University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 1-1-1964 The satiric element in the novels of Muriel Spark. Myrcyl G. Pullen University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Pullen, Myrcyl G., "The satiric element in the novels of Muriel Spark." (1964). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 6364. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/6364 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. THE SATIRIC ELEMENT IN THE NOVELS OF MURIEL SPARK BY MYRCYL G. PULLEN A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of English in p artial fulfilm ent of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario 1964 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EC52545 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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ABSTRACT Muriel Spark has received great acclaim from both American and British critics for her wit, humour and use of the macabre. To my knowledge, no c r itic has examined her work wholly for the element of satire found in it. Analysis of her novels shows that she has satir­ ized many segments of society from the young who are s t i l l at school to the near-centenarians. Setting her novels in the period between the wars and Just after the second world war, she has stressed the loss of moral values and has portrayed both the lost young generation who seek substitutes for faith, and the aged who refuse to face the idea of death. Although she treats her subjects in a comic vein her themes are fundamentally serious. Much of her success lie s in the Juxtaposition of the absurd and the fantastic with a realistic view of life. In all her novels she shows her skill as a craftsman, for with crisp dialogue and an economy of words she moves backwards and forwards in time with perfect ease, and her characters are quickly portrayed with deft descriptive phrases. She balances wit with wisdom, and after enjoying the comedy, the reader is left with the feeling that all is not well with the world. i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Reverend C. P. Crowley, C .S.B., Ph.D., and the members of the English Department for their help and encouragement during my graduate studies at the University of Windsor, and Mrs. Elizabeth McGaffey of the U niversity Library. I am especially indebted to Doctor Mary Manley, the director of this study, for her constant inspiration and generous assistance. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT. ..... .......................................................................................................... i i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. .............. ......................................... i i i INTRODUCTION. ......... ..... v CHAPTER I The Comforters . .................................. 1 II Memento Mori The Ballad of Peckham Rye . ........................................................ 18 III The Bachelors. .............. ......................... 41 IV The Girls of Slender Means....... .......................... 54 V Robinson The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. ........................... 68 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................ 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY. .................................................................... 91 VITA AUCTORIS ...... ................................................... ....... 95 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Between 1957 and 1963 Muriel Spark published seven novels, two books of short stories, and one play; she also collaborated with Derek Stanford in a critical study of the life work of Emily Bronte. As poet, critic, and novelist she has won acclaim in Britain and the United States. In view of the widespread interest in her achievement there seems to be good reason to examine certain aspects of her work in order to ascertain the cause for the rapid and favourable recognition of her fic tio n . Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918 of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother.*- She spent several years in A frica, returning to England in 1944 to work in the In telligen ce M inistry. With the coming of peace she became a journalist on the staff of the trade magazine Argentor. In 1947 as General-Secretary of the Poetry Society, she interviewed and corresponded with many writers and from close study of their writings she became familiar with contemporary literary trends. Opportunity for a wider sphere of activity induced her to work with a publisher's publicity agent until she became associated with Derek Stanford as editor and publisher of the Forum. They collaborated also in a number of biographical and critical studies until 1956. When Mrs. Spark entered the Catholic Church in 1954 she retired to the country to write her first novel, The Comforters (1957). Perhaps its success 1 These details of the life and career of the author are taken from Derek Stanford, Muriel Spark (Fontwell, Sussex, 1963). v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vi prompted her to substitu te fic tio n for her primary in terest in poetry. Each novel has had immediate success and she won first prize in The Observer short story competition. One of her stories, "The Black Madonna" appeared in 1963 on the B.B.C. tele v isio n programme. A film 3 version of Memento Mori w ill soon appear in England ; and Doctors of Philosophy was staged in London in the summer of 1963. Mrs. Spark, at present in New York, has two novels ready for the press, The Mandelbaum Gate and The Hot House on the East R iver. In reviewing Mrs. Spark's fictional output the critical consensus notes in particular her unique g ift of comic invention. She is "one of our most entertaining comic n ovelists" ,^ "one of the very best comic writers",'* and "our most ch illin g comic writer since Evelyn Waugh".^ Some critics have referred to her style and subject matter: Always unpredictable in her subject matter, she is , for the most part, altogether predictable in her ability to captivate, to entertain and to impart that additional quality which -j raises her at least a Btep above so many of her contemporaries. 2 In Voices at Play (London, 1961). 3 See The Sunday Herald Tribune. "Book Week" (March 22, 1964), p. 2. 4 Granville Hicks, "Life Began in the Forties", Saturday Review (September 14, 1963), p. 34. 5 Brian W ilkie, "From Comedy to Disaster and Grace", The Common­ weal (October 11, 1963), p. 80. 6 Ronald Bryden, "Chtlde Colin", The Spectator (March 4, 1960), p. 329. 7 Catherine Hughes, in a review of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Catholic World (March, 1962), p. 374 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. v ii The critics alert us also to her "creative power, dialogue, tart humour, and an odd conglomeration of characters,"® and to her "deadly ear for the banalities of daily chatter and a tender sense of human hesi- 9 tancy". One of Mrs. Spark's compatriots notes that she enjoys evident advantages: "wit, a capacity to communicate human oddity and so litu d e ."10 An American c r it ic , alluding to her powers of construction, and imaginative insight remarks: Her work is distinguished by wit and pungency and alarming sharpness of observation, all controlled by instinct, with a religious (in fact, a Catholic) sensibility. Working with the oddest m aterials, she manages a kind of g risly comedy of doom; with exquisite tact and deftness she d elivers a terrib le judgment upon her emblematic London, her blighted contemporary city. The enabling emotion is loathing, and the atmosphere evoked is close, oppressive, suffocating. 11- In this chorus of acclaim, a dissonant voice is occasionally heard. In assessing her work Frederick R. Karl says, Miss Spark's novels are a sport, light to the point of froth. She can w rite about murder, betrayal, deception, and adultery as thought these were the norms of a crazy- quilt society.12 In a review of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie a writer states that: 8 Anon., in a review of The Comforters. The Booklist (October 1, 1957), p.