CRIME AND SELF-PUNISHMENT: TO THE AUTHOR’S CONCEPT OF I. MURDOCH’S NOVEL “A WORD CHILD”

Abstract

The article studies the 17th novel of the Anglo-Irish writer Iris Murdoch “A Word Child.” The researcher defines the basic features of the form of the narration and conducts an analysis of the plot. The work reveals life attitudes of the main character from the standpoint of the theory of existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre, according to which existence precedes essence. Accepting Sartrean views on life and causalities causes the existential crisis in the hero. The conflict of the meaninglessness and life is solved by the author with the help of a literary trick, i.e. the use of a motif of magic (washing off the sin and the blame in the waters of the Thames). This helps the protagonist to believe in the possibility of making meaningful life choices and erases his ideas of fatality. The novelty and the practical significance of the research lies in revealing the pathos of the novel and defining it through notions of understanding one’s blame, suffering and self-punishment. The researcher singles out the features of the gothic prose in Murdoch’s novel (depiction of subjective reality, supernatural images, gloomy atmosphere of suffering, running away from the ghost of a dead person) and this contributes to the general study of the “black” novel in the English literature of the 20th century. It is shown that the concept of the novel is realised through the Biblical notions and characters.