A Spectrum of Image‐Making: Master Metaphors and Cognitive Acts in Murdoch's Bruno's Dream

Abstract

The Imagination is not morally neutral; images mould our moral visions. They can illuminate, but they can also mislead. Yet image‐making is innate to perception. This study analyses how master metaphors shape the consciousness of the major characters and lead to inadequate cognition. Aesthetically Bruno's Dream is controlled by a spectrum of image‐making: the two central characters, Bruno Greensleave, the materialist, and Lisa Watkins, the mystic, weave metaphors at the opposite end of a spectrum: Bruno perceives self and God in total concretion, Lisa signifies them in total silence. In light of this spectrum, the study examines three aspects of the novel: it analyses the function of mise‐en‐abyme. It introduces a new reading of Nigel. He is a self‐mythologizing enchanter, who believes he is the avatar of shiva. The study also explicates the subversive roles of the spiders and the river Thames. Bruno's Dream gauges the characters’spiritual journeys by their ability to efface images, and by their ability to understand death, i e., imageless perception.