Reflections in Under the Net by Iris MurdochIn her novel Under the Net, Iris Murdoch examines the nature of reality through the thoughts and relationships of the main character of the novel, Jake Donaghue. A recurring theme in the novel is the idea of ​​reflection, in both senses of the word: Jake is continually thinking about ideas, and he is also always trying to see himself as he really is. Many instances of reflection in the novel occur near rivers or are somehow connected to currents. As we will see, Iris Murdoch uses reflections in Under the Net to represent the opposing mirrors of reality and appearance. The Novel as Reflection In examining Murdoch's use of reflections in Under the Net, it is perhaps useful to briefly discuss the novel as reflection itself. Jake is apparently the author of the novel, and it is presented as a sort of documentation of selected episodes from his life. The novel is at least partly based on real people (Hugo Bellfounder, for example, is based on the German linguistic analyst Ludwig Wittgenstein), but it is of course a work of fiction; as such it only reflects reality. Likewise, Jake is only a reflection of the novel's true writer, Iris Murdoch. Murdoch's protagonist is a man and we see the characters and events in the novel from a male point of view, but in reality this point of view is actually that of a woman. Murdoch presents the story this way to emphasize the connection between truth and fiction: fiction is a reflection of reality, but neither can be defined without the other. Contingency and Non-Contingency When he first introduces himself to the reader, Jake informs us that he is “talented, but lazy.” We quickly learn that he's not just too self-critical; ......middle of paper ......e composed of moments that pass and become nothing. Yet, through this axis of nothing, we move forward with this miraculous vitality that creates our precarious habitations of the past and future. This is how we live; a spirit broods and hovers over the continual death of time, the lost meaning, the unrecovered moment, the forgotten face, until the final blow which ends all our moments and plunges this spirit back into the void from which it came from. (p244) Contingency and non-contingency, like reality and appearance, are mirror images of each other that are interconnected; one cannot exist without the other. Despite the contingency and uncertainty that surround our daily reality, we continue our dialogue of life, and Under the Net presents itself as a fascinating exploration of this union of concepts. References used Murdoch, Iris (19). Under the Net.