Iris Murdoch - an enigma, brilliant writer and existential thinker.

Iris Murdoch - an enigma, brilliant writer and existential thinker.

There are few authors in the twentieth century who could write with the precision of a Trollope, intensity of Dostoevsky, flair and peerless prose of Dickens, eye for detail as Proust, philosophic temper of a Camus and with an authoritative feminine voice of Austen - as Dame Jean Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), the grand lady of Literary fiction. She along with Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood have remained on the top of my list of great female writers. I have read and reread all their books many times over; and like scripture, each time I read they bring forth a fresh interpretation, a delectable new angle to writing and a deep ever renewing undercurrent of social, moral and individual issues that any story about human predicament and its paradoxes should sustain and project. This essay and review is about the Iris Murdoch and her extraordinary literary and personal life.

Iris, an Irish by birth, grew up during a time of tremendous change. As a young girl the after effects of First World War were reshaping political and moral landscapes, and during her youth, the shadows of even more terrible moral catastrophe cast its darkness over civilized society. She was the only child of her parents, and the resulting loneliness and solitude gave her necessary space to develop that acute sense of introspection that was to become so typical in her work. Her education in Philosophy and literature, apart from preparing her to become a stylist and thinker, helped raise important questions as well. Themes such as the inner life of an individual versus the collective conscience of humanity; the irony of deception, falsehood and pretensions; the authority of the individual as exemplified in the writings of Satre, Camus, Simone veil and Kierkegaard – who insisted on integrity of “being” against becoming - affected Iris rather deeply. She also developed into a libertine in the true sense of the word. Her free life style, unabashed promiscuity and unrelenting frankness marked her as a woman who had broken away from traditional archetypes of Womanhood, and to stride boldly into areas of thinking and action that was predominantly a Men’s prerogative till then. She was a naturally gifted writer, and from 1954, when her first novel “under the net” was published to “Jacksons Dilemma” which was written under the debilitating grip of Alzheimer’s in 1996 – her works presents a persistent thread of inquiry into human condition and idiosyncrasies. Her exploration into free love, unconventional relationships and forbidden intimacies and social awkwardness opened up vistas of nuanced writing that only few writers like Flaubert, Nabokov or Lawrence were able to achieve.

It was in 1954, during her time in Oxford that she met the humble, stuttering and self-effacing literary critic named John Bayley. They made strange couple. While Iris was outspoken, diffident and fiercely candid about her freedom; Bailey was her antithesis – He believed in the sanctity of marriage, the inviolable privacy and commitment of sexual relationships and a more sober approach to life. He was however enamored by her wildness, and she tolerated him for his docility and accommodation. Oddly enough, they fell in love. Iris depended on Bayley for his unconditional acceptance of her, protecting and him against her more belligerent intellectual circle; but she continued her illicit relationships and sexual adventures right under his very nose; and all the Bailey could do was to cringe, hide and acknowledge the wild life style of his mercurial and gifted fiancée. There were no pretenses between them. Iris was open about her life style, and John was equally candid in letting it pass. He was the harbor that Iris could sail into, when she needed the emotional and intellectual freedom of not being judged or used. He was the steadying influence in a life style that drew her into wild directions. And in that atmosphere of trust and faith, the genius of Iris blossomed forth into rich prose and vivid exploration into human mind. We, as readers, are indebted to this relationship.

In all Iris wrote twenty six works of fiction, five plays, two collections of Poems and five full length books on Philosophy. Quite a prodigious output by any standards. Each one of them remains a study in literary art. Critics (Mainly Men) have been ambivalent about her work and thought, but that is understandable given the fact the many of them tend to mix her personal life style with her books. And that’s not always a right measure of literary criticism.

John Bayley and Iris Murdoch lived together as Husband and wife for over forty years, until she died of Alzheimer’s in 1999. In the late eighties, when Iris was visibly losing her mental edge and physical control, Bayley stood by her through all difficult times. For a relationship that never had a chance of blossoming in first place, this was indeed a testimony to what love can mean and endure. In 1999, shortly after Iris’s death, Bayley published two short memoirs titled “Elegy for Iris” and “Iris and friends”. Beautiful books! They were personal stories of Iris and her varied relationships, and not once can one spot an accusing, condescending or deriding note in Bayley’s voice. Such is the power of love, marriage and sanctity. Both these books became the subject of 2001 film featuring Kate winslet as young Iris and Judy Dench as the elder version suffering from Alzheimer’s. No two better actors could have been found to play Iris’s role. They bought to life the vivacity and joy followed by terrible pain and anguish of a writer losing her grip on her trade, and the silent, intense tears of a Man (played wonderfully by Jim Broadbent) who is unwilling to lose his faith in his gifted wife and watch her disintegrate psychologically in front of his eyes. It won Broadbent an academy award.

I was watching this movie on Netflix over last weekend, and that is when I decided to pen this short essay. I read “under the net”, about fifteen years ago, and ever since Iris’s books have been my constant companion when it comes to style, ease of narration and innovative use of language. Her strength (like Margaret Atwood) lies in her ability to write with startling clarity without laboring too much. For those of us, who wish to taste the sweetness, depth and richness of her prose, the beautiful confluence of style and matter - I would suggest “The Sea, The Sea”, 1978 book that got her a Booker prize, or the “Black Prince”. Both of them are masterpieces of her artistry.

God bless…

Yours in mortality,

Bala