A Shadow of Truth : Honor Klein in Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head

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KAŠPÁRKOVÁ Barbora

Rok publikování 2019
Druh Článek v odborném periodiku
Časopis / Zdroj Prague Journal of English Studies
Fakulta / Pracoviště MU

Filozofická fakulta

Citace
www https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/pjes/8/1/pjes.8.issue-1.xml
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/pjes-2019-0002
Klíčová slova Iris Murdoch; A Severed Head; Honor Klein; Martin Lynch-Gibbon; psychoanalysis; spectre; Hamlet
Popis Iris Murdoch’s novel A Severed Head (1961) is an example of convoluted relationships that may appear hilarious upon superficial analysis. A close reading, however, reveals the suffering triggered by the behaviour of the central characters. The most mysterious female protagonist, the sexually ambivalent Honor Klein, deploys a wide range of possible interpretations. Honor’s powerful figure is like an axis around which the rest of the characters rotate and without whom the plot would fall apart. The question is, nonetheless, if she is a real figure or not. This paper argues that this pivotal character is not a real person but a dreamy and ghostly concentration of elements in relation to the protagonist Martin Lynch-Gibbon. Honor Klein is a force, is suspicion, and fear, and seems to be an external projection of Martin’s subconscious imaginary fears and trauma. She has a similar narrative function as Shakespeare‘s ghosts in, e.g., Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar.
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