Buchara state university m. Bakoeva, E. Muratova, M. Ochilova english literature

(1919-1999)
Iris Murdoch was one of the most complex writers of the 
20th century English fiction. She was born in 1919 in Dublin. The 
main theme ofher novels is the fate of men and women in mod­
ern society, their belief and disbelief. Her heroes are lonely and 
suffering people. In all her novels we find love as great and 
mysterious force. It is the inner world of the character that inter­
ests Iris Murdoch. Her books arise out of the varied experiences 
of life.
Iris Murdoch lectured in philosophy from 1948 to 1963 at,the 
Oxford University in England. It influenced her literary career 
and she became an author of many books on philosophy and philo­
sophical novels. She began her literary career with a critical work 
“Sartre, Romantic Rationalist” (1953). Her first novel "Under 
the Net” appeared in 1954 and since then she published a book 
almost every year. .
Her characters face difficult moral choices in their search for 
love and freedom and are often involved in complex networks of

---

love affairs. Some of Murdoch’s novels expose the dangers of 
abstract system o f behavior that cut out people o ff from 
spontaneous, loving relationships. “Under the Net” (1954) and 
“Fairly Honourable Defeat” (1970) are examples of it. “The Bells” 
(1958) describes the relationships among the members of a religious 
commune. In “The Severed Head” (1961) Murdoch portrays three 
couples whose unfaithful sexual conduct illustrates their shallow, 
self-centered philosophies. Existentialistic characteristic features 
of loneliness, anxiety and fear prevail in “The Unicom” (1963) 
and “The Italian Girl” (1964). The ninth novel, “The Red and the 
Green” (1965) is apparently a progressive point in Murdoch’s 
evolution to realism, but in her next novel, “The Time of Angels” 
(1966), the writer’s realistic vision is completely suppressed by 
the old pessimistic approach to the individual and society. The line 
o f evolution o f Iris M urdoch’s creative method was, thus, 
tremendously unstable and contradictory. By the time she began 
writing, she was a convinced defender o f the existentialist trend in 
philosophy. Iris Murdoch was always looking for the mysterious 
in ordinary life. “The Sandcastle” and “The Bell” demonstrate her 
ability to make usual and even banal situations exciting. A loi of 
other novels, except “The Red and the Green”, brim with 
unaccountable horror:;, senseless crimes and love affairs. The 
characters are hopelessly engulfed in the world of evil, their 
alienation is complete, and the author’s dependence on traditional 
schemes o f existentialism is obvious. The picture of the Irish 
uprising in 1916 in the “The Red and the Green” is written with a 
certain sense of real ism. Her other novels include an “Accidental 
Man” (1971), “The Black Prince” (1973)” , “ The Sea,The Sea” 
(1978), “The Good Apprentice” (1986). and “The Book and the 
Brotherhood” (1988). Iris Murdoch tried to write in the spirit of 
realistic traditions iri English literature. But her books are 
characterized by Romantic foundation.