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<p>Ian McEwan’s <i>The Children Act</i> employs the conflict between law and religion to depict the struggle faced by religious adherents, represented by Adam, in confronting modern secular life. It also reveals the tragedies that a disenchanted, instrumentally rational world inflicts on modern people. For Adam, Judge Fiona’s visit and her judgment constitute an enlightenment event that subverts his old religious worldview; however, this event concludes with its undoing, culminating in his eventual death after he refuses a blood transfusion. This undoing of the enlightenment event is largely due to Fiona’s inability to guide Adam through the secular world—a consequence of her emotional trauma and her rejection of a society dominated by instrumental rationality. McEwan’s novel presents the spiritual emptiness engendered by modernity, questioning the true consequences of religious disenchantment and prompting reflection on what constitutes true welfare.</p>

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The undoing of the enlightenment event in Ian McEwan’s The Children Act

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年8月25日

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  • Yue Wu

摘要

Ian McEwan’s The Children Act employs the conflict between law and religion to depict the struggle faced by religious adherents, represented by Adam, in confronting modern secular life. It also reveals the tragedies that a disenchanted, instrumentally rational world inflicts on modern people. For Adam, Judge Fiona’s visit and her judgment constitute an enlightenment event that subverts his old religious worldview; however, this event concludes with its undoing, culminating in his eventual death after he refuses a blood transfusion. This undoing of the enlightenment event is largely due to Fiona’s inability to guide Adam through the secular world—a consequence of her emotional trauma and her rejection of a society dominated by instrumental rationality. McEwan’s novel presents the spiritual emptiness engendered by modernity, questioning the true consequences of religious disenchantment and prompting reflection on what constitutes true welfare.