부산대학교 도서관

This paper aims to examine the relationship of Hetty and her cat, Tibby, in Doris Lessing`s “An Old Woman and Her Cat” as a moral agent and a moral patient in the `impartial position` which Mark Rowlands mentions in his Animals Like Us. According to Rowlands, the impartial position is about any unearned property, that is, gender, species, intelligence, physical difference that human beings cannot select or control. A moral patient is anyone or anything that deserves moral consideration and a moral agent is someone or something that is capable of moral thinking or reasoning. Here, it is vital for moral agents to consider the impact of their actions on moral patients. In “An Old Woman and Her Cat,” Hetty sees Tibby on the street and accepts Tibby as a moral consideration. When 70-year-old Hetty dies of cold and malnutrition on the street, not her children but Tibby attends Hetty`s death as a companion animal. Based on the impartial position, the boundary between Hetty and Tibby becomes increasingly blurred when they look after each other after being abandoned by families and neighbors. This suggests we should rethink an animal is not a tool, but someone or something that has value in itself.