The Theme Of Suffering And Transcendance In Riders In The Chariot

The award of Nobel Prize for literature to Patrick white in 1973 confirmed his reputatioii as a famous contemporary writer of the English-speaking world. This is the first time that the prize was awarded to an Australian, and the terms of the award spoke of his introducing a new continent into literature. Patrick White, unlike the traditional Australian writers depicting the conflict between man and nature in their works, probes the human soul and reveals the conflict in the human mind. lie presents his characters, most alienated from others, society or even themselves, as suffering from spiritual crisis in pursuit of the meaning of life as well as the meaning of God. To White, only through suffering can man really live an(I the world make progress. Thus suffering and transceiideiice becomes an overwhelming theme in most of his works of which Riders in the Ghariot is the most representative. This novel, published in 1961, enjoys a high reputation for its successful portrayal. of four outcasts of society: Mary Hare, Mordecai Himmelfarb, Ruth Godhold and Alf Dubbo, who are all shown to traverse a path of great affliction and m.illimately attain spiritual transcendence. My thesis will focus on this novel and attempt to throw new light on the analysis of the four protagonists from the perspective of the theme of suffering and transcendence. The thesis is divided into four chapters: Chapter One will give a general illtro(luetion of the author抯 suffering, his real life, in order to show how his personal experience and the modern Australian society he lives in influence his thematic concern in the creation of Riders in the Cliarioi? Chapter Two dwells oii the different kinds of sufferings of the four characters in the novel; iii the Third Chaptei; the Jungian approach is used to illustrate how, to Patrick White, suffering is a prerequisite for spiritual transcendence and what means the four characters employ so as to traiisceiid their sufferings; and finally, in the last chapter, all analysis comes to the conclusion that the purer the suffering the greater is the ~)rogress.