This study is concerned with an evaluation of the suffering
and self of the elected characters in the novels of Patrick
White. The suffering these elected characters endure, apart
from the uncomprehending antagonism of society, takes place
mainly in the country of the mind - "that solitary land of
the individual experience, in which no fellow footfall is
ever heard" (Epigraph to The Aunt's Story) - and is a form
of catharsis in preparatory to a reunion with God as the
Source of all Being. The suffering, whether of a psychic or
physical nature - or both - is complicated by the duality
between the esoteric and exoteric selves of the characters
involved. The nature of the suffering is always solitary.
The wisdom eventually gained from the suffering cannot be
shared. Contact with fellow elect is brief and without consequence
except for mutual recongnition of "outsidership".
It is clear that the elected character has no apparent control
of what happens to him in life. The reader gains the
impression that the elected characters in White's novels are
the involuntary victims of some "malign" life-force that,
paradoxically, brings about a state of grace. White touches
on, but wisely prefers not to examine, the problems of
predestination and euthanasia.
The elected characters are all outsiders in the sense that
they are, in some psychic or physical manner, different from
the members of the society in which they find themselves.
In the earlier novels the elected characters' alienism is
characterised by their intuitive awareness of another, nonphysical,
transcendent plane of being - "There is another
world, but it is in this one" (Epigraph to The Solid
Mandala) . Progressive reading of White's novels reveals
that his conception of suffering, despite disavowal, is in
line with the Biblical concept of suffering as described in
Paul's letter to the Romans.
The non-elected members of society with whom the elect come
into conflict either do not understand or are unwilling to
admit their intuitive awareness that there is another world
within the familiar one, a concept White frequently refers
to in his image of boxes and boxes within boxes. The secret
knowledge the elect seem to have antagonises the other members
of society because of the sense of loss they experience.
White's later novels reveal a concern with sexually aberrated
suffering which is closely aligned to his own unhappiness.
The sexual duality that is an essential aspect of
Theodora Goodman's (The Aunt's Story) dilemma gains progressively
more of White's attention and is eventually exposed
in his biography of Eddie Twyborn (The Twyborn Affair).
White's concern with abnormal sexuality is related to his
disquiet with the mystery of the soul baing "housed” in a
body not only unsuitable, but also contrary to the nature of
the psyche which is either predominantly male or female.
White is clearly angry that this mystery should be the
profound result of momentary lust. Although so many of
White's elect labour under spiritually destructive burdens
of guilt, the parents who are considered the root cause of
all suffering in a post-lapsarian state, feel little of any
compunction because they are too concerned with their own
suffering, real or imagined.
God as Source or God as the "One" is an all-pervading, if
unacknowledged force in White's corpus and in the lives of
his elect. The elect turn to God only when they have suffered
and acknowledged their dependence on Him.
It is sad that White should, in the end not find himself in
"the boundless garden" with Stan Parker (The Tree of Man).
He seems to share the fates of Theodora Goodman (The Aunt's
Story) and Arthur Brown (The Solid Mandala). / Thesis (DLitt)--UOVS, 1989
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/10864 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Brugman, Albert Pieter |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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