The Sea as a Metaphor for the Past: Charles Arrowby’s Moral and Emotional Confrontation in Iris Murdoch’s Retrospective Novel

The Sea The Sea is a novel published by Irish-British author Iris Murdoch in 1978. As an example of retrospective fiction, which is a narrative method with which the story is narrated from the point view of a character reflecting on past events, Charles Arrowby looks back on the events of his life with the senses of introspection, memory and regret. After his retirement, Charles retreats back a joyless and isolated dwelling he has purchased in a rural setting so that he can get rid of the adverse effects of his former relationships many of which are with his colleagues during his professional life. Charles’ attempt to exorcise the burden of a life spent without the slightest regard for the ethics/morality of interpersonal relationships —particularly in the cases of women— is disrupted not only by his former lovers but also by the re-discovery of Hartley whom Charles convinces himself into fantasy sense that she is the embodiment of everything he has not been able to realize and he has lost long ago. In his idyllic and at the same time ironically hostile environment, Charles sets out a quest to revive a lost and unrequited love through his retrospective fiction only to confront and acknowledge his belated enlightenment that the fiction is elusive and it falls short to reconstruct what has already been experienced and reconnect with the present. Murdoch, who is distinctly preoccupied with morality and the idea of goodness both through her fiction and her philosophical writings, adds depth to her novel by the narrative distance that invites reflection and interpretation. This study aims to discuss and illustrate the dimensions of retrospective and moral aspects of The Sea The Sea by means of his protagonist who is laden with insights and hindsight in line with retrospective narrative.