Freedom in John Fowles' The Magus

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1974

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Fowles weaves together structure, theme, and rhetoric in The Magus to create a view of man's existential situation. The Magus depicts a world where man can discern no ultimate truth beyond existence and death; however, instead of describing man as alienated from the external world like Camus and Sartre, Fowles considers man part of the natural and social world. As Nicholas Urfe learns, man can lead a fulfilling life by responding intuitively and emotionally to the essential mystery and vitality of this world. At the beginning of the novel, Nicholas acts in bad faith by denying his freedom. By the end, however, he has achieved the beginning of moral and psychological maturity as a result of the godgame; he has accepted his emotional, intuitive self, assumed his freedom, and learned to respect the freedom of others. The Magus also considers the darker side of freedom and of man's psyche, the will to power, through a central paradox: Conchis' use of unethical means in teaching Nicholas to assume his freedom. The novel finally implies that the ideal, total respect for others' freedom, can seldom be achieved; the best approximation of this ideal is to recognize our failure to achieve it and still try to respect others' freedom, Structure and rhetoric reinforce this theme of the individual's need to integrate his non-rational with his rational self. The three part separation-initiation-return pattern of the quest myth provides the structural basis for both the interpolated tales and the novel's main action. Both the Conchis of the tales and Nicholas assume their existential freedom and achieve psychological integration through their quests, Conchis by accepting his "dark" Greek blood and Nicholas by accepting Alison. Prior to his quest, Nicholas uses language to deny his freedom rather than to enhance it. In Part III of the novel, however, Nicholas' language reflects his growth as he begins to express authentic responses to experience and people—responses which are no longer merely rational but are also emotional and intuitive. Language, for him, finally becomes a means of asserting that freedom which, according to The Magus, is man's most precious birthright.

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