The purpose of this study, is to establish the thesis that Brian Moore's predominant concern with the characterization of his individual protagonists influences both the form and content of his first seven novels. Chapters I and II discuss the effect of Moore's interest in character on the structural elements of plot and point of view. Chapter I describes the typical Moore plot which traces the gradual transformation of the character of the protagonist as the result of a series of disillusioning events which climax in a moment of revised self-recognition. Thus, plot is operative in determining character. The most striking aspect of Moore's narrative technique, discussed in Chapter II, is his accomplished mixing of first and third-person narration. As a consequence, Moore is able to present the protagonist with the objectivity of third-person narration at the same time as he advances the protagonist's subjective view in the first-person. In all Moore's novels, however, the emphasis on the protagonist's view ensures that his personality dominates the narrative. Chapters III and IV deal with the elaborate patterns of language and image which illuminate Moore's novels. Chapter III links the unique linguistic quality of each novel to its source in the language, character, and situation of the protagonist, while Chapter IV describes the patterns of imagery which reveal the protagonist's vision of himself and of his world. In the latter chapter, the several methods by which Moore depicts the physical and psychological qualities of his characters are discussed as well as his special visualization of each novel in its entirety. Both chapters argue that Moore's considerable skills in manipulating language and image find a focus in the central .character of each novel. Chapter V deals with the underlying ideas in Moore's fiction and, in particular, with the search for identity which is fundamental to all seven novels. Like Moore's protagonists, who are themselves ordinary human beings, Moore's themes are founded in common human experience. And so, the discussion of thematic content which concludes this study illustrates yet another area in which Moore's concern with the portrayal of character influences his fiction. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The fictional worlds of Brian Moore's four novels are, in this thesis, explored for their relation to reality and to the action and overall effect of the novels. The argument rests on the premise that the nature of the world a novelist creates affects the action which is possible in the novel and predisposes that action to certain kinds of interpretation. It also assumes that for this sort of investigation, some workable description of a fictional world can be arrived at by examining such features as the selection of detail, the ordering principles, and the language with which that world is created, as well as the narrator's position in relation to the fiction. The introductory chapter is devoted to elaborating these premises and illustrating their application to modern fiction in a general way. The next four chapters analyse the fictional worlds in Brian Moore's four novels in order of publication, marking any discernable connection they have with the action of the novels and judging their influence on the reader's interpretation of the action. These chapters examine Moore’s techniques of projecting an illusion of reality, with occasional comparison with the methods of other novelists and more frequent comparisons among the four novels, designed to trace signs of development in his techniques. Chapter Two deals with Judith Hearne, tracing particularly the fate of the aging spinster's religious and romantic impulses in a world which might be described as rhetorically, as well as spiritually, constricting. In Chapter Three, the world of dehumanized social forces in The Feast of Lupercal is examined together with the failure of the Belfast schoolmaster Diarmuid Devine to offset these forces with any strong human qualities or values transcending the claims of social expedience. A large part of Chapter Four, dealing with The Luck of Ginger Coffey, Moore's only novel set in Canada, is concerned with developments in the author's techniques. Its fictional world is found to be larger, and to accommodate more of the individual humanity of his characters. Greater reliance on representational techniques has also affected the depth and range of interpretation of his fiction. Chapter Five, on Brian Moore's latest novel, An Answer from Limbo, is less a study of development than of innovation in the author's methods. The effect of first-person narration is examined, and the complication of the fictional world by the development of three distinct perspectives on the action, corresponding to the three main characters. The concluding chapter summarizes the similarities in the fictional worlds of the four novels, and attempts a general characterization of Moore's techniques of presenting an illusion of reality, relating them to the overall effects of his fiction. The differences traced in the earlier chapters are also drawn together in an effort to find some pattern of development in the changes. On the basis of this one characteristic of his fiction, Brian Moore is finally compared with other novelists as a means of estimating his position in the stream of modern fiction. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate