JOSEPH CONRAD (1857 1924) As Virginia Woolf once remarked, Conrads fiction is characterized by a double vision that enabled

d him to celebrate sea adventure almost as romantically as Stevenson, and at the same time to apply to it a cool, detached and ironic analysis and to explore it in symbolic terms. Thus romance and realism, impressionism and symbolism are almost inseparable in Conrads fiction. Conrad is a great artist, who produced classical masterpieces of modern fiction and contributed more than anyone else, with the exception of James to the development of narrative theory. 1. Conrads novelistic principles and artistic creed are revealed in a number of prefaces, autobiographical works or essays. The writing of novels was the one thing of importance that remained to the world, and that what the novel needed was a new form. The traditional English novel had occasionally triumphed, but only by accident since it employed an outmoded form: episodic, incoherent, a series of strong situations linked together by flat or essayistic material. On the other hand he saw the possibilities for the art of the novel in the works of Stendhal, Flaubert, Maupassant or James. The basic concepts invoked were: construction, cadence, time shift, justification. A novel was to be the rendering of an affair: of one embroilment, one human coil, one psychological progression. The events of a novel then had to obey the principle of justification. Thus events and circumstances that may have seemed sensational and violent acquired plausibility; and they were arranged in a subtle gradation and accumulation of effects. The most important element in the novel was the effect of events upon the characters, and not events in themselves. Accordingly, the novel ceased to be a continuous and logical deployment of events, becoming a juxtaposition of impressions. In Conrads most important statement on the art of the novel, his preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus, there is first an explicit rejection of the traditional modes of fiction (realism, romanticism, naturalism, sentimentalism). Instead, Conrad upheld Fords method of indirection, an impressionistic mode of narrative; he defined the novel as impressions conveyed through the senses or as the moral, the emotional atmosphere of the place and time. And he gradually developed a personal type of fiction in which superficial, objective realism is replaced by multiple point of view and a recovery of past events and sensations. He pointed out that the meaning of an episode is not inside it like a kernel but outside enveloping it, like an aura of connotation, hence the difficulty of reaching that essential truth and communicating it to others. He employed various narrators, reflectors, points of view in order to build a gradual picture of life. 2. The development of Conrads fiction There are roughly speaking three distinct periods in Conrads work: the first (1895-1904), containing novels, novellas and short stories, is a period of experiment in which the writer explored the relation content-technique with the thoroughness of Henry James, introducing new themes and methods. The second period (1904-1914) represented

a fresh start and a partial departure from previous preoccupations; this is the period of political novels and of complex narrative structures like those of Nostromo. The third period (1914-1924) contributed little to Conrads reputation, in some cases even damaging his earlier high novelistic standards by a return to the romance of adventure (The Rescue, The Arrow of Gold, The Rover). The themes of the first period are mainly existential and moral. Averse to the materialistic interests of the Edwardians and to the traditional themes of adaptation to the middle-class society and social success, Conrad searched for another type of individual fulfillment: the self-realization of characters often against an alien environment, not primarily social but cosmic. Accordingly, his novels dramatize the painful processes of initiation and integration, the perils of isolation and withdrawal, the collision between reality and illusion (dream), the confrontation with a hostile and indifferent world, the difficulties of perception and communication. Particularly dramatic is the relation with the external landscape (river, sea, jungle or infernal city), its irrational, destructive power over individual characters. But equally important are Conrads moral themes, arranged in pairs of oppositions. Ideally, Conrads heroes illustrate a high code of conduct, in which honour, loyalty, moral obligation to oneself and to others, are the chief values pursued. As the writer said, the temporal world rests notably on the idea of fidelity and that of solidarity. But these values are threatened by egocentrics like Almayer, Jim, Kurts, Decoud who betray the trust of others and destroy themselves physically and morally. The theme of disloyalty and betrayal that may spring from a guilt-complex of the writer for having abandoned Poland, is related with the theme of personal annihilation (observe the frequency of grotesque deaths and suicides). The novels of the second period introduce new ideological and political themes, while retaining the earlier existential and moral preoccupations. Conrad concentrated here on the aggravating effects of political confusion upon individual people; dominant are the motives of betrayal, loneliness and alienation in a world of conflicts. From the point of view of their setting and general theme, Conrads novels can be further classified into jungle narratives, sea narratives and political novels. a) The jungle narratives have for protagonists Europeans who have chosen to isolate themselves from Western civilization and to live in a state of primitivism. The attraction for a Paradise Regained in the Orient combines with the decision to abandon the corrupt, frivolous Western civilization or to flee the consequences of a personal crime. But finally the jungle symbol of the malignant, corrupting forces of Nature destroys these people who have fled from the corruption of Society, by awakening in them the basest instincts. But at the same time the tropical forest remains an important place of initiation for the Conradian character. Conrads first two novels, Almayers Folly and An Outcast of the Islands are such jungle narratives set in the exotic, semi-primitivistic background of Borneo and Malaya. They contain impressive descriptions of the tropical river and forest, violent incidents and emotions, good plotting, but also certain typical Conradian themes and characters. They both deal with the moral degradation of characters coming from the civilized world into a primitive one which they vainly try to dominate on the basis of their presumed superiority of race. The two novels are full of isolatoes, governed by greed, hate, violent passion, vainly trying to transcend the barriers of race, place, time.

Heart of Darkness, Conrads best jungle tale and one of the greatest novellas in the world literature. Here Marlow recollects his search for Kurtz in the depth of a primaeval tropical forest during a rescue expedition that also becomes a journey of initiation and of self-discovery. The story is based on Conrads similar voyage up the Congo river to bring out an ivory trader. In the prelude of the narrative Marlow explains the reasons for his Congo voyage: he was out of job, without immediate prospects before him; at the same time he felt genuinely attracted by the Congo river. He accepted therefore the opportunity of replacing a river-steamer captain. His visit to the headquarters of the company anticipates symbolically his descent into hell. The journey to the heart of the jungle takes place in several stages. First Marlow voyages on a French steamer to the mouth of the Congo river. On reaching the Companys station thirty miles up river, he perceives the first disheartening signs of the corrupting influence of the jungle, a grove of death in which the native workers, dismissed by the company, slowly die from starvation or disease. After a two-hundredmile expedition on foot with native carriers towards the Central Station, Marlow discovers that the steamboat he was appointed to command lay at the bottom of the river, taking three months to be repaired. During this leg of the journey, and the next one, to Kurtzs station, Marlow experiences the risks and frustrations of a gradual penetration into the heart of the jungle. He is plagued with his apparent immobility or the impossibility to perceive correctly the sights around him; while abroad, the jungle is completely hidden by the white mist and the dark of the trees (the white and black symbolism dominates this narrative), while ashore he is more preoccupied with saving his own life than with interpreting the mysteries of the tropics. Life around him seems a merry dance of death and trade. His trip on the steamer, with 20 cannibals for a crew, becomes symbolically a return to the beginning of time, to the womb of reality. The ship is constantly threaten by mechanical disorders and finally is attacked by the natives. Nevertheless, Marlow continues his expedition, attracted irresistibly by the jungle and also by the figure of Kurtz. But at the end of his journey, he discovers a completely different Kurtz from the emissary of pity, and science and progress that he had been when he first came to Africa. The young idealist of former days had turned now into a greedy and ruthless manipulator of the natives who, paradoxically, worship him as a god. When Marlow sees him for the first time, brought in upon a stretcher by the pilgrims, he realizes that everything about him (including his name- meaning short in German, but misrepresenting his actual height) is a deception. Kurtz seems to him hollow at core, a mere voice, a rhetoric of power and greed; but he still indulges in grandious visions of wealth and fame to be achieved through such criminal methods as revealed in his report. Kurtz is also described by Marlow as an animated image of death carved out of old ivory. Ivory is a central symbol in the narrative: it is the raw material of wealth that the traders get by spoliating nature, but also the raw material of idols. Kurtz himself a worshipper of ivory, becomes also a worshipped image reproducing the deadly colour of old ivory, a death-mask. But dying, he whispers the horror rather ambiguous words that may reveal his consciousness of the abyss into which he has fallen. After all, Kurtz still has his humanities, as when he saves Marlow from the danger of being over caught by the natives.

But Marlow, not Kurtz is the real protagonist in Heart of Darkness. His search for Kurtz is a search for a possible alter-ego, a shadow, that is a darker self. By identifying even momentarily with Kurtz, he recognizes a possible affinity and also his moral obligation of undertaking this journey into the darkness of his own soul. As a narrator, he enables us to share his crucial experiences. His immediate narrates are four friends on a yawl anchored on the Thames at night, waiting for the tide; they are a company director, a lawyer, an accountant and Conrad himself who ironically prepares to listen to another of Marlows inconclusive experiences. In order to make his experience conclusive for the others, the narrator draws heavily upon the elements that may connect the Congo expedition to Nellies cruise on the Thames. He thus illustrates the theme of colonial expansion, basic in the story, with the similar fate of England, plundered centuries before the Roman soldiers. The obvious conclusion is that all Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz. Marlow reinforces this historical identification with a metaphysical one: the river scenery is also dominated by the same atmosphere of chiaroscuro, the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth into the heart of an immense darkness. Thus, everyday life must be enriched by occasional glimpse at the darker side of reality. Heart of Darkness is also a model of arrangement and structuring, an excellent illustration of Conrads methods of indirection. The narrator does not tell his story directly, but broodingly and by a zigzag course, like a navigator always tacking, but never off the course. Marlow, a lover of light and revelation, uses a complex strategy to envelop the subject and illuminate its mysteries from all sides. The structure of the story remains cryptic and exploratory, a puzzle in which several linking pieces are missing, foregoing a clear conclusion. Through Marlow, Conrad dramatizes the ambiguous relations of an observer with reality and also with his listeners. The story can only end with the narrator adopting the silent pose of a meditating Buddha. b) Conrads sea-narratives drew largely on the writers experience of the oceans, as confessed in The Mirror of the Sea. Like Melville, Conrad used sea adventure only as a background for his elaborate epic and symbolic constructions. Both novelists made the ocean their dramatic stage, a character in itself and a metaphor of mans quest for the absolute. The confrontation with the sea became thus mans most formidable and necessary ordeal of initiation into cosmic reality. The ship, a floating island carrying a human microcosm on its decks, brings together an assortment of all nations, races, creeds under a common feeling of duty, purpose and fidelity. If anyone, through egoism, irresponsibility, fear or sloth disregards his duties on the ship, the whole crew is threatened with destruction. This is the story in The Nigger of the Narcissus, Conrads first successful novel. Here the very feeling of solidarity is invoked by a slothful, malingering Negro from St. Kitts, James Wait; sick with a cough, he disturbs the crew by his sentimental plea for pity and attention to his person. Thus James Wait mellows the crew: men gradually identify with his plight (an ironic form of identification, for it threatens them with destruction) and feel obliged to save him. They ignore other duties, steal food for him, or rescue him after a terrible storm (during which they forget of his existence, having to face of ordeal of survival) from under the half submerged deck.

A similar theme is present in Lord Jim, the story of betrayal and desertion of duty, the story of a man whose strength fails in the moment of crisis. A critic has suggested that Lord Jim is Conrad himself, plagued with the feeling of remorse for leaving his native country. This is why the narrative is obsessed with the motif of dishonour, almost to the degree illustrated in classical tragedies or medieval romances. But then Jim himself is brought up in a rather obsolete code of behaviour (in the naval school), the Victorian code of the gentleman-hero (hence one of the meanings of the title). Jim, a romantic imaginative youth, an incurable dreamer, courts moments of crisis. He had an unbounded confidence in himself, believed that there was nothing he could not face, that he was prepared for all the difficulties that can beset one on land and water He had been rehearsing dangers and defenses, expecting the worst, rehearsing the best. But when the unexpected finally turns up, Jim cannot act promptly: his thoughts and his too vivid imagination confound him (as during the Patna incident) and he finally acts out of instinct and for the wrong reason. When the Patna strikes a derelict (symbolically a hidden impulse from the sea of the unconscious), Jim at first imagines the panic that would break on the ship, if the pilgrims were told of the danger of sinking; then, though apparently repelled by the irresponsible attitude of the crew headed by the unscrupulous German skipper, he jumps instinctively into their boat (Then I jumped, it seemed he says at the inquiry, demonstrating again his incapacity of distinguishing between appearances and reality). Nevertheless, Jim still preserves the comforting thought that he is better than the others: he does not avoid the inquiry (unlike the captain who hides or the engineer who retires to hospital), he is willing to face all consequences for abandoning in the moment of danger the lives and property confided to their charge (in his case the revocation of his mates certificate). But at the same time he tries to exonerate himself in the discussions with Marlow, or to view the Patna episode as a mere unfortunate event in his life. His obsessive desire of starting life again with a clean slate, points out the essential Romantic temper of Jim (when, after the trial, he works as water-clerk, he appears spotlessly neat, appareled in immaculate white from shoes to hat. Jim remains an innocent to the end, attracted by the world of illusions and by an unrealistic self-opinion. His desire to begin anew, but also his shame for being recognized as a dishonoured sailor, makes Jim hide himself in Patusan, an Oriental Paradise Regained with its lush, tropical scenery and the temptation of primitive love. Jims withdrawal from civilization is another illusory solution. Stein, who sends Jim off to an isolated trading post, describes the place as a burial ground, more than an earthly paradise: I can only guess that once before Patusan had been used as a grave for some sin, transgression or misfortune. Jim himself, though content to have regained his self-esteem and to be worshipped by the natives as their Tuan (Lord) for the services he renders to them, often thinks nostalgically of the civilized world from which he became estranged. Then he meets Gentleman Brown, an evil adventurer who threatens the felicity of this pseudo-paradise and tempts him into a new disastrous error of judgment. Identifying with Brown, as with his secret dark self, feeling a sickening suggestion of common guilt, of secret knowledge that was like a bond of their minds and of their hearts, Jim is partially disarmed before this subtle confidence man, thus endangering the lives of several natives who perish in the fight. In the end of the novel, after having delivered once more the

natives from evil, Jim surrenders his life to their elderly chief in a last flicker of superb egotism, as retribution for his unintended betrayal. The novel is thus organized around three basic tests (in the training school, on board of the Patna and later in Patusan) and Jims failure to cope with them. Marlow, the narrator, reconstructs their history and significance from direct conversations with Jim, from observation (in his three Patusan visits) or from the testimonies of other characters. The importance of Marlow is great: Jim, as another isolato, needs an ally, a helper, an accomplice, a judge, witness and advocate in the solitude of his battle with himself. He needs an interpreter of his story, an evaluator. Marlow is not the only judge of Jim: various other characters evaluate him, reveal certain aspects of Jims behaviour and character. His full portrait never materializes: Jim remains elusive and veiled by mystery, to the end. But even if Marlow cannot diagnose with precision Jims failure, he at least identifies with him and understands the universal message of the story: Jim is one of us, the archetypal innocent deluded by the myth of the gentleman-hero. Conrads other sea-stories especially Youth, Heart of Darkness and Typhoon form a cycle of mans confrontation with existence, in youth, maturity and old age. They demonstrate again that Conrad knew the sea better than the land. c) Conrads political novels, published after 1904, have secured their writer a leading place in the genre. They are mainly city novels, describing the dramatic initiation of Conradian heroes in the inferno of the modern polis (London, a Costaguana port, Geneva). If in his previous fiction Conrad was greatly preoccupied with the problem of form and the distance between the creator and his material, sometimes to the detriment of theme, here he embraced a larger range of aspects, thematic or structural. Thus Nostromo, considered by recent criticism among Conrads best novels, the writer reveals with the accuracy of a historian the drama of modern capitalism as it becomes manifest in an imaginary Latin America country, Costaguana.