Anyone else frustrated by Hartley in Irish Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea?

29 replies

Duskiestsunset · 04/08/2026 08:32

I’m just reading this and I know Charles Arrowby is awful but does anyone also feel frustrated and angry about Hartley?

In many ways, she seems equally terrible to me. She leaves him when she’s young with no explanation and then decades later says she can’t remember. She agrees to meet him and tells him things but then acts inane and without any agency. I just found her hugely annoying by the end but can see very little written about her.

is it just me?

OP posts:

SusanJJ · 04/08/2026 18:35

I thought that the point is how vacuous and unappealing Hartley seems to the reader, how little Charles ever understood her and how Charles eventually starts to feel as bullying as Ben.

Dappy777 · 04/08/2026 18:31

I loved The Sea, The Sea I think The Good Apprentice is my favourite Murdoch novel, followed by The Green Knight, but The Sea, The Sea comes in third.

As for Hartley, I see what you mean. To be honest, I found Arrowby's obsession kind of odd and not particularly convincing. I also found her a rather weakly drawn character. The whole relationship was weird, actually. For me, it was the other characters who brought the novel alive. That and the wonderful descriptions of the sea.

I have read a lot of Murdoch and absolutely adore her. My one criticism is that she overdose the romance. Her characters are always falling madly in love with one another, to the point where you want to laugh out loud. It's hard to believe that a rather selfish, arrogant man like Arrowby would pursue a childhood sweetheart so relentlessly – especially after so many years and so much success.

Duskiestsunset · 04/08/2026 15:22

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StroudMould · 04/08/2026 12:36

Yes, being annoyed really does seem to be beside the point.

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