Ethical Issues In The Film Groundhog Day

The concept of ethics entails systemizing, justifying, and recommending right and wrong conduct. It involves in practical reasoning: good, right, duty, obligation, virtue, freedom, rationality, and choice. Humanity has questioned this concept of ethics and ‘good’ for as long as it has survived, as it deals with real-life issues such as “what is morally right and wrong?” and “how do people ought to act?” Such ethical dilemmas can be found in people’s everyday lives, and although appears to be a straightforward question, there is much debate over which standard of behavior people should abide to when responding to certain situations, and determining what is morally right or wrong.
The medium of film provides us with a fictional world in which

Initially the situation perplexes him, but over time he gradually gets aware of the situation and realizes the lack of consequence for his actions and immorality. This leads him to lose moral responsibility for his actions, and throwing the question “well, what if there is no tomorrow” (Groundhog Day, 1993), he goes on a hedonistic, exciting adventure; he eats like a glutton, seduces women, and gets arrested. This suggests that Phil has not acted in this way previously simply due to the constraints set by society and his fear of punishment by God. However, now that Phil knows that the events of the day will be reset automatically, he undertakes actions that are obviously deemed as unethical. However, what constitutes an immoral, or moral

This constitutes the idea of consequentialism, in which “certain normative properties depend only on consequences.” To be moral in this sense is to engage in activities that bring about the best consequences. John Stuart Mill, being a utilitarianist, contends that the aim of all human activity is happiness and “that pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends [the consequence]” (Mill, 1861, p.343). With regards to Phil Connors at the early stages of the film, however, is not a utilitarianist, as he puts his own happiness first, and his own self interests matter more than those of others. For Phil, the consequences of his actions within the time warp are short term, as he does not have to pay a price for them; hence, he does not need to care about the consequences of what his actions may proceed. He does not have a tomorrow, which means “that there would be no consequences; there would be no hangovers; we could do whatever we wanted" (Groundhog Day,