Rethinking Good and Evil: A Critical Exploration of Moral Dichotomies in Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell”

The literary fantastic has experienced profound transformations in the 21st century, evolving in response to shifting cultural, technological, and philosophical landscapes. This article aims to critically examine the ways in which contemporary fantastic literature engages with ethical categories such as good and evil, truth and deception, and moral responsibility. Grounded in key theoretical frameworks provided by Tzvetan Todorov’s structuralist approach to the fantastic and Rosemary Jackson’s psychoanalytic and cultural critique, the analysis will explore how the fantastic disrupts ontological boundaries and challenges established moral paradigms. At the center of this investigation is Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004), a landmark work in 21st-century fantasy that intricately blends the magical and the historical. Set in an alternate 19th-century England, Clarke's novel juxtaposes two rival magicians whose contrasting philosophies of magic—pragmatic, conservative Norrell and daring, ambitious Strange—reflect broader ethical concerns. Through a close reading of the text, the article will explore how the characters' engagement with magic serves as an allegory for the tension between moral absolutism and relativism. In particular, the novel foregrounds the dichotomy between good and evil, truth and deception, not as fixed binaries, but as fluid and contested categories. The magical practices of the protagonists raise fundamental questions about power, agency, and ethical accountability. By situating Clarke’s work within the larger discourse on the fantastic, this article will argue that Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell offers a nuanced exploration of ethical ambiguity, challenging conventional moral frameworks while reflecting contemporary concerns about truth, power, and moral complexity in a world where the boundaries between the real and the unreal are increasingly blurred. This study seeks to contribute to ongoing scholarly discussions on the role of the fantastic in contemporary literature, demonstrating how Clarke’s novel exemplifies the genre’s capacity to interrogate and reframe ethical questions in light of 21st-century cultural and philosophical shifts.