Food and Cooking as Comic Relief in Iris Murdoch’s the Sea, the Sea

As a literary term, comic relief is the appearance of humorous and funny episodes or scenes in otherwise serious literary works. The aim of comic relief is to reduce the anxiety or distress that the audience feels as a result of the depiction of the painful and pitiful events or incidents. The joy and laughter that comic relief provides balance the intensity of the misery and sadness which are inherent in the narrative. Although comic relief is mostly associated with dramatic works, the scenes of food and cooking in Iris Murdoch’s 1978 Booker Prize winner novel The Sea, the Sea illustrate some proper examples of the term. Murdoch’s protagonist, the retired playwright and director Charles Arrowby, cheerfully cooks and eats whenever the mental anxiety rises to a critical level. Charles displays his enjoyment of preparing and having food so intensely that his happiness and thrill easily neutralise the uneasiness of the reader. This paper aims to illustrate how a protagonist’s delight at food and cooking serves as comic relief which reduces the intensity of the unease caused by a sad story.