Monday, January 20, 2014
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
The narrative shape of the novel takes from naturalism -- all fortunes tend downward.
Various symbols -- water (river, rain), the sky (the sun, the moon), tall things (the school tower) -- are introduced, but their symbolic meaning is traduced by the great detail and attention Murdoch pays them: they can no longer be simply translated, e.g., river=sex, river=life, river=adventure, river=freedom, because all of the meanings seem true.
Murdoch's great trope -- the "muddle" -- is used here in her third novel. It's a stand-in for the human mental and emotional condition.