| Of Iris Murdoch's twenty-four novels, six are narrated in the first person by male characters who are the center of the events they recount: Jake Donaghue in Under the Net (1954), Martin Lynch-Gibon in A Severed Head (1961), Edmund Narraway in The Italian Girl (1964), Bradley Pearson in The Black Prince (1973), Hilary Burde in The Word Child (1975), and Charles Arrowby in The Sea, the Sea (1978). A seventh novel, The Philosopher's Pupil (1983), is narrated by a man who identifies himself only as N, emerges in the story briefly three times, and does not participate significantly in the plot he unfolds. Of the six principal narrators, all but Edmund Narraway are intense solipsists who struggle to shape the world to their will. Jake Donaghue is a talented but indolent writer who gets along by sponging off his friends. His selfish pursuits culminate in the Tuileries of Paris as he pursues Anna Quentin frantically but hopelessly. His ego bruised and his spirits exhausted, Jake returns to London and heeds a friend's advice by taking a menial hospital job in which he thinks of others for a change. Jake's solipsism leads eventually to a conversion, but martin Lynch-Gibbon's case is less clear-cut. Martin's smug life with a beautiful wife and compliant mistress is shattered by his wife's own adulteries and martin's subsequent romantic obsession with her lover's half sister. When Martin finally "sees" his mistress, Georgie Hands, as a person, he seems to have escaped his solipsistic bonds. Bradley Pearson's desire for his best friend's daughter leads him to forsake his sister and suffer imprisonment. Hilary Burde is so wrapped up in his class resentment and overwhelming guilt that he becomes a monster, redeemed only by a series of tragic events. Charles Arrowby is unrepentant in his solipsism, remaining devoted to the end to the pursuit of self. Edward Narraway's story is the happiest: he needs self-respect, and this comes to him through the love of the Italian girl. The behavior of all of these narrators is everywhere informed by the convictions that inform Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good. |
