The Sea, The Sea & Buddhism

Give an account of Arrowby’s Buddhist mysticism in The Sea, The Sea

Why does Murdoch so often leave her characters’ philosophical problems unresolved at the close of her fiction?

Discuss Murdoch’s handling of setting in relation to the development of her characters

Discussion

Charles Arrowby is the novel narrator, he is 60 years old now retired.

He spent his entire life in a theatre in London obtaining fame and wealth as actor and then director.

For his retirement he has decided to retire in a remote village, called Shruff End which is bathed by the North Sea a perfect place where to write his memoires with a precise intention to become good.

Being rich and famous Charles wrote that the theatre is 

“an attack on mankind carried on by magic” 

(The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch)

In my opinion Charles, being relatively close to his last day,  has decided to put down his mask for a sincere and profound reasoning of his soul, considering the cons and pro.

Charles believed of being a god, a fundamental ingredient for his egoism treating “his” women as a tool for satisfying his ego and sexual appetites.

According to his writing he will become conscious that he will fail his resolutions demonstrating the right opposite due to a series of events, meetings and letters.

One day Charles met his loved one Hartley

“Hartley made a permanent metaphysical crisis of my life by refusing me for moral reasons”. Did this lead me to make Immorality my mask?” (The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch p. 82)

Yes it did, and also: 

“Every persisting marriage is based on fear” (The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch p.151)

This two phrases are the essence of the marriage, a cauldron of jealously, hate, possession, injustices where the male is immune and dominant. 

For this reason Charles does not know what is love, he think that love and possession is the same thing this happened for Lizzie and Hartley, in fact Charles is a perfect egotist, he does not accept the idea that his loved one is married to another man called Ben.

The culmination of his egotism occurs when he decided to kidnap Hartley in order to preserve her from violence and harassment, without considering her point of view she would be left alone.

In my opinion Charles believe of being a god only him has the faculty to determine what the other should do or thing.

The basic truth is that Charles does not accept that he his aging he wants to be like highlander, he wants to be likeable, intelligent and funny, but unfortunately to him the reality is completely different, this is the proof of his innate egoism and individuality.

“I had never put it to myself that Hartley too was growing old” (The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch p.109)

Charles is conscious of being a womanizer, but now he wants to think about the reasons of his deprecable behavior

  

He wants to understand if he is able to love Hartley without being possessive, his philosophical dilemma is try to understand the difference between love and infatuation, is there a substantial difference or these concept are mixed?

James Arrowby is the elderly cousin of Charles converted to Buddhism, he is the most important and mysterious character of The Sea, The Sea.

During a colloquium came to light that James was able to harness the power of his mind to achieve many things, James told to Charles that he used his tricks to save his life and those of Milarepa (a famous poet who dedicated his poems to the realization of the dharma i.e. the purification and moral transformation of human beings which is not a religion.)

One day they passed an entire night in the snow but when they were on the top of  the pass, Milarepa got caught due to an insufficient source of heat, suddenly the poet died on the arms of James.

In my opinion the death of the poet has led James to a Buddhist mysticism, or better there has been a Bardo between Milarepa and James.

 One day James was drunken and pronounced the following soliloquy:

 

"Religion is power, it has to be, the power for instance to change oneself, even to destroy oneself. But that is also its bane. The exercise of power is a dangerous delight. . . . The worshipper endows the worshipped object with power, real power not imaginary power. . . . But this power is dreadful stuff. 

Our lusts and attachments compose our god. And when one attachment is cast off another arises by way of consolation. We never give up a pleasure absolutely, we only barter it for another. 

All spirituality tends to degenerate into magic, and the use of magic has an automatic nemesis even when the mind has been purified of grosser habits. White magic is black magic. 

And a less than perfect meddling in the spiritual world can breed monsters for other people. Demons used for good can hang around and make mischief afterwards.  

The last achievement is the absolute surrender of magic itself, the end of what you call superstition. 

Yet how does it happen? Goodness is giving up power and acting upon the world negatively. The good are unimaginable." (The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch)

In my opinion the philosophical message of this soliloquy is the conception that we do not need more of a personal God, we must implement a direct channel to God and a tool is the Dharma which is not a religion. 

The humanity is corrupted by the power, the humanity is not able to define a clear border between the white (good) and Black (evil) magic. In brief if we want to be purified we must avoid the religions i.e. a synonymous of white and black magic.

 

In my opinion this phrase is a step toward the conversion to Buddhism of Charles for the following reason: at the begin of this novel, he stated that: "abjure magic and . . . learn to be good." In principle he thought that the magic was positive or better it was a tool towards an altruistic life style, but he failed.

A highlight of this novel is when James saved the life of Charles, when he fells into the sea and unable to swim.

This experience was useful for a deep meditation in order to atone for his sins to have indirectly caused the death of his son Titus.

“All magic spirituality tends to degenerate into magic, and the use of magic has an automatic nemesis even when the mind has been purified of grosser habits. White magic is black magic” (The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch)

In my opinion the philosophical problem is try to understand if we should implement a direct dialogue to God or we should trust to the current religions a synonymous of superstition or better a surrender to the white and black magic.

“The lid has come off and whatever was inside it has certainly got out. Upon the demon – ridden of human life, what next I wonder? (The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch p.495)

This phrase is not only an unresolved philosophical problem, but it represents the maturation of Charles Arroby, for the first time, after 60 years, he asks to himself:

“What next I wonder?” 

(The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch)

According to the Zhuangzi the death should not be the conclusion of the life, maybe it is only an energy transferable into another form of life, and tomorrow another one, but is it possible to survive or not? (Nota ai margini del nulla – Leonardo Vittorio Arena - Translated into English by Italo Perazzoli)

In my opinion this philosophical problem could be resolved if the inner energy of Charles will be transferred to another form of life, if this concept is accepted by the society we will have a better society devoid of egoism, because our main goal is not more the conquest of the paradise, but essentially the improvement of our lives, being aware of the relative concept of the death, which is linked to the karma’s law on the wheel of the birth / death.

In Conclusion the Buddhism is not a liberation of the ego, but from the ego, more we cling to life, the more we feed the thirst to exist mowing away from liberation. (Nota ai margini del nulla – Leonardo Vittorio Arena Translating into English by Italo Perazzoli)

This novel has been written in first person for two reasons the first one it to create a direct channel to the reader, doing so he/she will sympathize to the narrative voice (Charles) but in the second half of the novel Lizzie and other women, will describe Charles in a completely different way of his true nature i.e. to be extremely egoist, egotist and a womanizer.

in my opinion this is a good strategy because we will have a complete description of the characters, but surprisingly, the key character of this novel is James Arrowby we have a few information about him but he will influence Charles for a deep conversion to Buddhism.

Another particularity is the total absence of a dialogue between the characters, cleverly replaced by letters, with the precise intent of make them more intimate and true, not having been poisoned by the language.

The purpose of Iris Murdoch is try to implement a philosophical debate between her readers when they have finished to read a novel.