the moral dimension of my plight

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Note added at 14 mins (2003-12-27 07:52:04 GMT)
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Friday\'s Inspiration 8/23/2002 - Decisions, Decisions!
... to the moral dimension of a situation may mean ... be so technically overwhelming that a moral aspect may not ... Often, my decision may cause these ripples cross into ...
www.angelfire.com/journal/fridaysinspiration/ archives/082302.html

He means that there was a whole bunch, whole pile of problems. In that pile there were some (problems) that were of purely moral character (right or wrong kind of stuff).

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Note added at 15 mins (2003-12-27 07:53:14 GMT)
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Like when I am playing in casino and I have an itching back, a fear that I lose the money and pangs of conscience if if I win that would be morally right.
Itch - bodily dimension
Fear to lose the money - psychological dimension
Fear to win the money (just the opposite) - moral one.
3 in 1.

I think he considers his life in that plight irrelevantly from a moral point of view.At the moment, he is totally interested in 'surviving'. Moral consideration may come later (or not).

Plight is a distress.

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Note added at 2003-12-27 09:43:37 (GMT)
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The personage is indiferent to moral issues. He eats, sleeps and takes care of his primitive needs. He has no worries, just apathy. He is about to defend himself in court but even that does not make him passionate, emotional. He lost the sense of orientation, lost the feeling of time, he is missing purpose and lost faith.
However, his pitiful condition does not bother him. He does not care anymore.

This is how I interpret the passage.

It seems the narrator might be imprisoned, and out of contact with the outside world. This is possibly his/her plight (a difficult situation which one would like to be rescued from). He/she is also about to face charges in court with no support.

It seems to me the moral dimension of the plight concerns the rights and wrongs of it. Without more background, it is difficult to know whether it is the morals of the narrator or of others, which is being referred to.

dimension = aspect = side

I'm going to suggest something slightly skewed from the other answers.

As I read it, the 'moral dimension' means that the inherent nature of his plight [unhappy situation] is to a large extent a 'moral' one; just as we talk about physical dimensions of length, mass, temperature etc., so the author here is talking figuratively about the 'plight' having a dimension of 'morali(ty)'

His problem is by its nature a moral one (and not a physical one, emotional one, etc...)

Of course, the exact NATURE of that moral aspect will be very dependent on the rest of the context; covers such wide possibilities! But I guess it was the 'dimension' that you were reallt asking about?

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Note added at 1 hr 19 mins (2003-12-27 08:57:24 GMT)
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As Yuri also says, the \'character\' of his plight is a moral one.

It cannot be explained in simplistic terms.A quotadian is a fever that recurs everyday.The protagonist of the novel the magistrate is always torn between two worlds in his mind.In one he is serving the Empire,on the other he helps the barbarian girl and wants to return her to her own people,the people againts whom the Empire co-existed for years together,but now is engaged to push them out of the empire.The magistrate is charged with treason againts the Empire.What does he do now? Like a quotadian the struggle between the conscience and the lure of the temporal world vis-s-vis disenchanment always creeps up in his mind.

He believes that he has lost his struggle, and sees no chance of regaining his former ground. Tormented by his defeat, even the threat of an impending trial means little to him. He is imprisoned, but necessarily by others.

That he is consumed with his physical needs, indicates that he has not yet surrendered, He has not yet become suicidal. On the other hand, that he questions the severity of his situation suggests that he is nearing a point of resignation.

That he acknowledges the moral dimension of his plight indicates that he is probably of strong moral character. Simply his pride has been so deeply wounded, or is situation has become so desperate, that no moral banner can excite him.

His self-pity is not entirely unjustified, as he appears to be alone. It will take time for his wound to heal or his situation to improve, but it is uncertain that the time remaining will be sufficient.

Perhaps his trial will mean his death, and he is simply waiting to die and be freed from his torment.




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Note added at 2003-12-28 01:42:42 (GMT)
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A BASIS FOR DELIBERATION

In addition to a BASIS FOR JUDGEMENT you might also consider adding a basis for deliberation. This is because a dimension is, as lai\'an suggests above, an aspect of the individual\'s plight. Other important dimension might include, for example, the feelings and attitudes of others, self-righteous hypocritical stances, bigoted value systems, sadistic inclinations, self-aggrandizing intents, etc. Contributing factors that are not necessarily moral in nature but are common to the human condition.



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Note added at 2003-12-28 02:22:49 (GMT)
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Administratitive:

The ProZ.com KudoZ bulletin board is a forum in which suggestions are provided by participants to the Asker in an attempt to help him or her select an appropriate understanding or translation of the text in question. As the text under consideration is almost always provided in the absence of the full text, participants are obligated to provide their explanations and translations based upon their own assumptions about the hidden context.

Creative assumptions that are clearly stated help the Asker to judge whether the participants response is the appropriate one for the context that the Asker does not provide.

Now that I have written two comments about commentary as opposed to rephrasing the text, here I go off in the same, ...

I will try not to reuse the words "moral" or dimension" too many times and will try to focus on this part of the text:

"the moral dimension of my plight if that is what it is, a plight"

I think "dimension" refers to an almost physical concept just like length or width or height or time. In this case, all the physical details of a difficult daily life loom so large in the narrator's mind that they obscure larger questions, the eternal or some abstract conceptions of right, wrong, justice, shame, good citizenship or other laudable qualities that usually correspond to people's ideal of moral behavior.

"plight" means unpleasant situation, unfortunate circumstance, perhaps distress or shame.

"if that is what it is, a plight" means the narrator is trying to decide whether he feels the situation is unfortunate or shameful. I also read in it a lack of moral opprobrium cast on himself and possilby the narrator viewing his situation as the logical result of injust or simply arbritrary, mechanistic external forces or of his own choice to resist those forces.

Now, "the moral dimension...:" the narrator is in a position where many people would feel great shame or embarrassment. Others might blame themselves and feel they have committed some sin or misdeed or just be thinking about questions of right or wrong action, right or wrong belief. And the narrator is thinking only about needing to eat and tend to basic biological functions.