What does "Mario and the Magician" teach us about moral choice, normative ethics, and how we ought to live?

The short story "Mario and the Magician" suggests that moral choice is an individual decision. It dictates how we choose to behave in our everyday lives. In terms of normative ethics, the story teaches us that our moral centers differ based on how we define our ethical parameters.
In normative ethics, there are two ways in which basic moral standards are derived. The first is teleological and the second is deontological. Teleological theories define a good action based on the consequences it brings about. So, if an action brings about positive results, it is labeled as a "good" action. In contrast, deontological theories are focused on inherent moral absolutes: an action is good because it is right.
In the story, Cipolla is a domineering, obnoxious, and vulgar performer. Accordingly, he uses hypnotism to get his audience to perform demeaning acts of self-subjugation. While many members of the audience are disgusted by Cipolla's behavior, others remain fascinated.
The narrator notes that not one person chooses to leave during the intermission, despite the freedom to do so. Here, the audience knows how it would prefer Cipolla to behave, but it is too captivated by his bold indifference to care. By his actions, Cipolla is able to hypnotize the entire audience into a state of emotional paralysis. The atmosphere is "queer, uncomfortable, troublesome, tense, [and] oppressive." Yet, no one can muster the will to leave.
So, here, the teleological theory of normative ethics dominates: Cipolla entertains the audience, and the audience in turn is mesmerized by his performance. Thus, Cipolla's actions are "good" because they result in pleasure. But, at what cost comes the pleasure of the masses?
Cipolla humiliates each member of the audience he calls on stage. For example, he hypnotizes Signor Angiolieri's wife, to the point that she will respond to no other voice but his own. During the entire performance, Cipolla mocks the woman's husband, ordering him to call his wife to him. The poor husband's cries of "Sofronia" are ignored.
In due time, Cipolla snaps the wife out of her reverie and returns her to Signor Angiolieri, cruelly saying

"Here is your wife. Unharmed, with my compliments, I give her into your hands. Cherish with all the strength of your manhood a treasure which is so wholly yours, and let your zeal be quickened by knowing that there are powers stronger than reason or virtue, and not always so magnanimously ready to relinquish their prey!"

So, the question begs to be asked: does Signora Angiolieri ignore her husband because she chooses to? It certainly is an uncomfortable question.
Again, is moral choice an individual decision? It seems that Cipolla's last guest on stage answers the question for us. In Mario, we see personal agency in action. Although he initially succumbs to Cipolla and humiliates himself on stage, Mario later does an about-turn. He fatally shoots Cipolla, and almost immediately, the crowd snaps out of its strange trance. People jump on Mario to disarm him, while others shout for the police and the doctor.
Mario's actions show that an authority figure cannot compel us to obedience without our consent. Thus, moral choice is a decision and that decision is based on how we define ethical conduct.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/normative-ethics