The Moral Dilemma
I was recently attending a screenwriting webinar when the presenter introduced the concept of adding a moral dilemma to your character’s story in order to heighten the stakes and build tension within the story. The idea of a moral dilemma is when one is faced with a choice with no good answer; when either choice or direction is fraught with difficulty; or when your inner guide and external forces are pulling you in different directions.
That’s when I recognized myself. I’ve been undergoing a series of moral dilemmas over the last couple years not realizing there was actually a term for it.
I love learning story development techniques as a writer, but also as a human. Art imitates life and so is the case with The Hero’s Journey, the term coined by Joseph Campbell and used in most all screenwriting curriculums. The moral dilemma is a character technique used when the character is facing tests, if not the dark night of the soul.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been faced with situations with no good answer. Often times, it was other people’s desires versus my own to where the outcome would be a win-lose, if not a lose-lose.
In the past, I would have bent towards the desire of others or completely disregard the other’s desire in a radical act of betrayal or dismissal. Neither of those extremes am I able to do anymore.
The moral dilemma is sometimes called an ethical dilemma. Morals and ethics are loaded words, not unlike the words good and bad. But what happens when something is good for someone else, but bad for you, or bad for someone else, but good for you? If I choose myself, then I feel selfish. If I choose the other person, then I will be resentful.
While it makes good storytelling, it makes for a stomachache when you’re the protagonist.
Instead of trying to figure out the right answer (because there’s not a right answer and that’s the point) observe yourself as if you were a character in a movie. Realize that you are in a moral dilemma, that there is no right answer, and consider why you are being put in this situation. What is the point of you facing this moral dilemma?
The answer can be found in screenwriting: to show the character’s growth.
We are only interested in stories where the protagonist changes in some way. The moral dilemma is a tactic to do this. This is the same reason they show up on our path. Now that you know how to recognize a moral dilemma, here’w what to do next:
The inner churning that a moral dilemma causes us leads to inner work that we can’t get in other ways. So focus not on the outcome of your decision, but on the reason why the moral dilemma is here at all.
Be compassionate with yourself with whatever you decide.
Know that you are in a difficult situation that anyone would struggle with.
Know that there is no right decision. You can’t get it wrong. And therein will lie your growth.
My hunch is that we face moral dilemmas more often when we start to rise above the concepts of good and bad and realize those are arbitrary and false concepts to begin with. There is often layers of gray in most all situations that you’re now able to see and rise above making it more difficult than a black or white decision.
Just as the hero faces a moral dilemma for its own soul’s growth, so do you. You’re playing you now.