Man’s Morality and Philosophical Subjects in Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net

Abstract

Iris Murdoch’s first novel Under the Net finds the theme of the stress ratio between contingency and necessity. This study explores the different aspects of contingency in the novel. All social beings have a profound need for necessity in their lives. We want to know why we live, we want to realize the world and its secrets, and we want to know our place in the world. Concepts like religion and philosophy are met with those questions and attempt to give answers to them. Our world is dependent, since it cannot be completely understood. Bring out the novel, the protagonist Jake Donaghue searches for his own identity and for a master theory which is able to explain the world (379). End of the story, he realizes that he has to change his attitude towards contingency. Jake is the protagonist of this novel, has to deal with this problem, too.