Cavell's Moral Perfectionism.

Moral Perfectionism in S. Cavell’s interpretation is a certain criteria of one’s own moral awareness. As he mentioned, Moral Perfectionism remains more as a tradition of Western ethics, rather than a concept itself. Such a “dimension” holds itself over many different ethical works, independently of theological backgrounds. “One being true to oneself” is a path that individuum chooses to pound trough life in order to become closer to chosen standard and gain ethical experience.

Remarriage comedy chosen by Cavell as a genre full of examples of Moral Perfectionism, due to specifics of such relationships. Couples from comedies of remarriage often end up experiencing closest relationships there can be; in Carvellian sense is very particular friendship-like marriage (not at all institutional); kind of relationships that happen to make this people emphatic to each other than they would in any other kind of romantic relationships or marriage in its traditional context; and also happens to comprehend broader spectrum of human relations and emotions.

Lady Eve is an interesting example of “creation of woman” (PH, p.48), because she is definitely going through metamorphoses: love-madness (her revenge)-healing-love again to become more complete and independent in moral sense. Toward the end of the movie we can recognize regret of her own actions, which gives viewer a sense of her moral standings (she has strong moral stands from very beginning, when forbids her father from playing with Hopsy). As she becomes more romantically involved, she becomes more caring and honest and this moral development helps her realize further wrongdoing and accept own fault. Here she isn’t merely Charley’s rib or her father’s belonging; she gains independency due to her distinctive manner to act accordingly, gain experience and solving ethical dilemmas, and achieving Hopsy’s forgiveness at the end. Self-transformation within the society is a quite definition of Moral Perfectionism and Jean/Eve’s transformation responds to the idea Cavell offering. Her discovers moral stands and develops distinctive patch on her way to Perfectionism, I feel, defines her as segregated individual, not merely as “a women next to a man” as norm of 50’s ideology, even if the changes because of her love to Hopsy.