Lay Down Your Burdens

In Kant’s vast and dense collection of philosophy, there lies an entire moral code for people to follow. As one of the last traditional philosophers, Kant builds his tremendous philosophical system from the ground up, particularly discussing morality as it applies to people. Kant’s categorical imperatives, just one aspect of his moral law, applies to all situations and commands absolute authority. Kant formulates his moral code in several ways. First, he says to act as if the maxim of your action were to become a universal law of nature, and also to act in such a way that one never uses his or herself or any other person simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end. Kant flagrantly demands that people must not exploit one another to each one’s own advantage. The phrase, do unto others what you would like to be done to you best demonstrates Kant’s categorical imperatives. Similar to the way Kant wishes for people to act in accordance with one another and never simply as a means to achieve an end, the actions of many characters in fiction support the idea that the final outcome does always validate the way one achieves them. Although one may sometimes accomplish his or her desired end results, Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray and Koestler’s Darkness at Noon prove that the ends do not justify the means.

Granted, the ends accomplished by the characters Nicolas Rubashov and Dorian Gray may justify the means by which they achieve them. Dorian Gray relates to this maxim when he willingly gives up his soul for the promise of remaining forever young and beautiful. Near the beginning of the novel, before Dorian comes under Lord Henry’s crushing influence, Dorian initially looks upon his portrait by Basil with anguish: “How sad it...

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... interrogation of Rubashov; his use of relentless sleep deprivation leads to an unreliable confession, far from the actual truth. Furthermore, in James’ pursuit of Prince Charming to avenge the death of his sister, James himself becomes engrossed in tracking down this man. In his quest to avenge his sister, James completely fails when he dies unexpectedly while trying to achieve his goal. In a similar way, Dorian’s manipulation of Alan Campbell to dispose of a murdered body pushes Alan to the limit and eventually to suicide. It calls into question whether the end result warranted all of the adverse consequences and patronizing means used to achieve them. With all of social upheaval and political unrest in the world, one must wonder how different the world would have turned out had people not viewed ends as necessary results, no matter the path used to achieve them.