Tormenting
memories and the moral reasoning of past mistakes in iris murdoch’s bruno’s
dream: a socio- psychological approach
Nada Salih Abdulrahman 1 *,
Amel A. Mahmoud 2
1 Department of English Language and Literature,
College of Languages, University of Nawroz, Kurdistan Region- Iraq.
2 Department of English language, Faculty of
Humanities, University of Zakho, Kurdistan Region-Iraq.
Received: 06. 2022 / Accepted: 08.
2022 / Published: Jan. 2023 https://doi.org/10.26436/hjuoz.2023.11.1.905
ABSTRACT:
This research examines Iris Murdoch’s novel Bruno’s Dream
(1969). The analysis focuses on the main character of this novel Bruno and on
his recollection of the memories and mistakes he had committed in the past. A nearly ninety years old man who
knows that he is losing his battle against cancer soon, spends most of his days
in his room attended by a housekeeper and a nurse. Bruno is often seen
drifting into a world of fantasies and illusions contemplating past events and
actions among which are two major ones; his infidelity to his wife Janie who
might be the reason behind her sickness and death and his tense relationship
with his only son Miles caused by a faulty decision Bruno recklessly took once.
The analysis thoroughly focuses on Bruno’s recollections of these occurrences
and his overwhelming sense of regret. In this novel, going into these painful
memories is a necessity for Bruno to acquire a new self-realization, to rectify
the past mistakes and to redeem himself once and for good before confronting
his end.
The research paper intends to find answers to specific questions
such as; what are the main psychological and social reasons behind Bruno’s
infidelity? How could he maintain for years two different relationship, a cold
one with his wife and an infatuation with Maureen, his mistress? Can faith in
God soothe Bruno’s suffering and pacify him? Is it possible to redeem past sins
even if it is late, as with the case with Bruno and his son Miles?
The methodological approach of this research is largely based on
the socio-psychological studies of Erich Fromm. Those studies are in connection
with childhood upbringing, emotional deprivation and the lack of security, the
“negative freedom”, and his studies on the “new man” who seeks amendments to
his faults. All these socio-psychological ideas are tackled in relation to
Bruno’s actions and decisions. The methodological approach also utilizes the
strategies of close reading techniques and an in-depth literary analysis in
order to address specific intrinsic literary features of the novel.
Key words:
Bruno’s Dream. Fromm’s theories. Bruno. Memories. Fantasies. Isolation. Negative
freedom. Past sins. “New man”. Regret and reconciliation.
Introduction
1-1 Bruno’s
Dream: Plot Summary
Iris Murdoch’s novel Bruno’s Dream is centered on Bruno an
aged man in his eighties who has isolated himself in his bedroom slowing dying
while reminiscing his past days. Bruno spends most of his time doing his weird
hobbies collecting spiders, reading, drinking and indulging in painful memories
of the past. Bruno often declares to Nigel, his nurse, that he has no faith in
God’s existence nor in the divine justice. This is why he prefers to spend his
time talking to his spiders which he collects in glass jars.
His memories disclose an affair of infatuation and love he indulges
in with his wife’s friend Maureen. His infidelity as
a husband leads to the collapse of his marriage, the sickness of his wife which
eventually claims her life. For many years, Bruno’s agonized guilt and regret
feeling that he was the cause of his wife’s fatal end. Another significant
mistake Bruno committed in the past is his refusal to approve his son’s
marriage to an Indian woman Parvati. His reasons were basically prejudicial and racial. Though
Miles defies his father and marries the woman he loves, the marriage does not
last long as the wife is killed in a plane crash. Bruno feels that his son is in a way held him
responsible for that sad end of his marriage and this leads to a decades-long
rift between father and son. Bruno sensing his approaching end sought to meet
his son to ask him for forgiveness. Though the son has married Diana and has
succeeded in establishing himself as a literary figure, though not a famous
poet as he dreamt to be, he still holds grudge against his father. Thus, he was
reluctant to meet him. However, Bruno’s widower son-in-law Danby, arranges for
the meeting which proves to be disastrous as Miles refuses to pardon his sick
father.
There are also minor sub-stories
like Diana’s infidelity to Miles as she has a relationship with Danby. Whereas
the husband Miles is also betraying his wife in his affair with his wife’s
sister Lisa. Those fleeting love stories end with failures when Diana regrets
that affair and Lisa discovers she has no love to Miles, but to Danby. The
novel ends with some glimpses of hope as Diana takes care of Bruno and begins
to visit him often. Bruno feels more at ease and less desperate than before as
he sees in Diana a resemblance of his long-deceased daughter Gwen.
1-2
Erich Fromm’s Socio-Phycological Theories
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) is a
well-known German psychologist, sociologist, humanistic and philosopher, he is
often associated with Frankfurt School of critical theory. Fromm developed more oriented theory than
others psychologist such as Sigmund Freud. Fromm composed many books and
complied various studies on human behavior and on the effects of social
conditions on man. For instance, in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
(1973). Fromm claims that personality is affected more by social and economic
factors and less by unconscious desires. Hence, disagreeing with Freud (P.p.166-171).
In Fromm’s book Induvial and Social Origin of Neurosis (1944),
he investigates childhood experiences and the impact of the authority of the
parents on the child. As the child grows up, he learns to obey the parents and
to follow their guidance, but he also tends to defy and challenge that
authority. The reason is by yielding to the authority of the parents, the child
feels his own authority is undermined. (P.p. 382-383). Another significant
socio-psychological theory of Fromm,, discussed in his book Escape from
Freedom (1969), is in connection with alienation. Fromm states that the
frequent disappointments in the adult’s life may lead to emotional and social
alienation. (P. 203).
Another significant book of Fromm is entitled The Sane Society
(1955). In this book, Fromm states that within the consumer-oriented industrial
culture modern men have become alienated and estranged from himself. As a
result, the external world appears frightening to him that is why he prefers to
live in his own private world, isolated and secluded from the society. There
are also a number of important articles dealing with childhood experiences and
modern man ill-oriented attitude called the practice of “negative freedom”, those
studies seek to interpret the behavior and attitude of modern-day man when he
practices his freedom, at the same time, violates moral and ethical codes of
his society (P.p. 117-136).
2-
Iris Murdoch’s Bruno’s Dream: Tormenting Memories and the Moral Reasoning of
Past Mistakes
In Beyond the Chains of Illusion (1962),
Erich Fromm states that “The more alienated [modern man] he is, the more the sense of having
and using constitutes his relationship to the world” (P. 40). This statement is highly applicable on the
protagonist Bruno Greensleave in Iris Murdoch’s Bruno’s Dream with one
main point of difference as the sense of “having and using” doesn’t refer to
materialistic gains, rather to his past memories. A bed-ridden old man nearly
ninety years old is stricken by cancer disease and the tormenting memories of
the past.
Bruno is sorrowfully aware of his worsening health condition
feeling his fight with cancer is doomed to fail. He hadn’t been downstairs for
a month and Adelaide, the house keeper, informed Nigel that Bruno will not go
downstairs any more. Feeling feeble and old, Bruno tends to lead a life of
total isolation, except the brief meetings with Danby or Nigel, this may
indicate that Bruno sees the world as nothing more than a marketplace where new
represents something perfect and desirable, while old represents something
tattered and useless (R. Furst ,1990,
P.p.269-173).
A highly symbolic description of Bruno comes when he is compared to
the Greek king Tithonus. Tithonus, according to the Greek mythologies, was
ardently loved by the goddess Eos. She pleaded to Zeus to give Tithonus
immortality, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. In the course of the years,
Tithonus grew old, feeble and aged. Out of compassion, Eos converted him into a
grasshopper and kept him in a cage (Berens, 2009, p.55). A similar metaphoric image is seen in the
protagonist Bruno as he is slowly aging in his secluded room upstairs painfully
waiting for his death, just like Tithonus (Soláns García, 2019, p.39).
In his bed room upstairs, Bruno leads a life of estrangement and
illusions as many of whom Bruno is connected with by blood ties are either
dead; his wife Janie, daughter Gwen and daughter in-law Parvati, and also, he
is not in good terms with his only son Miles. Losing the close people to him
renders Bruno desperate, lonely and isolated. His reminiscences about past
events constitute all his present life since he has long ago shut himself away
from the world outside “Confined to an upstairs bedroom in his son-in-law’s
house, from which he can no longer go out into the real world and participate
in everyday life”
(Đjorić-Francuski, 2007, P.112).
Throughout the years of chronic pain and bitter regret of past
decisions, Bruno has created for himself a secluded world where he dives deep
in his reminiscences. In few occasions, Bruno comes back to the reality; five
o’clock champaign drinking, his peculiar hobby of watching spiders and going
through his priceless stamp collections.
For Bruno, regret seems to be the forceful emotion that triggers his
memories. Those memories create a world of illusions as he speculates over what
could have happened differently if he had acted otherwise or taken a different
decision.
Bruno recalls his childhood days when he would often rebel against
his father, then suffered the consequence of that rebellion which is his
father’s rejection of him. A clear instance is caught when the father forced
him to learn riding a horse, though the child “had been afraid of the horses”.
Bruno recalls certain punishments he had to agonize every now and then when he
was a child. Though he had forgotten the situations that led to these
punishments, the bitterness of the memories is still felt vivid in Bruno’s
mind. For Bruno, the father was a source “of negative energy, a spring of
irritation and resentment, a hole through which things drained away” (Murdoch, 2017, p. 8).
Erich Fromm in his article “Individual and
Social Origins of Neurosis” (1944) states that the child meets the society
at first through his parents learning about authority and the need to subdue to
it. Yielding to this kind of authority often breaks the child’s will and his
independence. However, the child often learns to fight against this authority
and sometimes he succeeds, other times, he fails. When he is defeated to
counter that parental authority, the child develops some features of weakening
“of the self […] the feeling of I’m is dulled and replaced by the experience of
the self as the sum of the total expectations others have about me” (Fromm, Individual and Social
Origins of Neurosis, 1944, p. 382).
As a youth, Bruno recalls, he had always wanted to study zoology
and his greatest ambition was to become a scientist. However, being the only
son of the family, his father compelled him to run the printing house, the
family business. Though Bruno dedicated the best years of his life working
tirelessly on his printing company “He had done his best for the place” (Murdoch, p.8), he detests it
and often was terrified of the clacks of the monotype printing machines with
their loud sounds.
Further, Bruno’s decision of marrying the elegant aristocratic
Janie was not based on love or a profound emotion, rather on logical reasons
and social considerations. She belongs to a family of a name and wealth. A
stylish young woman elegantly dressed and talked “Janie playing tennis in a
white dress […] Janie chattering Italian at a diplomatic party” (Murdoch, p.15). They seem
quite suitable to one another, and for a time, they looked as if leading an
ideal married life “They had played social roles, put on smart clothes, been
admired and envied” (Murdoch, p. 15). However, this style of married life is in
essence a pretentious one “marriage is a symbol of goodness, though it is only
a symbol” (Murdoch, p.15) In reality, the two were acting social roles in a
relationship that is devoid of genuine love and passion.
Being ripped off the right to decide his own career or to let his
feeling and emotion decide his spouse gradually leads Bruno to a state of a
psychological isolation. Erich Fromm in Escape from Freedom (1969)
explains that the constant disappointment in the life of an individual can
ultimately lead him to a state of alienation and estrangement from the
surrounding, an estrangement that can be emotional and psychological. This
condition of isolation is felt by the individual as a refuge since the inner
world of thoughts, feelings, emotions cannot be overwhelmed by the power of the
outside world, the inner world replaces the outer and becomes a haven for him (P.202).
The tendency to live in an inner world of recluse and isolation, as
described by Fromm, is evidently caught in the life of Bruno. His role as a
husband and father is fairly limited to the duties and obligations within the
family framework, while he remains emotionally detached. The lack of emotional
fulfillment in the married life ultimately culminates in seeking it outside the
marriage bound, in an affair with his wife’s friend Maureen. Such love
gradually turns out to be a full compensation to his emotional deprivation. Bruno’s infatuation of Maureen is evident
when he describes her as “a nymph of the cinema age, a sybil of the cavern of
illusory love” (Murdoch, p. 13).
Further, the little flat of her, where the two would meet, was felt by
him as an “exotic bird nest”.
Bruno’s love feeling to Maureen is so profound that leads him even
to ignore the many signs denoting her infidelity. Such signs like her expensive
clothes though her business of selling handmade hats can hardly be described as
successful “she never seemed to sell any of those hats” (Murdoch, p,13). Another sign is when Bruno found a man’s
handkerchief in her flat, Maureen claimed that it was her brother’s. He would
often forgive her “even these lies were sweet” (Murdoch, p.14). Having a secret
mistress with whom Bruno can gratify his sensual desires but more his emotional
needs is felt, by him, as the perfect world about which he carries, while
having this affair, no sense of regret or guilt “he had felt particularly no
guilt at all” (Murdoch, p. 14). This secret affair ran for years during which
Bruno succeeded in maintaining two different attachments, cold relationship to
his wife Janie and a deep infatuation with Maureen. Leading two different
relationships at the same time and feeling comfortable with such a state might be
owing to the circumstances of his childhood upbringing. The harsh firm ways of
guidance of Bruno’s father cultivates in the child a tendency to subdue his
feeling towards the close family members. Bruno, the grown-up man seeks to
fulfill that need, love and emotion, in the secret affairs. B. A. Mattingly
(2010) in “Foggy Faithfulness” explains that an unfaithful behavior of an adult
can be the result of not being able to “have a healthy emotional attachment as
a child” (Mattingly, 2010, p.1468).
A radical alteration in Bruno’s feeling as well as in his married
life occurred when Janie discovered his affair with Maureen “he had felt the
burden and the horror of it, the ugliness and the scandal” (Murdoch, p. 14). It
is only during these grilling times when she raged with anger that Bruno came
to know about Janie’s love to him “he only […] knew for certain that she loved
him when she was crucifying that love before his face” (Murdoch, p. 16). In
fits of madness, she burnt the proposal note he sent her once along with some
of his private letters giving no room for his constant pleads and requests for
forgiveness. Later on, they began quarreling over everything, even when Janie
became ill and was dying, they were exchanging accusations while Bruno would often
burst out with his true feeling about Janie “You reject me, you reject
everything I’m […] you never loved me” (Murdoch, p. 16).
Bruno is a representative of modern man who is trying to liberate
himself from the shackles of social constraints, a married relationship devoid
of love through having a secret affair. Fromm’s concept of “negative freedom”
finds its best expression in the conduct and behavior of Bruno. Fromm believes
that when the social repressions increase, an individual develops a specific
behavior or a practice to maintain and protect his personal freedom. Sometimes
such a behavior is socially rejected and in certain times it might even be
unethical. In this case, it is called the practice of a negative freedom (Fromm, The Fear of Freedom, 1942,
n. p). Fromm believes that the owner of negative freedom usually suffers
from the lack of security and nothing is clear in his mind.
Being unhappy and unsatisfied in a married relationship drives
Bruno to seek emotional fulfillment in an affair with Maureen. In this manner,
he is practicing his freedom in a negative way. His motivation to maintain his
platonic fantasy affair is to remain in his imaginary world of love and
passion, which he has never experienced with his wife. Imagination and fantasy
seem to be Bruno’s quickest way to fulfil his emotional and sensual needs (Akot, 2021, P.p78-81). When
Maureen disappeared, Bruno tried different ways to find her, he even posted an
announcement in a newspaper about her. His sole aim is to regain that fanciful
world which used to fully compensate for the world of emotional deprivation and
loneliness.
Having lost the wife and the mistress, the elderly sick Bruno
cannot find peace not even in religion. He demonstrates a skeptic attitude
towards the presence of a divine power that governs man and the universe. He
tells Nigel, his nurse, “I loved God. I
was in love with God and the world was full of the power of love” (Murdoch, p.100). However, over the years Bruno’s
attachment to God grew feeble. He began to view God as an “bureaucrat making
checks and counter checks…I stopped loving Him” (Murdoch, p. 100).
It is obvious that the Catholic image of God, Bruno’s religious
upbringing, as a mighty leader and governor who has the power and the control
does not pose an allure to Bruno
(Oladotun, 2019, n. p). Such image mirrors to a certain degree his
father with his cruel discipline and ways of punishment. The bed-ridden man
blames God for his suffering “He makes me suffer," he tells Nigel.
Further, Bruno was obsessed with perfection seeing God’s creation as imperfect
was never accepted by him. Endeavoring to compensate for the loss religious
faith, Bruno turns to his mother “his vision of goodness was connected not with
God but with his mother” (Murdoch, p. 10) In fact, every joyful memory he had
is linked with his mother. He reached over eighty years old and still clearly
recalls his mother’s kind face and her tone when she would often reproach his
father about his cruel ways of dealing with the boy "George, you have to
be nicer with the lad." (Murdoch, p. 9).
Bruno is depicted for the second time as a typical representation
of modern men who are willing to replace divine authority with a family member
who is a kind and sympathetic human being. Modern man has to find meaning for
life beyond the rigid walls of the church. Each individual has to explore the
purpose of his existence and gives his own meaning to it (McCormick,1990, p.31). Hence,
Bruno’s sense of estrangement comes as the logical consequence to his loss of
religious faith. As he is no more affiliated with his society’s religious
inclination, he tends to create his own inner world of beliefs and faith, even
if it looks so bizarre. When Nigel thinks that God might be made of spiders,
Bruno approves “the spiders were a good idea” (Murdoch, p. 101).
Bruno’s long hours of reminiscing the past disclose a significant
decision he had taken years back and he regretted it so deeply that he wished
to redeem it. This decision is related to Parvati an Indian young woman whom
Bruno’s son Miles married. Bruno sharply objected Miles’ choice of an Asian
woman as a spouse and in a mocking tone he told his son he could not imagine having
“coffee-colored grandchildren". Bruno’s rejection of a mix-race marriage
is evidently based on an acute racial attitude. When Parvati died in a plane
crash, Bruno was engulfed by sorrow as he felt he had lost both his daughter in
law and his son who, somehow, blamed the father for the tragic end of his wife (Jefferess, 2009, p.390-392).
Bruno’s new understanding of the moral obligation to seek pardon
for mistakes he had committed testifies to Fromm’s notion of the “new man”.
This term refers to the modern man who is suffering and who is aware of the
cause of that suffering and that he sincerely seeks ways to overcome it or heal
it (Fromm, 2008, To have or
to Be, p.137).
Bruno’s intention behind this meeting is to wash away all past
sins, not only the one related to his refusal of Miles’ marriage to Parvati,
but also to those in connection with Janie and Maureen. A kind of final plea
for a release from the past mistakes. Bruno imagines the meeting to run as
such:
He would talk to his son about ordinary indifferent things […] they
would talk and talk and the room would grow dimmer […] they would be speaking
the names of the women Parvati, Janie, Maureen in grave relaxed sadness
together contemplating these conjured shades (Murdoch, p.31).
Reconciliation and healing are the two aims Bruno wholeheartedly
seeks in his expected meeting with his son. However, the meeting turns to be a
complete failure. For years, Miles has severed his ties with his father
creating an understanding based on disappointment and bitterness about his
parents, particularly his father. Miles is convinced that his father can never
regret any decision or action he had taken nor he is the type to seek pardon.
As Miles enters his father’s room, he “felt a sudden acute depression” not
wanting to stay for long as the atmosphere of the room was suffocating. When
Bruno reached to touch his son’s hand, the latter declined and moved his chair
back. Miles has prepared himself for some kind of cold formal meeting or a
quarrel in the manner of the old days. But to see his father as a dying shadowy
figure who is seeking forgiveness was a shocking scene that Miles is not
prepared for. When Bruno repeated his plea for forgiveness, Miles felt awkward:
-Forgive me, forgive me, say you forgive me
-Yes, naturally, of course, but-( Murdoch, p. 115).
Miles’ refusal to touch his father’s hand for the second time
indicates that he is not willing to reconcile. His cold reaction sat Bruno into
a mood of anger as the latter cried "Why are you so cruel to me?"
then dismissed Miles out of the house. The son was stormed by forceful feelings
of anger, rage and bitterness:
He [Miles] began to run away down the street in the rain. He ought
never to have gone. It was like a doom; it was more terrible than he could have
imagined […] He was utterly utterly defiled (Murdoch, p.118).
The word “defiled”, which refers to someone who is unclean or impure
(Hibbert, 2008, p. 2). Here it evidently
indicates that Miles feels the meeting with his father has polluted the purity
and tranquility of his life. Though Miles is now married to Diana and it has
been years since the tragedy of Parvati, he could never have overcome that
loss. Hence, he secluded himself in a world of poetry and literature; reading,
composing and immersing himself in the realm of fantasy and rhetoric. Biljana
Đjorić-Francuski in her article “How Many Dreams Are There in
Murdoch’s Bruno’s Dream?” (2007), describes Miles as a self-obsessed person
because his reluctance to see his dying father is owing to his fear that it
might disrupt his quiet fancy world and hinder his attempt to excel in poetry writing
(p. 112). The rage Miles felt after encountering his father springs from the
fact that the meeting compels him to face the reality and, in consequence,
shatters the world of fantasy and imagination he has created for himself since
long.
Since Bruno’s last hope of seeking redemption through a consolation
with his son has proven a failure, his realization of his past mistakes and his
attempts to rectify them come too late. He seems to realize this when he
declares:
I spin out my consciousness, this compulsive chatterer, this idle
rambling voice that will so soon be mute. But it’s all a dream. Reality is too
hard. I have lived my life in a dream and now it is too late to wake up
(Murdoch, p.304).
Conclusion
Iris Murdoch’s Bruno’s Dream is considered as a literary
excursion across time since it takes the reader into the mind of the
protagonist Bruno to view different phases in his life. While he recollects
various reminisces, he delineates his childhood days, his gown up years and the
late phase of his married life then he takes the reader to the present time
while Bruno suffers from disease, loneliness and regret. Bruno’s relationship
to his father and the firm strict manner through which the father brought out
the child is the main cause behind Bruno’s tendency to repress his feeling and
his emotional need. A tendency which brought catastrophic outcome caught, in
his later years, in his infidelity to his wife Janie and his profound secret
love to Maureen. Since Bruno agonized emotional deprivation as a child and as
he, growing up to man, could not find love in the marriage relationship, he
sought to meet his emotional needs in an affair with his wife’s friend.
Applying Fromm’s notion of “negative freedom”, Bruno misused his freedom and
risked his married life in order to acquire emotional and sensual fulfillment.
The world of perfect happiness and satisfaction came to a collapse when the
wife discovered the affair, a discovery that led to the disappearance of the
mistress and the shattering of the fancy world of passion that Bruno enjoyed
for long.
In this novel, Bruno symbolizes modern man with all his doubts and
skepticism about religion and God. Though he is in an urgent need for a source
from which he derives peace and comfort, he fails in finding it in God. His
rejection to believe the presence of a divine authority springs from his
rejection of his father’s authority with all his rules and instructions. The
difficult childhood experiences are, to a large extent, responsible for Bruno’s
religious skepticism.
Hence, there is only one thing Bruno hopes for believing it can
offer him peace and set him free from the grip of torturing past sins, which is
a reconciliation with his son Miles. Bruno’s decision to meet his son shows the
birth of what Fromm defines as the “new man”, a man who acknowledges his
mistakes and who honestly and boldly intends to seek remedy for. Unfortunately,
his attempt for a reconciliation comes too late as the Miles, who owing to the
tragedy of losing Parvati, has become similar to his father. He has created a
world of illusions and fantasies refusing to counter a horrifying reality in
the image of a dying father asking pardon. Hence, Miles fails to be the one who
can wash away all his father’s sins and set the old man to rest in peace.
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file:///C:/Users/Me/Downloads/Gods_Image_in_Man_A_Biblical_Perspective.pdf
R.
Furst, Lilian. (1990). “The Ethics of Reading in Death in Venice”,
Literature
Interpretation
Theory, no.1, vol.4, p. 265-274, DOI: 10.1080/10436929008580036
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10436929008580036.
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Soláns García, Mariángel. (2019) “‘At My Age, You Live in Your Mind’:
Reviewing the Past in Bruno´s Dream by Iris Murdoch.” In Spanish Journal of
English Studies, vol. 40, p. 33‒55. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.40.2019.33-55
Accessed on June-2-2022
حلم
برونو لإيريس
مردوخ:
الذكريات
المؤلِمة والتفسير
الأخلاقي
لأخطاء
الماضي
الملخلص:
يتناول
هذا البحث
رواية إيريس مردوخ
"حلم برونو"
التي نشرت عام
١٩٦٩. ويركز البحث
في تحليله على
الشخصية
الرئيسية في
هذه الرواية
"برونو" وعلى
استعادته
للذكريات والأخطاء
التي ارتكبها
في الماضي.
يبلغ برونو ما
يقارب
التسعين عاما
ويدرك في عمره
هذا أنه خاسر
في
معركته مع
مرض السرطان
فيقضي معظم
أيامه في
غرفته في
الطابق
العلوي بحضور
مدبرة منزل
وممرضة. غالبا
ما يُنظر إلى
برونو على انه
ذلك الشخص
الذي ينجرف
إلى عالم من
التخيلات
والأوهام ويفكر
في الأحداث
والأفعال
الماضية من
بينها حدثان
رئيسيان:
الحدث الاول،
خيانتة
لزوجته جاين،
وقد تكون هذه
الخيانة السبب
وراء مرضِها
وموتِها.
والحدث
الثاني، علاقته
المتوترة مع
ابنه الوحيد
مايلز بسبب قرار
خاطئ اتخذه
برونو بتهور
في ذات مرة.
يركز تحليل
هذا البحث على
ذكريات برونو
لهذه الأحداث
وشعوره
الكبير
بالندم. وفي
هذه الرواية،
يتحتم على
برونو
استعادة هذه
الذكريات
الاليمة
لاكتساب
تحقيق ذاتي
جديد،
والتكفير عن
أخطاء الماضي
وإلى الأبد
قبل مواجهة
نهايته.
يهدف
هذا البحث إلى
تقديم إجابات
لأسئلة محددة
مثل: ما هي
الأسباب
النفسية
والاجتماعية
الرئيسية
وراء خيانة
برونو؟ كيف
يمكنه أن يحافظ
لسنوات على
علاقتين
مختلفتين:
علاقة باردة مع
زوجته وافتتان بمورين،
عشيقته؟ هل
يمكن للإيمان
بالله أن يحفف
من معاناة
برونو
ويهدئه؟ هل من
الممكن
التخلص من
خطيئة الماضي
حتى لو كان
الوقت
متأخرا، كما هو
الحال مع
برونو وابنه
مايلز؟
يعتمد
المنهج
التحليلي لهذا
البحث إلى حد
كبير على
الدراسات
الاجتماعية
والنفسية
لإريك فروم،
تلك المتعلقة
بتنشئة الطفل
والحرمان
العاطفي
وانعدام الأمن
وكذلك
"الحرية
السلبية"
ودراسات فروم
عن "الانسان
الجديد" الذي
يسعى إلى التكفير
عن أخطائه.
في هذا البحث،
يتم تناول كل
هذه الأفكار
الاجتماعية
والنفسية
فيما يتعلق
بأفعال برونو وقراراته.
كما يستخدم
هذا المنهج
البحثي استراتيجيات
تقنيات
القراءة
الدقيقة
والتحليل
الأدبي
العميق من أجل
معالجة
السمات الأدبية
الداخلية
للرواية
الكلمات
الدالة: حلم
برونو،
نظريات فروم،
برونو،
الأوهام، الذكريات،
العزلة،
الحرية
السلبية،
خطايا
الماضي،
"الإنسان
الجديد"،
الندم
والمصالحة
(خەونا
برۆنوی) یا رۆماننڤیس
(ئیریس
مەردوخ)ی:
بیرھاتنێن
نەخوش و شرۆڤەكرنا
ئەخلاقی بۆ
خەلەتییێن
دەمێ بووری
پۆختە:
ئەڤ
ڤەكۆلینە باس
ل رۆمانا
(خەونا برۆنو)
یا رۆماننڤیس
(ئیریس
مەردوخ)ێ دكەت
یاكو ل سالا١٩٦٩
ێ ھاتیە
بەلاڤكرن.
ڤەكۆلین د
شرۆڤەكرنا
خۆدا جەختێ ل
سەر
كەسایەتیا
سەرەكی یا
ئەڤێ رۆمانێ
(برۆنو)ی دكەت
ھەروەسا ل سەر
زڤراندنا وی
بۆ بیرھاتن و
خەلەتیێن د
دەمێ بوریدا
ئەنجامداین.
برۆنو
دگەھیتە ژیێ
نێزیكی نوت
سالان و د ئەڤی
ژیێ مەزن دا
دزانیت كو یێ
سەركەفتی
نینە د
ھەڤركیا دگەل
نەخوشیا
پەنجەشێرێ،
لەورا پتریا
رۆژانێن خۆ د
ژۆراخۆدا ل
قاتێ سەری ب
ئامادەبوونا
خزمەتكار و
پەرستارا خۆ
دبوورینیت.
پتریا جاران
تەماشەی
برۆنوی دھێتە
كرن وەك كەسەك
كو دچیتە دناڤ
جیھانا خەیال
و ئاشوپاندا و
ھزر د رویدان
و كریارێن
بووریدا
دكەت، ژ ئەوان
ژی دوو رویدانێن
سەرەكی نە:
رویدانا ئێكێ
خیانەتكرنا
وی بۆ ھەڤژینا
وی (جاین) و
دبیت ئەڤ
خیانەتە
ئەگەرێ نەخوش
كەفتنا وێ و
مرنا وێ بیت.
رویدانا دووێ
پەیوەندیا وی
یا
تێكچووی
دگەل كورێ وی
یێ ئێكانە
مایلزی ژ
ئەگەرێ
بریارەكا
خەلەت كو برۆنوی
ل دەمەكی
دابوو.
شرۆڤەكرن د
ئەڤێ ڤەكۆلینێدا
جەختێ ل سەر
بیرھاتنێن
برۆنوی بۆ ئەڤان
رویدانان و
ھەستكرنا وی ب
پەشیمانیەكا
مەزن دكەت. د
ئەڤێ
رۆمانێدا
پێدڤییە ل سەر
برۆنوی ئەڤان
بیرھاتنێن
نەخوش بزڤرینیت
بۆ ب
دەستڤەھینانا
خودی یا نوی،
و ھزركرن دەربارەی
خەلەتیێن
بووری ھەتا
ھەتایێ بەری
بەرھنگاربوونا
دویماھیا خۆ.
ئارمانجا
ئەڤێ
ڤەكۆلینێ
پێشكێشكرنا
بەرسڤایە
دەربارەی
ھندەك
پرسیارێن
دەستنیشانكری
وەكو: ئەگەرێن
دەروونی و
جڤاكی یێن
سەرەكی ل پشت
خیانەتكرنا
برۆنوی چنە؟
چەوا برۆنو
شیایە بۆ
چەندین سالان
پاراستنێ ل
سەر دوو
پەیوەندیێن
جیاوازبكەت:
پەیوەندیەكا
سار دگەل
ھەڤژینا خۆ و
داغباربوونا
وی ب خوشتڤیا وی
مورینێ؟ ئەرێ
دشیاندایە
باوەریا ب
خودای نەخوشیێن
برۆنوی سڤك
بكەت و
ئارامبكەت؟
ئەرێ
دشیاندایە ژ
خەلەتیێن
بوری قورتال
بین خۆ ئەگەر
درەنگ ژی بیت،
ھەروەكو
حالەتێ
برۆنوی و كورێ
وی مایلزی؟
رێبازا
ڤەكۆلینێ
ھەتا
رادەیەكێ زۆر
پشتبەستنێ ل
سەر
ڤەكۆلینێن
جڤاكی و
دەروونی یێن
(ئیریك فروم)ی
دكەت، ئەوێن
گرێدای ب
پەروەردەكرنا
زارۆكی و بێ
بەھربوونا
سوزداری و
نەبوونا ئارامیێ
ھەروەسا
(ئازادییا
نەرینی)،
ھەروەسا ڤەكۆلینێن
فرومی
دەربارەی
(مرۆڤێ نوی) یێ
كو ھەولا
راستڤەكرنا
خەلەتیێن خۆ
كەت. د ئەڤێ
ڤەكۆلینێدا
باس ل ئەڤان
ھەمی ھزرێن جڤاكی
و دەروونی یێن
دەربارەی
كریار و
بریارێن برۆنوی
دھێتە كرن.
ھەروەسا
ڤەكۆلین
رێبازا ستراتیجییەتێن
تەكنیكێن
خواندنێ یێن
ھویر و شرۆڤەكرنا
ئەدەبی یا
كویر دكەت ژبۆ
چارەسەركرنا
سیمایێن
ئەدەبی یێن
دەستنیشانكەرێن
رۆمانێ و
وەرگرتن ژ
تێكستی و ژ
ڤەكۆلینێن دی
یێن ئەدەبی
ئەوژی ل دویڤ
پێدڤیبوونا
ڤەكۆلینێ بۆ
زێدەكرنا
ھزرێن
گەنگەشێ
پەیدادبن.
پەیڤێن
سەرەكی:
خەونا
برۆنوی،
تیورێن
فرومی،
خەیال، بیرھاتن،
ب تنێ بوون،
ئازادیا
نەرینی،
خەلەتیێن
بووری، مرۆڤێ
نوی،
پەشیمانبوون
و ئاشبوون.