On The Theme Of Existentialist Freedom And Narrative Strategies In The Collector

John Fowles is an award-winning post-World War II novelist of major importance. His writings have received both popular and critical acclaim. His first novel The Collector is seen by most critics as a schematic statement of some of Fowles's major existentialist concerns.Fowles is labeled a contemporary existentialist He explores the place of modern men in contemporary society and concerns himself with the personal isolation and exile that he feels essential to such an exploration. He acts as a spokesman for modern men, who are in an isolated world and whose deeper need is to exist. He would rather be a sound philosopher than a good novelist. There is a limited number of themes recurring in his novels among which freedom is the most prominent one. He emphasizes that all his books are about freedom and they basically all ask the following questions: Is there really free-will? Can we choose freely? Can we act freely? Can we choose? How do we do it?The theme of existentialist freedom is embodied in the working of The Collector. This thesis sets out to examine ideas of existentialism and their expressions in the novel. Chapter One provides a brief introduction to John Fowles's achievement and critics' interpretations of The Collector. Chapter Two starts by making a general introduction to existentialism by focusing on Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, the two existentialist philosophers who have influenced Fowles greatly, before it presents Fowles's distinctive philosophical thoughts. Chapter Three then focuses on a discussion of existentialist freedom reflected in the novel. This part explores carefully the anxiety of the two characters in an alienated situation. The anxiety serves as a kind of energy to choose and to decide one's individual existence. It also makes an analysis of how they choose freely with or without sense of responsibility. Chapter Four attempts to study the narrative strategies such as two first-person narrators and parody of Shakespeare's The Tempest as well as the narrative structure employed by Fowles, which elucidate the theme. This thesis as such is then fully devoted to an existentialist approach to The Collector for the purpose of exploring how existentialist freedom brings light to the novel.