1. Charles's house, Shruff End, is in many ways a character in its own right. Intricately described, the house is explicitly referred to as gloomy and cave-like and can in many ways stand as a metaphor for Charles's own mind. What are some of the ways that events and features in Shruff End indicate Charles's mental state? Discuss his evocation of Plato's myth of the cave and fascination with Minn's Cauldron. What other examples and uses of the trope of the cave punctuate the novel?

2. In a moment of drunken philosophical reverie, James renders the following soliloquy:

"Religion is power, it has to be, the power for instance to change oneself, even to destroy oneself. But that is also its bane. The exercise of power is a dangerous delight. . . . The worshipper endows the worshipped object with power, real power not imaginary power. . . . But this power is dreadful stuff. Our lusts and attachments compose our god. And when one attachment is cast off another arises by way of consolation. We never give up a pleasure absolutely, we only barter it for another. All spirituality tends to degenerate into magic, and the use of magic has an automatic nemesis even when the mind has been purified of grosser habits. White magic is black magic. And a less than perfect meddling in the spiritual world can breed monsters for other people. Demons used for good can hang around and make mischief afterwards. The last achievement is the absolute surrender of magic itself, the end of what you call superstition. Yet how does it happen? Goodness is giving up power and acting upon the world negatively. The good are unimaginable."

Contrast this description of magic and the concept of goodness with Charles's stated intention at the beginning of the novel to "abjure magic and . . . learn to be good."

3. Speaking of "some fear of loneliness and death that comes to me out of the sea," Charles observes that "the sea ages one," yet he continually presents it as an object of aesthetic appreciation. Contrast Charles's rich, painterly descriptions of the sea in his writing with the role it plays in the "real world" that the novel presents. How are both the plot and the characters' thoughts organized by and centered on the figure of the sea?

4. Compare the three female characters—the mundane and muddled Hartley, the demure and clinging Lizzie, and the fierce and implacable Rosina—in their attitudes toward love and their approaches to Charles. Are any of them free? Do they seek freedom? Compare Murdoch's depiction of them with her handling of the male characters. Is sexual difference and "the nature of women" a theme in the book?

5. Charles repeatedly and self-consciously draws attention to the diary/ memoir format of his writing, contrasting it to his previous writings, which were "written in water." In fact his withdrawing to Shruff End to write his memoir provides the very foundation and center of everything that happens in the novel. How does Murdoch use the natural self-absorption of this medium to render a view of Charles that he himself does not have access to? What are other examples of his self-absorption?

6. The specter of demons, fates, and controlling forces are sprinkled throughout the novel. What are some of the examples of these "relentless mechanisms"? What is their significance? Is The Sea, The Sea a fatalistic novel? What examples might counter this assertion?

7. What is the significance of Titian's Perseus and Andromeda in the novel? How do the painting's figures relate to specific sets of characters, for instance, Hartley, Ben, and Charles, or Peregrine, Charles, and Rosina? Discuss the sea monster and its role in the painting and the novel, taking into consideration both its phallic and vaginal manifestations.

8. Life, Charles says, unlike art, "has an irritating way of bumping and limping on, undoing conversions, casting doubts on solutions, and generally illustrating the impossibility of living happily or virtuously ever after." What conversions are undone, what solutions cast in doubt in the novel? By the end of the novel, has Charles learned anything through his experiences? Is he—or are any of the other characters—happier or more virtuous at the end of the novel than at the beginning? If so, in what way? If not, how has he failed?

9. How does one reconcile Charles's passionate yearning for Hartley with his appraisal of the married state as "that unimaginable condition of intimacy and mutual bondage"? In light of the fact that love and its reclamation, romantic histories, jealousy, and sexual obsession figure so prominently in the novel, is there an example of a happy couple in The Sea, The Sea or are all fated to be, in some sense or another, trapped in "the inferno of marriage"?

10 Echoing the frequent occurrence in modernist fiction of the male hero on a quest, Murdoch often utilizes a central male narrator in her novels—a device that prompts some to accuse her of trying to "write like a man." In The Sea, The Sea, how does she maintain a distance from her male narrator? What elements of Charles's circuitous intellectual journalizing does Murdoch employ to undermine his narrative position? Discuss some of the many examples of Charles's unreliability as a narrator, especially those involving the disparity between his stated intentions and what he actually delivers.

11. James is very prominent in both Charles's memories and in the plot, taking on many roles in Charles's mind: spoiled cousin, latent homosexual, Buddhist mystic, patronizing connoisseur, retired general, magical savior, romantic rival, moral conscience, reader of the book of Nature. In light of this plethora of identities, what effect does James have on Charles's own identity? Can James be considered the "guiding angel" of The Sea, The Sea? Why or why not?