Narrative Labyrinths: A Study Of Temporal And Spatial Structures In Iris Murdoch's Novels

Iris Murdoch argues that "a novel must be a house fit for free characters to live in;and to combine form with a respect for reality with all its odd contingent ways is the highest art of prose." Thus "a great novelist is essentially tolerant,that is,displays a real apprehension of persons other than the author as having a right to exist and to have a separate mode of being." The thesis aims to study temporal and spatial structures of such houses for free characters to live in by analyzing Iris Murdoch's three representative novels,namely Under the Net.The Black Prince and The Book and the Brotherhood and concludes that Iris Murdoch constructs her houses by interweaving labyrinthine relationships and creating labyrinthine spaces.Under the Net is Iris Murdoch's first attempt in creating a house for free characters to live in.The protagonist Jake's trying-failure-trying pattern of relationships forms the temporal structure of Under the Net and his wandering London and Paris are the spatial structure of the novel.The Black Prince is a special narrative structure which consists of the embedded narrative and the framing narrative.Labyrinthine relationships are interwoven in the process of Bradley's discovering of his love for Julian in the embedded narrative.As compared with Under the Net,the embedded narrative only differs in its more complex relationships.However,Iris Murdoch's use of framing narrative takes a further step in terms of providing more freedom for free characters.The Book and the Brotherhood is a fairly complex narrative design and a perfect house for free characters to live in.Free characters are free to establish universally-related relationships with any fellow characters.However. universally-relatedness does not mean that all relationships are the same.They differ in degrees of freedom,namely degrees of complexities,dynamics and contingencies.So Iris Murdoch's free characters are never absolutely free and she has only succeeded in creating houses for free characters with different degrees of freedom.