自我救赎与伦理情怀——《布朗德》中的道德困境与伦理选择

作为一部伦理悲剧,《布朗德》围绕着“母亲抱憾西归”、“幼儿患病夭折”、“妻子绝望自杀”和“悬崖葬身雪山”的剧情展开,其悲剧的根源在于他淡薄的伦理意识、偏执的自我中心以及空泛的道德说教、伪善的道德行为,不切实际地追求“全有或全无”的宗教事业,逐步失去了对自己的控制从而多次做出错误的伦理选择,因而走向毁灭.文章以文学伦理学批评为研究视角,关注作为牧师的布朗德同时为“人子”、为“人父”、为“人夫”的多重伦理身份及其感情纠葛,探讨布朗德所遭遇的道德困境及其颇有争议的伦理选择.作家一方面以外部聚焦的叙述方式关注布朗德的道德行为及其周边人们对他的道德评价,另一方面以内视聚焦关注着布朗德自我赎罪的心路历程.剧本围绕着布朗德的家庭、婚姻、亲情和事业等伦理关系而展开,由此讨论所引发的关于责任、义务、使命、孝顺、仁爱、仁慈、信仰、死亡、恐惧、绝望、自责、自杀、负罪、救赎等伦理命题,透视了戏剧人物的生命历程中对道德力量的渴望以及以死赎罪的自我诉求,体现了作者易卜生对于人类理想道德法则的追求与向往.

Self-Redemption and Ethical Concern: Exploring the Moral Dilemma and Ethical Choice in Brand

As an ethical tragedy, Brand embraces such the events as the death of Brand’s mother in regret, the death of Brand’s son from disease, the suicide of Brand’s wife in despair and the death of Brand himself in the snow mountain. Brand’s tragedy is rooted in his flattened ethical consciousness, bigoted self-centeredness, empty moral talk and hypocrisy. He is devoid of self-control because of his impractical pursuit to the religious cause of “All or Nothing”, thus makes a number of incorrect ethical choices. From the perspective of ethical literary criticism, this essay focuses on the multiple ethical identities of Brand as son, father and husband, his emotional imbroglio, the moral dilemma he encounters and the controversial ethical choices he makes. The dramatist Henrik Ibsen pays close attention to Brand’s moral behaviors and the moral reviews made by people around Brand with the adoption of external focalization on one hand, and centers on the mental course of Brand in his self redemption through the use of internal focalization on the other hand. Developing around Brand’s ethical relationships such as family, marriage and career, Brand explores relevant ethical propositions including responsibility, obligation, mission, filial piety, benevolence, faith, death, fear, despair, self-accusation, suicide, guilt and self\|redemption and reveals the main character’s desire for moral power and pursuit of self\|redemption with death in his life, demonstrating Henrik Ibsen’s pursuit and yearning towards ideal ethical principles of human beings.