Critique of Conrad's works

THE REALITY-IDEAL CONFLICT IN JOSEPH CONRAD'S WORKS: Latif Saeed Noori Berzenji; CEE BEE Publishers, 21/4648, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 400.

JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924) said that he wrote in English, thought in French and dreamt in Polish. It is a paradox that one of the acknowledged masters in the field of English fiction, who learnt English only after he was 20, was born of Polish parents in the Ukraine. His literary career, which began in 1895 with the publication of Almayer's Folly, extended over a period of nearly 25 years. He belonged to a family with a long history of political struggle. He inherited the revolutionary spirit from his father who was exiled from Russia for raising the voice of revolt. He carried the spirit of rebellion and idealism when he entered life on the sea.

Novelists in the Victorian Age and earlier viewed life primarily as a social process. They were concerned with social relations and/or social problems. Conrad made a departure from the tradition. "He wrote fiction neither for entertainment nor to propagate his social ideas, but to explore the total matrix of conflict and contradiction in human nature." The book under review was the subject for his doctoral thesis. He formulates the proposition that there is an unbridgeable gap between the worlds of ideals and reality. Conrad was a romantic in his love of the remote and in his loyalty to the cherished values characterising "Polish Romanticism". "The values he wanted to see cherished — honour, duty, fidelity, friendship — were typically romantic and typically chivalrous and it is only too obvious that we have to look for their origin to Poland where the life of the whole nation was for better or for worse, dominated by these very values."

It did not take long for Conrad to realise that the lust for power and wealth was the governing motive of the colonial powers. The claim that they spread education, civilisation and religion was only a camouflage for material acquisition, domination and self-aggrandisement. Conrad explodes this myth, "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz", says Marlow in the Heart of Darkness. Kurtz is a symbol of plunder, which ravaged Africa in the 19th century and concealed its sinister materialistic and political motives under the cloak of idealism and altruism.

Sea symbolism is central to Conrad's fiction. The sea, which forms the setting, was an escape and relief from the political reality of his country. It was his home for nearly 20 years. "He used it as an emblem or symbol of a complex network of feelings and ideas. It symbolises liberty and freedom from the prison of land." When an individual with a sensitive consciousness perceives the polarity between the order of cherished values and the world of dark reality he/she recoils and is overcome by a sense of isolation. Conrad's perception of this dichotomy drives him in the person of his characters to explore the world of evil. In his world man is not pitted against the impersonal, omnipotent fate, "The President of the Immortals." The world of reality with all its cruelty, injustice, selfishness and savagery stares him in the face. It militates against all he holds sacred and noble.

In such a world that like the London bridge is tumbling down, hope and consolation lie in the individuals preserving their loyalty to values like love, charity, friendship, tolerance etc., and keeping the dignity, sanctity and integrity of their private lives invulnerable.

The author, with a scholarly thoroughness, attempts a perceptive, cogent, detailed and systematic analysis of Conrad's works in the light of his formulation about the incompatibility between ideal and reality. His is a solid contribution to the critical literature on Conrad.

S. JAGADISAN

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