major concern

A major concern of ****** is the question of whether a bad environment can irrevocably poison someone’s character and soul. A character who best illustrates the contradictory issues brought up by that question is *****. As a child of the streets, she has been a thief and drinks to excess. Peoples reference to her “free and agreeable . . . manners” indicates that she is a ********* . She is immersed in the vices condemned by her society, but she also commits perhaps the most noble acts when she sacrifices her own life in order to protect *****. Her moral complexity is unique. The world is full of characters who are all good and can barely comprehend evil, and characters who are all evil and can barely comprehend good. Only **** comprehends and is capable of both good and evil. Her ultimate choice to do good at a great personal cost is a strong argument in favor of the incorruptibility of basic goodness, no matter how many environmental obstacles it may face.
***** love for **** exemplifies the moral ambiguity of her character. As she herself points out , devotion to a man can be “a comfort and a pride” under the right circumstances. But for ****, such devotion is “a new means of violence and suffering”—indeed, her relationship with **** leads her to criminal acts for his sake and eventually to her own demise. The same behavior, in different circumstances, can have very different consequences and moral significance. In much of life morality and nobility are black-and-white issues, but ****** character suggests that the boundary between virtue and vice is not always clearly drawn.