《美国悲剧》是美国现实主义小说家德莱塞的代表作。小说通过对主人公克莱德短暂一生的细致描写,深刻地揭露了社会转型时期的社会风气、生活方式、道德观念对青年一代的腐蚀和摧残。本文认为导致克莱德悲剧的外因是他生活的伦理环境,物质主义与拜金主义盛行,巨大的贫富差距以及人们对“美国梦”的曲解都从一定程度上影响和扭曲了克莱德的个人价值观;内因是他本身伦理意识薄弱,易被欲望所支配,为追求物质享受和个人享乐违背伦理道德,破坏伦理禁忌,迷失自我导致悲剧。因此,《美国悲剧》不仅是一部关于家庭、爱情、法律、政治、宗教的悲剧,而且从根本上说是一部伦理悲剧。鉴于小说丰富的伦理内涵,本文从文学伦理学批评角度解读当时的伦理环境对克莱德伦理选择的影响,着重解构小说三部分分别对应克莱德兽性因子的蠢蠢欲动、自由意志的失控、理性意志的回归的三个阶段,分析斯芬克斯因子在克莱德的伦理选择过程中的不同组合和变化所导致的自由意志和理性意志之间的伦理冲突,目的在于阐释克莱德悲剧的伦理本质,向世人昭示传统道德规范在伦理选择过程中的重要性。

An American Tragedy is a representative work of Theodore Dreiser, an American novelist of realism. This novel, with a vivid description of the protagonist Clyde's brief life, reveals the corruption and destruction of the young generation exerted by the social trends, life style and morality during the transitional period of society. This paper deems that the external cause of Clyde's tragedy is the ethical environment, including the prevailing materialism, money worship the increasing gap between the rich and the poor and the misinterpretation of the “American Dream”, all of which lead to the distortion of Clyde's personal values. Furthermore, the internal cause of his tragedy lies in his lack of ethical awareness and his tendency of being controlled by personal desires. Immersed in pursuit of material comforts and personal pleasures, Clyde violates the traditional ethical norms and challenges the ethical taboos, which leads to his loss of self and hence his tragedy. Therefore, An American Tragedy is not only a tragedy about family, love, law, politics, and religion, but in essence an ethical tragedy. Due to the novel's rich ethical connotation, this paper, from the perspective of ethical literary criticism, explores how the ethical environment affects Clyde's ethical selections by deconstructing the three phases corresponding to the three parts of the novel: Clyde's restless animal factor, his incontrollable free will and the return of his rational will. This paper focuses on how the different combinations and variations of the Sphinx Factor in the process of Clyde's ethical selection cause the ethical conflicts between his free will and rational will, aiming to explain the ethical essence of Clyde's tragedy as well as embody the significance of traditional moral norms in the course of ethical selections.