Philosophical Reviews: A Word Child (Iris Murdoch)

 

The main philosophical message is on how we cope with our sense of guilt.

This implies that we should have a moral code, a conscience and the conviction that our free will could damage others.

If we cause the death of an innocent person, we are haunted by our conscience and guilt. We will search for a way for redemption following a painful journey to soothe our feelings of guilt.

This approach is not enough, it is a pure sense of selfishness.

Hilary didn't committed suicide for two reasons, the first one his his love for his sister Crystal, and secondly the letter written by Lady Kitty where he urged him to talk to Gunnar about his sins.

Due to his free will to drive the car at high speed has caused the death of Anne.

A dilemma could be to think that it was caused by fate, Hilary didn't intend to kill her.

Let's say Hilary can change someone's fate, is Anne destined to die in another way?

If so, is his freewill completely irrelevant?

Hilary has defeated his inner monsters, telling Gunnar that it wasn't his fault, it wasn't his intention to kill Anne.

The problem is that he cannot quantify the pain caused to Gunnar and the other person involved, in my opinion this is selfish to clean up the own conscience. Gunnar has not forgiven him, it doesn't come to a physical confrontation thanks to Gunnar's belief that Hilary is in his hands.

The good characters of this novel are Lady Kitty through her letter for Hilary and Thomasina who take care of Hilary with the aim of making him redeem himself from his sins and not waiting for the right opportunity to sink him (Gunnar)