The Search For Human Goodness: Iris Murdoch's Moral Thoughts In The Sea, The Sea

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) is considered as one of the most influential among post-war British novelists. And at the same time she is both a world-famous philosopher and an original literary theorist. Due to her philosophical background, most of Iris Murdoch's works are usually rather profound and difficult to understand. Her novels are mainly about human ethics, exploring what goodness is and how to achieve human goodness and therefore become a morally mature person. It can be said that the idea of goodness is central both to her philosophy and her fiction as well. As a novelist, she is thought to be expert at depicting the images of male intellectual characters who, at their fifties or even sixties, are still obsessed with selfish desires, self-delusion or fantasy and therefore have much difficulty in understanding others and seeing the truth of the world.The sea, the Sea is her only novel to win the Booker Prize. This novel is one of Murdoch's most successful attempts at marrying philosophy and story. As a philosopher, she once said: "The novel itself, of course, the whole world of the novel, is the expression of a world outlook." This novel clearly shows us Iris Murdoch's philosophical ideas of goodness. The search for human goodness is the central preoccupation of the novel The Sea, the Sea. And the novel is narrated in the first person. Charles Arrowby, a successful leading director and playwright, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea to have a contemplation on his past.As far as the novel is concerned, varieties of studies have been made on the novel and the two main characters—Charles and James, including an exploration of the degree of freedom achieved by them respectively, a comparison and contrast between them as artist and saint, their interpretation of Buddhism and western religion, and the employment of symbolism in the novel.This thesis aims to probe into the obstacles and ways to goodness in the process of one's search for human goodness, which are distinct illustrations of Iris Murdoch's...