Existential despair in old age: an analysis of Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea

Abstract

This thesis explores the notion of existential crisis represented in the self-told story of the character Charles Arrowby in The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch. It delves into the challenges one faces in changed reality such as the retirement even if the changes were planned beforehand. The paper aims to focus on Arrowby’s situation through existentialism by highlighting how true authenticity can be achieved, how the navigation of human relationships is affected by it and how understanding of the past experiences can change a person. One of the major aspects of the novel is being delusional, therefore, this paper will focus on delusion through existential lenses. The purpose of this paper is to show that the characters are the reflections of modern men who overcome vanity. It aims to show how the dissatisfaction of the twentieth century modern man can be turned into satisfaction with the acceptance of imperfections. One of the many aspects of the research is that the purposeless characters survive through the meaninglessness of life and overcome the delusion, jealousy, arrogance, and vanity after letting themselves be their authentic selves. It will discuss how some people may achieve authenticity earlier than others and how it may take some a long time before being able to attain it. Moreover, it will also express the possibility of attaining authenticity even for the person who lived inauthentically for the most part of life through the protagonist of the novel. This thesis will focus on how through finding the authentic self, a modern man without purpose can annihilate despair. It will show how the author’s view on moral philosophy comes to play in the novel in relation to existentialism.