics"--analyzes moral decisions made by a number of Trollope's most interesting characters, explaining in each case the part played by the character's social milieu, his personality, and abstract values in determining his action. In the chapter "Religion," for example, one of the moral actions analyzed is Mr. Harding's (The Warden) decision to resign the wardenship of Hiram's Hospital. Julia Brabazon's (The Claverings) decision to marry for money rather than for love is one of the moral choices dissected in "Choosing a Mate." Whether to stay with her husband or run away with the man she loves is Glencora Palliser's (The Palliser Novels) moral dilemma, one of those dealt with in the chapter, "Marriage.".;Trollope, the artist, finely anatomizes the process by which social milieu, personality, and abstract ideas, interacting one with the other, shape moral behavior. No matter what a person's lot in life, whether or not he chooses to act morally is, to Trollope, the ultimate determinant of whether or not his life may be termed successful.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
