Iris Murdoch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Iris Murdoch
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| Born |
Jean Iris Murdoch
15 July 1919 |
| Died | 8 February 1999 (aged 79) |
| Nationality | Irish, British |
| Education | Somerville College, Oxford Newnham College, Cambridge |
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Notable work
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Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953); Under the Net (1954); The Sovereignty of Good (1970); The Sea, the Sea (1978) |
| Spouse(s) |
John Bayley
(m. 1956) |
| Awards | Booker Prize |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy Virtue ethics Modern Platonism |
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Notable ideas
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Sovereignty of the good Idea of perfection |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Dame Jean Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) was a famous Irish and British novelist and philosopher. She is best known for her novels that explore big ideas. These include what is good and evil, how we make moral choices, and the hidden power of our unconscious minds.
Her first novel, Under the Net (1954), was a big success. In 1998, it was named one of the 100 best English novels of the 20th century. Her book The Sea, the Sea (1978) won the important Booker Prize. In 1987, Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame for her contributions to literature. This is a special honor. In 2008, The Times newspaper listed her as one of the top 50 British writers since 1945.
Iris Murdoch wrote many other popular books. These include The Bell (1958), The Red and the Green (1965), and The Black Prince (1973). As a philosopher, her most famous work is The Sovereignty of Good (1970). She was married to writer John Bayley for 43 years, until her death.
Contents
Life of Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin, Ireland, on July 15, 1919. Her father, Wills John Hughes Murdoch, was a government worker. Her mother, Irene Alice, had trained as a singer. Iris was their only child. When she was just a few weeks old, her family moved to London, England.
She grew up in Chiswick, London. She went to special schools that encouraged new ways of learning. From 1932 to 1938, she attended Badminton School in Bristol. In 1938, she went to Somerville College, Oxford. She first planned to study English. But she changed to a course called "Greats." This course combined classics, ancient history, and philosophy. She graduated with top honors in 1942.
After Oxford, she worked for the British government. In 1944, she joined the UNRRA. This organization helped people after World War II. She worked in London, then in Brussels, Innsbruck, and Graz, Austria. In Graz, she helped out at a refugee camp. She left the UNRRA in 1946.
From 1947 to 1948, Iris Murdoch studied philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948, she became a fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford. She taught philosophy there until 1963. She also taught at the Royal College of Art for a few years.
In 1956, Iris Murdoch married John Bayley. He was a literary critic and novelist. They met in Oxford in 1954. Their marriage lasted over forty years, until Iris's death.
Her first novel, Under the Net, came out in 1954. Before that, she had written essays on philosophy. She also wrote the first book in English about the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. She went on to write 25 more novels. She also wrote more philosophy books, poetry, and plays.
In 1976, she received the honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1987, she became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She also received honorary degrees from several universities. These included Durham University and the University of Bath.
Iris Murdoch lived with her husband at 30 Charlbury Road from 1989 until her death. A blue plaque marks the house. Her last novel, Jackson's Dilemma, was published in 1995. Iris Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1997. She passed away in 1999 in Oxford. There is a bench dedicated to her at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She enjoyed walking there.
Her Work
Philosophy and Ideas
For a while, Iris Murdoch was more famous for her novels than her philosophy. But now, many people see her as a very important philosopher. Especially for her ideas about moral philosophy. She looked at how people learn to see and understand each other. She also explored how our senses shape our moral feelings.
Murdoch's moral philosophy has several unique features. She believed that qualities like humility or generosity are real parts of the world. She also focused on virtues, which are good character traits. She emphasized "moral perception." This means how we "see" moral facts. Her ideas were influenced by philosophers like Simone Weil and Plato. She felt she was fighting for Plato's ideas. She believed in the reality of "the Good." She saw moral life as a journey from false ideas to true understanding.
One of her most famous examples comes from her book The Sovereignty of Good. Imagine a mother-in-law, M, who doesn't like her daughter-in-law, D. M thinks D is common and cheap. M is polite to D, so her true feelings don't show. But M realizes her thoughts are unfair. She thinks they might come from jealousy. So, M decides to change how she sees D. She practices seeing D differently. Where she might think "coarse," she tries to see "spontaneous." Where she might think "common," she tries to see "fresh and naive." Over time, these new ways of seeing replace the old ones. Eventually, M doesn't have to try hard to be nice. Her actions naturally come from how she now sees D. This story shows how our inner thoughts and feelings are important for moral actions. Seeing others fairly can mean overcoming our own negative feelings.
Her Novels
Iris Murdoch's novels often explore the inner lives of people. They follow the style of great writers like Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Her books also show her love for Shakespeare. Her novels are very diverse. For example, The Black Prince (1973) has a complex structure. It also has a strong, funny imagination. This is very different from her early funny book Under the Net (1954). It is also different from The Unicorn (1963). The Unicorn can be read as a mysterious Gothic story.
Even though her novels are different, some themes appear again and again. Her books often feature smart, upper-middle-class men facing moral problems. They also include gay characters and refugees. Some characters are Anglo-Catholics who question their faith. There are often kind pets and surprisingly "knowing" children. Sometimes, a powerful, almost magical male character appears. He tries to control the other characters. This type of man is said to be based on her friend, Nobel winner Elias Canetti.
Murdoch won the Booker Prize in 1978 for The Sea, the Sea. This novel tells a detailed story about love and loss. It is about a retired theater director. He becomes overwhelmed by jealousy when he meets an old lover after many years. The book was dedicated to archaeologist Rosemary Cramp.
A collection of her poems, Poems by Iris Murdoch, was published in 1997. Some of her books have been made into TV shows. These include An Unofficial Rose and The Bell. In 1997, she received the Golden PEN Award. This award is for a lifetime of great service to literature.
Many critics praised Iris Murdoch's writing. Critic Harold Bloom said in 1986 that no other British novelist of her time was as important. A. S. Byatt called her "a great philosophical novelist."
Political Views
In 1946, Iris Murdoch won a scholarship to study in the US. But she was not given a visa. This was because she had joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1938. She was a student at Oxford at the time. She left the party in 1942. But she still felt some sympathy for communism for several years. Later, she was allowed to visit the United States. But she always needed special permission. This was because of a law that blocked former Communist Party members from entering the country. In a 1990 interview, she said her time in the Communist Party showed her "how strong and how awful it [Marxism] is."
Her Irish background was another interesting part of her political life. Even though she was born in Ireland and had Irish family, she didn't always have the political views people expected. She once said she felt "unsentimental about Ireland to the point of hatred." She also said that some Irish voices made her feel "privately sick" because they seemed to support the IRA.
Biographies and Memoirs
Many books have been written about Iris Murdoch's life. Peter J. Conradi wrote a detailed biography in 2001. He had access to her personal journals. This book was very well received. John Updike said it was a very good biography. Conradi also wrote about his personal meetings with Murdoch. His collection of materials about Murdoch is at Kingston University.
A. N. Wilson wrote Iris Murdoch as I Knew Her in 2003. This book gave a different view of her life. David Morgan wrote With Love and Rage: A Friendship with Iris Murdoch in 2010. It describes his lifelong friendship with her.
Her husband, John Bayley, wrote two memoirs about their life together. Iris: A Memoir came out in 1998, just before she died. The American version was called Elegy for Iris. A second book, Iris and Her Friends, was published in 1999. Iris Murdoch was played by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in the 2001 film Iris. The movie was based on Bayley's memories of her as she developed Alzheimer's disease.
In 2019, a collection of new memoirs was published. It was called 'Iris Murdoch: A Centenary Celebration'. It was edited by Miles Leeson. He leads the Iris Murdoch Research Centre.
Adaptations
BBC Radio 4 had an "Iris Murdoch season" in 2015. It included memoirs by people who knew her. It also had radio plays of her novels:
- Iris Murdoch: Dream Girl
- The Sea, the Sea
In March 2019, it was announced that a film company was planning a movie. It would be based on her 1964 novel The Italian Girl.
Images for kids
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A friendly robot
See also
In Spanish: Iris Murdoch para niños
