Amsterdam

In Amsterdam, McEwan illustrates how professional ambition and self-interest corrupt personal ethics. The central characters, Clive and Vernon, are members of the intellectual elite who enjoy their reputations of journalistic and artistic integrity. However, while they believe that they possess a strong set of principles, they quickly abandon them when vanity or career pressures intervene. Their descent into mutual destruction reveals how easily their lofty ideals collapse when confronted with self-interest.

The initial corrosion of their ethics begins in their professional lives. Clive, intent on completing his Millennial Symphony, chooses to preserve a moment of artistic inspiration rather than respond to a woman’s calls for help when he sees her being assaulted in the Lake District. He persuades himself that his art is a higher calling, but his choice reveals an inward moral cowardice. Similarly, Vernon masks his ambition with a veneer of civic duty. He argues that publishing the compromising photographs of Garmony is in the “public interest,” even though he is aware that the revelation will destroy Garmony’s personal and professional life. However, Vernon’s true motivation is to reverse the declining circulation of his newspaper. For both men, professional goals provide a convenient justification for abandoning fundamental ethical responsibilities.