一个伦理情感主义自欺者:《教堂尖塔》中的乔西林

A Self-deceptive Ethical Emotivist:Jocelin in The Spire

以伦理视角考量,可以发现《教堂尖塔》中的主要人物乔西林是一个深受神经症焦虑折磨的伦理情感主义者。他用没有边界的是非观评断人和事,坚决表达的不过是自己的情感和态度。由于无法消除自我意识与能力表现之间的巨大落差,他陷入了自欺的想象世界,行为模式几乎全线背离了基督教社会伦理规范,以致扮演的社会角色完全失败。作为戈尔丁一个"大写的人之本性"的代表,伦理情感主义者乔西林自欺式的困境应对模式隐然表征了某种普遍的人类生存状况;与戈尔丁小说世界中的许多人物一样,他既是单个具体的人,也是普遍抽象的人,完美诠释了戈尔丁小说人物的魅力所在。

Examined from ethical perspective,Jocelin in The Spire is a moral emotivist suffering from neurotic personality.His evaluation of people and affairs is more a matter of emotion and attitude than a meaningful assertion based on rational moral criteria.No wonder when he finds no way to erase the huge gap between his self-image and his capacity,he behaves fully against Christian morals,and thus fails his social role as Dean of a cathedral.As one illustration of Golding’s "the nature of Man with a capital M",ethical emotivist Jocelin with his self-deception in great troubles makes a metaphor of some universal human condition;he is individual as well as universal,exemplifying perfectly how Golding’ s heroes’ charm arises.