Scratching the Surface

Initial Response to The Magus

            Given the breadth of this work, I am going to have to considerably limit the scope of this initial reflection and I hope to be able to set myself up for a more in depth analysis for later in the semester.  That being said, I would like to start this discussion at the same place we started the semester.  Does anyone else remember the quote that Dr. Sexson brought up on the first day of class?  Well, I do.  And since we have talked about reading too much into things, that is exactly what I am going to do.  It is my opinion that Dr. Sexson was setting us up for The Magus when he said, “What see’st though else in the dark backward and abysm of time.”  This quote, taken from Act 1 Scene 2 of the Tempest, spoken by Prospero, was, somehow, supposed to bring us both into the past and the future (I will leave an explanation for that up to Eliot).

            This is one of the ideas put forward by Nicholas Urf himself as to how we are to interpret the novel.  The Magus is, amongst other things, a retelling of The Tempest.  We are given a magician who is capable of manipulating the reality of everyone and everything in the story to his will; two lovers who are going to come together through the senex of the magician (I may have taken some liberties this term); various characters who do the magicians bidding.  However, Fowles takes his story a step further by throwing the reader into the chaos along with the characters (probably one of the reasons he opts for a first person narrative style).  The reader is, in this case, more Ferdinand than Prospero.  But by viewing the two storylines as analogous, it can help a reader reach a conclusion about what happens after the narrative has ended (if the epilogue wasn’t enough for you).  And just as Prospero asks the audience to justify the quality of the performance by applause in his Epilogue, by leaving the end of the story, for lack of a better word, unfinished, Fowles asks for something similar from his audience.

 

            These are just one of my initial responses, but I hope be able to spend some more time exploring the implications of the other Shakespearian references e.g., Hamlet, Othello, As You Like It (the copious A.Y.L.I. references also help a well-versed reader come to a conclusion about the end, as well).