الفهرس 
The Novel as Creating Moral “Crises”Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This thesis explores Philip Roth’s moral vision in three of his novels, namely Operation Shylock: A Confession, The Plot Against America, and Everyman. It demonstrates how Roth makes use of such philosophical concepts as moral duty, moral responsibility, moral indifference, moral abandonment, and moral intolerance in order to phase his moral vision through the three novels. The thesis thus argues that the three novels represent a moral trilogy, in which the events of the three novels are interconnected and consecutive. In addition, the thesis demonstrates how Roth fulfills his moral vision by tracing the moral shifts that take place in his protagonist’s morality, starting from his abandoning morality and ending with his indifferent morality. The thesis thus traces Roth’s moral vision in the constantly shifting morality of his protagonist through the events of the three novels, which represent a moral journey that starts with a morally abandoning Philip Roth, and ends with a morally indifferent unnamed protagonist. In this regard, the thesis attempts to answer the following questions: What makes the conflicts in the selected novels expressively revealing of morality, and how such morality-revealing conflicts turn into moral dilemmas? what are the two main concepts of moral duty and moral responsibility, according to Philip Roth? How does Roth use these two concepts to contribute to the formulation/alteration of the protagonist’s morality? What role is played by the time and place in which the events of the novels occur? What is the end result–the concluding moral product–that the character reaches, as a result of being motivated by either moral duty, or moral responsibility, or perhaps both? What are the thematic aspects used not only to deliver Roth’s moral vision, but also to complement the formulation/alteration of the characters’ moralities? what is Roth’s moral vision in light of all these variables? To provide answers to these questions, the thesis explores Roth’s fictional and nonfictional works following an interdisciplinary approach that draws primarily on the realm of moral philosophy in order to form a satisfying understanding of how Roth utilizes such moral concepts as moral duty and moral responsibility in his fiction to fulfill or depict his moral vision. It thus provides a rather comprehensive review of the philosophical concepts in question, while contextualizing such concepts in light of Roth’s fictional works and nonfictional commentary.
Key Words: Philip Roth, Moral vision, Moral Philosophy, Moral Duty, Moral Responsibility.