Murdoch’s Concern About Freedom Of Human Beings

Under the Net, the first published novel of the famous British writer IrisMurdoch, is generally admired for its concept of existentialism, the philosophicaltheme of pursuing freedom and love, narrative techniques, symbolic meaning of thenet, as well as characterization. However, in the light of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory ofthe polyphonic novel, Under the Net written by Iris Murdoch can be seen as one thatunfolds its polyphonic features in terms of characters’ independent consciousness offreedom, pursuit of freedom in unfinalizabilities, and freedom realization throughfree dialogic relations, which shows Murdoch’s concern about freedom of humanbeings.With recourse to Bakhtin’s theory of the polyphonic novel, this thesis willstudy four major characters in the novel, that is, Jake, Hugo, Anna and Sadie. Thisthesis consists of three parts.The first part is a brief introduction to studies of Under the Net, the problem tobe studied, the theory to be adopted, and the structure layout of this thesis.The second part is the body part, consisting of three chapters. Chapter oneinterprets characters’ independent consciousnesses of freedom in Under the Net. Inthe light of Bakhtin’s polyphonic theory, although characters including Jake, Hugo,Anna and Sadie in this novel are trapped by nets woven by themselves, all of themhave independent consciousness to freedom. Chapter two analyzes the characters’pursuit of freedom in unfinalizabilities. By studying the novel polyphonically, it canbe seen that Jake, Hugo, Anna and Sadie are all pursuing freedom inunfinalizabilities. Chapter three explores the characters’ freedom realization throughfree dialogic relations in the novel. Through exploring the novel in a polyphonic way,pursuit of freedom of Jake, Hugo, Anna and Sadie is unfinalizable; thus, onlythrough free dialogic relations can they realize freedom. The third part is the conclusion, which summarizes the main idea of this thesisand presents polyphonic features of Under the Net, showing Murdoch’s concernabout freedom of human beings.The polyphonic study of Under the Net can show profound social significancesfor human beings who are in pursuit of freedom and happiness in modern society,which is full of pressure, illusions, and contingency.