PESSIMISTIC MOOD TOWARD HUMAN NATURE DEPICTED IN THE NOVEL “THE UNICORN” BY IRIS MURDOCH

Аннотация

The article deals with the philosophically coated novel “The Unicorn”, written by prominent English writer, Iris Murdoch. Iris Murdoch was born in 1919, in Dublin, Ireland, however, she moved to London in her early ages, got education and gave lectures at Oxford University on philosophy. The aim of the research is to analyze the novel “The Unicorn” to reveal its philosophical and aesthetic values. “The Unicorn” is the author’s seventh novel which published in 1963. Depicting the dark atmosphere and mood in its leading characters and setting, most critics believe it to be the gothic novel. To reach our aim we used several methods including empirical, historical – cultural, analytical methods. We tried to investigate philosophical aspects raised in the novel about human nature. As a research results, we detected the moral and aesthetic value of the novel. Murdoch implied her own philosophical view about ego-centric nature of people into the novel with artistic interpretation.