Under The Net Literary Analysis

Words: 670
Pages: 3

In Under the Net, Iris Murdoch makes obvious connection between the nature of reality with emotion and thought’s of the protagonist, Jake Donaghue. Murdoch uses reflection as a theme in order to show this relationship between reality and emotion and thoughts. In the story, Jake is constantly reflecting on who is really is and new philosophical ideas. Jake also spend majority of the book searching for reality and truth. He constantly misjudges the thoughts and motivations of the people in his life. In this paper, I will show how Murdoch uses the reflection of Jake to reveal the differences between reality and appearance.
Murdoch begins the story with Jake introducing himself as he is walking down the street and reveals that he is supercritical about himself. Jakes analyzes himself being, “talented, but lazy.” And we see that he is quite accurate when we take a closer look into his life. Jake is a writer, however majority of his publications are not of original work but simply an interpretation of other French philosophers. Jake also lacks in commitment however he is pretty honest in his actions. His relationships have all
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Then she looked up once more to watch the rockets. The river was black now under the night sky and glassy, a black mirror in which every lamp raised a pole of light and the conflagration in the sky above dropped an occasional piece of gold. The line of people on the other bank was clearly reflected in it. Anna’s image was quite still beneath her. I wonder if in the river, which at that point on the left bank came fully up to the wall of the roadway, my own reflection was as vividly shown. I agitated my hands, hoping that either I or my image might attract Anna’s attention. Then I took out a box of matches and lit one or two close to my face. But in such a galaxy of lights my little light could not attract much notice. Anna continued to look up.