Kaï Matthews #5636574 Advanced Ethical Theory Dr. Sheila Mason Oct. 15th, 2009 Themes of Virtue Ethics in "Dead Man Walking" The movie Dead Man Walking illustrates, via several of its main characters, most notably Sister Helen Prejean, the death row inmate Matthew Poncelet, and the father of one of Poncelet's victims, Earl Delacroix, a number of themes developed by virtue ethics theorists. I will focus particularly on 1) virtue itself as it's commonly defined by these theorists, who use Aristotle's texts on this as their touchstone; 2) the acquisition of virtue; 3) the concept of Orthos Logos or right reasoning; 4) the concept of akrasia; and 5) the role of emotions. I won't necessarily go over these five themes in the order just presented, but rather as they appear as the story unfolds. The character who embodies most of these themes is of course Sister Prejean, the real life author of the book upon which the screenplay (my primary reference for this paper) and film are based. What is most striking to me is the extent to which she was already prepared by her life thus far for the chance contingency of taking on the responsibility of making a deeply irresponsible and violent person, already judged and condemned, take responsibility for his actions. That she could only do this by seeing past his brutality - without forgetting it - to his vulnerable humanity, is perhaps the most profound (and moving) manifestation of virtue ethics in this story.