Double image : a study of alienation and commitment in the novels of Patrick White

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how the way that White felt about society is reflected in his novels. At diffent periods of his life, he experienced a sense of Patrick differ complete alienation as well as a whole-hearted desire to be integrated with society and to help to improve it from a position within it. The first part of this thesis deals with the novels written after White's return to Australia, a return which was also a desire to find meaning through committing himself to the needs of society. White's search for meaning at this stage is overtly religious and in The Tree of Man (1956), Voss (1957), and Riders in the Chariot (1961), references to God and salvation are frequent and direct. Stan Parker reaches apotheosis in a vision of the One at the end of his life; Voss is saved through his love for Laura and the four visionaries in Riders in the Chariot find salvation through sharing the pain and sorrow of their lives. After Riders in the Chariot, which is the novel which carries the most scathing criticism of society, White moves perceptibly inwards. Part Two of this thesis is concerned with White's consciousness of the fact that the dualities that exist in the outside world have their subjective correlative, so to speak, within the human being. In The Solid Mandala (1966), White portrays dichotomies in the twin brothers Waldo and Arthur. In The Vivisector (1970), these irresolvable dichotomies exist in one person - Hurtle Duffield. After The Vivisector, White makes a new effort to come to terms with society. Part Three deals with two novels written in a spirit of compromise. In The Eye of the Storm (1973), White portrays an illuminate who is also a greedy socialite, thus showing that depth in life. even apparently superficial people can discover In A Fringe of Leaves (1976), the protagonist is an ordinary person and in this novel there is significantly more focus upon her return to society than upon her moments of illumi nation. Part Four discusses White's last two novels, The Twyborn Affair (1979) and Memoirs of Many in One (1986). White discontinues his efforts to accept society in these novels and he depicts the state of alienation itself. This estrangement results from the fragmentation caused by ambisexuality, but on a deeper level these novels portray the schizophrenic state that the modern world impose upon the human personality. In Memoirs of Many in One, White poses as an editor and even intrudes upon the narrative as a character so that the nature of the genre itself is questioned.