Kitabı oku: «Victory»

Life & Times
About the Author

Joseph Conrad had a highly imaginative and creative mind, given to bouts of emotional distress and apathy, but also incredibly driven by his desire for self-expression. Throughout his life his mood would swing back and forth from elation to depression and it has been said that in his darkest moments he contemplated suicide and even attempted it on one occasion, by shooting himself in the chest, although he made a full recovery. On the other hand, his lucid periods resulted in English prose of the first order and an ability to befriend and entertain those around him. With our modern knowledge of the interior psyche, it seems reasonable to conclude that Joseph Conrad may have displayed classic symptoms of bipolar disorder, or what used to be described as ‘manic depression’.

Conrad had a less than desirable childhood, which may account for his psychological profile. He was born into Polish nobility in a region that is now part of Ukraine. Despite this promising start his father was arrested for political activism and exiled to the Russian town of Vologda, northeast of Moscow. One thing led to another and Conrad – at that time named Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski – found himself orphaned at the tender age of 11. He spent the next five years in the charge of his uncle, but left home at 16. His first port of call, quite literally, was Marseille, France, where he enlisted into the French merchant navy and his seagoing adventures began. Conrad spent a 20-year period at sea and his experiences provided the foundation for his literary career. His travels took him to South America, Africa and Asia and he eventually married and settled in England, by now fluent in English and choosing to write in that language, making his prosaic achievements all the more remarkable. At this time he also anglicised his name to Joseph Conrad.

Although Conrad set his stories in exotic places and spun a good yarn, his primary agenda was to use his fiction as a vehicle for investigating human nature – specifically the human condition. Having lost both of his parents, experienced unrequited love and witnessed hardship and cruelty on his journeys, he was perplexed by his own species. He saw that the world is unfair and that people can possess complex ideas and behaviours that can, by turns, make the world a wonderful place or a living hell. He wanted to express his feelings about such contradictions in his books. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his sombre and sobering words were not well received by the novelbuying public and commercial success was not forthcoming. He was, however, praised by literary critics who saw the genius in his intentions and recognised that a lighter touch would be inappropriate. As a result he developed a kind of cult following with those ‘in the know’ – especially fellow writers, who admired his uncompromising and deeply moralistic style.

Lord Jim

In Lord Jim (1900) Conrad investigated selfishness, cowardice and dishonour. The eponymous Jim is a member of the crew of a ship who commit the shameful crime of abandoning a boat and its passengers, rather than remaining onboard as ethical law would have expected of them. He finds himself professionally castigated for his misconduct and has to move on from one job to the next whenever his ignominy is discovered. Eventually he finds employment in a place where his past does not catch up with him, so his opprobrium ends, except that he is perpetually troubled by his own conscience. In his new environment he makes an impression and becomes known as ‘Lord Jim’, such is the respect and adoration he receives from the locals. However, events unfold that lead to the killing of the son of a tribal leader. Haunted by his past shame, Jim decides to take the blame and is executed as retribution. Thus, he goes to the grave at peace with himself.

Conrad demonstrates his interest in human psychology in much of his writing. It is his signature style to delve deep into the human soul. Lord Jim addresses the issue of conscience above all else. Jim makes a mistake and pays a heavy price due to society’s view; however, the central issue is that Jim realizes his mistake is an expression of the very way his mind works – he is intrinsically unheroic and selfish, and he therefore has to live with disliking himself. Ultimately his torment reaches a point where he is willing to die so that he can leave the world having done something honourable. Some scholars also see Lord Jim as a comment on the values of ‘civilized’ societies and ‘primitive’ societies in juxtaposition. That is to say, one might think that issues of honour and etiquette are the product of high culture, but in fact they are fundamental components of all cultures. Jim realizes this and that is why he is compelled to do the right thing. Wherever he hides in the world, his failings will inevitably come to the surface and let him down in the eyes of others, whoever they happen to be.

At the time that Lord Jim was published, anthropologists were just beginning to study non-Western cultures and beginning to realize that it was a mistake to view them as primitive in comparison. Although they did not possess the same levels of scientific and technological progress, that did not mean that their societal rules were any less sophisticated. The Golden Bough (1890) by James George Frazer was an insightful investigation of the evolution of cultures and societies that greatly influenced the thinkers of the period.

Heart of Darkness

Conrad’s most celebrated work, Heart of Darkness (1902) was inspired by time spent as a river boat captain in the Congo in 1889. The region was in a state of warfare over slavery at the time, leading to massacres and atrocities that Conrad bore witness to. This experience coloured his view of humanity and crystallized his own views, allowing him to become more complete as a personality. It also erased the romantic vision of Africa that he had developed as a child and which led him there in the first place. He came away with the nucleus of a story, painting Africa as a primal, dangerous and unprepossessing continent, hence the chosen title.

In essence, the central character of Charles Marlow is Conrad himself. The narrator is recounting the adventures of Marlow in the Congo, to a crew of boatmen on the Thames. As Marlow’s story unfolds and things become more baleful so dusk envelops the narrator’s audience, only adding to the general sense of claustrophobia, oppression and atrociousness of the scenario.

The axis of Heart of Darkness is Marlow’s struggle to deal with a shadowy figure named Kurtz, who holds influence over local tribesman. Kurtz’s motive is trade in ivory, which the authorities want for themselves. As a result, Marlow’s boat is sabotaged and his crew is attacked, making Marlow’s job difficult and dangerous. Ultimately, Marlow finds himself taking Kurtz into his protection due to his declining health. Aboard the boat Marlow is struck by the charisma of Kurtz, but also sees a dying mortal, in marked contrast to the god-like status he has among the Congo natives.

Conrad used Heart of Darkness as a vehicle for his exploration of human mores – morals and ethics. He was intelligent enough to understand that qualities considered virtuous are relative and subjective. Kurtz manipulates the belief systems of the natives for his own gain, but becomes morally bankrupted by the atrocities committed in his name, where villages are ransacked and their inhabitants slaughtered to access the valuable ivory. By the time he dies, Kurtz is horrified and ashamed by what he has affected. Conrad’s point is that civilization, knowledge and education are easily used by Kurtz to control the behaviour of those who exist in a primitive culture, but the outcome shocks Kurtz because they place less value on life and have different ideas about right and wrong.

In effect, Kurtz is hoisted by his own petard. Marlow, in contrast, is the moral leveller. He initially wishes to perform his duty as river boat captain and arrives with an optimistic outlook on his new life. The events that ensue serve to adjust his outlook, but he remains on an even keel, despite the unpleasant things he is exposed to. He comes away with a wiser and more considered comprehension of the human animal. He has been irrevocably jaded and scarred by his experience in the Congo, but he is also tougher and more tolerant; accepting even.

Victory

The novel Victory, published late in Conrad’s career (1915), is a good example of his shifting style as he disregards any attempt to maintain consistency in the narrative voice. As a result the story is narrated in various ways – from the perspective of a sailor, and that of an omniscient main character. This use of different narrative voices creates an increasingly claustrophobic feel to the story as the world progressively closes in on the main character.

The novel is both an adventure and a tragedy, and the book gave Conrad a belated flush of popular success. Victory is set among islands in Indonesia, which was then known as the Dutch East Indies. The region had been a colony for two centuries, and the population was a mix of indigenous and foreign people. Conrad drew on the cultural tensions that resulted from this environment, where lawlessness made the atmosphere both exciting and dangerous. As a result, the feel of the place easily switches from utopia to dystopia.

It would seem that Conrad was writing a moral tale disguised as an exotic adventure. There is certainly the sense that the ever-decreasing circles of their lives are the result of living in an archipelago where social rules and conventions cannot easily be policed. In this setting, criminality and villainy are an ever-present threat to peace and harmony. As a result, people take what pleasure they can from life when they can, knowing that it is likely to be short-lived.

In essence, Victory is a thriller, imbued with a pervading sense of menace and uncertainty. The reader knows that the moments of happiness and calm will be fleeting and that, ultimately, the central characters are doomed by their circumstances.

Conrad and Humanity

In the modern world we now understand scientifically that all organisms are nothing more than evolved life support systems for DNA, be they human, beast or plant, and that morals and ethics are therefore constructs of the human imagination. When Conrad was alive such strictly secular ideas were not yet formulated, so even atheists tended to believe that there must be some purpose to life. They also acknowledged that society needed people to adhere to behavioural rules based on notions of right and wrong to prevent anarchy and chaos.

Conrad was interested in what happens when different societies overlap, so that contrasting mores are juxtaposed and blended together. His underlying message was that the one cannot judge the other, because they are borne on cosmologies (world views in anthropological terminology) that are each constructs, but an amalgamation can result in outcomes that are reprehensible to both parties. In a way, Conrad’s writing was a portent of the complications that have arisen in modern societies where people from different cultures attempt to homogenize but often realize that cultural isolation or segregation are the best ways to find social harmony and accord. We may all belong to the same species biologically, but socially and culturally we can be so disparate as to seem like different species. In essence modern nations immerse peoples of ‘primitive’ culture within populations of ‘developed’ culture, so that incompatibilities and antitheses cause people to foment. No one is right, no one is wrong, but the results can be unfortunate and unpleasant whatever one’s precepts.

In this way Conrad was a kind of literary social anthropologist. Study of the human as a moral being was his interest, because he himself had encountered a plethora of specimens of humanity over the years and witnessed all manner of extreme behaviours, including his own. He wanted to understand what it means to be human and the novel became the chosen conduit for expounding his ideas in a non-academic and creative way. It would be a few years before other novelists dared to delve so deeply into what might be described as the human soul in such an exposing and revelatory way. As is so often the case with pioneers, Conrad remained largely unsung until other writers began citing him as an influence.