Discuss How Writers on This Module Represent Moral Conviction
To act with moral conviction is to live and behave promoting and abiding by a code
of beliefs; operating with clarity of thought generated and maintained by a particular
theoretical outlook. If one has a perception of what is morally just, then to behave in
accordance with such a hypothesis, no matter the conflicting emotions or circumstantial
obstacles, is to act with moral conviction. The principle of such definitive morality is
certainly creditable; the ability to maintain a belief in the face of disagreement and
argument is significant to the construction of a culture. Human nature, however,
significantly limits moral consistency, even in certainty. In this era from renaissance to
revolution, moral conviction in literature allowed for the promotion of a way of life and
mode of thinking endowed with a national and cultural identity. But moral conviction with
an agenda loses credibility. A character speaking with great rhetoric and powerful imagery
sees their impact depleted. Confused moral conviction – acting reactively but with the
intention of following a moral theory that has become warped – has the same result.
Writers in the era produced many characters sure of their intentions, beliefs and desires.
John Ford’s The Broken Heart introduces Orgilus, a man able to murder despite displaying
obvious affection and admiration for his victim. He combats and suppresses these feelings
in order to enact a consuming plan of revenge. In contrast to those violent convictions, the
poems of Robert Herrick feature narrators encouraging and promoting freedom, but also
appearing to write with the intention of creating a cultural and political identity. As a
consequence, moral conviction is represented as a means by which to bring stability,
certainty and identity, but one weakened in its efficiency by opportunism and tragedy.
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The presence of inconsistencies within the moral convictions showcased in a
particular piece of work is greatly limiting to the overall moral message it conveys, even
implying ulterior motives. The moral conviction in Herrick’s poetry and that seen in the
The Broken Heart both feature such limitations, but with contrasting effects. Ford’s
characters seem consistent and unflinching in their moral codes – Ithocles accepts his
‘punishment’ of death, relieving Orgilus of blame by saying “Nimble in vengeance, I
forgive thee.”(4.4.63) – but their earnestness ultimately has negative consequences. The
contributions to the literature as an isolated artistic piece are, however, not so harmful. The
moral message is damaged, but the introduction of characters founded in realism, not
allegory, benefit Ford. Herrick, with religious rhetoric such as “The glorious lamp of
heaven”(1762), appears to write with the distinct tone of presenting a moral message.
Instructive phrases including “be not coy” and “go marry”(1762), enforce the idea that he
is trying to persuade or even impose. The narrative style of a play, however, especially one
with such inconsistent and emotive characters, leaves little room for such a direct address
to the audience. As is the nature of the differing styles of plays and poetic verse, Ford’s
characters are realistic portrayals of how people would react to a deeply tragic set of
circumstances, or at least an attempt at such. As a result, Ford presents moral conviction as
a part of the flawed human nature, and shows “the reality beneath the posturing”(Stavig,
167). Rather than as a tool to promote an ideology or methodology for living, Ford uses
moral conviction to develop characters and create realism. For this he loses an intent and
power present in Herrick’s work. Cavalier poetry formulated a way to live, encouraging
and cajoling its readership with the promise of the bounty of liberal freedom, while
warning of the dangers of political change and the importance of societal stability and
tradition. Skitka and Bauman – in a study of the impact of moral conviction on political
engagement – concluded that “moral conviction operated as an equal opportunity
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motivator of political engagement”(52). Such a result allows for the suggestion that within
Herrick’s moral conviction was a desire to inspire political engagement. Therefore moral
conviction is represented both in a mode of promotion and limitation. Herrick uses moral
conviction to endorse, idealise and persuade toward a constructed identity; Ford to outline
the limits and futility of humans and their nature.
The creation of a cultural and political identity through moral conviction has a
variety of potential pitfalls. Amongst these is the prospect of writers weakening their moral
argument with political and personal sentiment. In this period, the opportunity to express a
political opinion was unlikely to be passed upon by any significant poet. There was no
parliament called in the 1630s, and though few expected war, a monarchical divide was
beginning to be drawn in the face of conflict between conformists and puritans.
Consequentially, even those poems which appear to express an obvious overriding
sentiment – such as those of the cavalier poets – require greater inspection. Robert
Herrick’s poetry is notable for encouraging and promoting a sexual freedom. He describes
the need to live acknowledging the limits and fragilities of life, to “Gather ye rosebuds
while ye may”(Herrick, 1762). Herrick appeared to write with the intention of creating a
cultural, but also political, identity. He promotes the cavalier way of life, but in line with
the need to appreciate and maintain tradition – a conservative outlook with ties to the
royalist movement. Chambers furthers the idea of divergence within Herrick’s work by
arguing he presented a world in which “Nature, Mankind, and the Church... are busily
involved in a mutual accommodation of seemingly conflicting demands.”(217). An
emphasis on the importance of ritual and ceremony evident in Corinna’s Going A-Maying,
suggests a conservative appreciation for tradition. “Let’s obey / The proclamation made for
May” and “be brief in praying”(Herrick, 1761), show Herrick adding political implications
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to his seemingly liberal poetic tone. “Our life is short, and our days run / As fast away as
does the sun”(Herrick 1762) displays a skill for effectively and poignantly incorporating
natural imagery into his carpe diem message, associating the negative implications of
failing to embrace liberal freedom with something natural and hence inevitable. By having
this liberal freedom constitute going “a-Maying”(Herrick, 1762), however, Herrick is
appearing to adopt one moral conviction in order to promote another. His belief in the
monarchy and tradition clouds and, upon close inspection, swamps his otherwise liberal
message. The implementation, representation and expression of moral conviction should
retain significance outside of the morality which it expresses – instead outlining the
benefits and drawbacks of determination, certainty and assurance – but a conflicted
morality inhibits the effective expression and utilisation of moral conviction. Here, Herrick
creates a link between being a conservative royalist and embracing sexual and liberal
freedoms, where in fact their relationship stretches only as far as an opposition to the
restraint and denial associated with Puritanism.
The creation of a theory of moral behaviour allows for the implementation of
cultural laws and logic that would otherwise be arbitrary. Neill writes of Ford “conjuring a
meaning out of lack of meaning, substituting the heroism of performance for the
unattainable morality of reason”( 268) in The Broken Heart. Orgilus attempts to justify his
actions through reason, formulating plans based on what he perceives to be logical. In
doing so he is searching for a link between morality and reason, but by applying reason to
actions that were initially immoral – and so by definition unreasonable – his own morals
become corrupted. Consequentially, here moral conviction becomes constraining and
blinding. Orgilus deduces from the actions of Ithocles that he deserves to be killed, as a
means of revenge, despite the fact his murder is illogical – he declared of his victim that
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there “Never lived a gentleman of greater merit... to steer a kingdom”(5.2.47-8). This
shows that the conviction he applies to his morals is misplaced. He appears unable to
understand his own feelings and unquestionably devoid of dispassionate decision-making.
His acceptance that his actions will weaken the kingdom, along with his odd manner of
accepting and welcoming his own execution by suicide – he bluntly asks “To bleed to
death”(5.2.98) by his own hand, “Myself; no surgeon”(5.2.100) – positions Orgilus as a
man of great moral conviction, but this portrayal is quite clearly open to negative
interpretation. A play set after the events which dictate the actions of its characters, The
Broken Heart typifies the absurdities and irrationality that accompanies moral conviction.
Orgilus cannot help but begin the sequence of events that will result in the death of not just
Ithocles, but himself and Calantha. Crandall writes that “for human beings to know their
moral knowledge as true and incontrovertible is something requiring an experience in
which knowledge that is deemed to be universal and timeless in scope coalesces with the
epiphanaic[sic] experience of timeless universality.”(324). Orgilus has at some point, from
his own perspective at least, had an experience capable of altering his perception of his
personal codes of ethics to the extent they become incontrovertible. He doesn’t so much
seek revenge against Ithocles as a point of anger – even though his name suggests this may
have been his original driving emotion – but rather through a sense of duty motivated by a
moral obligation. Ford is consequentially representing moral conviction as a defining but
limiting and damaging aspect of human nature.
Moral conviction in the literature of this era is, in the majority, represented
negatively. Robert Herrick’s presumed personal conviction brings beautiful natural
imagery and enticing, liberating ideals. However a sense of political motivation, in a period
of otherwise occasional poetry, suggests a desire that more than Corinna “Get up!”(1760).
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The associations between political engagement and moral conviction become apparent in
consideration of Herrick’s poetry. While political undertones in poetry is hardly a
contemporary phenomenon, the mixture of political messages from Herrick place moral
conviction in a dubious light. It becomes a tool for persuasion rather than, as John Ford
presents, a natural occurrence of human interaction and cultural development. But the
negatives remain. Moral conviction in The Broken Heart is considerably destructive. It
prevents characters from being dissuaded from their questionably mnoral choices, instead
convincing that their own twisted logical conclusions are in some way found through
enlightened reason. Without moral conviction there would be no society to collapse in The
Broken Heart, and cavalier poetry such as Herrick’s was hugely influential to in the
construction of an ideology conflicting with the repression of Puritanism. In the works
considered however, it takes upon negative representations. In misguided hands it
encourages murder, suggests suicide and promotes political views; overlapping and
contradicting to form a culture filled with beliefs certain of their enlightenment.
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Works Cited and Referenced
Bauman, Christopher W. and Stitka, Linda J.. “Moral Conviction and Political
Engagement” Political Psychology 29.1 (2008): 29-54. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Burbridge, Roger T. “The Moral Vision of Ford's The Broken Heart” Studies in
English Literature, 1500-1900. 10.2 (1970): 397-407. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Cain, Tom. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
8/2/13. Web. 16/3/14.
Chambers, A. B. “Herrick and the Trans-Shifting of Time” Studies in Philology 72.1
(1975): 85-114. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Chambers, A.B. “Herrick, Corinna, Canticles, and Catullus” Studies in Philology
74.2 (1977): 216-227. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Crandall, David P., “Knowing Human Moral Knowledge to Be True: An Essay on
Intellectual Conviction” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 10.2 (2004): 307326. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Ford, John. “The Broken Heart.” ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore and Other Plays. Ed.
Lomax, Marion. N.Y.: Oxford University Press Inc., 2008. 81-164. Print.
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Gilead, Sarah. “Ungathering "Gather ye Rosebuds": Herrick's Misreading of Carpe
Diem” Criticism 27.2 (1985): 133-153. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Greenfield, Thelma N. “The Language of Process in Ford's The Broken Heart”
PMLA. 97.3 (1972): 397-405. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Herrick, Robert. “From Hesperides.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature:
The Sixteenth Century/Early Seventeenth Century. Ed. Reidhead, Julia. United Sates of
America: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 1756-1768. Print.
Jenkins, Paul R. “Rethinking what Moderation Means to Robert Herrick” ELH 39.1
(1972): 49-65. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Neill, Michael. “Ford's Unbroken Art: The Moral Design of "The Broken Heart"”.
The Modern Language Review. 75.2 (1980): 249-268. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Roe, John. “'Upon Julia's Clothes' Herrick, Ovid, and the Celebration of Innocence”
The Review of English Studies 50.199 (1999): 350-58. JSTOR. Web. 16/3/14.
Stavig, Mark. “The Broken Heart” John Ford and the Traditional Moral Order.
(1968): 144-167. Web. 16/3/14.
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