오스틴과 공리주의적 도덕 개혁

Jane Austen and the Utilitarian Moral Reform

Several critics argue that Persuasion is a story about the moral reform of gentry society by the rising naval group. However, they often fail to explain the content of the moral reform. The moral reform can be explained in connection with utilitarianism, the dominant moral discourse of the time. In the novel, utility is proposed as the opposite moral concept o f vanity, the main cause of social corruption. Anne epitomizes the moral concept of utility by using her education to help others. She also reveals her awareness of the qualitative difference between Musgrove sisters' edu cation and hers. Absorbing influences of both the Enlightenment and romanticism, Aus ten's novel bridges the transformation of utilitarian morality from the late 18th-century to the late 19th-century Britain. Transcending the social barr ier of class distinction, Anne marries Captain Wentworth. This marriage i s possible because of their shared utilitarian morality. In contrast with th e rural gentry, naval officers show not only the rational aspect of utility, but also the harmony between reason and emotion. These are the main c omponents of John Stuart Mill's qualitative utilitarianism. He tries to ove rcome the defects of Jeremy Bentham's quantitative utilitarianism by cons idering qualitative as well as quantitative differences of utility. Mill also attempts to harmonize reason and emotion in his qualitative utilitarianism by synthesizing the influences of Bentham and Coleridge. It can be said that as almost contemporaries Austen and Mill shared the moral concerns of the period.