A Severed Head (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Iris Murdoch
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Farce
- Time of Work: The late 1950’s
- Setting: London
- Principal Characters: Martin Lynch-Gibbon, Antonia Lynch-Gibbon, Georgie Hands, Palmer Anderson, Honor Klein, Alexander Lynch-Gibbon
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Satire, Farce
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, Self-discovery, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Marriage, Betrayal, Friendship, Incest, Obsession, England or English people, Reality, Alcohol, Adultery, London, Naivete, Fog
- Locales: London, England, Cambridge, England, Oxford, England
Form and Content
Events contradict the story that Martin tells in A Severed Head, while the plot’s old fashioned comic turns have him stumbling from one revelation to another. Martin not only mistakes the motives of the people dear to him but also mistakes his own. His love of wife and mistress that he parades so proudly at the start of the novel is eventually exposed as love for mother and child substitutes. As his assumptions are shattered, Martin gradually loses control of himself; he drinks more and more, becoming violent, sick, and irrational. Yet he begins to...
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See Also:
Iris Murdoch (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Iris Murdoch (Long Fiction)Iris Murdoch (World Philosophers)
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