Religious Elements in Iris Murdoch’s 'The Sea, the Sea'

Abstract

One of the major themes in Iris Murdoch’s writings is the relation between art, morals and religion. Murdoch believes that the purification or transformation of consciousness requires finding an object of attention which lies outside us and which is capable of creating new source of energy. The religious element to this novel is very important and it emphasizes on Buddhism as a source of behavioral attitudes, spiritual enlightenment, and ultimate liberation in a world that has lost its religious consciousness. The Sea, the Sea is about a man obsessed with an adolescent romance. It is the self-told story of Charles Arrowby, a prominent London theatre director who retires from the limelight and decides, one day, to withdraw from the world and dwell in seclusion in a house by the sea. He has come to abjure magic both the magic of the theatre and personal power. That it is hard to give up power or significantly change is one of the book’s messages. The Tempest is about the nature of dreams and reality, but it is also about the surrendering of magic. Through the prism of Buddhist teachings and Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, Murdoch makes a powerful statement about the surrender of magic, the practice of dying, and the making of art. At the end of the novel Charles learns to begin to embrace a healing surrender to the particulars of the world he inhabits and realizes that he was a dreamer who was reading his own dream text and not looking at the reality.