Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)
Tibor Tóth: Fiction as the 'River Between': Daniel Martin
62 TIBOR TÓT! I in the larger context of his enslavement by a definitely alien form of life and art only when he is forced to meditate on his possibilities of 'getting home.' We have already demonstrated the nature of the technique, which creates the sense of isolation, which rules the novel's first two chapters. Daniel Martin is culpable for a series of infidelities, which in their turn determine his perception of spiritual and material reality and the narrative strategy employed by John Fowles attempts to reproduce the novel's dissociation from traditional interpretation, which his tidecharacter importandy comes to understand step by step. The successful scriptwriter only realises after many years of pseudosecurity provided by financial wealth that he has to pay for his disloyalty, his betrayal of what he at the moment of the writing of the novel comes to understand as art. Art is different from the 'creative writing' he has excelled in as a famous scriptwriter and his gradual 'reforgetting' 9 of earlier dreams of art brings about his 'reforgetting' of earlier dreams of life as well. Consequently the novel reveals other aspects of betrayal as he discovers that the lovely mistress with whom he has a love affair, or rather a flirt fades away besides the memory of the woman he loved and deserted. This realisation helps him understand one source of his exile. Art and love have become for him constituent elements of an overall false attitude towards life and implicitiy are telling of his paradoxical betrayal of ideals, which are indispensable for his integrity. This means that Daniel Martin is faced with his image as an artificial 'version' of what he could have become if he had chosen the right form of art and life. He has to learn that if he wants to interpret his existence in humanistic terms, he has to give up his right to direct, order and manipulate people from the position of authority provided for him by his status as a script writer of international fame. Because he has the courage 'to get home' our idea of him will be interpretable by paraphrasing John Fowles. I don't think of myself as 'giving up work to be a writer,' I'm giving up work to, at last, be. 1 0 9 Reforgetting is a term employed by John Fowles's artist character in Mantissa. 1( 1 Fowles, John. 1964. "I Write Therefore I Am." In Wormholes, 5-12. London: Jonathan Cape, 1999,7.
