MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
Loves from Different Points of View in Iris Murdoch’s Novels
Diploma Thesis
Brno 2009
Supervisor: Written by: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph. D. Bc. Kamila Nevěčná
DECLARATION
I declare that I have compiled my diploma work by myself and that I have used only the sources listed in the bibliography.
I agree with my thesis being stored at the Masaryk University Brno in the Library of the Faculty of Education and being available for study purposes.
...... Kamila Nevěčná
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere thanks are due to Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for her kind help, comments, views and valuable advice that she provided me through the work as my supervisor.
3 CONTENTS
CONTENTS ...... 4 INTRODUCTION ...... 5 1 LIFE OF IRIS MURDOCH IN A NUTSHELL ...... 6 2 THE NOVELS ...... 7 3 LOVE OF HUMAN DOING ...... 11 3. 1 LOVE OF ART ...... 11 3. 2 LOVE OF WORK ...... 22 4 HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AND LOVE ...... 25 4.1 LOVE OF FRIENDS ...... 25 4. 2 INCESTUOUS LOVE ...... 28 4. 3 POWER RELATIONSHIP AND LOVE ...... 32 4. 4 LOVE OF A MAN AND A WOMAN ...... 37 CONCLUSION ...... 52 RESUMÉ ...... 54 SUMMARY ...... 54 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 55 APPENDIX 1 ...... 57 APPENDIX 2 ...... 58 APPENDIX 3 ...... 59 APPENDIX 4 ...... 60 APPENDIX 5 ...... 61
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INTRODUCTION
Iris Murdoch, one of the most prolific female writers of the second half of the twentieth century, wrote a number of novels and is partly considered a realist. She is an author of twenty six novels and several philosophical pieces, she also wrote poetry and drama. Murdoch projects philosophical reflection into many of her novels where she deals with question of good and evil . She is “best known for her stories regarding ethical and sexual themes.”
5 1 LIFE OF IRIS MURDOCH IN A NUTSHELL
Iris Murdoch (see APPENDIX 1 ) was born in Dublin in 1919. Her parents were an Irishwoman and an Englishman. Irene Alice Richardson, Iris’s mother, was an opera singer. Wills John Hughes Murdoch, Iris’s father, was a civil servant in World War I and later he worked for the government. The Murdochs moved to London, where Iris grew up. She studied ancient history and philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford.
John Bayley loved her wife above all; it is supported in Richard’s Eyre’s film Iris (2001), starring Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, and Kate Winslet. The film is based on Bayley’s memoir.
6 2 THE NOVELS
This chapter shortly presents the plot and the main figures of the three novels mentioned in the introduction Under the Net, A Severed Head and The Black Prince , and some of the circumstances on which the novels came into existence. The chapter opens the first view of them. In the 1940s, Iris Murdoch was studying philosophy. She was interested in existentialism 1 and met French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre 2. She published her first work and that was a critical study called Sartre, Romantic Rationalist (1953). One year later, she made her debut with the novel Under the Net (1954); Murdoch is said to have written the piece as a reaction to Sartre’s philosophy. Sartre examined the ego and the will and although Murdoch admired his work, she did not share ”his existentialist view of freedom and preoccupation with the self, his rejection of religion and bourgeois morality.“ (Franková 2004) What Murdoch especially minded was how Sartre portrayed human relationships. Sartre did not attach much value to them and therefore Murdoch decided to devote her attention to “uniqueness of people and of their relations with each other.“ (Ibid.) The novel Under the Net is the first novel that Iris Murdoch wrote. The main character Jake Donaghue, a professional writer, lives with his Jewish “servant” Finn and his friend Madge. One day Madge makes them leave the flat and announces that she will marry a rich man. Jake and Finn go to their friend Dave, who is a philosopher, to stay with him, but Dave is not so pleased. Instead, Dave gives Jake advice – to find a common manual job. Jake refuses, he is a writer and accepts another piece of advice – to find a girlfriend and live with her. Finn suggests that Jake should find Anna Quentin, a theatre actress and Jake’s long time love. Thus, he goes to the Mime Theatre and finds her in the studio of properties. Anna recommends Jake to stay with Anna’s sister Sadie, a film star, who is searching for a custodian for her flat because she is going to the U.S.A. That is the first occasion when Jake has a job. Jake gets to know that Sadie
1 The question of existence was attractive for many other authors, for instance in drama. Drama of absurd deals with the question of existence at the first place and it meant a completely new view of philosophy in the twentieth century. “In existentialism, the individual’s starting point is characterized by what has been called " the existential attitude, " or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.” ( Robert C. Solomon, Existentialism, McGraw Hill, 1974, pp. 1 2) 2 Jean Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980) “was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy.”
7 needs personal protection against Hugo Belfounder, who is her boss. Hugo is Jake’s ex roommate and Jake avoids meeting him. Later Jake is invited to Paris and meets Jean Pierre. He is the writer whose books Jake has translated. Jake does not like him. He is offered to write screenplays based on Jean Pierre’s novels but refuses. He desires to find Anna in Paris, but is not successful. He is disappointed and returns home to London. Depressed, he finds a job in hospital. Soon Jake meets Hugo and after their long awaited discussion, he markedly changes the attitude to his "Bohemian life”. In the novel, the relations with other people are remarkable in terms of love and friendship. From existentialist point of view Jake is rather egoistic, young man who is rambling in his life without a clear objective. He does not bother about his living and leaves it to chance. Only after he meets his longtime girlfriend Anna again, his life makes sense. Jake even reconciles with Hugo, of whom he stole his ideas for writing a book without Hugo’s awareness and so lived with a feeling of bad conscience. At the close of the novel Jake understands how things really are; the love of other people and the human relationships open his eyes and Jake sees the real world.
In the second novel mentioned, Murdoch touches the question of Sigmund Freund’s ideas. Freud was interested in psychoanalysis, which is a scientific method of psychology to analyse the human’s psyche, mind and especially to find out the reasons of psychic or physical problems. The method consists in or draws on the analysis of human dreams, their interpretation and using hypnosis. Murdoch points out the result of such therapy, the “patients” are manipulated by higher power represented by a psychologist. A Severed Head is partly a parody on this psychological field of knowledge, which was new at the beginning of the twentieth century. It seems that Murdoch does not believe in effects of the psychoanalysis and she impeaches them in her novels. The issue of psychoanalysis is not the only allusion to Freud. The other important question Murdoch deals with is Oedipus complex. 3
3 3 Oedipus complex – a natural sexual desire of a child to a parent, a son to his mother; it was analysed by Sigmund Freud The encyclopedia defines “the Oedipus complex” in psychoanalytic theory: it is “a group of largely unconscious (dynamically repressed) ideas and feelings which centre around the desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the parent of the same sex. According to classical theory, the complex appears during the so called 'oedipal phase' of libidinal and ego development; i.e. between the ages of three and five, though oedipal manifestations may be detected earlier.” (Charles Rycroft: A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis , London, 2nd Edn, 1995, Ed Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi: Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism .. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.)
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A Severed Head is a brilliant parody, the fifth novel written by Murdoch. A main hero is Martin Lynch Gibbon, a forty one year old wine merchant. His life is almost calm and happy. Martin likes his job and beside his wife, he has a mistress called Georgie. Martin is a conscious man. He is sure that in his marriage, he represents a selfish partner and the other partner is unselfish. The unselfish partner is his wife Antonia. According to him, marriage represents a serious step and he considers a marriage important. Whilst Martin spends time with Georgie, Antonia, his wife, attends sessions at her psychoanalyst Palmer Anderson, Martin’s friend. Everything goes well and easy going Martin is happy. However, life prepares a big surprise to Martin. Antonia tells Martin about her love affair with the psychoanalyst. Martin is shocked. He encourages Antonia to let the matter be because he cannot believe such an absurd situation, but she insists on the relationship with Palmer and wants to divorce. Martin feels that there is something else in it Antonia must have an “empty” head after a few psychological sessions. Martin has a talk with Palmer about the matter but he is only comical in the doctor’s eyes. In the story, other characters play important roles, Alexander, Martin’s brother, a sculptor, who has a secret relationship with Antonia, and Honor Klein, Palmer’s stepsister, who is Palmer’s “property.” According to Byatt (1965), A Severed Head is seen as a comedy with moral themes. The impressive novel is full of surprises, manipulation and irony. The author touches various issues such as multiple falseness and incest, which is illegal or social taboo. An anomalous human relation between the psychoanalyst and his stepsister has scandalous effect for many readers, but Murdoch demonstrates that even this could happen. The story shows that nothing is clear and lined. Things can happen unpredictably and are not as they seem to be. Love, hate, machination, dependence, sexual desires, hysteria and egoism are signs, which are recognized in the excellent piece. A Severed Head “was a harbinger of the Sexual Revolution that was to hit Britain in the 1960s and '70s.” The piece “is regarded by many readers as the most entertaining of Murdoch's novels.” It was successful and “together with J. B. Priestley, Murdoch adapted the book for the stage.”
9 The book that will be mentioned in the following pages is the experimental novel The Black Prince . When the novel appeared, it became a bestseller very soon. Since that time, it has been translated into many languages. The Black Prince is the fifteenth novel of Murdoch’s and was considered the best of her artistic production. Mudroch won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for it.
10 3 LOVE OF HUMAN DOING
Human doing represents producing of a human, which means “the activities that man can do.” For the purpose of this thesis, two sorts of activities, creating art and human work as active job, are emphasized. The aim of the analysis is to demonstrate the emotional attitude – love – of these activities. The most obvious aspect of love of the human doings is remarkable in the novels Under the Net and The Black Prince as follows. The first aspect of love is love of art.
3. 1 LOVE OF ART
”Art is a doom“ Iris Murdoch
The chapter analyses the issue of art and love, relationship of man to his or her artistic work. Murdoch in her writing touches nature of art, which means the process of its creation. It is central to some of her pieces probably because of her position as a literary artist and from the position of a philosopher. In her philosophical work The Sovereignty of Good (1970) she claims “A great deal of art, perhaps most art, actually is self consoling fantasy, and even great art cannot guarantee the quality of its consumer’s consciousness” (86). Murdoch admits that in her novels works with fantasy. Fantasy could be synonym of the word myth. ”The mythical is not something “extra”; we live in myth and symbol all the time“ (In The Spectator , 7 September 1962, pp. 337 8). By this statement, Murdoch presents close continuity of myth and reality. Her narratives are often in the first person, which lead the reader into a protagonist consciousness. This could cause that a view of the main hero of the ambient world can be narrowed. Nevertheless, it helps the reader to understand the message better. Murdoch emphasizes nature of art as literary work for instance in the works Under the Net and The Black Prince . According to Murdoch, Sartre, who inspired Murdoch, could not write, as she states in the following explanation: “His inability to write a great novel is a tragic symptom of a situation which afflicts us all. We know that the real lesson to be taught is that the human person is precious and unique; but we seem unable to set it forth except in terms of ideology and abstraction“ (Murdoch 1953 : 76). Jean Paul Sartre was above all a philosopher and conversant in question of ego. He was as a prolific author as Murdoch. They are both associated with existentialism, the philosophical and literary
11 movement. Sartre believes that “our ideas are the product of experiences of real life situations” and emphasizes ”the arbitrary aspects of the situations people find themselves in and the absurdity of their attempts to deal rationally with them.”
Sartre describes the artist’s ”evil“ as the irreducibility of man and the world of thought. Sartre has an impatience, which is fatal to a novelist proper, with the stuff of human life. He has, on the one hand, a lively interest, often slightly morbid, in the details of contemporary living, and on the other a passionate desire to built intellectually pleasing schemes and patterns. But the future which might enable these two talents to fuse into the work of a great novelist is absent. Sartre seems blind to the function of prose, not as an activity or an analytic tool, but as creative of a complete and unclassifiable image. (Murdoch 1953: 75)
Although she criticized him for creating schemes and patterns, later she uses them as well. On the other hand, she does not stand her philosophy on the foreground, as Sartre does, but it is an issue of love that is emphasized as a central theme.
Franková says that “in Murdoch’s first novel Under the Net , the artist saint 4 relationship is not the main theme, which is the existentialist man/artist himself“ (Franková 1995: 31). Jake Donaghue, the so called ”Sartrean hero“
4 Jake represents the artist and Hugo represents the saint.
12 It is possible to guess that Franková’s statement is not precise because Murdoch evidently interests in the relationship of the two opposite characters. Jake devotes much time to get to know other people, especially Hugo. Franková claims that Hugo seeks for the good . There is a passage (at the end of the book) where Hugo confesses that he has always desired to be good, have friends and to love and do something useful. He would like to do something that will meet his needs and even helps a friend Anna to realize her dream. In fact, at the beginning of the story Hugo is a rich man, who manages to earn money easily and has success, while Jake has not achieved anything certain yet. Once Jake took the advantage of Hugo’s credulity and he publishes passages from their conversation. After that, Jake left Hugo. Jake’s ”urgency to find and talk to Hugo is strengthened by his feeling of guilt for having written and published a philosophical dialogue based on earlier conversations with Hugo without Hugo’s consent“ (Franková 1995: 32). Jake and Hugo used to be roommates and close friends. They often had a “dialogue” (Murdoch borrowed Socrates’ idea, the dialogue between a teacher and his pupils, although here it is not clear who the teacher is and who the pupil is); these dialogues fascinated Jake, so he was writing notes and the notes were collected and composed of a book. Hugo did not know about it. Although Jake felt like he victimized his friend, he published the book The Silencer, because he was enthusiastic. However, Jake was punished for his “master stroke.” The book was a „turkey“, only one edition was pressed and Jake had never had courage to meet Hugo again. Later, the fate brought them together after all. Jake considered the piece a great artistic work but it was not good. In contrast, there is Jean Pierre’s “real” artistic production, which Jake deprecates: … Jean Pierre had no right to turn himself surreptitiously into a good writer … For years I had worked for this man, using my knowledge and sensibility to turn his junk into the sweet English tongue; and now, without warning, he set sup shop as a good writer … It wrenched me, like the changing of a Fundamentals category … One thing was plain. I would never translate Nous Les Vainqueurs . Never, never, never. (Murdoch 1954: 191 2)
Jake refuses the offer of writing screenplays because he cannot accept Breteuil’s success. In the passage of the novel Murdoch shows how difficult is to take a decision. The refusal of the lucrative offer is a hard step for Jake, he could have enough money but he prefers a dream to reality. Later, he thinks that he made a mistake because nothing in the world is more important than money and he feels bad because he is a
13 visionary and desires to make great art. However, the statement which Jake says is too strict. The reader understands that Jake made the right decision. Cantu says that Under the Net is “about the nature of creative art and, most central of all, about the dichotomy between the ‘contingent’ (the accidental and the ‘real’) and form, myth and fantasy.“ (Cantu 1976: 2) Creative art is made in reality. Jake who left Hugo in the past for their misunderstanding sees the example of contingency because it is evident that they will certainly meet soon. After the bad experience in Paris, Jake returns home to London. First he does not know what to do, later he meets right Hugo, who is the impulse of Jake’s further decisions, for instance “Jake resolves never to translate again, but to write original work“ (Cantu 1973: 4). In fact, Jake realizes that his translations of the successful writer’s books are not the right art and he decides to continue in his own production. He reads his own manuscripts again, finds out that they are not bad and are even excellent. His first published book The Silencer is only the beginning of the writer’s path, “the first day of the world.”5 He feels that a new era, which is “the break of the first day” 6, is coming. Nevertheless, critics says that contingency in literature does not exist, because the author must somehow connect the events. Consequently, Murdoch’s contingency could be considered a typical feature of her writing style. Murdoch draws attention to art and love of art in her debut, that way she started to work on the idea of perfection of art. She showed which kind of literature is real art – original work, and which is not – translation or “taken over”. She also expresses a critical view of literature created by her contemporaries (Sartre) and classics, for instance William Shakespeare, whose work will be touched in the following part of the thesis.
It would be said that the novel The Black Prince , where the writer Bradley Pearson is keen on writing a masterpiece, is a good example of love of art. Murdoch claims ”art is a doom. It has been the doom of Bradley Pearson“ (Murdoch 1973: 9). The protagonist is an elderly self confident writer who loves art, falls in love with a young girl and his certain way to success is “in danger.” Bradley Pearson has some difficulties with writing because “he is suffering from an artist’s block caused by his too serious artistic mind“ (Franková 1995: 35). Bradley’s idea of creating perfect art goes
5 „první den světa“ ( Pod sítí: 266) 6 “úsvit prvního dne“ (Ibid.)
14 along the whole book. In this sense, artistic mind can be an enemy to writing. On contrary, his friend Arnold is a successful author: The Black Prince is the clearest example of the artist saint contrast personified by Bradley Pearson and echoed in his argument with Arnold Baffin, a prolific writer of popular fiction … Arnold and Bradley are involved in a complex relationship of friendship and rivalry, both artistic and sexual, the latter involving Arnold’s wife and daughter. (Franková 1995: 35).
In fact, the two friends have different writing styles and approaches to art. Bradley claims that he “discovered Arnold and helped him to have his first book published” and “he sees himself as his spiritual father“ (Ibid.). Practically, there is a connection between a “father” and a “son,” although the real teacher and his pupil is somebody else. P. Loxias is in the role of the teacher and Bradley is his pupil. The novel’s introduction consists of the writer’s and the publisher’s prefaces where they reasonably explain why the book was written. “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one’s luck“ (Murdoch 1975: 18). Comparison of marriage to writing stems from the loyalty and “responsibility” to writing. Bradley’s finishes the introduction thanks to somebody who cannot be named, but “the somebody“ is Bradley’s friend P. Loxias. Murdoch decided to contrapose the main hero and his friend. Bradley writes a review of Arnold’s new book he summarizes what the novel is about and compares Arnold’s piece to other books. According to Bradley, the book is as entertaining as other novels. “The book is quite serious and quite funny. (Most of novels are.)“ (Murdoch 1975: 146). The critic asks a question concerning Arnold Baffin’s work: is the book an artistic piece? Bradley thinks that it is not. Bradley attaches the criticism: Mr Baffin is a fluent writer. He is a prolific writer. It may indeed be this facility which is his worst enemy. It is a quality which can be mistaken for imagination. And if the artist himself so mistakes it he is doomed. The writer who is facile needs, to become a writer of any merit, one quality above all; and that is courage: the courage to destroy, the courage to wait. Mr Baffin, judging by his output, is incapable of either destroying or waiting. Only genius can afford ‘never to blot a line’, and Mr Baffin is no genius. The power of imagination only condescends to lesser men if they are prepared to work, and work consists very often of simply refusing all formulations which have not achieved the density, the special state of fusion, which is the unmistakable mark of art … (Murdoch 1975: 146)
Franková states that Arnold Baffin’s style of writing mentioned above is “usually interpreted as a parody of the features criticised in Iris Murdoch’s writing“ (Franková 1995: 35). Murdoch was criticised for her productivity, she wrote more than thirty
15 pieces. Franková says that Bradley wrote his review quite sharply, and Arnold’s defence sounds very much like Murdoch’s own words: “if one has a thing at all one must do it and keep on and on trying to do it better. Moreover, one aspect of this is that any artist has to decide how fast to work. I do not believe that I would improve if I wrote less. The only result of that would be that there would be less of whatever there is. And less of me“ (Murdoch 1973: 172). This is the case of Murdoch, she wrote many books, even if she was seriously ill. Murdoch interpreted the theme of prolific productivity in the novel. Murdoch expresses that a real writer needs valour the valour to destroy and the valour to wait. Bradley has always destroyed all his writings and so he has been waiting for the right time to write a good and great work. The best work cannot be destroyed any more. In the scrutiny, it is noticeable that Bradley’s critique has two faces. The review seems to be neutral, but then is more clean cut. Bradley criticizes his friend’s easy writing, while Bradley has all the casts of a ”skilful writer.” Bradley claims that Arnold’s style is too simple, whereas he is skillful due to his patience. The writer is self conscious, but cannot write his book because he has lack of inspiration whilst Arnold strikes off one novel after another. Murdoch makes a “poor soul” of the protagonist Bradley Pearson because he cannot write. This is the irony of fate. Bradley yearns after writing, but he does not have any inspiration and Arnold is at ease. The reader must understand Bradley, it is evident that the writer envies his friend Arnold and that is the reason why he states his own theories of success. On the other hand, there is a “danger” that the best pieces can never see the light of the world regrettably. Potential readers of Bradley’s work then must be sad and disappointed. Of course, the aspect of perfection of such art is rather ironic. Generally, in reviews two types of criticism can appear – positive and negative. There are readers who are fond of successful authors and ones who hate them. But how to measure the success by quantity or by quality? It is believed that in literature the most important feature is quality. It seems that to join quality and quantity would be the best, however it would be definitely an ideal case, according to the hero’s thoughts it would be high art. Therefore, Bradley has a small chance to reach success with his approach. The reader of Murdoch’s The Black Prince realizes that Bradley’s work would have to be divine at best. Is the writer able to achieve it? Finally Bradley manages but at the price of death.
16 In the novel, Murdoch introduces a thought about success and the interrelated rule of loss. Having success is not reached without someone else’s losing: “Some clever writer (probably a Frenchman) has said: it is not enough to succeed; others must fail“ (Murdoch 1975: 127). Bradley is persuaded that Arnold must lose so that Bradley could “win the artistic battle.” The reader understands that to be successful is a “claim” of only one of the rivals. If one must lose, thus, who lost by the means of art? It was Bradley, because his friend Arnold was more successful, and at the same time, it was Arnold, because the Bradley’s masterpiece was finally created and considered successful. The result of the novel is cruel, Arnold is killed by accident and Bradley is false accused of the offence, murder, and then is arrested. Both the men are dead at the end of the story because Bradley in prison dies too. The effort of creating perfect art culminates in two deaths. Then the reader asks him or herself if it worth trying. Murdoch shows us that artistic mind is probably a very strict and complicated tool for objective evaluation.
”Hamlet is words, and so is Hamlet“ – Iris Murdoch
Murdoch often refers to Shakespeare and Byatt states that it is because Murdoch identified „the difference between good and great art – in one sees one’s improvement, as man and artist, as a process of contemplating the truly good, the question of the nature of Shakespeare’s gifts, of his vision of human beings, of reality, must arise.“ (Byatt 1965: 273 274) According to Byatt, Murdoch sees Shakespeare ”as a high example of the realism, moral and aesthetic, that she wishes to understand and achieve“ (Byatt 1965: 272). But Byatt declares that ”The Black Prince is a complex artistic joke about the nature of Hamlet and Hamlet’s relationship to its largely unknown and impersonal author“ (Ibid.). She further says that Murdoch parodies Shakespeare in her novels. It seems that the discussion between Bradley and Julian about Hamlet is the core of dramatic problems of the whole novel, but regarding it as a parody is not quite appropriate. Nevertheless, view of Shakespeare is not transparent, as he is a rather complicated author. There is an opinion that if Murdoch parodied great art of Shakespeare it would mean envy, which she had never admitted. So it dominates opinion that Shakespeare is a very interesting author and that is the reason she refers to him, to his work.
17 In the novel, Bradley is setting out for a long journey but one nice person appears at the moment of his going – Julian. By an irony of fate, she comes to talk about Shakespeare, the greatest English writer. Bradley could refuse Julian and leave her but he does not do it. He patiently answers all the questions of the young girl, who is fascinated by Bradley’s approach to art, she is simply interested in everything and so shares his knowledge of Shakespeare. The dialogue is focused on the Hamlet theme and they compare the piece with other ones. Murdoch shows her deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s work and presents his piece positively. In the passage, she claims that Hamlet is the confession of Shakespeare himself. The reader believes that according to Murdoch Shakespeare identifies with Hamlet in all the important feelings. This part of the book is a philosophical view of the classical literary matter and artistic review. A unique view of Hamlet is explained in the following passage, which is more than a comparison of Hamlet and Jesus Christ. This extract could express that Hamlet as a figure is ethereal: ”Hamlet is words, and so is Hamlet. He is as witty as Jesus Christ, but whereas Christ speaks Hamlet is speech“ (Murdoch 1975: 199). This extract could symbolize honour to Shakespeare’s Hamlet . Murdoch in her novels turns to Shakespeare as to great artist, but at the same time she admits in her philosophical pieces that either he “is not perfect” (Murdoch 1970: 88).
What connects the two novels is searching for truth that is closely associated with love of art. In Under the Net Murdoch devotes to expressing truth mainly in conversation of Jake and Hugo. In his essay Cantu states that the conversation, later published as the book called The Silencer, is not real but “turning away from the reality of the contingent to the myth of the ‘crystalline.’“ (Cantu 1976: 7) That is why „all language is interpretation“ (Cantu 1976: 7). Murdoch herself confirms this fact by her words. „The language just won’t let you present it as it really was.“ (Murdoch 1954: 67) and “…the movement away from the theory and generality is the movement towards truth. All theorizing is flight. We must be ruled by the situation itself and this is unutterably particular. Indeed it is something to which we can never get close enough, however hard we may try as it were to crawl under the net” (Murdoch 1954: 91). Jake did not create his book The Silencer exactly according to their dialogues but interpreted them in his own words, which is the reason why Hugo did not recognize the passages in the book. Hence, Hugo had never been angry with Jake for publishing the book; he was only disappointed by Jake’s going, because he was a good friend of Jake.
18 Jake realizes the success of Jean Pierre and “the reality of good literature“ that Jean Pierre’s work has (Byatt 1965). This Jake did not want to see before, but he understood it after return to London. As Jake dismisses Madge’s offer with words „I must live my own life. And it simply doesn’t lie in this direction“, he has truth and falsehood in his mind (Byatt 1965). Jake cannot only pretend art, he is not able to tell lies in terms of creating something that somebody else has already invented, which is writing scripts on the basis of Jean Pierre’s novels; he cannot just live in someone’s shadow. Here Murdoch shows a good human who does not go astray for a vision of a good deal of money.
In The Black Prince, Murdoch seeks for truth in terms of love of art. The novel narrated in the first person, presents a self conscious writer Bradley Pearson. The booked is opened by two introductions. The second one is a preface of Bradley Pearson, the author of the work. Moreover, for authenticity, the first introduction is a preface of a publisher, P. Loxias, who states that he has helped Bradley, his friend, to publish his narrative. The novel seems to be the writer’s confession. Besides art and love, Murdoch in her novel shows a deep connection between art and truth. Art definitely comes from truth and because art is doom, man searches for truth. What is hidden in the expression “truth”? It is love. At the beginning of the story, a lonely man desires to leave London and set out to Patara, to write his masterpiece. However, he meets the woman that will lead him to perdition. The end of the novel is closed by four postscripts of the characters. The first postscript is Bradley’s. He writes about a lawsuit concerning the murder of Mr. Arnold Baffin. He did not manage to attest credibly and was adjudged guilty. He was lucky because in England capital punishment was abolished. He was not able to tell the truth and in many cases, he lied. People considered him mad but at the end, they were disgusted with the motives of the murder – envy in face of Arnold, the successful writer, and potential homosexual relationship to him. Nevertheless, the end of the writer is not the main point of the novel the narrator promised to write the masterpiece. This entire story represents the writer’s great work. He devoted the book to his peer in prison, an artist as well, Mr. Loxias. He is a musician and an editor of Bradley’s book. In prison, Bradley reconciles with his fate and his thoughts belong to his sister Priscilla, but in the first place, to Julian, the woman he will love forever. The book is the story of his life and his love. The “Love” remains.
19 The second postscript is written by Christian, Bradley’s ex wife. She blames Bradley to tell many lies about her. She has never wanted to return to her ex husband as he claims in the narrative. She is persuaded that it was just Bradley who fallen in love with her and just him who wanted to be with her again. Christian of course believes that Bradley killed Arnold and he is mad. Christian is signed as Christian Hartbourne, which shows she got married to Mr. Hartbourne, Bradley’s friend who had been fascinated by Christian since the beginning of the story. Francis Marloe, doctor and psychologist, writes the third postscript. He announces that in Bradley’s case this is the question of Oedipus complex. Bradley loved his mother and hated his father. As an adult he hates all women; the doctor is persuaded that Bradley is a homosexual, and was in love with Arnold and murdered his friend who actually represented Bradley’s father because he loved and hated him at the same time. The doctor also announces that Bradley created Mr. Loxias who does not exist att all. He is only a figment of Bradley’s imagination. The fourth person who writes the addition is Rachel Baffin. She criticizes the style of Bradley’s writing. She is convinced that he cannot write and desires for success. She says that Bradley was lonely and that was the reason why he was with her and Arnold very often. The Baffins did not need him at all, and it was Bradley who had to be with them. Rachel is also persuaded that Bradley loved her unhappily for a long time and she considers his relationship with her daughter as an act of the revenge. She informs that she is not in contact with her daughter any more, although she knows that Julian is a well known writer abroad. The most interesting commentary is Julian’s one. Julian informs the reader that she has nothing to convey about the story. She says that the story of Bradley is sad and full of real suffering. First, she confesses deep love of her father Arnold and his death has hurt her very much. Her mother said that she was a well known writer but Julian says that she is not, she is just a poet. Then she admits that she has never read books written by Bradley Pearson. She as a child loved him. Art is not created based on love as Bradley claims. Murdoch here points out the different opinion on art. Julian is a type of artist who is adult and a cold character. The very last postscript belongs to the only and real friend of Bradley Pearson Mr. Loxias. He talks about his dear friend Bradley who unfortunately died in prison due to cancer. Mr. Loxias talks about other persons in the story and he tells the truth about them. All Bradley’s “friends“ think of themselves primarily. They are very egoistic in
20 this sense. Mr. Loxias knows that Bradley had never forgotten Julian and Priscill. The very last ending of the novel is Bradley’s last words in the minute of his death. He would like to be made sure of the fact that a relationship between a young person and an old one cannot last as it is in Rosenkavalier , the opera piece. He gets to know that such lovers cannot be together until the end of their life. Each of them has their own fate, but love does not die, it is immortal. The last thoughts of Mr. Loxias: “art tells the only truth that ultimately matters. It is the light by which human things can be mended. And after art there is, let me assure you all, nothing“ (Murdoch 1973: 416).
Murdoch held the opinion that “the artist’s duty is to art, to truth telling in his own medium, the writer’s duty is to produce the best literary work of which he is capable, and he must find out how this can be done“ (Conradi, Existentialists and Mystics , 1997). The thought is presented in The Black Prince . Searching for wisdom and truth is always a love story; art is fateful and “every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story” (Murdoch 1975: 10). Bradley Pearson’s preface contains the important motto: an artistic work is as good as good is the author. The work cannot be better and good art is truth. “We and art are made for each other … only this mirror shows a just image (Murdoch 1975: 15). This confirms Murdoch’s philosophy that art is our mirror. Art shows a mirror to man and the mirror is the only true picture. Although Bradley knows that he has never been a successful writer, he is trying. Here Murdoch demonstrates that an artist can move forward and must try to be better and better. The paradox is in searching for the truth, finally it is Bradley who cannot prove the innocence and is sent to prison. On the other hand, he retained the greatest love in his heart and the novel was written. The perfection brings a destruction of the hero – the writer.
“No man has the right to exercise divine power.” “All that one can do is to wait, to try, to wait again.” Iris Murdoch
In the novel Murdoch expressed a deep connection between love and art – she talks about unification of love and art into one whole. The secular world is penetrated into the divine one and vice versa. While the secular world is represented by human love and success, the divine world is represented by searching for the truth and expressing the truth by means of high art, where art is perfect. In the motto above it is
21 said that “divine power” is not intended for a human. A man cannot be perfect, nevertheless, the artist tries to be and does all the necessary things to realize his or her dream. “Art … as a sacrament or a source of good energy, possesses an extra dimension. Art is less accessible than nature but also more edifying since it is actually a human product, and certain arts are actually “about” human affairs in a direct sense.” (Murdoch 1970: 86) In both the novels Murdoch gave voice to love of art from the artist’s point of view. Art can show a path, life can be beautiful and remarkable. Truth, love and art are important parts of a triangle; one without the others does not have a sense. Both the heroes got to know themselves because they searched and recognized love.
3. 2 LOVE OF WORK
The second aspect of love distinguished in human doings is love of work. The reader of Murdoch’s novels realizes that art and work are closely associated. Art is work, and work is art of living. Therefore, one must love his work. A good example of love of work is presented in the first novel of Iris Murdoch. In Under the Net, Jake Donaghue refuses the idea of getting an ordinary job, which Dave advises him. But a young confident writer has an artistic dream about great success. Jake’s friend Dave, who is a philosopher and a teacher, is much more realistic than the protagonist, who is a great dreamer. Byatt says that “Dave’s prescriptions for Jake contain much of Miss Murdoch’s own values” (Byatt 1965: 17). In the extracts: “…I looked at the wall of the hospital. „To save my soul,“ I said. „Not therefore, „said Dave scornfully. „Always you are thinking of your soul. Precisely it is not to think of your soul but to think of other people“ (Murdoch 1965: 29 30). Dave further says, „society should take you by the neck and shake you and make you do a sensible job. Then in your evenings you would have the possibility to write a great book.“ (Ibid.) Jake strictly refuses that he should work manually, though he is the artist, but “an outsider“, “opposed to formal work“ (Byatt 1965: 13). Dave says how to behave to Jake and what to do, but Jake aims high, and reckless of it, he tries to continue easier way. After Madge’s invitation to Paris and denial of the lucrative opportunity offered by her, Jake sees the truth about artistic work. He is disappointed firstly with success of
22 the literary “rival” Jean Pierre and secondly to have lost Anna in Paris and returns home to Golden Hawk in London. He watches the world and the sun out of the window. Even Finn disappears, but Jake does not worry about him. Jake also would like to speak to Hugo but cannot find him. Then he writes Jean Pierre a congratulatory letter to his success. Lefty, a political functionary, makes an appointment with Jake but he has no interest, he falls ill and into depression, the world around him is seen black, he does not like the place he lives: “Goldhawk Road is odious street” (Murdoch 1963: 213). Every day he expects a postman with a letter for him. Dave is already fed up with Jake’s passivity, and after Dave’s insistence, Jake gets up and goes out. He rambles in the streets and has a strange feeling that all the people are running aimlessly and nervously. He wants to go to a pub but suddenly is standing in front of the local hospital. What leads Jake to hospital is not chance but intuition. Jake enters the hospital and asks for a job. Here Murdoch shows a good side of Jake’s character. He is surprised how easily he gets the job of a hospital boy. By then he had never tried to find a job. This sounds very unusual since every man needs money for his living and what way he could survive if he did not work and get money for it. Possible success of the professional writer is expected but is very uncertain. In addition, his friends have never had a real job; they have always been searching for intellectual kind of work. Now it seems that the opportunity that has just been offered to him means triumph, Jake finally has found exactly what he needed. He does his work very well; he is exhausted after the whole day of cleaning and washing up, but the work meets his needs. Last but not least, he feels that he does something useful and the results are seen. Further, he loves his doing. He considers the work as an important activity. Jake is often tired during the day and in the evenings he meditates about life. One day he is disturbed in the middle of his meditation and a new patient is delivered to hospital. It is nobody but injured Hugo. Meeting with Hugo in hospital has its own importance. Jake has a strange feeling; he cannot believe that he sees Hugo again. He feels guilt similarly as Shakespearean Hamlet meets his father’s ghost (Murdoch 1954). It is a sense of work or his intuition that lead Jake to hospital. Jake thinks he has neglected something important and that is why Hugo has been hurt. Actually, he is glad to see Hugo. Jake gets to know that Hugo has a brain injury and Hugo will stays at hospital for a few days. He would like to speak to Hugo but as a hospital orderly, he is not allowed to communicate with patients. Therefore, he thinks about a plan how to get to him it would be best at night.
23 Here Murdoch presents the question of guilt and forgiveness in the form of the bad and good. After a conversation with Hugo in hospital, Jake has found out the truth and is going to find a new part time job in hospital, and a new flat. He will work several hours in hospital and the rest of the day, he can spend on writing and taking care of Mars, the dog Jake decided to buy. At the end of the novel, Jake realizes the responsibility for his doing and utility of his work, which he likes and a sense of life.
Apart from Jake, the other man who is not satisfied with his doing is Hugo. Although he is a rich man, he would like to change his life. He is a rich man but the fact does not meet his expectations, he desires to do something else. Hugo would like to become a watchmaker. Jake is very surprised and cannot believe it. He has a philosophical attitude to it: “what about searching for truth and God?” Hugo answers that God is everywhere, in every mission, in every little thing. It seems that Jake’s friend has already understood the sense of essence.
As it was said, in the 1950s, Murdoch defined some of her attitudes to novel creation (in her work Sartre: Romantic Rationalist ), and beside actual state of ethics against Sartre’s existentialism. She reacted to the matter in the novel Under the Net . According to Franková, Murdoch does not agree with Sartre’s “contracted” view of lonely man in an accidental, unfriendly world, and nothing overreaches his free will and consciousness (Franková 2004). She showed how a lonely human is not lost in the world and how he manages to retain his existence and his aims. It seems that Jake finds the sense of life and wins this way in the world of complicated circumstances and realizes the values of human doings, so do his close friends. Particularly Jake goes through the transformation; and he is doing exactly what his friend Dave advised him at the beginning of the novel. The others have been transformed as well. Hugo has become an admirer of watch and Finn has left the position of “a mere servant” and lived his own life. From philosophical point of view, it is known that empiricism is important for a human being. Man recognizes him or herself. Murdoch demonstrates the artist and the saint who do not give up anything in life. Here Murdoch, by the way, expressed good . In one of her philosophical work, she agrees with Moore’s theory about good and it says that Good is “a supersensible reality”, “a mysterious quality” and “an object of knowledge” (Murdoch 1970: 3). Such Good stems from a real life and goodness is “a function of the will.” (Ibid. 4) The
24 protagonist is a good example of man with all his mistakes on one hand and perfection on the other, and love of work has its own importance, which the reader must notice, no matter if art or work is intended.
4 HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AND LOVE
As Franková (1995) notes human relationships are in Murdoch’s novels on the first place. It is possible to agree with Franková’s statement that the human relationships in the novels are multifarious. Murdoch presents love of friends, incestuous relationships, power relationships and at last love between men and women. Various kinds of love are ranked here from the weakest intensity to the strongest one. In the following examination, common emotions such as love, hate, envy, dependence and power can be noticed.
4.1 LOVE OF FRIENDS
In the chapter friendship as a kind of love is analysed. Murdoch devotes attention to a great friendship in all three novels. She usually puts the great friendship in the foreground and minor friendships in the background. In Under the Net, she demonstrates the friendship that can be destroyed in a moment. This is case of Jake and Hugo. In the novel good and evil are presented from the viewpoint of character traits, Hugo represents for Jake an authority and is an example of a good character. Jake stands in a contrast because he is a young selfish man who does not like working. Murdoch points out the worse side of the main figure. He uses the situation for his own benefit takes advantage of Hugo, especially Hugo’s ideas, for a new book without Hugo’s permission to become successful with The Silencer . Jake’s egoism is his negative quality, but it returns to Jake as a boomerang because the book is not as good as the writer initially intended and is criticized. Jake’s better side is seen later, and not only as his consciousness of the work’s importance but also in his reconciliation with Hugo. Jake makes progress, and the end of the book promises a moral. He realizes truly important values, among them the power of their friendship. Franková says “Hugo’s feelings for Jake are ambiguous and unrevealing as the man himself. …The relationship
25 is rather something in Jake’s mind and Hugo with his ideas more like Jake’s alter ego than a friend and real person“ (Franková 1995: 32). In this sense, it is a moot point because Hugo is a real person for Jake and is definitely his friend, a real one, because he forgives Jake his mistakes and Jake “heaves a sigh of relief” after their last conversation. Helping Hugo to escape from the hospital at the end of the novel is as if Jake “emerged from the dark Platonic cave into light where he is absolved from his guilty feelings about Hugo where he can see other people without the haze of his own illusion about them“ (Franková 1995: 32). Jake was guilty of hurting Hugo: …he towered in my mind like a monolith: an unshaped and undivided stone with men before history had set up for some human purpose which would remain for ever obscure…. Why had I pursued him? He had nothing to tell me. To have seen him was enough. He was a sign, a portent, a miracle.“ (Murdoch 1960: 238)
This extract demonstrates Jakes’s great admiration towards Hugo; he was very fond of him, respected him and could not disappoint him. At the end of the novel, Jake understands that his fear was unnecessary; Hugo has been still his friend but then Jake feels bad because he has been persecuting Hugo. He only needed to have a talk and make their matter clear. It is true that Hugo and Jake’s relationship is not balanced. Jake feels admiration of Hugo but Hugo takes Jake as his other friends. But their friendship does not suffer losses and mutual respect is evident. They go on their way. Jake’s other friends do not represent authority for him but function as “helpers.” The first of his friend is Finn. Jake treats him as a servant. Finn likes Jake and he accepts this position. Finn probably does not have an aim in life. He seems to be dependent on Jake. The second friend of Jake is Dave. In contrast to Finn, Dave is a mature and independent person; he is something like Jake’s adviser. Except these two young men, Jake keeps company with two women Madge and Sadie who are rather acquaintance. The young women are persons with whom Jake temporarily stays. Jake, Finn and Dave enjoys unbelievable adventures, for instance when Jake stays at Sadie’s and becomes her prisoner because he is locked there, Murdoch humorously describes how he gets out of the flat: Finn and Dave are going by, while Jake is looking out of the window. They laugh at him and he asks them to make him free. They help him to open the door with a hairgrip and Jake is out. Jake meets another man called Sammy who is Madge’s fiancé. Sammy is a bookmaker. The two men have a flaming discussion during Sammy suggests that Jake could get money from him as severance pay for Madge. Sammy presents a bad
26 character in terms of this proposal and the lucrative offer is a test of Jake’s attitude. First Jake does not want to talk about it at all and is angry enough, but later they drink down a bottle of whiskey and Jake allows Sammy to bet his money on a horse. Soon after the dramatic derby when the horse wins and the men gain several hundred pounds, they become friends. The friendship is not real, is rather superficial. Later, Jakes goes back to Sadie’s flat for the edition of The Silencer and in front of the door, he hears two voices, Sadie’s and Sammy’s. He overhears an interesting conversation. They want to find someone who wrote a book, which would be suitable for a script for a new film. Jake also understands that Sammy stole his translation of the novel Le rossignol de bois , written by Jean Paul Breteuil. It turns out that Sammy does not really love Madge; he does not want to marry her but wanted to make use of her in connection with the book. This is the example of love, which is painful and disappointing. Murdoch demonstrates the unbalanced relationship. As Jake gets to know where the stolen manuscript is, he decides to get it back. He and Finn try to break into Sammy’s flat. After almost an hour of searching, they have nothing, but they notice a dog in a cage, which is very calm. Jake recognizes the dog called Mister Mars, a film star. Jake suggests they could kidnap the dog and plans it to be a hostage for getting the manuscript back. Murdoch in this part of the novel humorously describes how the two friends take Mister Mars in the big cage and how they make a big noise in the house. As they have difficulties with the dog, they drink a bottle of whiskey. They laugh and everybody must notice them. Such adventures can fix the friendships. Murdoch connects a serious matter, which is the kidnap, and comical behaviour of the drunk men during the “process” and the reader realizes that such passages make the reading entertaining. One day Jake takes Mister Mars and finds Hugo at a political demonstration near the film studio. When he sees Hugo and wants to tell him about Sadie and Sammy’s intention, Hugo has almost no interest and listens to a political utterance of his friend Lefty. Unfortunately, Hugo and Jake are witnesses of a starting fight among the protestors and must run away. Hugo uses a small explosive and escapes through a torn down wall. Mister Mars, who is trained in acting, pretends injury and the police let them go. Then they tramp all the night and early morning they return to Jake’s fellows. Jake and Mars without doubt became good friends that night. Dave, Finn and Jake think about what they should do with the dog. In the newspaper, there is a photograph of Jake and Mars at the demonstration, so it is clear who is a new owner of lost Mars. The friends discuss writing a letter to Sadie; they can negotiate and announce
27 the conditions for an exchange of Mars for an official acknowledgement of Jake’s authorship of the stolen translation. Finally, Jake does not exchange Mars and keeps the dog for himself; their friendship lasts. Paradoxically after so many escapades related to the translation, Jake discovers that friendship, whether it be with a dog, is more important to him than the translation. Thus, love surpasses ambition.
In The Black Prince, a great friendship is remarkable between Bradley and Arnold. They are literary colleagues and Bradley is an old friend of Arnold’s family – his wife Rachel and his daughter Julian. Later the women, Rachel, Julian and Christian, Bradley’s ex wife, try to destroy the firm relationship. But neither women nor Bradley and Arnold’s artistic arguments that have lasted over the years cannot end their relationship (Franková 1995). Bradley admits that the criticism of each other’s work can be fatal to their friendship: “Dislike of another’s work is a deep source of enmity in artists. We are a vain crew and can be irrevocably estranged by criticism. It is a tribute to Arnold and myself, two demonic men, that we ingeniously preserved, for whatever reason, our affection for each other“ (Murdoch 1975: 31). In order to preserve the relationship Bradley usually avoids discussion of their literary works. Despite his conscious effort, his devotion to Arnold, Bradley is later tested with respect to Christian when he becomes upset and writes a negative review of Arnold’s book.
The friendships of Jake and Hugo in Under the Net and of Bradley and Arnold in The Black Prince are strong; the relationships express deep emotion. Both the relationships are characterized by mutual respect, while in A Severed Head, although Martin and Palmer stay friends after the love affair of Palmer and Martin’s wife Antonia, they do not have respect for each other any more.
4. 2 INCESTUOUS LOVE
Murdoch devotes attention not only to relationships of friends who are in direct close relationships, but also to an extreme kind of love which is a part of the “relationships through family ties” and “acquire incestuous overtones“ (Franková 1995: 59). The encyclopedia defines “incest: Incest refers to any sexual activity between closely related persons (often within the immediate family) that is illegal or socially taboo. The type of sexual activity
28 and the nature of the relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social taboo vary with culture and jurisdiction. Some societies consider it to include only those who live in the same household, or who belong to the same clan or lineage; other societies consider it to include "blood relatives"; other societies further include those related by adoption or marriage. (Lévi Strauss: Elementary Structures Of Kinship , 1971)
In general, incestuous relationships are a complex group of unusual relations. In Murdoch’s novels Under the Net, A Severed Head and The Black Princ e incestuous relationships appear in two forms: a relationship between a mother and a child – in metaphoric view and in a relationship between a brother and a sister – in realistic view. “Metaphoric” because two concerned people are not blood relatives in fact while the brother and the sister are in half blooded relation. Murdoch in all three novels works with Oedipus complex. Moreover, A Severed Head is the novel where Murdoch apart from the relationships mentioned uses incest between siblings. It is natural to ask why Murdoch attends to incestuous relationships in her novels. Franková declares that Murdoch stems from Freudian themes who emphasized the relationships. He found out that “the experiences of psychoanalysis make the assumption of an innate aversion to incestuous relations altogether impossible.“ (Freud 1913: 167) In other words, man has the innate and subconscious sexual relationship to a family member. This is called incest, and it is a natural reaction to a close person. The fact is confirmed by psychoanalysis that Freud used in his profession. Freud’s examination shows that “the first sexual impulses of the young are regularly of an incestuous nature“ (Ibid: 169). In connection with such relationships, Murdoch deals with “the labyrinthine nature of the human subconscious with regard to sex “ (Franková 1995: 59). She makes experiments in the human relationships at the level of diverse love affairs and of incest, which may be one of the taboo questions. Murdoch demonstrates the incestuous relationships or their metaphoric forms rather openly. Murdoch tested the first hint of “metaphoric” incestuous love in her first novel in the relationship of Jake and Anna, which is similar to Oedipal complex. Anna is a few years older and symbolizes a pattern of beauty. She fascinates Jake because she is an artist; she is mature, independent and level headed. Anna is a representative of an ideal woman. The relationship is unbalanced – he loves her while she is in love with his authority, the authority of artist. She tries to like Jake. The reader has a feeling that Jake sees Anna as an experienced woman and that his possible relationship with her would
29 be firm, but Anna loves another man. The most notable incestuous relationships are seen in A Severed Head. The other example of Oedipal complex is seen in case of Antonia and Martin, who is younger by five years than Antonia. It also represents the first type of incestuous relationships, “metaphoric.” They live without children and both enjoy their seemingly calm marriage. Antonia, a beautiful lustful fair haired woman, foppish enough, has an amazing influence on Martin. He calls her a goddess. She often looks after Martin like after a child. Antonia actually substitutes his mother to him and Martin loves her above all. Murdoch demonstrates Martin’s need to have a surrogate mother and Antonia meets his expectations. Several examples of similar relationships are remarkable in The Black Prince. Franková notes that Oedipal motives are seen “where the people are tied up in various relationships which are half dark to them“ (Franková 1995: 63). From Franková’s statement follows that people themselves do not know why they are attracted by strange relationships, in other words, this also confirms Freud’s theory that such strange/incestuous relationships are of innate origin and in fact, they are unaccountable: The postscripts to Bradley’s story by several of the characters, all claiming that it was them Bradley was really in love with, shed little light on their complexity. The references to Hamlet with the implications of Oedipal interpretation of the play further complicate the matter. The relationship between Julian and her parents is undefined and consequently it cannot be clear to what extent Bradley might have been her father’s substitute, as is later suggested by both herself and her mother. Nor does Rachel’s insistence that Julian was for Bradley her substitute untie the knot. The fact that Bradley had an affair with both mother and daughter in close succession has incestuous overtones. (Ibid: 63)
Although Franková does not mention the form of relationship between Bradley and his ex wife Christian, “metaphoric” Oedipus complex appears in respect of the two figures. Christian is a few years older than Bradley and is as powerful as Bradley’s mother was. There is an opinion of Murdoch’s character Francis, a psychologist and Christian’s brother, that in fact Bradley was jealous of his father and loved his mother too much. Bradley’s mother is an example of the ideal woman and no other woman could compare to her. In the similar sense of Oedipus complex, Murdoch develops a theory of Shakespeare’s Hamlet . In Bradley’s interpretation, young Hamlet, after his father’s death, is jealous of his uncle and desires to kill him because Hamlet’s mother wants to
30 marry her husband’s brother. 7 Bradley sees Hamlet as enormous loving his mother Gertrude. Consequently, his jealousy is so strong. Bradley self identifies with Shakespeare “and in his claiming both Hamlet and Shakespeare were homosexual”
Metaphoric incest has already been mentioned. In A Severed Head the other type of incestuous relationships occurs. It is represented by Palmer, a psychologist, and his half sister Honor, a German Jewish anthropologist. Their relationship is real and sexual. One more example of the sexual relationship between relatives is seen in case of Antonia and her brother in law Alexander. The love affairs that Murdoch describes in the novel are quite scandalous and the edition of The Black Prince (1973) is labelled “perverse.” It seems that in her novels Murdoch was inspired by her own experience, and thinking about Freudian knowledge. In view of metaphoric Oedipus complex, she could play a role of a mother to her husband, because her husband Bayley was also younger than she was and they had no children as some of her characters casting in the novels.
7 “Gertrude is also a very sexual being, and it is her sexuality that turns Hamlet so violently against her”
31 4. 3 POWER RELATIONSHIP AND LOVE
The following part of the thesis analyses a special kind of love and that is love of a weaker individual to a stronger one who is his or her authority. This type of love is characterized by imbalance. The relationships are destructive because of the inequality. The love can be indicated as great admiration in some cases and in other cases, such love is considered as dependence; the stronger individual of the two persons in the interaction derives benefit from his superior position that he or she is conscious of. This kind of dependence and inferential love is called power relationship. Such relationships occur in all three novels. At the beginning of Under the Net , Jake has “a lack of respect for Finn” who is considered his servant. Finn likes being close to Jake and voluntarily “serve” for him. Jake realizes it and “automatically treats him as an inhabitant of his own universe.“ (Byatt 1965: 18) It has been said that Jake is egoistic. Finn is of Jewish origin and that is all what Jake knows about his flatmate because he does not care about people or things around him. Finn seems to be dependent on Jake; he lives with him. Finn lives in Jake’s shadow and Jake views Finn as a person living in his own world, which Jake is unfamiliar with, because Finn never talks about his himself or his worries. In the final part, Finn disappears and Jake is told that Finn has returned to Ireland. Finn has decided to go home maybe to search for a sense of life. He has been the servant and probably has realized that Jake is not his “salvation.” After Finn’s going Jake sees own faults: “I felt ashamed, ashamed of being parted from Finn, of having known so little about Finn, of having conceived things as I pleased, and not as they were.“ (Murdoch 1954: 279) This demonstrates a moral. It is not easy to judge one’s character man must get to know the other people. It can be very strongly seen that Murdoch believes it (Byatt 1965). It means that such man as Jake is cannot be self centred but must have his eyes open especially if has many friends around him. Franková (1995) says that Murdoch portrays various forms of Oedipal variations and incest and does so as if they were a part of life. Neither does she analyse the relationships nor judges them. It seems that Murdoch emphasizes Freud’s thoughts that these relationships stem from innate nature of man and in her stories demonstrates diverse examples. She sometimes creates the ironic view of scenes. That aspect is remarkable in A Severed Head, when Palmer and Antonia play a role of Martin’s
32 imaginary parents. Psychoanalyst Palmer persuades Martin about his and Antonia‘s affection to him: “we both love you very much“ and “we should like to help you“ (Murdoch 1961: 77). Antonia announced that she would leave Martin to live with the doctor Palmer and Palmer wanted Martin to leave Antonia. In the next scene, Palmer wants to discuss Martin’s infidelity. They consider his love affair with Georgie as unacceptable: “You have deceived us on a matter of very great importance“ (Murdoch 1961: 77). The two lovers, Palmer and Antonia, blame Martin for the relationship with his mistress, whereas they maintain adulterous relationship as well. Murdoch demonstrates the power relationship, on the one side are Palmer and Antonia and on the other is Martin. Their power is hidden behind love, which they express in relation to Martin. They substitute parental love: they are like the “parents” and he is like their “son,” their “victim,” their puppet, over which they desire to have dominance. They want to help Martin to forget Georgie and together take care of him. He would become a part of the love triangle with uncertain role in it. The later scene is the evidence of Palmer’s great power, he does not stop persuading Martin: “you want to leave Antonia … tell yourself: nothing is impossible …you are not a man to be bound by ordinary rules“ (Murdoch 1961: 167 168). The discussion and analysis of the doctor can be perceived as a parody, mainly in open expression of all feelings (Franková 1995). Palmer’s psychological insistence refers to Freud’s psychoanalysis Palmer as a psychoanalyst analyses Martin’s behaviour and wants to make him leave Antonia. It can be perceived as consciousness of human weakness and abuse of confidence, which is alarming. Murdoch points out just the problem. The reader can notice that the main manipulator is Doctor Palmer Anderson. He is a “generator” of the power relationships, in the first case it is Antonia, Martin’s wife, who is totally manipulated by Palmer, the second case is the protagonist Martin, who is manipulated as well, and the third person who is dependent on Palmer is his half sister Honor with whom he has a sexual relationship. Later the doctor even meets Georgie; the powerful man fascinates the unhappy girl and finally they go away together. Due to his psychoanalytical approach, Palmer is a very convincing person, and people believe him because he is the doctor. He represents the evil and the great power in the Murdoch’s novel. The reader believes that Murdoch wants to draw attention to possible way of manipulation and is not persuaded that she definitely deprecates Freud’s methods. Palmer, as evil in human body is a male and as a male, he has sexual desires, supposedly he needs to prove something to himself. He is a seducer of women and can have every one, because is an excellent
33 manipulator. Even he has a power above his sister Honor; such power is the symbol of top one.
Murdoch tests the concept of machinery. She ”uses the word machinery to describe recognizable patterns of human behaviour“ (Byatt 1976: 28). In A Severed Head Palmer declares that ”the psyche is a strange thing, … it has its own mysterious methods of restoring a balance. It automatically seeks its advantage, its consolation. It is almost entirely a matter of mechanics, and mechanical models are the best to understand it with“ (Murdoch 1963: 31). The statement above is a proof that Palmer is a totalitarian man 8. ”… only unremitting attention to what lies outside the mechanism can save human beings from being entirely controlled by this psychic machinery.“ (Byatt 1976: 25) The psyche totally controls man’s behaviour. Psychic machinery or controlling man’s behaviour can be influenced only from outside, because man’s own will is quite weak. Doctor Palmer realizes his influence on his patients’ psyche. As the psychologist and psychoanalyst, he has much easier way to a human’s mind. He himself is not influenced by anybody while he manipulates almost all the people in the interaction. It means that his will is probably strong. Unfortunately, he abuses medicine for his own benefit. According to Murdoch, Freud made an important discovery about the human mind, which might be called a doctrine of original sin. She explains it in this extract: Freud takes a thoroughly pessimistic view of human nature. He sees the psyche as an egocentric system of quasi mechanical energy, largely determined by its own individual history, whose natural attachments are sexual, ambiguous, and hard for the subject to understand or control. Introspection reveals only the deep
8 1. the Totalitarian man means “concerned with the whole man and with his isolated struggle for salvation. The individual described by Kierkegaard is alone, except for the mystery of religion.”
34 issue of ambivalent motive, and fantasy is a strongest force than reason. Objectivity and unselfishness are not natural to human beings. (Murdoch 1970: 51)
Murdoch quite often uses an issue of psychoanalysis in her novels. She devotes herself to this topic not only in A Severed Head , but also in The Black Prince . The psychoanalysis helps people to solve their problems but on the other hand, it can cause abuse of confidence if a wrong person uses it. In any case, in the Murdoch’s novels psychoanalysis means a medium of great power. For instance, in The Black Prince , Christian wants to help her ex husband to renew the friendship between them. Nevertheless, she manipulates with Bradley in her favour and then she is able to betray him when he starts to believe her. In a scene, Bradley wants Christian to leave but she persuades him to be friends. Christian says: ”I guess you and I ought to try to be honest with each other” and she adds that they should be open, and wants to help Bradley: “…say, have you ever been analysed?” (Murdoch 1975: 168) Naturally, this comment annoys Bradley greatly and he does not speak to Christian directly any more but through Arnold, who is a witness of their discussion: “…could you ask your business partner, who has just kidnapped my sister for the second time, to go away, please?“ (Murdoch 1975: 167) Christian tries to influence not only her ex husband but also unstable Priscilla, her ex sister in law. From the remark mentioned above it is Christian who uses her female power, she is a predatory woman, ready to achieve an aim and a success irrespective of the consequences. The question of power relationships does not end with the case of Christian and Bradley but the reader is the witness of the other form of power and that is the interaction of Frances Marloe, Christian’s brother and psychoanalyst, and Bradley. The novels heroes, Martin and Bradley, both excite homosexual lust of their doctors. Although in A Severed Head the question of homosexuality is not a central issue of the novel, Martin definitely means homosexual attraction for Palmer and also Martin sees Palmer as “a person of great charm“ (Byatt 1965: 118). This can be seen also in the case of Francis in a relationship to Bradley in The Black Prince . Both the relationships present manipulation. The males with homosexual inclination try to influence their object in relationships with other people. In the first case, Palmer wants Martin to continue their friendship together with his mistress Antonia. Palmer’s suggestion is rather scandalous; they could create a love triangle. In the other case, Francis and Bradley discuss difficulty of life. Bradley claims that if man falls in love, life is not as
35 hard as it seems to be. Francis agrees and openly says that he knows that Bradley is in love. Bradley is persuaded that Francis knows about him and Rachel and so he would like to explain the situation. However, Francis expresses a completely different opinion and thereby Bradley is rather shocked. Francis announces that Bradley is not in love with Rachel, but with Arnold, and that is the reason why he identifies with him:
Francis: “You’re trembling with nerves and sensibility” Bradley: “Of course I am, I’m an artist!“ Francis: “You have to pretend to be an artist because of Arnold, you identify with him” Bradley: “I discovered him!... I was writing long before him …!“ (Murdoch 1975: 153)
Further, Francis persuades Bradley about Bradley’s sexual orientation: “Have you never realized that you’re a repressed homosexual?“ (Ibid.) Then Bradley tries to explain that he is heterosexually oriented and of course, that Francis is wrong. It is necessary to explain the relationship of Bradley with his friend Arnold. Bradley admits that Arnold is the most important man in his life. The artist needs Arnold because he understands him and is willing to discuss art at a price of being offended. Actually, Bradley is fascinated by Arnold, he can criticize his writing and enjoys it; namely, it is easier to concentrate on someone else’s production than to search for own mistakes and imperfection. Francis does not believe Bradley, but in a few moments, he tells the truth. The truth is that Francis is a homosexual, and nobody has ever loved him. Murdoch is fond of homosexuality as well as incest or Oedipal complex. It seems that the issue of homosexual love occurs in all three novels and always inclines to power relationships. Homosexual love is also evident even in Under the Net. The reader supposes that Finn is a homosexual and has more than a friendly relationship to Jake, although Murdoch does not say directly. However, this example of homosexuality is innocent because Finn has no power. The analysis shows that the power relationships emphasize manipulators’ shortcomings and sexual desires. The power relationships and the special kind of love, which is hidden in them, are part of life the same way as incestuous relationships or friendships. Nevertheless, they have a negative “odour.”
36 4. 4 LOVE OF A MAN AND A WOMAN
Franková notes that literary critics sometimes reproach Murdoch for creating set types of characters and stereotypes of behaviour that suit a complex mosaic of the novels’ plots. Franková agrees with the criticism and admits that sometimes the ”schemes“ are possible to recognize, because due to psychological and sociological generalization, such models exist (Franková 2004). Despite the creating schemes, Franková claims that Murdoch’s characters are realistic. “Schemes” are patterns of characters that behave similarly in several novels. For instance, in A Severed Head siblings Palmer and Honor, both “modern magicians” in their careers (Conradi 1986), represent a special form of love and great power. The “infernal pair” (Ibid. 91) has their forebears such as the Luciewicz twins in The Flight from the Enchanter (1956) and the followers such as the provocative Levkin brother and his sister in The Italian Girl (1964) (Ibid.). Franková also notices that the patterns of relationships, are similar, but are not completely the same (Franková 2004). The reader observes that Murdoch actually uses the schemes very often, but they diverge as the novel plots. For instance, in Under the Net , there is a Jewish, it is a man, in the other novel the Jew is a woman, and in the last novel here mentioned the Jews are siblings Francis and Christian. It is evident that Murdoch has a reason for using such types of figures. To look back on her life one man of Jewish origin, Franz Steiner inspired Murdoch’s writing. Although the plots are similar, the reader is usually surprised by the conclusion. For instance, in A Severed Head she “creates” three new pairs of lovers and in Under the Net she does not “create” any. The most notable “Murdoch’s element”, which is the use of the schemes, is obvious in the strongest and the most common example of love that is love of a man and a woman. Such relationships are rather complicated and intricate. These relationships are possible to recognize by visualization in several geometrical shapes (see APPENDIX 2 – 4). The love is usually followed by a great desire for a beloved person. The character often loses his or her head. He or she is controlled only by heart, not by reason. All the three protagonists Jake, Martin and Bradley fall in love; in their “love stories,” they experience happiness and disappointment; later they evaluate their situation. Then the novels do not end with classical “happy end”, but favourably. The first geometrical formation is similar to the connection of four points – it could be called “love quadrangle.” In Under the Net , Jake is loved by Sadie, Sadie is
37 loved by Hugo, Hugo is loved by Anna and Anna is loved by Jake. As also APPENDIX 2 reveals, the love relationships are not mutual. The following passage explains firstly the relationship of Jake and the two women and secondly the relationship of Hugo with the women. These relationships are the most remarkable there and form the quadrangle. At the beginning of the novel, Jake is a prisoner of Sadie, because she loves him. Jake is hired by Sadie as her new caretaker and protector against Hugo, her boss. Nevertheless, that way Jake was entrapped. In fact, Jake seeks beloved Anna, especially in Paris. He goes through all the places and hotels where she used to stay. He is so naive that he thinks he will find her soon. After a few days, Jake come to the celebration that is held on 14 July and this day means happiness for the French. “Paris let down its voluminous hair that is embalmed and hot due to culminant summer.” 9 Murdoch uses personification; the metaphor demonstrates the atmosphere of the day. There is a merry making all about and a number of people have multi coloured transparencies. The celebration culminates in fireworks at night. Murdoch describes Paris romantically; there is the celebration in summer on the background and active searching for Anna on the foreground. Jake is already impatient and when he gives up looking for Anna, he spots her quite near. He watches her for a while and runs to her. Nevertheless, among many people he loses her in the forest, finds only her shoes and disappointed, leaves for the hotel. Beaten Jake returns to London without interest; he goes through depression. While Paris represents a romantic place with a hope, London, in contrast, presents a real place, a real world not so happy. To analyse the relationship of Hugo with the two women, it is necessary to say that neither this relationship is transparent at once. Initially, Jake thinks that Hugo loves Anna, but Hugo tells him that he is fond of Sadie. Hugo only helped to establish a theatre for Anna so that she would be happy because he considered her a dear friend. Then Jake understands everything: Hugo created the theatre and Anna loves Hugo for it but Hugo loves Sadie, who does not like him. There is one more woman who occurs close to Jake, and that is Madge. She is not included in the geometrical shape because her role is not so important. She is considered a friend and a flatmate, but it is not clear if Madge was Jake’s girlfriend in the past or not. She probably was not; nevertheless, Jake feels some responsibility for Madge’s behaviour. It is believed that Jake does not need Madge too much but when
9 „V ten den si Paříž rozpustí své bujné vlasy, provoněné a prohřáté vrcholícím létem.“ (Pod sítí : 200).
38 they meet in Paris, he is rather confused; he is surprised by Madge’s physical transformation she is more beautiful and attractive than before. She plans to go to Hollywood to reach success. They have a talk about a number of matters: Sammy, Sadie and Jake’s translation, and Madge offers Jake a new job, which he refuses. Then she is jealous and wants to hurt Jake, so she says that Anna has left for Hollywood too. Jake does not believe her and is sure that Anna is in Paris. Although Madge is attractive, Jake needs Anna; he leaves Madge and continues on his journey of uncertain future.
Love is a difficult matter, especially if a man finds out that he loves the woman who is fond of somebody else. Initially, Hugo has met Anna only for the reason of getting closer to her sister Sadie. However, Hugo sees that he has little chance to win her heart and gives up. Hugo is taken for a person with only good behaviour, but his act of breach of trust is an example of his failure. On the other hand, he admits to it, which means that he is overall fair minded. “You are a problematic person because you always want to understand everything from this view and from the other, and that is not always possible. Man will fumble as a star blind forever. You have to lump it. There is the truth in that.” 10 Hugo recommends Jake that he put Anna out of his mind; he himself has just decided to do the same in case of Sadie. Based on Hugo’s advice Jake solves the matters naturally and lets them take their course. When Jake goes back to the Dave’s, he finds two letters: from Finn, who is in Dublin and from Sadie, who writes about Mars. She informs him that feeding the dog is rather expensive for Sammy and herself, so Jake could buy Mars from them. She also suggests that she should return the stolen manuscripts to Jake and plans to go to Hollywood. Jake enjoys the letter and realizes that Sadie is intelligent. As he is drinking his favourite whiskey and soda, reading the letters and listening to a familiar voice from the radio – Anna Quentin, she is singing an old French love song. From the broadcasting program, he understands that she sings regularly in Club des Fous in Paris, which calms and satisfies him very much. Great affection and strong desire for the women “dissolve” and new space for a new life starts. Thereby the novel ends.
10 „S tebou je ta potíž, Jaku, že chceš všechno pochopit z té i oné strany. A to nejde. Člověk bude věčně tápat – jako poloslepý. S tím se musíš smířit. V tom je pravda.“ (Pod sítí : 240)
39 Whereas love in Under the Net is described as a clear emotion between a man and a woman, love in A Severed Head is expressed by sexual desire. In A Severed Head, it is possible to discover that relationships do not form a fixed geometrical shape such as a quadrangle in the former novel but instead they occur in “a system of lines” (see APPENDIX 3 ). Thinner or thicker lines do not distinguish the arrows because the relationships are not as transparent as in the previous novel; the only view that is clear is sexual overtone. Martin maintains a relationship with two women, a wife and a mistress, and they are all what satisfies him. Naturally, he does not believe in God, which he emphasizes because he: “…cannot imagine any omnipotent sentient being sufficiently cruel to create the world we inhabit.“ (Murdoch 1963: 14) Martin enjoys the calm and careless life. “I needed both of them, and having both I possessed the world.“ (Ibid. 20). Murdoch thereby slightly ironically describes how little is needed for being happy and cool. She also points out that Martin is a selfish man. But morning sun never last a day. Suddenly Antonia admits that she loves Palmer and she has an affair with him. Martin takes refuge at Georgie’s, but she is unhappy herself because of their secret relationship. One day Honor visits her brother Palmer and because Palmer asks Martin to pick her up at the station, Martin and Honor meet. She is a completely different and mysterious woman. Antonia hates her because Honor does not accept her relationship with Honor’s brother. By chance, Honor meets Georgie, who has known her from the faculty where she studies. Unhappy Georgie confides to Honor. Palmer and Antonia learn of Martin’s secret. They are disgusted with Martin’s character because he is unfaithful to Antonia. Murdoch portrays strange types of characters; the lovers Antonia and Palmer do not agree with adultery in case of someone else but they sin as well. Their behaviour takes ironic effect. Georgie desires to meet Antonia and Martin’s brother Alexander, a good looking older man. Martin absolutely refuses the idea because he is afraid of a potential relationship between them (of Georgie and his brother, in case of Antonia he accepts and they meet). Martin is hopeless; he survives from day to day only due to whiskey. He absolutely does not know what to do he does not want to be with Georgie any more because she has already known his wife and he does not want to be with Antonia and Palmer. Instead Martin often meets Honor in Palmer’s house and even if he does not realize it at once, a strange relationship starts between them. Honor is not as attractive and fashionable as Antonia is, but is intelligent and mysterious, which attracts Martin’s attention. On the other hand, Honor is active
40 and introduces Alexander to Georgie, which makes Martin very angry. One night, when he is drunk again, he meets Honor and they have a physical wrangle because of it. Murdoch created the scene with comical overtone, because it is not usual for the two people who have a fancy for each other to have a fight. After the scene, an apology follows, the next day Martin writes a letter for Honor. Later he realizes that he yearns after her. He goes to her house in Cambridge; but unfortunately, an unpleasant surprise waits for him. When he enters the house, he finds Honor in bed with Palmer. Martin is shocked and Palmer as well. He asks Martin not to tell Antonia about the incestuous relationship. Martin is totally upset and does not know what to do. He says nothing to Antonia. Palmer assures Martin that he will not continue with the incest; nevertheless, Martin has an injured soul. Palmer and Antonia offer Martin to go away with them, but Martin strictly refuses. Unfavourable news waits for Martin and Antonia. They are informed about the engagement of Georgie and Alexander. Martin and Antonia are rather shocked with the news. Martin hoped that they would never go steady, although he used to leave his girlfriends to Alexander. Murdoch demonstrates Martin and Alexander’s unnatural behaviour; the men used to play with women. Martin was not able to prevent the love affair and is disappointed. Antonia is snarky too because she has been Alexander’s mistress she now reveals her secret. Martin is of course astounded. Later Palmer finds out the truth as well and tries to take away Antonia from Martin, but the two men have a fight and after that, Antonia wants to stay with her husband. Martin is confused by the circumstances. At all events, he does not want to be with Antonia any more because he loves Honor. The story is more complicated, Georgie tries to kill herself and she sends a cut lock of her hair to Martin and a strange letter for Honor. Murdoch’s symbols “are seen as vague and indefinable” (Franková 1995: 52), nevertheless, in this case the reader believes that the cut hair is call for help. Martin and Honor find Georgie lying on the floor in her flat after taking too many sleeping pills. Fortunately, they save her life. Georgie spends a few days in hospital surrounded by all the figures. Palmer takes the initiative and offers her his professional help. Antonia does not want to give up the relationship with Alexander and Martin, but is ready to leave Palmer. Martin is told that Palmer and his sister go away forever to New York. He wants to see Palmer and Honor for the last time and hurries to the airport. Unfortunately, he sees them in the company of Georgie. Completely disappointed, he leaves the departure hall without meeting them. Martin thinks about his next life and he wants to start from the beginning, not
41 with Antonia but alone. He would like to find new hobbies. Martin is very surprised when he hears the bell at the door and he beholds Honor. She gives him an explanation; she has only accompanied her brother and Georgie to the airport. Honor would like to stay with Martin, who loves her. Honor calls herself a ”severed head“ (Murdoch 1963: 205) and although Martin is not sure if it is possible to have a relationship with the “severed head”, he will try. It is possible to understand Murdoch’s symbol of “severed head” as a part of a body, which is separated from the other necessary parts. In this sense, a head without a body is like a body without a soul. In the starting relationship – love of Martin and Honor – it is possible to recognize a test of a new life, in which Honor will probably get her soul back again.
Love affairs in The Black Prince form another type of geometrical shapes. They are seen as “love triangles” (see APPENDIX 4 ). The Black Prince expresses Bradley’s confession; it is a celebration of love. Apart from great love of art, Murdoch demonstrates love of men and women. The first allusion is to Bradley, he remembers his unhappy marriage with charismatic Christian that lasted five years. They did not have children and Bradley started to be tired of his wife very soon. Then they got divorced, she got married again to a rich American. To get Christian out of his head was very difficult for Bradley. He only managed after a few years of loneliness, which he hated. In Murdoch’s novels, it is usual to return somehow into the past, which means that relationships from the past are not finished or forgotten. Bradley is forced to meet his ex wife again, although it is against his will. Before Bradley meets Christian, he becomes a witness of a quarrel of his friends the Baffins. Bradley figures as a rescuer of Rachel, Arnold’s wife, and thereby later, he becomes her lover. Rachel is the second woman who wants Bradley and he admits that Rachel is a beautiful woman with sex appeal. Their relationship is mutual. Fate is wayward and one night Bradley encounters another woman, Julian. She is the Baffins’ twenty year old daughter. She has just walked out on her boyfriend. Bradley has known Julian very well and he is something like her uncle. The girl is not as womanlike and attractive as her elegant mother Rachel; she looks more like a boy, but invites Bradley’s attention and later even sexual urge. Even this relationship is mutual. Her parents wanted Julian to study at university, but she has had problems with finishing any school. She is very sensitive and does not like parents’ arguments. Julian has completely different plans she would like to become a writer. The young girl has her own idea –
42 she is not able to write as fast and easy as her father but is willing to wait for a right opportunity as Bradley does. “I see no point in being an artist unless you try all the time to be perfect” (Murdoch 1975: 58) which Julian says to Bradley, she expresses admiration of Bradley’s writing style. She asks him for help she wants him to become her personal teacher of writing. The ”uncle“ promises help to Julian and they talk about the books she shall read first. Bradley must leave London to write his book in Patara. He says good bye to the friends in the letters. As Bradley finishes the letters, his sister Priscilla appears at the door. She needs help because has left her husband Roger. He must take his sister to hospital because she is psychically exhausted. The friends gradually come to Bradley, which hinders him in the intention of leaving the city. Among the friends Christian appears. But what irritates Bradley very much is that Arnold and Christian become friends. The memory of his bad marriage brings Bradley negative thoughts: “Marriage is a curious institution, … I cannot quite see how it can be possible. People who boast of happy marriage are, I submit, usually self deceivers, if not actually liars” (Murdoch 1975: 91). Bradley reflects on his marriage but also on the Baffins’ one, he feels that Arnold will fall in love with Christian and the potential relationship will be unfair to Rachel. Bradley is so called “happily divorced.” After all Bradley’s resolution that he would never meet with Christian again, he changes his mind and goes to Christian to solve their situation. He is excited in a strange way: “The sudden recrudescence of the far past makes one dizzy even when there are no ugly features involved“ (Murdoch 1975: 93). Murdoch demonstrates on Bradley that man’s resolution may not be as firm as man can think. She also demonstrates on Christian how women can be irresistible and how they can take advantage of a situation. Meeting Christian means for Bradley “a lesson,” he realizes the change his ex wife looks slim, high, strict and of course older but more beautiful. It depends on Bradley if he believes Christian’s arguments again or not. It is evident that she was ready for their meeting and feels comfortable in contrast to Bradley. Christian offers Bradley a glass of whiskey and asks him to be kind though he has written a terrible letter to her. Christian behaves in a superior way and wants Bradley to help her with her plans. Bradley does not accept “the offer of reconciliation,” because he must primarily devote attention to his unstable sister. Murdoch shows on Bradley’s decision that he does not compromise with Christian, who can be a symbol of devil’s temptation. Bradley’s sister Priscilla wants Bradley to go to Roger and negotiate about their impaired relationship. Bradley comes to Priscilla and Rodger’s house, runs
43 upon Roger and learns of Rodger’s mistress Marigold, who is pregnant. After this experience, Bradley walks around the local docks, meditates and analyses his knowledge about love and women in a metaphor of ships: “Ships are compartmental and hollow, ships are like women. The steel vibrated and sang, sang of the predatory women, Christian, Marigold, my mother: the destroyers“ (Murdoch 1975: 109). Ships symbolize women – because they are rapacious. Bradley returns to Priscilla and is sorry for her. Bradley finds his sister at Christian, who promises to take care of her, which aggravates him very much. After all, the reader has a feeling that Murdoch let room for definition of Bradley and Christian’s relationship. It means that Bradley definitely does not like Christian and does not accept her friendship, but is jealous of Arnold because he is her close friend. A certain kind of subdued love still remains. One of the love triangles is seen right in the relationship between Bradley, Christian and Arnold. Bradley and Rachel conspire as reaction to Arnold and Christian. Rachel and Bradley’s love starts with a kiss. Bradley is afraid of the future: ”A serious kiss can alter the world and should not be allowed to take place simply because the scene will be disfigured …all things have their consequences“ (Murdoch 1975: 124). He realizes that even a small kiss can have impact on the following events, because every doing have its consequence. Bradley creates a theory of good natured: ”The good feel being as a total dense mesh of tiny interconnections. My lightest whim can affect the whole future. Because I smoke a cigarette and smile over an unworthy thought another man may die in torment“ (Murdoch 1975: 125). Here Murdoch presents the question of good and evil , which man cannot rightfully avoid. Although Bradley realizes the after effects, he does not end the secret relationship, so the evil prevails. Love, the emotion and desire, is stronger than he is and he let the things take their course. The reader speculates about love whether love can be evil . In principal, it can, if it blinds man’s view of the world. In case of Rachel, it is a momentary infatuation; their emotion is not deep and it will not last long, the evil wins for a short time. As for Christian, Bradley has a clear plan; he wants to take Priscilla away from Christian, the “witch,” and thus do the final point with his ex wife. Priscilla is very unstable person, she loves Rodger but he has never loved her. She could not give him a child because she underwent abortion. She feels useless and is not able to face her fate. Bradley decides that he will take her home. However, he realizes that the problems will not be solved. Namely, Bradley is not able to be with his sister “under one roof” and work there. Bradley thinks about a special psychological treatment for her. Therefore, he decides to stay in London and not to go to write to the
44 countryside. In the scene mentioned above, Murdoch shows a difficult deal of the writer many barriers interfere with a process of creating art the writer desires to leave but he cannot because he feels responsibility for his sister. Murdoch also points out at good and evil again, but the evil – in this case “artistic and selfish desire” – does not win, at least for the present, and it is a kind of duty that wins. Bradley receives a love letter from Rachel, who thanks him for his love. She needs his love; it means not love affair, but love, the emotion. Rachel loves her husband Arnold, but at the same time, she hates him. She is not able to forgive completely everything, for example his physical attack on her. Rachel asks Bradley for alliance and wants to meet him again. Moreover, Rachel offers help to Priscilla and wants to look after her in her house. Although Rachel likes Bradley, she recommends him not to publish Bradley’s review of Arnold’s novel because it would hurt Arnold, and in her opinion, they must remain friends. Rachel expresses her pure love of Bradley but the frank confession frightens him a little and he is not sure what could follow. Bradley does not understand why women consider everything as definitive. The writer thinks about why their experience the intense kiss and hug does not remain just vague. He would like to meet Arnold and tell him everything that has happened. Murdoch emphasizes the remarkable love triangle in the relationship of Arnold, Rachel and Bradley. One day Rachel and her daughter Julian come up to visit Priscilla at Bradley’s. Bradley feels happiness beside young, beautiful, guiltless and incorrupt Julian. He starts to be in love with her. Julian claims that his review of Arnold’s novel is very good. She openly says what she thinks about everything she admires his way of writing: “I do love the way you talk, you’re so precise, not like my father…I regard you as my philosopher .” (Murdoch 1975: 137) Julian is in love with Bradley and she considers him her idol. Bradley is glad to hear those words. He starts to compare Rachel to Julian and Julian is the better choice for him. As he meets Rachel next time, he does not want to be with her and is distant. He cannot bear that she is Arnold’s wife; he has a bad conscience about it. Initially, he thought that Rachel would help him to write a book but then the writer admits that he thought of the woman only for sex instead of the book. He notes that the artist: “…pretends he is thinking about his book, while really he is thinking about a woman’s breasts” (Murdoch 1975: 143). Bradley discerns that Rachel cannot “help” him to write a book but could be his mistress, but he realizes that it is dangerous to have love affair with her, because she is very sensitive, and she could destroy the friendship of the two friends. Therefore, Bradley ends the relationship with
45 Rachel and on the scene, Julian, as Bradley’s life love, comes. Julian and Bradley meet by chance in town and Bradley buys her Cossack boots as a gift. In terms of Murdoch’s conception of love: “…love relationships constitute a process. It is a process where it is a long way from falling in love or feeling love, through overcoming the ego’s natural desire to dominate or absorb, to respecting the other as a separate being and still loving them“ (Franková 1995: 76). Bradley quickly gets to know Julian and her sense for literature. She likes talking on Shakespearean topic. Bradley analyses Shakespeare and Hamlet in deep, Julian is fascinated, and Bradley as well; he gives Julian his favourite snuffbox. Hamlet has become a medium of the communication between the two excited literary lovers. After the impressive discussion of Hamlet Bradley needs to be alone. Having Julian’s gone Bradley realizes that love has just been born. The next days Bradley is completely “somebody else.” ”Everything in the world was Julian“ (Murdoch 1975: 207). The fifty eight year old man idolizes the twenty year old naive girl and has a romantic look on the world. The writer admits that he has become crazy. “There was no hurry. Time had already become eternity“ (Ibid.). Bradley does not need anything but beloved Julian; he lives in a world where there is no time, just her. Murdoch presents the next love triangle between Rachel, Bradley and Julian. Bradley encounters a problem. He is faced with a choice, the choice between married woman and young woman without encumbrance. He chooses the easier way. Although love of God is not defined in the novel, Murdoch uses the symbol of God and compares the main figure to God – Bradley considers himself God and Julian is the World. He creates Julian – he considers her as a talented writer, a budding artist. He teaches her how to view literature and how to write. She presents unique and the most precious being. According to Bradley Julian is a creature that he has discovered. Murdoch demonstrates love as the highest emotion that can easily blind human’s eyes. Bradley admits that man can become a victim of the strong emotion as love is. ”All this dream of being a great artist was simply a search for a great human love“ (Murdoch 1975: 208). The writer claims that his life had been nonsensical until the moment he found the great love. Although Bradley does not think that Julian knows about Bradley’s love, he is happy. In this part of the novel, it is not important if the love is mutual. Bradley is satisfied with the sense of love. ”How endurable it can be, the love another bears us“ (Murdoch 1975: 210). The quotation expresses Bradley’s fear of “unwanted” love, which Bradley provides to somebody, but the person does not feel the same emotion. He supposes that his love cannot be returned. He thinks about love’s
46 immortality and about source of bliss, which is the unrequited love. According to Murdoch, immortality can be close to human being only by means of love and art. The “young” object of love – Julian – has a positive influence on Bradley’s perception of the world, for instance, the view of Roger and Marigold suddenly Bradley sympathizes with the loving pair. As it has been already mentioned, strong desire can have also negative impact on man, mainly can make him or her selfish. This is the case of Bradley in his relationship to Priscilla. She is shocked by the news about her husband and his mistress and falls into depression, Bradley, because he has a full head of Julian, cannot see his sister’s serious health state. He is at home and can think only about Julian. His friends call him, but Bradley does not want to be disturbed in his meditation and he also avoids Rachel. Bradley invites Julian for a dinner and they go through Shakespeare’s production again. Franková says of human relationships: “central to all human relationships, and to love relationships in particular, is communication“ (Franková 1995: 77); in this sense Murdoch chooses literature as a way of successful communication. Bradley and Julian quote Shakespeare, for instance, Bradley to Julian: “So young and so untender“11 and Julian to Bradley: “So young, my lord, but true.“12 The two people are different, Bradley is taken aback and is not able to pronounce her name, Julian is calm and pronounces Bradley’s name with amazing gentleness. The situation is a “suffering without end” for him. Julian is happy to talk about literature; she expresses her opinion and acts as a peer of the experienced writer, and Bradley perceives nothing but Julian and desires to kiss her. First he is rather shy but then he tries. Julian is surprised and asks him to go to the opera with her because she does not want to go with her boyfriend Septimus. The news about Septimus hits Bradley and he becomes jealous. Bradley promises to go to the theatre next week. At home, Bradley drowns in alcohol. He is waiting only for the day he sees Julian. Initially, he thought that Julian would become his Muse for the masterpiece, now he is not able to do anything but think about her. He suffers and suffers. Bradley shortly thinks about his sister and decides to send her to a medical treatment, though the treatment includes electrical shocks. Murdoch shows two types of suffering Bradley’s, which includes just emotional deprivation, and Priscilla’s, real suffering because later the electrical shocks will not help her but damage
11 W. Shakespeare: King Lear, 1st act, 1st scenery 12 W. Shakespeare: King Lear, 1st act, 1st scenery
47 her physically and psychically as well. The writer receives a letter from Arnold who announces that has fallen in love with Christian and asks Bradley to be a good friend to Rachel. Murdoch demonstrates even on Arnold how strong influence Christian has. Bradley is quite distant; he cannot see either Rachel or somebody else. Everything he is interested in is Julian; he loves her more and more. The writer claims that love must be developed. ”Love is history, is dialectic, it must move“ (Murdoch 1975: 245). Here again Murdoch confirms her statement about love as a long term process the ”evolution“ of love is compared to history and dialectics. The writer survives a few hours to the meeting with Julian and on the day of their appointment, they go together to the theatre to see the operatic piece Rosenkavalier. Bradley is not able to watch the performance and runs away from the theatre. He has a stomachache and is completely disconcerted because of Julian. For all his resolution, Bradley tells Julian the truth about his love to her. She is calm and he feels uncomfortable, but Julian, to Bradley’s surprise, confesses her love and admiration of him. The situation is much more difficult for Bradley; he compares the love to caves and labyrinths. He does not know where to go. Julian says that she would love him and asks him about his age. In this passage, Murdoch could create a truthful man, but she chooses a role of a liar. Although, Bradley considers their affair impossible, it is a small hope to gain love of the young woman but Bradley tries. Bradley is fifty eight but he answers that is only forty six. It is clear that the writer is afraid of telling the truth about his age, and he consequently lies. The reader thinks that it would be better if Bradley told the truth because supposes that this untrue information can destroy the strong emotion between Bradley and Julian, as it is seen later in the story. Lies, of course, damage trust. But in this part of the novel, Bradley, although he is “forty six” is younger and looks very well in Julian’s eyes. She wants to be kissed and hugged and confesses that loves him too. Since her childhood, she has been fallen in love with him. The situation is like a dream for Bradley. The story seems to be romantic – there is a great love between the young girl and the old man, but on the other hand, there is a realistic view of the matter – the writer is the idol of the woman and it is natural that she admires him. Julian loves her father but sometimes it is easier to get closer to the other man who can function as a substitution of the father. The two lovers have the same interest, literature; on the other hand, they are rather different and stand in contrast the young girl represents determination to reach a goal, whereas the old man represents ”demission.“ Youth symbolizes innocence, buoyancy and ambition to discover the world, and old age
48 symbolizes hesitance, giving up the goals and reconciliation with oneself. Julian would like to announce their engagement, but Bradley asks her not to do it. Murdoch demonstrates the situation that can happen in a real world. Foolish Julian tells the parents and they of course disagree. The result is that the parents forbid their love. Bradley asks Francis to look after Priscilla and with Julian he leaves London. Murdoch could end the novel with the victory of love and all the displeasures would be solved. However, Murdoch continues her story about the “reborn” writer and his life love; adventures follow. The third chapter could be called ”the end of the writer“. Murdoch is partly a realistic novelist and as the type of a writer, she must keep a realistic line. Consequently, Julian and Bradley manage to run from London and they get to the country seaside, but something happens. The two lovers have a wonderful relationship, but Bradley is not so sure if they do right. Although Bradley still fascinates Julian, his fear of their common future increases. They reach the countryside and stay at the place where the writer wanted to be long ago, in Patara. The place is very romantic and the two lovers live only for themselves. Bradley feels that their sexual contact is close. “The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular one and its indifference to substitutes is one of life’s major mysteries“ (Murdoch 1975: 285). He waits for the right time to have sex. Suddenly Bradley receives a letter from Francis with the announcement of Priscilla’s death. She committed suicide she took too many sleeping pills. He decides not to tell Julian because he could break their wonderful relationship. Despite knowing bad news from Francis, Bradley wants to enjoy sex with Julian. Murdoch pictures erotic scenes romantically, but the fact that Bradley’s sister is dead takes cruel effect. Murdoch portrays the sexual scene openly Bradley is not able to have erection during their lovemaking. Nevertheless, he is very excited the following day when Julian is dressed like Hamlet (see APPENDIX 5) all in black and just like the prince; finally, they have sex. There is a note about the intimate scene: Bradley is excited by creating “the atmosphere of Hamlet.” The relationship between the old man and the young girl is similar to one in the novel by the French writer, Vladimir Nabokov. We speak about Lolita (1955), and the relationship between the twelve year old girl (full name is Dolores Haze) and her stepfather. The relationship, which Nabokov demonstrates is illegal, apart from the Murdoch’s one, but the lovers’ fate in both the novels, in a certain line, is the same. Their love does not last long time. In the Murdoch’s novel, it is clear that sooner or later a breakup of the relationship must come. Such is a life. This love probably could be
49 good for the following ten years, but Bradley lies in terms of important matters. There are two main lies that Bradley committed. Bradley has a bad conscience because he was not able to tell Julian the truth about his age and his sister Priscilla’s death. After a beautiful night, full of love, Julian is satisfied; Bradley is satisfied and finally ready to write a book. He decides to say everything next morning but does not have the opportunity. Arnold finds the lowers in Patara and says everything to Julian. She gets to know that Bradley is fifty eight and poor Priscilla is dead. This means a total end of the relationship. The next scene is Priscilla’s funeral in London, and his friends blame Bradley for Priscilla’s death. Only Francis apologizes he ought to look after Priscilla but left her for his homosexual partner Ridger. Nevertheless, the writer supposes that his sister’s death was fateful; she wanted to end her life. Only her brother Bradley knows this truth, other people simply cannot understand it. It is cruel, but Bradley is able to think only of Julian. It seems that Bradley knows exactly what to do, as well as Rachel, who found out that she would love Arnold forever. She tries to make Bradley forget Julian. Bradley receives a letter from Julian about her stay in Italy. Bradley wants to find her. Francis would like to go with him. When they set out on the trip, Rachel calls Bradley and is aghast. She beseeches him to come to her, as something terrible has happened. Bradley arrives at the Rachel’s and sees his friend Arnold dead on the floor. Rachel stands with a murderous tool above the dead body. The fire hook is full of blood. The spouses have had a quarrel, then a physical wrangle and Rachel probably hit Arnold in self defence. Rachel of course says it has been an accident and everything happened quickly. Bradley intuitively tries to help Rachel and as he beholds a letter from Arnold about Christian on the floor he burns it, the fire hook is washed, and then he calls a doctor and the police. When they reach the house, he shows them what has happened. However, to Bradley’s surprise, it is right him who is charged with the murder of his friend Arnold. A fateful disaster comes and the story does not end with a happy conclusion, but with a sad one. Bradley does not manage to vindicate oneself at law and is condemned to life imprisonment. The first paradox is that the beginning of the novel starts with Arnold’s worries about the fact that he probably killed his wife Rachel, and the end of the novel finishes with a real death of Arnold caused by Rachel. The second paradox is that Bradley all the time tries to describe the story truthfully, but at the end, he is not able to prove the truth and must go to prison, where he soon dies. Murdoch wrote a book about cruelty of life; on the one hand about achieved love and on the other hand about the price man must pay for. Thereby the great love ends. However,
50 the aim of the novel is to write fiction not only about human love, and this aim is fulfilled. The reader has a feeling that the view of Julian as Hamlet is an inspiration for the novel’s title. The perception of Julian is “love and art expression,” Bradley claims that Julian “…somehow was and is the book, the story of herself. This is her deification and incidentally her immortality. It is my gift to her and my final possession of her. From this embrace she can never now escape.“ (Murdoch, 1973: 389) The young woman means unification of love and art for the old man. The last sentence of the extract indicates his fear about her possible escape but the embrace symbolizes everlasting love and attachment. It is clear that Julian means a perfect icon for Bradley; he loves her appearance and mind. Murdoch shows Julian as a perfect person in all respects in Bradley’s eyes, but as the Julian’s postscript says the reality is different from Bradley’s view. Julian claims that his art was is not so good, and she did not love him so strongly, she took him like a good family friend.
The Murdoch’s novels are full of cross grained human relationships where love plays an important role. The people love, hate each other, envy and are selfish. Different kinds of love are remarkable there; it is possible to notice love of friends, incestuous relationships, power relationships and the most widespread type of love love between men and women. All the relationships can complicate lives of the figures; the relationships are heterogeneous they are scandalous and understandable at the same time, they are rather realistic. The reader has an opinion that the author does not criticize the relationships and emotions but portrays all the possible situations man can face.
51
CONCLUSION
The aim of this work is to confirm the hypothesis, which claims that love is one of the central themes of Murdoch’s novels. For the analysis and affirmation of the fact, three novels of Murdoch’s production were chosen: Under the Net , A Severed Head and The Black Prince . The intention of the thesis is to explore what extent the theme of love is included in the novels and which kinds of love are possible to categorize. Love could be understood on two levels, the first one is love of work, this includes love, which is reflected in human doings, and the second level represents love of people, this means love recognized in human relationships. Further, love is sectioned in detail into love of art and love of work. Love of art is stressed in two of the novels, in Under the Net where creation of art is a path to success, the hero at the end learns that creation of art is a process and he is at the beginning of it; by experience, he judges his present art more positively than before. The Black Prince is focused on art more because there are two different artists who stand with their opposite artistic opinions in contrast. The whole novel demonstrates the effort to create perfect art, in the protagonist’s eyes, and his own conviction wins. In terms of relation to work, the hero of Under the Net finds satisfaction in the job of hospital boy and his selfishness recedes into the background, whereby he shows a good side of his character. Thereby work becomes an important part of life. Love of art and love of work are similar aspects of “Murdoch’s” love but whereas art is seen as an egoistic interest in the novels, work can mean a benefit for everyone in the society. Human relationships and emotions are rather complicated issues. Love, seemingly simple emotion that stands in the foreground can be intricate. It is possible to view love in friendships, relationships of men and women, but also in incestuous relationships or power ones. In Under the Net and The Black Prince , the friendships are firm; friends respect each other and even opposite views on art do not break the relationship, on the contrary, the relationship of Martin and Palmer in A Severed Head suffers losses. Nevertheless, it is understandable because the “play” of the participants is not very fair; there are a number of machinations there. Concerning incestuous relationships, they occur in the novels in two forms: the first form shows the
52 relationships, which are not incestuous in fact but are similar to them. Such a relationship can be noticeable in case of Antonia and her younger husband Martin, whereas Martin has a position of a “child.” The real incest that belongs to the second form is committed between a brother and his half sister in A Severed Head , which is considered scandalous. Power relationships show how man can be manipulated by a stronger person sometimes optionally as it is seen in case of Finn, in Under the Net , who is glad to function as a servant, but mainly involuntarily through psychoanalyst's mediation or sexual desire, these are cases of Palmer in A Severed Head . Very uncertain love is recognized in the last mentioned type of love, love of men and women. The characters are “absorbed” into a net of strange relationships, often with sexual overtone. To understand such relationships it is suitable to imagine close knit love triangles. Further, other relationships can be seen in alternative geometrical shapes such as a quadrangle or only as a system of lines. The analysis shows that all the novels are love stories and it is necessary to point out that the relationships are usually not balanced. The figures do not express admiration or love in equable measure no matter what kind of love mentioned above is considered. If A loves B it does not absolutely mean that B loves A, but instead, B loves C and C loves A and so on. It seems that Murdoch in her novels uses particular schemes or patterns of behaviour and characters. The author does not criticize the types of relationships but portrays all the possible situations man can face and tries to deal with them. Despite the schemes repeat in the novels, the relationships and the characters are attractive. They are interesting because the relationships are not transparent at once but dénouement appears when the plot is developed or only when the book ends. To sum up the loves from different points of view it is important to realize that Murdoch does not focus only on expressing love to other humans but also on love to human doings as the result of human production. The explored novels are full of cross grained human relationships where love, beside other human emotions, plays an important role. The people love, hate, respect each other, envy and even are selfish. In some cases the people change, in some cases do not. Different kinds of love are remarkable there and it is clear that all the “loves” can complicate lives of the figures because the relationships are heterogeneous they are scandalous and understandable at the same time, and thereby take realistic effect. The result of analysis point out that in many cases love is one sided or unbalanced.
53
RESUMÉ
Diplomová práce Loves from Different Points of View in Iris Murdoch’s Novels se zabývá různými podobami lásky v románech Iris Murdochové, především v dílech Pod Sítí (Under the Net), Uťatá hlava (A Severed Head) a Černý princ (The Black Prince). Iris Murdochová se mimo jiné zařazuje mezi autory realismu. Ve svých románech prezentuje vztah člověka k umění, k práci, a převážně reflektuje lásku ve vztazích mezi lidmi, u nichž se opírá o nejdůležitější pojetí dobra, jímž je přirozený a hluboký lidský cit, láska. Cílem diplomové práce bylo analyzovat různé podoby lásky, které stojí v četné tvorbě Iris Murdochové za povšimnutí. Umění, pravda, dobro, přátelství a láska se vzájemně prolínají a tyto hodnoty se nekonečně odrážejí v lidských vztazích. Vztahy však často nejsou vzájemné či vyrovnané.
SUMMARY
The diploma thesis Loves from Different Points of View in Iris Murdoch’s Novels deals with various shapes of love in Iris Murdoch’s novels, mainly in the pieces Under the Net, A Severed Head and The Black Prince. Iris Murdoch, among others, is associated with authors of realism. In her novels, she presents human relations to art, work, and primarily reflects love in human relationships, where she props herself upon the highest conception of good, which is a natural and deep emotion, love. The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyse Eros from different points of view that worth noticing in prolific Iris Murdoch’s production. Art, truth, good, friendship and love mutually penetrate and these values are infinitely reflected in human relationships. The relationships are often not mutual or balanced.
54 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books by Iris Murdoch
MURDOCH I., The Sovereignty of Good. London: 1970
MURDOCH I., Under the Net. London: Chatto & Windus, 1954
MURDOCH I., Under the Net . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1960
MURDOCH I., Pod sítí. Praha: Odeon, 1968, překlad Eliška Hornátová, z originálu Under the Net , London: Chatto & Windus, 1963
MURDOCH I., A Severed Head. Penguin Books 1963, in association with Chatto & Windus 1961
MURDOCH I., Uťatá hlava. Praha: Academia 2005, překlad Vladimír Kára, z originálu A Severed Head , Vintage, 2001, ISBN 80 200 1300 8
MURDOCH I., The Black Prince. London: Chatto & Windus, 1973
MURDOCH I., The Black Prince . Harmondsworth: Penguin books, 1975
MURDOCH I., Čierny princ . Bratislava: Smena, 1977, překlad Jarmila Samcová, z originálu The Black Prince . London: Chatto & Windus, 1973
MURDOCH I., The Sublime and the Beautiful Revisited . 1959, pp. 269 70
Conversation with Iris Murdoch
“Iris Murdoch in conversation with Malcolm Bradbury“, recorded 27 February 1976, British Council Tape No RI 2001.
In The Spectator , 7 September 1962, pp. 337 8.
Other authors
SAMCOVÁ J., paper cover of Čierny princ , 1977
HORNÁTOVÁ, E., paper cover of Pod sítí , 1968
BYAT A. S., Degrees of Freedom: The Novels of Iris Murdoch . London: Chatto & Windus, 1965, ISBN 0 099 30224 1
FRANKOVÁ M., Britské spisovatelky na konci tisíciletí. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2004
FRANKOVÁ M., Human Relationships in the Novels of Iris Murdoch . Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 1995.
SPEAR H. D., Iris Murdoch. London: MACMILIAN PRESS LTD, 1995
55 FREUD S., Totem and Tab, 1913
BAYLEY J., Elegy for Iris , 1998
CONRADI P.J., Iris Murdoch: the Saint and the Artist . London: MACMILIAN PRESS LTD, 1986
On line resources:
Allibris. “Sovereignty of Good.”
Petri Liukkonen (author) & Ari Pesonen. “Iris Murdoch.”
D C Wands. “About Iris Murdoch.”
University of Basel, Switzerland .
Murdoch, Iris: “The Yale Review (1959) The Sublime and the Beautiful Revisited.” (5 Apr.2009)
Mabillard, Amanda. "Shakespeare's Gertrude." Shakespeare Online. (18 Apr 2009)
Wikipedia. “A Severed Head.”
Wikipedia. “Jean Paul Sartre”
Answers Corporation. “Black Prince.”
56
APPENDIX 1
PICTURE OF IRIS MURDOCH
Iris Murdoch, the portrait
57 APPENDIX 2
LOVE QUADRANGLE
The full arrows present wanted relationships, while dashed lines mean only friendships.
58 APPENDIX 3
LOVE IN “A SYSTEM OF LINES”
59 APPENDIX 4
LOVE TRIANGLES
ARNOLD RACHEL
CHRISTIANA BRADLEY JULIAN
60 APPENDIX 5
REPRESENTATIVE OF HAMLET
Grigore Manolescu as Hamlet in the 1884 production at the Bucharest National Theater
61