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Whole Bernardruth1966 Thesis.Pdf THE DbvELOPMENT OF THE THEME OF SUFFERING AND REDEMPTION IN THE NOVELS OF PATRICK WHITE by Ruth Bernard, B.A.(Tas.), Dip.Ed.(Syd.), Dip.Ed. Admin. (New Eng.) submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts THE UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA HOBART November, 1965 STATEMENT This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university.. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no copy or paraphrase of material previously published or written by another person, except when due reference is made in the text of the thesis. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I gratefully acknowledge the help given to me by my supervisor, Dr. L.T. Hergenhan, whose criticism of my work, suggestions and guidance were invaluable. /CR iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Statement Acknowledgment ii Table of Contents Summary iv Chapter I Baggy_112/12y: a Study in Futility 1 Chapter II The "Expressionless Malaise" of The Liylnz and he Dead 34 Chapter III The Agntos Story 66 Chapter IV 212.12.22_91A211: Growth and Continuity 97 Chapter V Voss and Humility 123 Chapter VI Revelation and Redemption in AllIEJLARAMISMILLIt 177 Chapter VII Conclusion 215 Bibliography 221 iv SUMMARY There is a remarkable continuity and coherence of thought in the work of Patrick White. In this thesis, an attempt has been made to show the development of the underlying and recurring theme of suffering leading, ultimately, to redemption. It has been possible to trace a clear progression from the nihilism expressed in the first two books to a positive avowal of faith in the later and more mature novels. This seems to reflect a personal development in the author during the years 1939 to 1961, and, for this reason, his work has been treated chronologically. In chapters I and II, dealing with appv Valley and ng_Living and the Deal, the suffering of the main characters is shown to reflect a sense of hopelessness and despair at the inevitable loneliness of man and at the futility of life itself. n.t.ARTALL11.92.,,1 discussed in chapter III, contains a more positive statement that truth is revealed to those who suffer; however, as revelation and peace seem attainable only in madness, the implicit hopefulness of 11.41.1mLULAtari remains questionable. There is a decisive change in the next • book and this has been noted in chapter IV. In The Tree of Man, there is a very real attempt to see life in broader terms and to transform suffering into a beneficent experience, leading to humility and serenity. Humility is the key-word to Las. and the redemptive theme culminates in Bidgm_lpt_Itt_ghgrlat. The author's concepts of humility, of good and evil, of revelation and redemption, are examined in chapters V and VI. Throughout, the imagery used by Patrick White, his symbolism, his mysticism, his predilection for the simple and simple-minded, even the mad, his violent reaction against the ugly manifestations of this "plastic" age and its dehumanising effect on people, his use of irony and social satire, are related to ,his central theme. The theme itself is, fundamentally, religious: Patrick White proclaims his belief that, by striving and suffering, man is redeemable. 1 CHAPTER I HAPPY VALLEY: A STUDY IN FUTILITY Existentialism, in helping to form and in expressing the intellectual climate of our time, has had a marked influence on serious writers of the mid-twentieth century. In its reaction both against the complacent "bourgeois" world and mentality and against the mechanisation of life with its reduction of the individual to a cog in a social and technological machine ) in its insistence on personal liberty and responsibility and in its concentration on man as a free and rational, an ex-sistent, being, existentialism has attempted to analyse and rationalise some of the crises facing modern man. It has expressed the utter loneliness of man and the futility and frustration of his deepest aspirations. He stands bereft of God and rootless in a complex and sophisticated culture, deprived of the traditional means of self-identification. In the oft-quoted words of Sartre, he is seen to be "une passion inutile". From his confrontation with a world which seems meaningless, he experiences the feeling of nausea, described by the existentialists. He finds himself divorced from his fellow-men and from life itself and, in this detachment, he observes and accepts - to use 2 the terminology of Camus - the "absurdity" of the human situation. InIblia_p_malsit_&matuEt_tza l Nietzsche, who is now regarded essentially existentialist in his philosophy, describes how Zarathustra meets the Saint, who praises God; Zarathustra, when alone, cries: "Can it indeed be possible: This old Saint in his forest hath not yet heard that aga_ls 4e#4:"1 F.C. Copleston, in his paper on existentialism, writes: The philosophy of Camus, so far as I know It, seems to me to be simply a very clear perception of the situation attendant on the 'death of Gods., It is, if you like, unblinkered atheism. 4 The bleakness of a philosophy of "unblinkered atheism" with its concomitant acknowledgment of cosmic chaos and Individual loneliness does not help modern man meet the problems he has to face. It offers little hope or comfort. There is no message of salvation in either Sartre's or Camus's philosophy. In some of the other existentialist thinkers, notably kierkegaard, Heidegger and Jaspers, grouped loosely as existentialists in their 1 Friedrich W. Nietzsche, Ibm_aole_Zgallaglea, ed. Ernest Rhys, trans. A. Tille, London, 1946, p.5 2 F.C. Copleston, gzatejltauszjimusszlejauzz, Paper read to the Aquinas Society of London, 14 April, 1948, Aquinas Paper No.9 $ London 1951, p.16 3 common concern with the problems of existence and individual responsibility, there is an orientation toward the transcendental and a seeking of God. It is, however, the pessimism, propounded by Sartre and Camus l 'which reflects the mental climate of the time. This pessimism is the legacy of the writers of the past two generations and our mid-century literature emerges from the shadows of gloom and despair cast by Strindberg, O'Neill, Kafka and the early Eliot. In the between world wars period and its aftermath, the doctrines of communism and of the church offered to certain writers a promise of order and meaningfulness, but for most they failed to sustain positive belief. In our more recent post-war era, pessimism has become endemic and has found new and sardonic expression in what has been described as the "theatre of the absurd", in plays by Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, Albee. The symbolism, the ludicrous situations, the bitter irony of their tragi-comedies . portray the anguish of modern man, his loneliness, perplexity and sense of loss. By inference, they seem to express a frustrated longing for acceptance, hope and salvation. This same basic theme is developed in the writings of Patrick White. The evolution of Patrick White's thought and belief can be traced clearly in his novels. There is a definite progression from the barren nihilism of the first two novels toward a transcendentalism, containing a message of salvation ) in his later work. Throughout, the concept of suffering is his premise: in the beginning, suffering is seen as futile, arousing, at best, a stoic acceptance of fate, but later, the suffering of man is conceived as teaching him humility and leading him, ultimately, to redemption. Suffering is given a mystical connotation in a largely Christian context and Patrick White emerges as a profoundly religious writer, not in terms of orthodox faith but in the seeking of an essentially religious truth. In his later work, he supports a doctrine of hope and a belief that man is redeemable. This belief is expressed more and more unequivocally in his novels. So strong is his apparent desire for a cosmic order and meaningfulness, that he will, at times, sacrifice the artistic unity and balance of his work for an assertion of a positive faith. In certain areas, to be discussed in the chapters dealing with his laternovels, particularly Buters_1111hg_gbaugt, the expression of his faith is in conflict with plausible characterisation and plot and he subjugates the latter to his beliefs. 5 In his first novel, gamialllx, as in all his subsequent books, Patrick White is preoccupied with the concept of suffering. We are introduced to the theme of the novel by an epigraph, quoting the Mahatma Ghandi: It is impossible to do away with the law of suffering, which is the one indispensable condition of our being. Progress is measured by the amount of suffering undergone the purer the suffering, the greater is the progress. and each of the main characters, as well as most of the minor ones, suffers, partly from deliberate or unconscious acts of cruelty by others and partly because of the private torment which exists in his own mind. Mostly the characters in Baspx_y_ajjaly accept their suffering dumbly and submissively; where, in rare flashes of rebellion, they try to control their own destiny, they are thwarted and struck down again by circumstance or fate. Their suffering is ordained; it is an immutable part of their lives. In the light of Patrick White's later development, it is Interesting tonote that the characters in Eappv Vail are not purified by their suffering, despite the author's choice of an epigraph which attaches virtue to suffering. This is perhaps significant in that it indicates an early manifestation of Patrick White's desire to look for a 6 meaning and justification in suffering, yet his inability at that stage to fuse his intellectual apperception and his portrayal of character and action into one artistic whole.
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