A. S. Byatt’s “Morpho Eugenia”: Altruism and Evolutionary Biology
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This essay is an apology for Byatt’s reception of Darwinian biology set against Victorian moral theology in “Morpho Eugenia.” Critics have paid little attention to the moral biology in Byatt’s feminist voice as Eugenia is compromised by her brother. Devoted to the divine nature of morality, the Alabaster patriarch Harald is ironically blind to the moral corruption of his children. His egocentric spiritualism resonates with Kantian vindi- cation of apathy against emotional agitation such as compassion. Harald’s religious rationalism fortifies the status quo of the privileged without empathy with the throes of the wretched. Eugenia falls victim to Edgar’s predatory masculinity subjecting her to his animal lust. Using insect metaphors, Byatt contradicts Edgar’s lascivious selfishness in the light of the biology of moral instincts. Edgar is debased into a male whose selfishness makes him inferior to an insect enacting altruism for the interest of commonwealth. Byatt’s visionary stance from Darwinian biology is that animals as well as humans can survive only by compas- sion for the sufferings of other creatures.
Abstract
This essay is an apology for Byatt’s reception of Darwinian biology set against Victorian moral theology in “Morpho Eugenia.” Critics have paid little attention to the moral biology in Byatt’s feminist voice as Eugenia is compromised by her brother. Devoted to the divine nature of morality, the Alabaster patriarch Harald is ironically blind to the moral corruption of his children. His egocentric spiritualism resonates with Kantian vindi- cation of apathy against emotional agitation such as compassion. Harald’s religious rationalism fortifies the status quo of the privileged without empathy with the throes of the wretched. Eugenia falls victim to Edgar’s predatory masculinity subjecting her to his animal lust. Using insect metaphors, Byatt contradicts Edgar’s lascivious selfishness in the light of the biology of moral instincts. Edgar is debased into a male whose selfishness makes him inferior to an insect enacting altruism for the interest of commonwealth. Byatt’s visionary stance from Darwinian biology is that animals as well as humans can survive only by compas- sion for the sufferings of other creatures.
참고문헌 (16)
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