The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet" Page: 9
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the characters' adaptable psyches. In the following plot
summary, I consider Darley's story chronologically, an
arrangement which best emphasizes progress in growth,
the subject of this chapter.
The story of Darley's love affairs with Melissa,
Justine, and Clea, begins chronologically in the Quartet
in Justine, as Darley, a poor schoolteacher living in
Alexandria prior to World War II, finds himself
uncharacteristically and inexplicably stagnant. Darley
writes, "In this last year I have reached a dead end in
myself. I lack the will-power to do anything with my
life, to better my position by hard work, to writes even
to make love. I do not know what has come over me. This
is the first time I have experienced a real failure of
the will to survive" (J, pp. 21-22). Existing at this
"dead level of things" (J, p. 23), Darley is befriended
by Melissa, a nightclub dancer and sometime prostitute,
who chooses "to blow some breath of life into my nostrils"
(J, p. 22), and wind Darley's affection with "her charity"
(J, p. 18), as she offers to be his "girl" (J, p. 58).
Despite her generosity and tender nature, Melissa's
simplicity and lack of education make her unsuitable as
a permanent companion for Darley; and when he is approached
by Justine, the educated and sensual Jewish wife of the
wealthy Egyptian banker, Nessim, Darley begins an affair
of passion which is to dominate the first novel of the Quartet,
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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/m1/15/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .