Module 4: Virtue and Ethics in Literature

Module 4: Virtue and Ethics in Literature

First, read Yeats’ poem “To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing ,”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939).  Responsibilities and Other Poems.  1916. 

6. To a Friend whose Work has come to Nothing 

 

 and answer the following questions:

Part 1

• Which ethics posture is promoted by the following persons identified in the poem: speaker, antagonist, protagonist, and neighbor?
• Who demonstrates the most virtue?

Part 2

Then read the excerpt from Nick Hornby's How to Be Good (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.  (Copy and paste on google to directed to the site)

https://lmscontent.embanet.com/USF/MPA/PA620/Docs/PA620_M4_HornbyExcerpt.pdf

• Identify the characters who are ethical agents and use Cooper's notions of “internal” and “external” control to decide which has more influence on each character's ethical conduct.
• Remember that for this assignment you are exercising a different part of your brain. If you are ambitious, you may write about both the poem and the short story as a thematic whole and apply the role analysis (speaker, antagonist, protagonist) and Cooper’s categories to both literary works and consider more broadly how virtue is assessed in the development of character, whether actual or fictional.
• Or if you are more comfortable, compose two separate reflections (one on each literary work) responding to the prompts provided. Whichever approach you take, remember while you are applying reason to analyze literary works for their ethical meaning, you are also describing an aesthetic experience that is essential to the development of virtue from Aristotle’s point of view. Enjoy the opportunity to be a virtuoso!

Part 3

Select a line from the poem OR fiction excerpt that is representative of what you learned from the reading. How is that representative to you of the ethical dimensions of this work and our discussion on virtue? Post a response to at least two colleagues reacting to their excerpts and insights.