Abstract:

Ethical literary criticism is a method of literary criticism of the latest domestic scholars. This thesis basically undertakes analytic study, from the perspective of ethics, using the method of ethical literary criticism to explore The Great Gatsby. Because the personality change belongs to morality region, investigating the moral phenomenon of literature works in specific historical period from the angle of literature ethics, using the morality in realistic social works to have value judgment on moral phenomenon in current novels is the requirements for literature criticism theory. This thesis is composed of three parts. It provides a summary of the previous critical studies done on The Great Gatsby at home and abroad. Then it introduces specifically the theory of ethical literary criticism. The body part of this thesis is Fitzgerald’s preachment about his morality in the novel through the individual ethics, the love, marriage and family ethics, and the interpersonal ethics. To some extent, Fitzgerald, as a moralist, gets his ethical opinions well expressed in his novel. Then the thesis comes to a natural conclusion. Human beings should keep the sense of social morals and ethics.

Key words: F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby; ethical literary criticism

摘要：

文学伦理学批评是国内学者最新提出的一种文学批评方法。本文试图从伦理学角度，用文学伦理学批评的方法探索《了不起的盖茨比》中体现的伦理思想。由于人格变化属于道德领域,从文学伦理学的角度考察特定历史时期文学作品中的道德现象,并用现实社会作品中的道德观对当前小说中的道德现象做出价值判断，这也正是文学批评理论的要求所在。论文大致文分为三部分：首先对《了不起的盖茨比》这部小说的研究背景和重要性作了说明，也对文学伦理学批评作了详细介绍。其次通过小说中体现出的个人伦理、交际伦理、社会阶级矛盾来展示在伦理困境中作者如何处理与刻画人物，如何宣讲他的道德伦理选择。最后论文总结部分旨在强调作为社会的人要有更高的精神追求，去实现个人品质的完整性，从而保持整个社会的道德伦理意义。

关键词：菲茨杰拉德;《了不起的盖茨比》;文学伦理学批判

Introduction
    The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s classic work. Fitzgerald’s belief in love and his search for love has been represented throughout the relationship between human beings and the society, inter-personal relationship, and one’s relationship with himself in the novel. This thesis tries to analyze Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby with ethical literary criticism. As a method of literary criticism, ethical literary criticism could be traced back to the time of ancient Greek. At that time, most of the world’s literary works have a very deep and profound ethical meaning. From the perspective of ethical literary criticism, many literary works and literary phenomena in the history of Chinese and Western literature that are hard to understand become understandable. So it is quite significant when Professor Nie Zhenzhao proposed that ethical literary criticism should be an independent literary critical method in 2004.