The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet" Page: 99
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99
(C, p. 281). Given the association of sex with growth,
one may suspect that Memli'k, like Gapodistria, may turn
from a path dedicated to darkness and begin to pursue
light, and further that Memli'k's true orientation is
towards growth rather than towards avarice and cruelty.
Only in Narouz's story does darkness seem dominant and
without redemption, and if one allows the poetic "balance
of Clea's wound to serve as good coming from Narouz, then
even Narouz's story does not deny the Quartet's broader
theme of growth. In any case, Narouz has been shown in
this chapter to desire good and growth as symbolized by
his love for Clea, and Narouz's failure to effect good
has been associated with his bad fate rather than his
bad will.
The only other blatant exemplification of evil in
the Quartet is the occurrence of the Second World War.
I assume that the war is symbolically represented in
part by the opposing camps of the conspirators and the
diplomats, and that in their essentially good intents is
to be suggested the idea that war is a broad-scale- result
of conflicting growths, associated with the dark
principles. In Mountolive Durrell describes war as a
"nation-wide exercise in political diabolism" (M, p. 81),
and refers to soldiers as "servants of an iron will which
exhibits itself in the mailed mask of duty" (M, p. 217).
In Clea Darley regrets the "wretched windy words which
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Fordham, Glenn Wayne, Jr. The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet", dissertation, May 1981; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc330626/m1/105/?q=war&rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .