On The Theme Of Escape In Priestley’s The Good Companions

J. B. Priestley is a prominent British novelist in 20 th century. The Good Companions was published in 1929, which endowed him with a good reputation at home and abroad. This novel mainly depicts three main characters, two males and a female, whose ages, backgrounds and social positions vary. They make up their minds to escape from the dissatisfactory living conditions and start to pursue their ideal lives. The setting of this novel is on the eve of the Great Depression, when the British people who suffer from both the difficult situations outside and inner perplexities and finally choose to make changes through escapism.The famous Chinese-American humanistic geographer Yi-Fu Tuan once came straight to the point in his book Escapism, that the essence of escapism was human beings’ unwillingness to accept the reality and attempt to make changes in the way of escape. In this paper, Yi-Fu Tuan’s theory of escapism functions is taken as a theoretical starting point to discuss the escape theme in The Good Companions under the background of the First World War and the Great Depression.This paper focuses on the escape theme, which includes the escape, integration and pursuit as the three different stages of escapism, and selects three major characters, Jess Oakroyd, Miss Elizabeth Trant and Inigo Jollifant, to be studied under the theme. The fate of the three main characters in The Good Companions, who are confronted with the collision between “success” and “failure”, will be deeply analyzed and vividly illustrated in this paper.In the introduction part, an overall investigation on the previous studies of The Good Companions has been given, besides it also concludes the brief introduction of the escapism theory and puts forward three specific questions based on the close reading of the novels: why does Jess Oakroyd choose to leave his wife and son alone to the escape road after sacking from his post without any reason? What makes Miss Trant become self-depend after her father’s death and chooses to explore the unknown world alone? Inigo Jollifant is a talent young educated man, who is in the social transactional periods and stuck in the predicament between ideal and reality. How does he break the barriers and escape from the mediocre life. Chapter one mainly analyzes the reasons that result in the three protagonists’ escape. The weak sense of family kinship in the material society forces Jess Oakroyd choosing to escape from his family; feminist self-consciousness awakening in the Postindustrial era pushed Miss Elizabeth Trant vigorously get rid of the mediocre life; stuck with the predicament of self-value judgment in the social transactional periods, Inigo Jollifant uncompromisingly flee from the old boring boarding school where he taught. Chapter two mainly analyzes they have converged in a hotel after escaping from their terrible living places by accidental. They formed a new travelling concert party “The Good Companions” and integrated into a newly founded community. Miss Trant, who came from a well-being family and made a decision to bail out the shaky travelling concert party and acted as the manager of the concert party; Jess Oakroyd was good at woodwork and acted as the stage manager; Inigo Jollifant, who was good at music and acted at the pianist in the concert party. With the rise and decline of the travelling concert party, they have experienced the ups and downs in lives. Chapter three mainly analyzes the success and failure of the travelling concert party. After the totally failure, they continue to search for a new life journey and finally lived happy lives.Through the description of the three protagonists’ escape, Priestley describes the British people who suffered the precedential perplex and predicament in the social transactional periods. In Priestley’s view, in the chaos and unrest social atmosphere, the temporary escape maybe is a better way to get rid of the existing confused situation. After the “The Good Companions” community was destroyed, it seemed that their escape was a failure in the surface, but according to their finally settlement their escape was a success. Superficially, their escape indicates three main characters’ unconverted spiritual, emotional rootless and unreachable hometown. Their escape could be the point of no return, but for them the home has become a symbol of Utopia.Finally, all of them have achieved comfortable lives. The honest Jess Oakroyd conquered all obstacles and realized his dream of living with his daughter’s family in Canada; Miss Trant’s awakened self-consciousness finally got a happy marriage and family; the talented Inigo Jollifant finally realized his dream and became a famous pianist in London. All of those successful examples indicate Priestley’s insightful view and deep retrospect towards the British society, and he also expressed his hope and wish to the British society for its rejuvenations.