LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:8 August 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Theme of Self-Realisation in Patrick White’s
A Fringe of Leaves

K. Rajasri, M.A., M.Phil.


Abstract

Patrick White is considered to be a major English-language writer of the second half of the twentieth century, and still the grand old master of Australian Literature. Being a prolific writer, he attempted almost all the genres of literature. He has written an extensive body of literature including prose, fiction, poetry, short fiction and drama. The basic theme in White is mankind’s search for a meaning and for a value in existence. The characters in the novel A Fringe of Leaves, search for their identity by undergoing many crises and finally achieves it. A Fringe of Leaves depicts Ellen’s journey through life and her self-realisation through suffering in endurance and understanding and compassion and love. She is basically human and modest and sensible. She is full of gratitude to her husband Austin and her convict-rescuer-lover, Jack. She never tries to look superior. Ellen leads a structured life until her experiences after the shipwreck of the Bristol Maid. At the end, she has become a person who is free from the structures of life and accepts the inevitability of disorder. She has experienced freedom, doing what she wants without worrying about the restraints of society. She chooses to return to civilisation and to the structures and orders of the English life. White shows how Ellen develops from the country girl to the more structural life of the English lady. Through Ellen in A Fringe of Leaves, White teaches to suffer with dignity and to find strength in loneliness.

Keywords: Patrick White, A Fringe of Leaves, self-realization, quest for true purpose of life.

Quest for Knowing the True Purpose of Life

Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian writer who is widely regarded as one of the most important English-language novelists of the 20th century. Patrick White is well-known for his powerful dramatization of human isolation. He is apprehensive with the private life of the individual who, dissatisfied with society, runs away from the actual sphere of life to seek comfort in his self-conceived world of the imagination. He delineates characters, who are sensitive to the life’s reality but anxious of its subtlety. The mind’s eye has enabled them to mediate between the life within and the life without. White’s characteristic strength is defined by the aggressive and imposing quality of these characters.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

K. Rajasri, M.A., M.Phil.
31 Bharathiyar Street
Sattur- 626203
Tamilnadu
India
rkrajasri@gmail.com
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