Modernism In The Unicorn

Modernism is a revolutionary movement that affected world war one and the huge breakthrough in technology. Modernism extended from 1890 to 1940 reaching its peak between 1920-1930. Modernism refers to a radical shift in aesthetic and cultural sensibilities evident in the art and literature of the post-world war one period. Modernism, thus, marks a distinctive break with Victorian morality rejecting the nineteenth-century optimism, and presenting a profoundly pessimistic picture of a culture in disarray. Modernism is a revolt against the conservative values of realism, and a rejection of tradition and its reprise, and the certainty of enlightenment thinking. Modernism, in short, is a thought, discussion, creative work, or genre of art and literature

The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch (1963)

The Unicorn is a remarkable novel by Iris Murdoch. The narrative weaves in elements of the Gothic, the allegorical, and the mythical, and it does so within the framework of suspense. There’s a lot going on in this novel, and by the end, Murdoch leaves it up to the reader to determine what it all means. Some readers will be frustrated by Murdoch’s ambiguity and that the meaning of the story is open to a wide variety of interpretations.

The story begins when Marian Taylor, a thirty-year-old former schoolteacher, arrives at Gaze Castle to perform the duties of governess. When she arrives, she learns that she is not to be a governess, but instead a lady’s companion to Hannah Crean-Smith, owner of the big house in what is presumably the Irish countryside. Gaze and the surrounding lands are repeatedly characterized as being ancient, alien, and isolating, and its inhabitants and their ways are more akin to people living in medieval times, not a mid-20th century Western society. Perhaps the epitome of this is that upon Marian’s arrival at the train station, she searches for a way to get to Gaze and someone recommends that she travel there by horse. Arriving at Gaze is like going back in time, and it frightens Marian. What worries her most though is the revelation that for the last seven years, Hannah has been effectively imprisoned at Gaze by her husband, Peter Crean-Smith. The other inhabitants of the house—Gerald Scottow, Violet

The title of the novel is an image that finds its figurative representation in the character of Hannah. Through a conversation between Max and Effie, we are told that the unicorn is a Christ-like image in that it is an innocent creature that is captured and turned into a scapegoat, sacrificed to purge away the sins and crimes of others. This is the allegorical aspect of the novel, but this is a modern allegory in that the meaning of Hannah’s suffering is not interpreted for us. As readers we have to decide what her suffering means, if it means anything at all. Iris Murdoch doesn’t tell readers what to think in this novel, On the other hand, the novel is a bit frustrating. In order to leave the interpretation of the story up to the reader, there has to be a certain level of ambiguity. It’s that very ambiguity, however, that is frustrating. There were several moments when one wasn’t all sure what had just happened or what was