ハウエルズ『サイラス･ラバムの向上』における倫理観

概要

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Lapham attains a moral rise as a result of his conscious and delibrate choice of financial ruin rather than inflicting ruin on others. This ruin leads to the awakening of Lapham's conscience and to the recovery of "the manhood which his prosperity had so nearly stolen from him." Howells' idealistic resolution of Lapham's predicament reflects the author's view that ethics does apply to business as well as to personal conduct. Howells also describes Lapham's departure from traditional virtues and depicts his inefficient business management as causes of his downfall. Since Howells' picture of Lapham as a typical self-made American businessman is convincing, Lapham's case illustrates the importance of ethics in personal conduct. Thus, HowelIs' resolutions of the ethical problems in this novel propose a formula for attaining a simultaneous ethical-materialistic rise and represent the thematic and structural unity of the novel.