Morally Ambiguous Characters

Since we just did a timed writing about morally ambiguous characters, I’m going to talk about two morally ambiguous characters in literature.

In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, Gail Wynand is presented as a morally ambiguous character but according to Rand’s own moral standards. Rand glorifies man and believes that all men should have one single purpose to which they are passionately devoted. Although I think we never really get a sense of Wynand’s single purpose, there is potential for him to be a great man like Howard Roark is. Although Wynand gives up his soul to the public through The Banner, he has an art gallery that represents artistic individualism and integrity. In other words, Wynand understands the significance of individualism and can appreciate it, but can’t put it into practice. However, Wynand is still immoral despite his appreciation of individualism because he eventually compromises his standards and prints a public apology for supporting Roark. To Rand, such a betrayal to Roark is the epitome of immorality. Rand even says that Wynand was the “man that could be.” I always have trouble determining the meaning to the work as a whole, but I think that Wynand’s characterization is important in that it highlights Roark’s strong character when he is compared to Wynand. It shows that Roark is the most moral and the least incorruptible. It may even show that individualism is the key to becoming a moral character when considering Rand’s standards.

I’m also going to discuss Jack for Robert Penn Warren’s All the Kings Men because I wrote about him in my timed writing and would like to be more successful in conveying his moral ambiguity. I think that Jack is morally ambiguous because he is immoral in the beginning and then transitions into a more moral character. When he was younger, he shuts out life and the people around him because he doesn’t want to take responsibility for his actions. The Great Sleep and the Great Twitch are his attempts for apathy, but they just make him more immoral. Disregarding his wife and insulting his father prove that he doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. In fact, I definitely dislike Jack in his early years, and I think that the dislike arises from Robert Penn Warren’s characterization of him as immoral. Jack becomes morally ambiguous though towards the end because he starts to realize his immoral ways. He accepts the spider web theory as evidenced by his finally finished dissertation. Jack realizes that he was connected to the deaths of Willie, Adam Stanton, and Judge Irwin. His realization shows that he has finally taken responsibility for his actions, and I believe such responsibility equals morality. In my timed writing, I said that his change in morality is significant because it parallels his change in theories. I still need to figure out how it parallels his change of theories.

Morally ambiguous characters are very interesting because they appear frequently in literature, but for different reasons. Later, I would like to talk about other characters, like Esther Greenwood from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and even Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.