An Interpretation Of The "Hidden Teacher" Pattern And The Moral Theme In Murdoch’s Two Novels

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) is considered as one of the most influential novelists andphilosophers in20thcentury. She dedicates all her life to writing for forty years on end, and reapsbumped harvest including twenty-six novels, four philosophical works, and a number of plays, aswell as poems and articles, which have been displayed fully with her excellent aesthetic talentand remarkable art creativity.As a modern feminism novelist, her attention perspective and writing field are not fall intothe female identity and self-writing, she pays more attention to the moral field which is moreimportant to the whole human society. It is not hard to find that, in many other novels, Murdochalways uses her novels to communicate her moral vision in preference to her ethics. And withregard to Murdoch’s ethical methodology, she profits greatly from her spiritualsupervisor—Plato. Readers who enjoy her novels always find that Platonism is permeated allthrough Murdoch’s works, including her novels or her philosophical works.“Goodness” is Iris Murdoch’s pursuit of the ultimate source, and it is also the core conceptof Murdoch’s moral philosophy. People will fall into different kinds of temptation and fantasy,lost the direction. Murdoch shows us through her novels: get out of the “temptation”, throughappropriate “attention” and finally you can have the possibility to get close to the “good ofreality”. This paper is talking about Murdoch’s two novels: The Sandcastle and The Nice and theGood. The paper is interpreting the moral theme in these two novels, at the same time, bring inan image who is ubiquitous but always be neglected—“Hidden Teacher”——image who existsrecessively. Teacher is pointing at their roles in the way of searching “goodness” but not theirprofessions. How to understand the “Hidden Teacher” image, how does “Hidden Teacher” bringthe confusing people out of “fantasy” and get close to the real “goodness” and the moralconsideration of Murdoch herself are the researching targets of this paper.The paper consists of an introduction, a body and a conclusion.The part of introduction briefly introduces the following four aspects: Iris Murdoch’s majorliterary achievements, dual identity both as a philosopher and novelist, introductions of the two novels and the literature review at home and abroad.Chapter two mainly introduces the interrelationship between theoretical basis andMurdoch’s thoughts. Freud’s three structures of personality and Platonism affect much onMurdoch’s works. Murdoch gains more from Plato, especially his idea of “good” and “CaveMyth”. Murdoch accepts many opinions of Plato and at the same time try to rewrite Plato’s“Cave Myth”. Murdoch shows us her own consideration of “good” through her works.Chapter three mainly introduces the “Hidden Teacher” pattern. Murdoch’s preference to the“Hidden Teacher” pattern and the embodiment of “Hidden Teacher” pattern in Murdoch’s twonovels are the key points of this chapter. Teacher does not refer to the profession but theirposition on the pilgrimage of pursuing the “good of reality”. Just these kinds of secondary andneglected images tell us what is the “good of reality” under Murdoch’s writing.Chapter four mainly introduces the moral theme in Murdoch’s novels. The main theme inMurdoch’s novels is getting out of the “temptation”, through appropriate “attention” and finallyhaving the possibility to get close to the real “goodness”. In this process, people need to killing“self”, from “self” to “unselfing” and then to the ultimate “goodness”.Chapter five links the moral theme and “Hidden Teacher” together and talks about therelationship of “Hidden Teacher” and real “goodness”.“Teacher” images are so importantbecause of their two kinds of pressures: one is to guide others out of “fantasy” and search for“goodness”, the other is their pursuit of “goodness” for their own.Conclusion part summarizes the theoretical basis in these two novels and summarizes thearrangement of “Hidden Teacher” in these two novels and how does the “hidden teacher guideothers out of the cave and pursue the “good of reality”.