"Contingency" In Alice Murdoch's Novels

Iris Murdoch is one of the most famous writers of English in 20 century.She writes a lot of works the whole life,and she has made great contributions to the novels,philosophy,literary criticism,drama and poetry.As a writer and philosophical researcher,Murdoch has integrated her philosophical thinking into her novels,forming a unique literary style with both speculative and aesthetic characteristics.In Murdoch's moral philosophy,the “contingency” is a precondition for seeking for the “Good”.Through the study of the generation of Murdoch's idea of “contingency”,the application of moral exploration and artistic skills in novels,we can have a deeper understanding of her works' humanistic care and moral thinking.Murdoch's interest in “contingency” has deep social and literary roots.In terms of social factors,in the 1950 s,after witnessing the devastation of the western world after world war ? and the hard life in refugee camps,Murdoch began to criticize and reflect on existentialism.She did not agree with the excessive expression of self-will of existentialism,and believed that freedom should be based on respect for others.Therefore,based on Kant's sublime theory and Simone Weil's concept of “attention”,she proposed that contingency is the essence of man and the world,and that respect for the uniqueness and existence of others is the same attitude as respect for the uncertainty of the world.Only under the guidance of this moral concept can people continuously pursue goodness.Moreover,in the realm of literature,Murdoch argues that the neglect of “contingency” is still present in the contemporary literature.By tracing the philosophical thoughts of Kant and Hegel,Murdoch discusses the origin of the neglect of “contingency” between romanticism and symbolism,points out the problems facing literature in the current era,and calls on writers to pay attention to “contingency”,so as to guide people to seek the road to goodness.Murdoch shows her thinking on “contingency” through two aspects in her novels.On the one hand,through moral probing in the world,Murdoch aims to guide people to focus on contingency and others.According to different attitudes towards contingency,the characters in Murdoch's novels can be divided into two categories: accidental evaders and accidental masters.The former abhors the happenstance of life and is self-centered,unable to see the difference between self and others,while the latter tries to control contingency,trying to summarize the whole world in a unified concept.Through the description of these characters' struggles and the discussion of the relationship between self and others,language and morality,love and kindness,Murdoch warns people that the existence of both individuals and the world is opaque and diverse,and only by respecting this difference can people keep doing good in the complex world.On the other hand,Murdoch try to restore a real world full of contingency for readers by using artistic skills in novels.Through characterization,unreliable narration and mysterious writing,Murdoch depicts a mysterious novel world full of uncertainty.This world is full of the struggle and exploration of desire,only to face up to its contingency,people can continue to pursue the perfection of morality.As a way for Murdoch to observe others and the world,“contingency” is an important theme in her works.Her in-depth exploration of this issue reflects her reflection on the moral dilemma of human beings in the post-god era.