Like a totally normal person (😉), I’ve been thinking lately about one of the essay questions on an English exam my senior year of high school.
The internet helped me find the exact wording. Here it is:
Discuss the notion of morally ambiguous characters—those whose behavior doesn’t allow readers to categorize them as purely good or evil. Choose a novel or play where such a character plays a central role, and explain how that character’s ambiguity is significant to the work.
For teaching the virtue of compassion, morally ambiguous characters in world class fiction is a fine tool.
The point is not to become morally ambiguous ourselves, but to see the ways in which we already are. When we acknowledge our own capacity for deception, destruction, and the like, we can move more wholeheartedly toward a virtuous life and accompany others on the same journey.
(The six short stories that start A Table for Two have a fine cast of characters for this purpose.)Â
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