Iris Murdochs View about the Conotations of Great Novels

â€Å"The idea of perfection, â€Å"Iris defines in more details the concepts of attention, vision, imagination and love, and all of these figure in the concept of freedom. Her idea of perfection is moral progress, the movement toward a better vision of an object or a person, in order to seek out the reality of something or someone else. Iris defines that: â€Å"Art is the most educational of all human activities and a place in which the nature of morality can be seen. Hence, good art inspires love in the highest part of the soul.† â€Å"Plato describes the role of great art as an educator and revealer. What is learnt in art is about the real quality of human nature.† (63) In an interview took place during August 1987 at Iris Murdochs home in Oxford by S.B Sagare, Murdoch shared her view about the connotations of great novels. Sagere asked that:† You say that the great novel is shaped by the vision of the artist— I mean, ‘a novelist should have a view point of mature morality’ (‘Sublime and Beautiful Revisited’ 257). Will you please elaborate?† Murdoch answered: â€Å"I think the fundamental thing which a great novel cant be without is a kind of moral vision, an ability of the writer to judge justly his own general attitude to his society and attitude to his characters. This is what must be deep, must be just, and must be compassionate. The presence of these virtues, the ability to see thing in perspective also implies an ability to express what is funny in the right sort of way. These are