머독의 『종』: 경견한 신앙인의 환상

Abstract

In the essays on novel, Iris Murdoch puts emphasis on the importance of shaking ourselves free from selfish fantasy to have a renewed sense of the complexity of the moral life and the opacity of persons. In her novels, she lays open a figment of our self-centered fantasy. She shows that only when we dismiss subjective fantasy, we can understand the reality of others and love them.In The Bell Murdoch presents a group of pious Christians who adhere to the Church's teachings. The lay Catholics who live together at Imber Court unify human beings according to the rules of the community taking no notice of diversity and complexity of others. Their lack of human understanding and love is observed by an outsider, Dora and exposed by the symbolic meaning of the legendary bell and in the course of the breakup of the Imber community. When he rids himself of orthodox way of thinking, Michael Mead comes to understand the reality of others. Furthermore, he recognizes that he confined the indefinite God to a pattern in his own romantic imagination. What Murdoch tries to bring to light in The Bell is a figment of fantasy of the pious believers who stick to the literal meaning of the Church's orthodox teachings.