The mirror-text oscillates the narrative hierarchy by manifesting the significance of the primary text or attaches new meanings to it. As a mentor sharing his philosophical thoughts and belief with Nicholas, Conchis is the secondary character who is supposed to help the hero whenever he is in need. Yet, because of his speech acts, Conchis becomes an alternative I-narrator in his storytelling. He plays the role of a hero when sharing his past experiences.
Mirroring Nicholas’s journey, Conchis’s storytelling could be seen as a violation with which Fowles interrogates the function of the hero. Instead of making the hero an idol, the author presents the readers a vulnerable hero who is doomed to failure.
Some critics of The Magus interpret the central figure and his self-cultivation according to the plot contained in the Bildungsroman, a literary genre originated from German novels since the early 1820s. For example, Martin Swales considers that more than triggering “a tension between a concern for the sheer complexity of individual potentiality . . . and a recognition . . . that practical reality—marriage, family, career—is a necessary dimension of the hero’s self-realization” (29). With the application of history, politics and culture, the genre takes the quotidian life as the background. Secondary characters are allowed to disappear and reappear in a remarkably providential way that they are rarely “lost” because they are relatable to the hero’s potentiality. Swales comments that a bourgeois hero’s life struggle and self-development are usually of importance; the other characters then become less important. The secondary characters appear to be functional and whose narrative position is subordinate to that of the main character.
From Propp’s morphological reading of folktale and Campbell’s mythological approaches, we could see how the traditional mode of narrative contributes to the making of a hero.19 Although the content might vary because of historical or cultural diversities, the narrative structure of myths and fairytales must nevertheless correspond to a prototype.
There is always a hero struggling to reconcile the tension between his private life and the social environment. Likewise, since Fowles appropriates the structure of fairy tales and mythical signifiers for The Magus, the author manipulates a heroic figure who is supposed to
19 “Hero” is commonly used to refer to the central figure in Greek myths. Bal, in her book, offers a complete definition for this character. A “hero” is distinguished from the other characters by the following qualities: his
“qualification” in personality, his “distribution” in the story, the “independence” of his speech, the “function”
his action and his “relation” with the other characters. For more details, see Bal 132.
be favored by the narrative. Yet, evaluating the logic and consequence in the narrative, we recognize that the heroic prototype is schemed to be subverted. In contrast to the defective hero, the secondary characters in this novel appear to be more capable of taking the control over the situations. They suspend the hero’s articulation by baffling the hero’s recognition for the reality and the imaginary. While receiving the help from the secondary characters, the hero could not help wondering their real intents for they sometimes articulate with ambiguity. In The Magus, the hero’s self-doubts and his inquiry into the purpose of the Godgame, as a result, invalidate the authenticity of his existence.
In Morphology of the Folktale, Propp asserts that instead of examining tales case by case, the critics should apply systematic approaches to their textual analysis. According to Propp, one of the major problems is that “the majority of researchers begin with classification, imposing it upon the material from without and not extracting it from the material itself” (5).
Propp notices that the early scholarship worked on establishing the principles for categorizing the stories; yet, the classification used to be considered a difficult task due to the storytellers’
personal bias and misinterpretation. In the book, though he praises Bédier’s and Veselóvskij’s attributions in classification, still, he asserts that their methods are neither effective nor sufficient enough.20 There is much room for improvement.
After exploiting the weaknesses in the former methods of classification, Propp offers his morphological study. He simplifies the content of the folktales by formulating the textual structure since the plot usually follows a chronological order and the rule of causality.
Regardless of the different versions resulting from cultural differences, Propp establishes a standard rule for organizing the seemingly diversified stories. To revise Bédier’s analytical methods, he defines constants and variables of the narrative according to the “dramatis personae.” Asserting that “a description of the tale according to its component part and the relationship of these components to each other and to the whole” (19), Propp regards the constants as the unit of the narrative and thus all the stories must be regulated by one major constant. However, unlike Bédier, who gives an obscure definition for the constant, he affirms that “the dramatis personae are basic components of the tale” (21). To put this statement clearer, Propp indicates that “who acts” and “how the action is done” are the
20 Veselóvskij subdivides the theme of the story into a series of motifs which he considers as the elemental unite of the narrative. However, Propp argues that the motif is too general to categorize the narrative (12).
Likewise, he partially agrees with Bédier’s methods of analysis. Propp points out: “The value of Bédier’s methods lies in the fact that he was the first to recognize that some relationship exists in the tale between its constant and variables” (13). Yet, he questions whether the analysts could identify the constant in the story for Bédier’s definition of the constant appears to be unclear to him.
critical factors of the dramatic personae. Through identifying the functions of the characters, that is, presuming that each character must act for attaining one certain purpose, the readers could always formulate the tales. And the functions of the characters are limited and remain unchanged, Propp concludes.
Propp’s analytic methods facilitate our reading of folktales. To enhance his methods, I would like to identify the narrative constants for The Magus. In the following, we could see how the function of the dramatis personae formulates Nicholas’s actions:
I. There was a young man recollecting his bizarre happening (α). As the only son of a conservative English family, he kept a tense relationship with his father. During his adolescence, his father used to regulate his behavior with strict laws (γ2). Once his parents died (β2), the young man then became very cynic in both social disciplines and public relations (B5). When his true love knocked on the door, he refused to make any commitment ([A16] Q neg.) attempting to rid himself of the emotional bonds. Being discontent with his social backgrounds (B6), he determined to set out for adventure ( ). When he came to an isolated island, he met with a mysterious old man (θ2) who then led him into a fantastic world in which he encountered with mysterious figures and exotic experiences (ζ2[F]).
II. Once arriving at the foreign island, the hero was tempted by the twin sisters. He met a queer old man and the beautiful women who gradually violated the hero’s sense of judgment (F contr.). The old man told the innocent young man about his past. He had suffered from mental illness because in his adolescence, he was forced to practice playing by his piano teacher (α). During the recovery, he fell in love with a beautiful girl. However, the romance did not last long. A war broke out and the youth joined the army ([γ2] ). Soon he escaped from the battlefield ( ). In order to evade his father’s accusation (B6), the young man decided to leave his hometown again ( ).
His mother helped him (D) to find a shelter in his relative’s place (F69). The relative was a rich weird man living in solitude. One day he mysteriously died. Two astounding events happened and changed the youth’s attitude toward life (G3). He met with a crazy man and tried to probe into his inner world with his psychological study. However he failed to diagnose the ill. He ended up admitting that the psyche’s religious faith and actions could never be reasoned since there are things
beyond human’s knowledge. During the Second World War, for one time, the man was forced to choose life from death (Q). Freedom was his final choice (T).21
III. After passing a series of trials (D1-E1Positive), like a punishment for his recklessness, the hero returns to his hometown with a sense of suspicion ([U] ). Eventually, under the guidance of a lady (G3) he came to realize his task in the adventure that cleared up his doubts (Q). The rake became a changed person (T) and reunited with his beloved woman (w٭).
I. αγ2β2 B5[A16]Q neg. B6 θ2ζ2[F]
II. F contr. αγ2 B6 D F69 G3 Q T
III. D1-E1Positive [U] G3 Q T w٭
21 The following abbreviations are adopted from the morphology from Propp’s “Appendix IV”:
α Initial situation β2 death of parents γ2 order or command
A16 the threat of forced matrimony B5 transportation of banished hero B6 condemned hero released, spared
ζ2 the hero receives information about the hero
θ2 the hero mechanically falls victim to the influence of a magical agent Departure, dispatch of the hero from home
D The first function of the donor D1 test of the hero
E1 sustained ordeal
F The acquisition, receipt of a magical agent
F contr. hero’s negative reaction provokers cruel retribution F6 9 meeting with a helper who offers his services G3 the hero is led
Q Recognition of the hero T Transfiguration
U Punishment of the false hero or villain Return of the hero
w٭ rudimentary form of marriage
From the above scheme, we could see that while the primary hero shares the queer old man’s past stories, the old man is made into an alternative hero in his storytelling. As a result, there is another hero appearing in the second part of the story. However, since his stories are embedded within the primary one, Conchis plays a doubled role. In the first part of the story and in the beginning of the second part, Conchis is a secondary character. He then becomes an alternative heroic character. In the second part of the story, Conchis the alternative hero simultaneously coexists with Nicholas the primary hero. Their functions in the story overlap with each other in the second and third part of the story. As we could tell from the brackets, Conchis’s story, though parallels with that of Nicholas, nevertheless subordinates to the primary text.
Fowles criticizes the heroic prototype by confronting the primary hero with his shadowy other, an alternative hero in the mirror-text. The existence of the alternative hero, Conchis, as a result, violates the typical mode and meaning of the hero’s journey. If we simply analyze the characters according to their functions in the narrative, we might overlook the mythological significance carried by them. To apply Propp’s morphological reading to
The Magus, we could find a mirror-text and its plot echoes that of the primary one.
However, what does the mirroring lead to? At the end of his book, Propp informs the reader that it is never sufficient to simply recognize constants and categorize the tales into universal formulations. Instead, he consents “the entire store of fairy tales ought to be examined as a chain of variants” (Propp 114). Although the folktales seem to be identified by a limited number of constants, when analyzing the text, the readers should further seek for the variants, which might not only differ from the author’s writing style but taking the culture as their reference. The critic then explains: “The majority of [the tale’s] elements are traceable to one or another archaic cultural, religious, daily, or other reality which must be utilized for comprehension. Following the story of separate elements, there must be a genetic study of the axis on which all fairy tales are formed” (Propp 115). According to the performers and their respective functions, Propp outlines seven types of personae.22 “Who acts,” “who receive” and “how the receiver reacts to the actions” are the decisive factors that are helpful for the readers to identify the personae. Yet, Propp informs that lacking of relevant historical or cultural backgrounds of the stories, the readers might still overlook the dramatis personae in the narrative. Since the morphological reading could only show us the
22 On introducing the distribution of actions taken by dramatic personae, Propp lists seven types. : The spheres of the action of the villain, of the donor, of the helper, of the princess, of the dispatcher, of the hero and of the false hero (79-80).
relationship of a hero and his shadowing other, in order to unravel the significance of the relationship, in the following section, I would use Campbell’s mythological approaches to my interpretation of The Magus.
In an interview with Bill Moyers,Campbell affirms the value of myth and reveals his provocative inspects of the mythology:
Read myths. They teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin to get the message of the symbols. Read other people’s myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts—but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message. Myth helps you to put your mind in touch with this experience of being alive.
(Moyers 5)
To read myth is to experience life. Campbell believes that myths provide the readers an access to experience other people’s life as well as gain an insight into different cultures.
In Mythic Worlds, Modern Words, Campbell exerts mythic elements from the modern text praising James Joyce for “bringing together of the personal experience of affect with the general heritage of affect images” (5). According to Campbell, Joyce owes his success to the adoption of mythic symbols in Ulysses. Joyce arouses the readers’ interest in the modern text by adapting the personae of the myth for molding the modern characters in his book since most Western readers have already been familiar with the plot of the myth.
Regarding Odysseus’s adventure as a stimulus initiating the travel-man to searching for his identity, Joyce borrows the legendary characters and motifs from Odysseus for depicting the ordinary men and their everyday life. Campbell points out that “the boy’s finding of the father” (53) which verifies the marriage of desire and power is at issue in Joyce’s Ulysses.
In the light of Campbell’s interpretation of Joyce’s work, I would like to analyze the symbols of myths and their significance in The Magus. The hero along with his journey in the novel is a mimetic mirroring exposing the fallacies in the heroic narrative. Campbell tells the interviewer, Bill Moyers, that the narrative is structured and enhanced meanings from the hero’s journey:
The usual hero adventure begins with someone from whom something had been taken, or who feels there’s something lacking in the normal experiences available or permitted to the members of his society. This person then takes
off on a series of adventures beyond the ordinary, either to recover what has been lost or to discover some life-giving elixir. It’s usually a cycle, a going and returning. (152)
The journey is a process of personal development. It symbolizes the transition between childhood and adulthood. On the one hand, the circuit represents a threshold the immature hero shall cross over to attain mental maturity. On the other hand, the adventure symbolizes the procedure of socialization the innocent hero must pass through before entering the public realm.
In “The Journey as Metaphor,” Northrop Frye points out that the journey as a path
symbolizes “a cyclical process of birth, death, and renewed life” (212). The journey, according to Frye, is a passage the hero takes in order to reach certain purposes or to accomplish an extreme goal. Likewise, Campbell, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, views the journey as “a magnification of the formula represented in he rites of passage:separation-initiation-return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (30).
Moreover, in order to discuss the significance of the three stages in detail, Campbell subcategorizes the cyclical framework according to the symbolical transformation the hero experiences in each stage.23
Applying Campbell’s viewpoints to The Magus, I would like to discuss how Fowles adopts, adapts and eventually adepts the meaning of the mythological journey as to mapping out a rout for his modern text. The novel is divided into three major sections and each adduces a relevant quotation from De Sade’s Les infortunes de la vertu. The content of the quotations is either about a mysterious ritual or a remark of philosophy that indicates an inevitable incident to come. For instance, in the first part, the motto goes: “A professional libertine is rarely a compassionate man” (Coward 30).24 The story then acquaints the readers with a young Englishman who holds a reckless attitude toward his life as well as the
23 In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the subsections for each of the three stages are as follows.
I. Separation: (1) The Call to Adventure (2) Refusal of the Call (3) Supernatural Aid (4) The Crossing of the First Threshold (5) The Belly of the Whale
II. Initiation: (1) The Road of Trials (2) The Meeting with the Goddess (3) Woman as the Temptress (4) Atonement with the Father (5) Apotheosis (6) The Ultimate Boon
III. Return: (1) Refusal of the Return (2) The Magic Flight (3) Rescue (4) The Crossing of the Return Threshold (5) Master of the Two Worlds (6) Freedom to Live
(Campbell 36-37) However, instead of appropriating them all for my reading of The Magus, I shall selectively depict one or two representative subcategories.
24 Translated from “Un Débauché de profession est rarement un home pitoyable.”
love affairs. And his irresponsibility results from the discontent of his family and social identity. In the very beginning of the story, the readers meet with an I-narrator who introduces his background and life values:
I was born in 1927, the only child of middle-class parents, both English, and themselves born in the grotesquely elongated shadow, which they never rose sufficiently above history to leave, of that monstrous dwarf Queen Victoria.
I was sent to a public school, I wasted two years doing my national service, I went to Oxford; and there I began to discover I was not the person I wanted to be. (17)
As a character-bound focalizer, the “I” indicates his life revolt due to his dissatisfaction with the current ways of living. From the massive usage of the passive tense and the adjective phrases, we could tell that the past life is a heavy burden to him. Marking his identity with the exact birth year, social class and nationality, these identifications seem to validate the speaker’s existence in the narrative. However, prolonging the identifications with the adjectives, the narrator turns the identity into a self-mockery. Similar to those heroes in the
Bildungsroman,
the narrator “I,” Nicholas Urfe, attempts to evade from his life predicaments and thus seeks for a temporal escape. Only by setting out for a hazard could the hero gets rid of social constrains. Nicholas blames the strict tradition and family disciplines for impeding him from self-development. In order to become the person he pictures for himself, he must negate his pastNicholas believes that he could have released from the paternal control since the death of his parents. Yet, his parents continuously shed a great influence on him. From his interaction with women, we can assume that his parents’ imbalanced marital relationship has biased his recognition of the opposite sex. Because his mother “never argued with him and, always behaved as if he were listening in the next room” (17), the young Nicholas, too, dares not to argue with his father; or else “[his father] would produce one of these totem words,
Nicholas believes that he could have released from the paternal control since the death of his parents. Yet, his parents continuously shed a great influence on him. From his interaction with women, we can assume that his parents’ imbalanced marital relationship has biased his recognition of the opposite sex. Because his mother “never argued with him and, always behaved as if he were listening in the next room” (17), the young Nicholas, too, dares not to argue with his father; or else “[his father] would produce one of these totem words,