The Theme Of "Freedom" In Iris Murdoch’s Novels

Iris Murdoch is one of the most outstanding novelists in the second half of the t century in England. Murdoch has experienced the Second World War,the war made her moral philosophy has a unique way of thinking about human society. She reinterpretation of the Sartre in philosophical works about the existence of "freedom" theory, and puts forward the viewpoint that "moral freedom". Murdoch’s thinking and ideas, especially the ideas about "freedom", also has vivid embodiment in her novel creation.Murdoch has always been to focus on "human", arouse human’s moral consciousness as the starting point. Her characters are constantly seeking "freedom", but often be caught in myths of "freedom". Their emotions and the situation, reflects the writer’s unique and profound understanding of "freedom". This paper is analyzed from the following three pairs of relationships to the "freedom" theme of Murdoch’s novel:The "Freedom" and Self-reflection, The "Freedom" and The Other, The "Freedom" and The World. First, Murdoch set the characters in the "silent" mode and "metaphorical death" state to achieve the objective state of "self-thought", which can make the characters achieve ideological "freedom" beyond the limits of the self. Then, because an individual often fall into the myth of "solipsism" in the pursuit of "freedom", Murdoch is proposed-vith the help of the power of "love", that we can break the narrow "solipsism" and make people reach a state of "anatman", so as to realize the real "freedom". Third, Murdoch thought the realization of the "freedom" must be established on the basis of respecting the "reality". The real world is full of all kinds of "random events". Due to the limited cognitive ability, people can never really grasp the world of the "accidental". But on the other hand, the most unbearable thing for people is reduced to a "contingency" plaything. Thus, it is formed a contradiction, which is easy to make people lost in closed fantasy when they pursue "freedom". Thus, if you want to go out of these pitfalls of "freedom", you must respect the reality of "contingency"Murdoch is a novelist but also a philosopher, her novels reflected the complicated exploration of the modern world. The above ideas about "freedom" of Murdoch’s novels, which have given us valuable enlightenment.