The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet" Page: 115
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115
the unpleasure-loving" (M, p. 287). Pursewarden in his
journals complains, "Society! Let us complicate existence
to the point of drudgery so that it acts as a drug against
reality." Associating society with religion, Pursewarden
speculates that "If once we could loosen up, relax the
terrible grip of the so-called Kingdom of Heaven," of
"the closed system" (C, p. 139). then "the infant Joy"
(C, p. 1^0) could emerge and become "'joy unconfined.' How
could joy be anything else?" (B, p. 239). Thus the psyche
could reach its "original innocence—who invented the
perversion of Original Sin, that filthy obscenity of the
West?" (C, pp. lM-^2).
Even in a more primitive state, society is characterized
by rigidity and the lack of spontaneity. Thus when
Nessim accompanies Narouz into the desert to meet a
group of Arabian herdsmen, Nessim recognizes "the tight
inbred Arab world—its formal courtesies and feuds--its
primitiveness," and its "life-hating, unpleasure-loving
strength" (B, p. 87). Here "a knowledge of forms only
was necessary now, not insight, for these delightful
desert folk were automata," and Nessim suddenly finds
himself "thinking of Mountolive" (B, p. 88). In the
working out of the war between the diplomats and the
conspirators, Alexandrian society also becomes a monster
dictating behavior. Thus in society's strictures and
structures is to be seen a repression of behavior and
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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/m1/121/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .