The Moral Tutelage of Literature

Robert Minto — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:23:59 +0000

To the Lighthouse is a profoundly convicting book. As we follow Virginia Woolf on her whirlwind tour through the consciousnesses of her characters, I imagine that all of us will get stuck identifying with a particular character. She lures us into identification by attractively presenting the internal monologue of that character—in my case, the single-minded and intellectually ambitious Mr. Ramsay—and then she ambushes us from the pages of the book by showing us the perspective of other characters on what seems like ourselves (because we have identified so closely with the character who is actually being judged).

When I think about the greatness of this novel, I am tempted to an Arnoldian belief that—if all fiction were like this fiction—literature truly would be the moral tutor of mankind. Of course both history and theory (I believe) should cause us to reject that view.

But literature has many uses. Perhaps all sensitive and voracious readers end up encountering the book that is prophetic for their life. Then that corner of literature can become a resource for moral education. I’m sure that’s true for me. What could be better during the graduate school selection and application process, among the self-preening and self-projecting hallucinations of academic ambition, still in range of the acclamations of one small institutional pond and prior to the cold plunge of realism that will follow entry into a much larger pond—what could better during that time of life, than to watch the mingled joy and tragedy of Mr. Ramsay’s blind pursuit, intellectually, of what he always had in his own home?

I recommend all who and read and think about themselves to acquire such a literary tutor with all speed.

The Veil Away » voracious readers

The Moral Tutelage of Literature