Humanity in J. Conrad's and W. Somerset's creativity

ContentINTRODUCTIONPART I. ENGLISHNARRATIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EDWARDIAN LITERATURE1.1 The mainrepresentatives of the prose writing in the first half of the twentieth century1.2 The similarityand difference of themes and genres of the leading literature representatives
Conclusion to part I
PART II. HUMANITY AS THE MAIN PHILOSOPHICAL ANDLITERARY PROBLEM IN THE WORK OF THE WRITERS BFORE THE FIRST HALF OF THETWENTIETH CENTURY
2.1 The Moral Sense in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
2.2 «Human Bondage» and it’s moral duality
Conclusion to part II
GENERAL CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTIONWilliam Somerset Maugham (pronounced’mawm’), CH (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelistand short story writer. He was one of the most popular authors of his era, andreputedly the highest paid of his profession during the 1930s./>Joseph Conrad (December 3, 1857 – August3, 1924) was a Polish-born British novelist, one of the most important andrespected writers of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries.Conrad’s works emerge out of the confluence of three literary currentsprominent in the Europe of Conrad’s time: Romanticism, particularly in theworks of Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz; realism, which flowered in Russiain the works of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky; and modernism, which emergedas the dominant literary aesthetic of the twentieth century.
Conrad’s works draw on the symbolism of the Romantics and thepsychological acuity of the realist and modernist schools. Despite theseaffinities, Conrad defies easy categorization. Conrad saw in Westerncolonialism the failure of the «civilized world» to fulfill its moralresponsibilities. He witnessed and then documented through his fiction how the«white man’s burden,» or the West’s responsibility to the rest of theworld, became clouded by selfish ambition through its quest for colonial domination.
Bornand raised in Poland, Conrad spent part of his youth in France and the majorityof his early life at sea; only in his mid-thirties would he settle down, in England,to start a career as a writer, writing not in Polish or French, but in English,his adopted third language. Like the Russian émigré VladamirNabokov, Conrad is regarded as a master prose stylist among authors in theEnglish literary canon. His knowledge of languages and cultures, gleaned notonly from his European experiences but also from his decades spent as a sailorat sea, can be seen in the haunting style of his prose and the enormity of thethemes which he constantly brings to the surface. His works inspired writersthroughout the twentieth century.
Ourwork is devoted to the analysis of the novels by William Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad. The plotsof there novel generally revolve around the subject of marriage and layemphasis especially on its tremendous importance in the lives of the nineteencentury women.
While makingour research we used the works of such linguists as Vinokur G.O., Suvorov S.P.,Arnold I.V. and many others. During our work we used the works on thetranslation theory of such linguists as Levitskaya T.R., Fiterman A.M.,Komissarov V.N., Alimov V.V., Shveytser A.D., Garbovskiy N.K., Dmitrieva L.F.,Galperin I.R., Arnold I.V., Yakusheva I.V., van Deik, Kolshanskiy and others.We used also the articles from the the periodical editions.
The aim of ourwork is to reveal W. Somerset Saugham’s «Of Human Bondage» and JosephConrad’s «Lord Jim»: plot structure and character analysis.
The hypothesis:in our investigation we suppose to prove that the literature can reflecthumanity problems such as problem of morality and human relationships onexample of W. Somerset’s and J. Conrad’s creativity.
The aim andhypothesis have defined the next tasks:— to research the main representatives of the prosewriting in the first half of the twentieth century;— to investigate the similarity and difference ofthemes and genres of the leading literature representatives;— to research The problem of humanity in the work as aleading Inclination of W. Somerset and J. Conrad;
— The MoralSense in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim;
— Human Bondage” andit’s moral duelety and «Human heart» in the symbol of new wave ofhuman evolution.
Objectof research in the given work is W. Somerset Saugham’s and Joseph Conrad’s creativity.
Subject is W. Somerset Saugham’s «OfHuman Bondage» and Joseph Conrad’s «Lord Jim»: plot structureand character analysis.
Concerning theaim and the tasks we have used such method as a descriptive one, the method ofthe experience, the contextual method and the comparative method. These methodsweren’t used as the isolated methods, they were used in their complex to satisfythe aim and the task in the best way.
PART I. ENGLISH NARRATIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF THEEDVARDIAN LITERATURE1.1 The mainrepresentatives of the prose writing in the first half of the twentieth century
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Literaturein 20th century begins with a serie of movements, some of them contradictorybetween them, as Symbolism, Decadentism, Impressionism and, in Hispanicliterature, Modernism, The Generation of ’98 [21, 121]. During the two firstdecades, two literary conceptions are imposed to writers: Those writers forwhom literary work is the expression of a cultural experience and fall inintellectualism; and writers who, in view of the chaos of the time and thedissatisfaction of bourgeois world, see literary work as an adventure, as anirrational experience. In the thirties, some historic and socioeconomic facts,affected literature. It will express the search, through the action, of ethicalvalues. After the World War, writers will insist in the same attitudes: moralcrisis and tecnical experimentation.
Coincidingthe beginning of the new century with Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, Britainseemed to start a new period that wasn’t seen immediately, because the shortreign of Edward VII (1901-1910) was the continuity of the previous period.English society was divided in social classes: wealth was held by a few peoplethanks for the Industrial Revolution. The poor were still poor, although by theEducative Act of 1870 some instruction was guaranteed. The first threats forBritain appeared with anglo-boer war to become evident in 1914 with thebeginning of the First World War.
Inideas, changes were more spectacular. In the beginning of the centuryEinstein’s relativity theory becomes true, and in 1905 Freud’s new theoriesstarted to be renewal in human interpretation. Nothing could be like before,because art and ideas wished to advance quickly. Even in picture, for example,Cubism and Dadaism broke all imaginable visual molds: Modernism crystallized asa global result of all possible desires of change and renovation. In fact,every intellectual, political or artistic movement tries to broke with the pastand fix new directions to follow. Modernism, not only wished to broke with thepast, but also abolish them. However, it wasn’t possible; in ideas world alwaysexists something «already invented» where we resort to and in thisway, Modernism had to create its own tradition, looking for affinities in thepast history [21, 127].
Inliterature, it was the Ullyses (1922) by James Joyce the work that produced thetrue impact because of its new character and its perfect style and the scandolof its publication. The woman would have an important paper in the society andthis would have an excellent representant in Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Shebelongs to an artistic and intellectual circle in Bloomsbury. Woolf was awriter with a lot of sensibility and wrote a beautiful poetic prose in theshape of novels like Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.
Prosepoetryis usually considered a form of poetry written in prose that breaks some of thenormal rules associated with prose discourse, for heightened imagery oremotional effect. Arguments continue about whether prose poetry is actually aform of poetry or a form of prose, or a separate genre altogether. Most criticsargue that prose poetry belongs in the genre of poetry because of its use of metaphoricallanguage and attention to language.
Othercritics argue that prose poetry falls into the genre of prose because prosepoetry relies on prose’s association with narrative and its reliance onreaders’ expectation of an objective presentation of truth in prose. Yet othersargue that the prose poem gains its subversiveness through its fusion of poeticand prosaic elements.
/>As a specific form, prose poetry is generallyassumed to have originated in 19th-century France.
At the time of the prose poem’s emergence, French poetry wasdominated by the Alexandrine, an extremely strict and demanding form that poetssuch as Aloysius Bertrand and Charles Baudelaire rebelled against. Furtherproponents of the prose poem included other French poets such as Arthur Rimbaudand Stéphane Mallarmé.
The prose poem continued to be written in France and foundprofound expression, in the mid-20th century, in the prose poems of FrancisPonge. At the end of the 19th century, British Decadent movement poets such as OscarWilde picked up the form because of its already subversive association. Thisactually hindered the dissemination of the form into English because many associatedthe Decadents with homosexuality, hence any form used by the Decadents wassuspect.
Notable Modernist poet T. S. Eliot wrote vehemently against prosepoems, though he did try his hand at one or two. He also added to the debateabout what defines the genre, saying in his introduction to Djuna Barnes’highly poeticized 1936 novel Nightwood that this work may not be classed as«poetic prose» as it did not have the rhythm or «musicalpattern» of verse. In contrast, a couple of other Modernist authors wroteprose poetry consistently, including Gertrude Stein and Sherwood Anderson. Inactuality, Anderson considered his work to be short fictions—in the currentterm, «flash fiction.» The distinction between flash fiction andprose poetry is at times very thin, almost indiscernible.
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Canadian author ElizabethSmart, written in 1945, is a relatively isolated example of English-languagepoetic prose in the mid-20th century. Then, for a while, prose poems died out,at least in English—until the early 1950s and ’60s, when American poets such asAllen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Russell Edson, CharlesSimic, Robert Bly and James Wright experimented with the form. Edson, indeed,worked principally in this form, and helped give the prose poem its currentreputation for surrealist wit. Similarly, Simic won the Pulitzer Prize inPoetry for his 1989 collection, The World Doesn’t End.
At the same time, poets elsewhere were exploring the form inSpanish, Japanese and Russian. Octavio Paz worked in this form in Spanish inhis Aguila o Sol? (Eagle or Sun?). Spanish poet Ángel Crespo (1926-95)did his most notable work in the genre. Giannina Braschi, postmodernSpanish-language poet, wrote a trilogy of prose poems, El imperio de los suenos(Empire of Dreams, 1988). Translator Dennis Keene presents the work of sixJapanese prose poets in The Modern Japanese Prose Poem: an Anthology of SixPoets. Similarly, Adrian Wanner and Caryl Emerson describe the form’s growth inRussia in their critical work, Russian Minimalism: from the Prose Poem to theAnti-story. The two best-known examples of this literary form in Russian are Gogol’sDead Souls and Venedikt Erofeev’s Moscow-Petushki.
In Poland, Bolesław Prus (1847-1912), influenced by theFrench prose poets, had written a number of poetic micro-stories, including«Mold of the Earth» (1884), «The Living Telegraph» (1884)and «Shades» (1885).
The form has gained popularity since the late 1980s, and literaryjournals that previously disputed prose poetry’s contributions to both poetryand prose currently display prose poems next to sonnets and short stories.Journals have even begun to specialize, publishing solely prose poems/flashfiction in their pages (see external links below). Some contemporary writerswho write prose poems or flash fiction include Michael Benedikt, Robert Bly, AnneCarson, Kim Chinquee, Richard Garcia, Ray Gonzalez, Lyn Hejinian, Louis Jenkins,Campbell McGrath, Sheila Murphy, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, David Shumate, JamesTate, and J. Marcus Weekley, Ron Silliman, and John Olson.
It used to be said that prose poetry was impossible in Englishbecause the English language was not so strictly governed by rules as was the Frenchlanguage. This seems not to be so strictly held in the twenty-first century.
Rapturous,rhythmic, image-laden prose from previous centuries, such as that found in JeremyTaylor and Thomas de Quincey, strikes 21st-century readers as having somethingof a poetic quality. Using figurative language to provoke thought, it invites areader into unusual perspectives to question what is traditionally thought of,as in Richard Garcia’s «Chickenhead.»
Flash fiction is fiction ofextreme brevity. The standard, generally-accepted length of a flash fictionpiece is 1000 words or less. By contrast, a short-short measures 1001 words to2500 words, and a traditional short story measures 2501 to 7500 words. Anovelette runs from 7501 words to 17,500, a novella 17,501 words to 40,000words, and a novel 40,001 words and up. In theater script and poetry writing, vignettes are short, impressionisticscenes that focus on one moment or give a trenchant impression about acharacter, an idea, or a setting. This type of scene is more common in recent postmoderntheater, where adherence to the conventions of theatrical structure and storydevelopment are jettisoned. It is particularly influenced by contemporarynotions of a scene as shown in film, video and television scripting. Unlike thetraditional scene in a play, the vignette is not strictly linked in with asequential plot development but establishes meaning through loose symbolic orlinguistic connection to other vignettes or scenes. Vignettes are the literaryequivalent of a snapshot, often incomplete or fragmentary. In poetry, in the quintainform, they can relate to a short descriptive literary sketch or a short sceneor incident from a movie or play. The use of vignettes is suited to those playsin which theme, image, emotion and character are more important than narrative,though this doesn’t mean that a vignette is out of place as an element in amore narrative play.1.2 The similarity and difference of themes and genresof the leading literature representatives
The term English literature refers to literature written in the Englishlanguage, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarilyfrom England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joycewas Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S. Naipaulwas born in Trinidad, Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. In other words, Englishliterature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken aroundthe world. In academia, the term often labels departments and programmespractising English studies in secondary and tertiary educational systems.Despite the variety of authors of English literature, the works of WilliamShakespeare remain paramount throughout the English-speaking world.
This article primarily deals with literature from Britain writtenin English. For literature from specific English-speaking regions, consult the seealso section at the bottom of the page./>/>Early Modern period
The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature,especially in the field of drama. The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered theancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this was instrumental in the developmentof the new drama, which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mysteryand miracle plays of the Middle Ages. The Italians were particularly inspiredby Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher, the tutor of Nero) and Plautus(its comic clichés, especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerfulinfluence on the Renaissance and after). However, the Italian tragediesembraced a principle contrary to Seneca’s ethics: showing blood and violence onthe stage. In Seneca’s plays such scenes were only acted by the characters [18,123]. But the English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: aconspicuous community of Italian actors had settled in London and GiovanniFlorio had brought much of the Italian language and culture to England. It isalso true that the Elizabethan Era was a very violent age and that the highincidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (embodied by NiccolòMachiavelli’s The Prince) did little to calm fears of popish plots. As aresult, representing that kind of violence on the stage was probably morecathartic for the Elizabethan spectator. Following earlier Elizabethan playssuch as Gorboduc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd thatwas to provide much material for Hamlet, William Shakespeare stands out in thisperiod as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a manof letters by profession, and probably had only some grammar school education.He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocrat as the «university wits»that had monopolised the English stage when he started writing. But he was verygifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed «professionals» as RobertGreene who mocked this «shake-scene» of low origins [23, 145]. Thoughmost dramas met with great success, it is in his later years (marked by theearly reign of James I) that he wrote what have been considered his greatestplays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony andCleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main dramaa brilliant pageant to the new king. Shakespeare also popularized the Englishsonnet which made significant changes to Petrarch’s model.Modernism
The movement known as English literary modernism grew out of ageneral sense of disillusionment with Victorian era attitudes of certainty,conservatism, and objective truth. The movement was greatly influenced by theideas of Romanticism, Karl Marx’s political writings, and the psychoanalytictheories of subconscious — Sigmund Freud. The continental art movements of Impressionism,and later Cubism, were also important inspirations for modernist writers.
Although literary modernism reached its peak between the First andSecond World Wars, the earliest examples of the movement’s attitudes appearedin the mid to late nineteenth century. Gerard Manley Hopkins, A. E. Housman,and the poet and novelist Thomas Hardy represented a few of the major earlymodernists writing in England during the Victorian period.
The first decades of the twentieth century saw several major worksof modernism published, including the seminal short story collection Dublinersby James Joyce, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and the poetry and drama of WilliamButler Yeats.
Important novelists between the World Wars included Virginia Woolf,E. M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, P.G. Wodehouse and D. H. Lawrence. T. S. Eliot wasthe preeminent English poet of the period. Across the Atlantic writers like WilliamFaulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and the poets Wallace Stevens and Robert Frostdeveloped a more American take on the modernist aesthetic in their work.
Perhaps the most contentiously important figure in the developmentof the modernist movement was the American poet Ezra Pound. Credited with«discovering» both T. S. Eliot and James Joyce, whose stream ofconsciousness novel Ulysses is considered to be one of the century’s greatestliterary achievements, Pound also advanced the cause of imagism and free verse,forms which would dominate English poetry into the twenty-first century.
Gertrude Stein, an American expat, was also an enormous literaryforce during this time period, famous for her line «Rose is a rose is arose is a rose.»
Other notable writers of this period included H.D., Marianne Moore,Elizabeth Bishop, W. H. Auden, Vladimir Nabokov, William Carlos Williams, RalphEllison, Dylan Thomas, R.S. Thomas and Graham Greene. However, some of thesewriters are more closely associated with what has become known as post-modernism,a term often used to encompass the diverse range of writers who succeeded themodernists.
/>The term Postmodernliterature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War IIliterature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed bywriters of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, onfragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction againstEnlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature,like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is littleagreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodernliterature. Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, HunterS. Thompson, Truman Capote, Thomas Pynchon
/>/>Modernist literature is the literary expressionof the tendencies of Modernism, especially High modernism.
Modernismas a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle1920s. Modernist literature addressed aesthetic problems similar to thoseexamined in non-literary forms of contemporaneous Modernist art, such asModernist painting. Gertrude Stein’s abstract writings, for example, have oftenbeen compared to the fragmentary and multi-perspectival Cubism of her friend PabloPicasso.
TheModernist emphasis on a radical individualism can be seen in the many literarymanifestos issued by various groups within the movement. The concerns expressedby Simmel above are echoed in Richard Huelsenbeck’s «First German DadaManifesto» of 1918:
«Artin its execution and direction is dependent on the time in which it lives, andartists are creatures of their epoch. The highest art will be that which in itsconscious content presents the thousandfold problems of the day, the art whichhas been visibly shattered by the explosions of last week… The best and mostextraordinary artists will be those who every hour snatch the tatters of theirbodies out of the frenzied cataract of life, who, with bleeding hands andhearts, hold fast to the intelligence of their time.» [3, 136]
Thecultural history of humanity creates a unique common history that connectsprevious generations with the current generation of humans. The Modernistre-contextualization of the individual within the fabric of this receivedsocial heritage can be seen in the «mythic method» which T.S.
Modernistliterature involved such authors as Knut Hamsun (whose novel Hunger isconsidered to be the first modernist novel), Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, GertrudeStein, H.D., Dylan Thomas, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ezra Pound, Mina Loy, JamesJoyce, Hugh MacDiarmid, William Faulkner, Jean Toomer, Ernest Hemingway, RainerMaria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Joseph Conrad, Andrei Bely, W. B. Yeats,F. Scott Fitzgerald, Luigi Pirandello, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, JaroslavHašek, Samuel Beckett, Menno ter Braak, Marcel Proust, Mikhail Bulgakov, RobertFrost, Boris Pasternak, Djuna Barnes, Patricia Highsmith and others.
Modernistliterature attempted to move from the bonds of Realist literature and tointroduce concepts such as disjointed timelines. Modernism was distinguished byan emancipatory metanarrative. In the wake of Modernism, and post-enlightenment,metanarratives tended to be emancipatory, whereas beforehand this was not aconsistent characteristic. Contemporary metanarratives were becoming lessrelevant in light of the implications of World War I, the rise of tradeunionism, a general social discontent, and the emergence of psychoanalysis. Theconsequent need for a unifying function brought about a growth in the politicalimportance of culture.
Modernistliterature can be viewed largely in terms of its formal, stylistic and semanticmovement away from Romanticism, examining subject matter that is traditionally mundane a prime example being The Love Songof J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot. Modernist literature often features amarked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in Victorianliterature. In fact, «a common motif in Modernist fiction is that of analienated individual–a dysfunctional individual trying in vain to make senseof a predominantly urban and fragmented society.» But the questioningspirit of modernism could also be seen, less elegaically, as part of anecessary search for ways to make a new sense of a broken world. An example is ADrunk Man Looks at the Thistle by Hugh MacDiarmid, in which the individualartist applies Eliot’s techniques to respond (in this case) to a historicallyfractured nationalism, using a more comic, parodic and «optimistic»(though no less «hopeless») modernist expression in which the artistas «hero» seeks to embrace complexity and locate new meanings.
However,many Modernist works like T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land are marked by theabsence even of a central, heroic figure. In rejecting the solipsism ofRomantics like Shelley and Byron, such works reject the notion of subjectassociated with Cartesian dualism, collapsing narrative and narrator into acollection of disjointed fragments and overlapping voices [7, 121].
Modernistliterature often moves beyond the limitations of the Realist novel with aconcern for larger factors such as social or historical change. This isprominent in «stream of consciousness» writing. Examples can be seenin Virginia Woolf’s Kew Gardens and Mrs Dalloway, James Joyce’s Ulysses, KatherinePorter’s Flowering Judas, Jean Toomer’s Cane, William Faulkner’s The Sound andthe Fury, and others.
Modernismas a literary movement is seen, in large part, as a reaction to the emergenceof city life as a central force in society. Furthermore, an early attention tothe object as freestanding became in later Modernism a preoccupation with form.The dyadic collapse of the distance between subject and object represented amovement from means to is. Where Romanticism stressed the subjectivity ofexperience, Modernist writers were more acutely conscious of the objectivity oftheir surroundings. In Modernism the object is; the language doesn’t mean it is.This is a shift from an epistemological aesthetic to an ontological aestheticor, in simpler terms, a shift from a knowledge-based aesthetic to a being-basedaesthetic. This shift is central to Modernism. Archibald MacLeish, forinstance, said, «A poem should not mean / But be.»/>Characteristics of Modernity/Modernism
/>· Freeindirect speech
· Stream ofconsciousness
· Juxtapositionof characters
· Wide useof classical allusions
· Figure ofspeech
· Intertextuality
· Personification
· Hyperbole
· Parataxis
· Comparison
· Quotation
· Pun
· Satire
· Irony
· Antiphrasis
· Unconventionaluse of metaphor
· Symbolicrepresentation
· Psychoanalysis
· Discontinuousnarrative
· Metanarrative
· Multiplenarrative points of view/>Thematiccharacteristics
· Breakdownof social norms
· Realisticembodiment of social meanings
· Separationof meanings and senses from the context
· Despairingindividual behaviors in the face of an unmanageable future
· Sense ofspiritual loneliness
· Sense ofalienation
· Sense offrustration
· Sense ofdisillusionment
· Rejectionof the history
· Rejectionof the outdated social system
· Objectionof the traditional thoughts and the traditional moralities
· Objectionof the religious thoughts
· Substitutionof a mythical past
· Two WorldWars’ Effects on Humanity

Conclusion topart I
We came to a conclusion that Literature in 20th century beginswith a serie of movements, some of them contradictory between them, asSymbolism, Decadentism, Impressionism and, in Hispanic literature, Modernism,The Generation of ’98. During the two first decades, two literary conceptions areimposed to writers: Those writers for whom literary work is the expression of acultural experience and fall in intellectualism; and writers who, in view ofthe chaos of the time and the dissatisfaction of bourgeois world, see literarywork as an adventure, as an irrational experience.
Modernism crystallized as a global result of all possible desiresof change and renovation. The prose poem continued to be written in Franceand found profound expression, in the mid-20th century, in the prose poems of FrancisPonge. At the end of the 19th century, British Decadent movement poets such as OscarWilde picked up the form because of its already subversive association. Thisactually hindered the dissemination of the form into English because manyassociated the Decadents with homosexuality, hence any form used by theDecadents was suspect.
The term English literature refers to literature written in the Englishlanguage, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarilyfrom England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joycewas Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S. Naipaulwas born in Trinidad, Vladimir Nabokov was Russian.

PART II.WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM’S «OF HUMAN BONDAGE» AND JOSEPH CONRAD’S «LORDJIM»
2.1 The Moral Sense in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
Lord Jim (1900), Joseph Conrad’sfourth novel, is the story of a ship which collides with «a floatingderelict» and will doubtlessly «go down at any moment» during a «silentblack squall.» The ship, old and rust-eaten, known as the Patna, isvoyaging across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. Aboard are eight-hundredMuslim pilgrims who are being transported to a «holy place, the promise ofsalvation, the reward of eternal life.» Terror possesses the captain andseveral of his officers, who jump from the pilgrim-ship and thus wantonlyabandon the sleeping passengers who are unaware of their peril. For the crewmembers in the safety of their life-boat, dishonor is better than death [8,183].
Beyond the immediate details and theeffects of a shipwreck, A breach of this novel portrays, in the words of thestory’s narrator, Captain Marlow, «those struggles of an individual tryingto save from the fire his idea of what his moral identity should be… .»That individual is a young seaman, Jim, who serves as the chief mate of the Patnaand who also «jumps.» Recurringly Jim envisions himself as «alwaysan example of devotion to duty and as unflinching as a hero in a book.»But his heroic dream of «saving people from sinking ships, cutting awaymasts in a hurricane, swimming through a surf with a line,» does notsquare with what he really represents: one who falls from grace, and whose «crime»is «a breach of faith with the community of mankind.» Jim’saspirations and actions underline the disparity between idea and reality, orwhat is generally termed «indissoluble contradictions of being.» Hisis also the story of a man in search of some form of atonement once herecognizes that his «avidity for adventure, and in a sense of many-sidedcourage,» and his dream of «the success of his imaginaryachievements,» constitute a romantic illusion.
Jim’s leap from the Patna generates in hima severe moral crisis that forces him to «come round to the view that onlya meticulous precision of statement would bring out the true horror behind theappalling face of things.» It is especially hard for Jim to confront this «horror»since his confidence in «his own superiority» seems so absolute. The «Patnaaffair» compels him in the end to peer into his deepest self and then torelinquish «the charm and innocence of illusions.» The Jim of the Patnaundergoes «the ordeal of the fiery furnace,» as he is severely tested«by those events of the sea that show in the light of the day the innerworth of a man, the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that revealthe quality of his resistance and the secret truth of his pretences, not onlyto others but also to himself.» Clearly the Patna is, for Jim, theexperience both of a moment and of a lifetime.
This novel, from beginning to end, is thestory of Jim; throughout the focus is on his life and character, on what he hasdone, or A story not done, on his crime and punishment, his failure of nerve asaseaman. It is, as well, the story of his predicament and his fate,the destiny of his soul—of high expectations and the great «chance missed,»of «wasted opportunity» and «what he had failed to obtain pretences.,»all the result of leaving his post, and abdicating his responsibility. Thus wesee him in an unending moment of crisis, «overburdened by the knowledge ofan imminent death» as he imagines the grim scene before him: «Hestood still looking at those recumbent bodies, a doomed man aware of his fate,surveying the silent company of the dead. They were dead! Nothing could savethem!»
For Jim the overwhelming question, «Whatcould I do — what?», brings the answer of «Nothing!» The Patna, asit ploughs the Arabian Sea («smooth and cool to the eye like a sheet ofice») on its way to the Red Sea, is close to sinking, with its enginesstopped, the steam blowing off, its deep rumble making «the whole nightvibrate like a bass ring.» Jim’s imagination conjures up a dismal pictureof a catastrophe that is inescapable and merciless. It is not that Jim thinksso much of saving himself as it is the tyranny of his belief that there areeight-hundred people on ship — and only seven life-boats. Conrad’s storyteller,Marlow, much sympathetic to Jim’s plight, discerns in him an affliction ofhelplessness that compounds his sense of hopelessness, making Jim incapable ofconfronting total shipwreck, as he envisions «a ship floating head down,checked in sinking by a sheet of old iron too rotten to stand being shored up[16, 121].» But Jim is a victim not only of his imagination, but also ofwhat Conrad calls a «moral situation of enslavement.» So torn anddefeated is Jim, that his soul itself also seems possessed by some «invisiblepersonality, an antagonistic and inseparable partner of his existence.»
Jim’s acceptance of the inevitability ofdisaster and his belief that he could do absolutely nothing to forestall theloss of eight-hundred passengers render him helpless, robbing him of anyability to take any kind of life-saving action—”… I thought I mightjust as well stand where I was and wait.” In short, in Jim we discern adisarmed man who surrenders his will to action. The gravity of Jim’s situationis so overwhelming that it leaves him, his heroic aspirations notwithstanding,in a state of paralysis. His predicament, then, becomes his moral isolation anddesolation, one in which Jim’s «desire of peace waxes stronger as hopedeclines… and conquers the very desire of life.» He gives in atprecisely the point when strenuous effort and decisive actions are mandated, soas to resist «unreasonable forces.» His frame of mind recalls hereJean-Paul Sartre’s pertinent comment, in The Age of Reason (l945), «That’swhat existence means: draining one’s own self dry without a sense of thrust.»[12, 128]
Everything in Jim’s background points tohis success as a career seaman. We learn that, one of five sons, he originallycame from a parsonage, from one of those «abodes of piety and peace,»in England; his vocation for the sea emerged early on and, for a period of twoyears, he served on a “‘training-ship for affairs of the mercantilemarine.’” His station was in the fore-top of a training-ship chained toher moorings. We learn that, on one occasion, in the dusk of a winter’s day, agale suddenly blew forth with a savage fury of wind and rain and tide,endangering the small craft on the shore and the ferry-boats anchored in the harbor,as well as the training-ship itself. The force of the gale «made him holdhis breath in awe. He stood still. It seemed to him he was whirled around. Hewas jostled.» We learn, too, that a coaster, in search of shelter, crashedthrough a schooner at anchor. We see the cutter now tossing abreast the ship,hovering dangerously. Jim is on the the midst of certitude.
Point of leaping overboard to save a manoverboard, but fails to do so. There is «pain of conscious defeat in hiseyes,» as the captain shouts to Jim. “‘Too late, youngster….Better luck next time. This will teach you to be smart.’”
This incident, related in the firstchapter of the novel, serves to prepare us for Jim’s actions later on the Patna,and also suggests a Danger in kind of flaw in Jim’s behavior in a moment ofdanger. Early on in his career, then, Jim had displayed a willingness to «flinch»from his obligations, thus revealing a defect in the heroism about which heromanticized and which led him to creating self-serving fantasies andillusions. «He felt angry with the brutal tumult of earth and sky fortaking him unawares and checking unfairly a generous readiness for narrowescapes.» Jim, as a seaman, refuses to admit his fear of fear, and in thishe shows an inclination to escape the truth of reality by «putting out ofsight all the reminders of our folly, of our weakness, of our mortality.»Clearly the episode on the training-ship serves both as a symptom and as aportent, underscores an inherent element of failure and disgrace in Jim’scharacter that, in the course of the novel, he must confront if he is totranscend the dreams and illusions that beguile him, and that he must finallyvanquish if he is to find his «moral identity.» His early experienceon the training-ship makes him a marked man [16, 132]. It remains for hisexperience later on the Patna to make him a «condemned man.»
That nothing rests secure, that, in themidst of certitude, danger lurks, that peace and contentment are at the mercyof the whirl of the world, are inescapable conditions of human existence. Thesedaunting dichotomies, as we find them depicted in Lord Jim, are forever teasingand testing humans in their life-journey Conrad sees these dichotomies in theunfolding spectacle of man and nature. To evince the enormous power of thisprocess Conrad chooses to render time in a continuum which fills all space.Time has no end, no telos; it absorbs beginnings and endings—the past, present,and future not only in their connections but also in their disconnections.
Conrad’s spatial technique is no lesscomplex, and no less revealing, than his use of time. Hence, he employs spatialdimension so as to highlight Jim’s sense of guilt in jumping from the Patna
Conrad expresses it in his Author’s Note,is Jim’s burden of fate. And wherever he retreats he is open to attack fromsome «deadly snake in every bush.» Time as memory and place astorment become his twin oppressors.
The specificities of the Patna episodewere to come out during a well-attended Official Court of Inquiry that takesplace for several days in early August 1883. Most of the details, in the formof remarks and commentaries, are supplied by Marlow in his long oral narrative,especially as these emerge from Jim’s own confession to Marlow when they happento meet after the proceedings, on the yellow portico of the Malabar House [13,178]. Humiliated and broken, his certificate revoked, his career destroyed, Jimcan never return to his home and face his father—”‘I could never explain.He wouldn’t understand.’” Again and again, in his confession, Jim showsfeelings of desperation and even hysteria: «Everything had betrayed him!»For him it is imperative to be identified neither with the «odious andfleshly» German skipper, Gustav, «the incarnation of everything vileand base that lurks in the world we love,» nor with the chief and thesecond engineers, «skunks» who are extensions of the captain’scoarseness and cowardice.
But that, in fact, Jim does jumpoverboard—«a jump into the unknown»—and in effect joins them indeserting the Patna ultimately agonizes his moral sense and impels him toscrutinize that part of his being in which the element of betrayal has entered.By such an action he feels contaminated, unclean, disgraced. How to separatehimself morally from the captain and his engineers is still another cruelquestion to which he must find an answer. In this respect, Jim reminds us ofthe tragic heroes in ancient Greek drama whose encounters with destiny entailboth risks and moral instruction. «We begin to live,» Conrad remindsus, «when we have conceived life as a tragedy.»
How does one «face the darkness»?How does one behave to the unknowable? These are other basic questions that vexJim. He wants, of course, to answer these questions affirmatively, or at leastto wrestle with them in redeeming ways, even as he appears to see himselfwithin a contradiction—as one who can have no place in the universe once he hasfailed to meet the standards of his moral code. Refusing to accept any «helpinghand» extended to him to «clear out,» he decides to «fightthis thing down,» to expiate his sin, in short, to suffer penitently theagony of his failure: «He had loved too well to imagine himself a gloriousracehorse, and now he was condemned to toil without honour like acostermonger’s donkey.» Jim’s innermost sufferings revolve preciselyaround his perception of his loss of honor, of his surrender to cowardice. Thecrushing shame of this perception tortures Jim, without respite. “’I hadjumped—hadn’t I?’ he asked [Marlow], dismayed. ‘That’s what I had to livedown.’”
Jim’s moral sense is clearly outraged byhis actions. This outrage wracks his high conception of himself, compelling himin The «idyllic time to see himself outside of his reveries that Conradalso associates with „the determination to lounge safely throughexistence.“ What clouds Jim’s fate is that such a net of safety andcertitude has no sustained reality. Within the serenity that seemed to bolsterhis thoughts of „valorous deeds“ there are hidden menaces thatassault his self-contentment and self-deception and abruptly awaken Jim to hisactual condition and circumstances [13, 186]. In one way, it can be said, Jimis a slave of the „idyllic imagination“ (as Irving Babbitt calls it),with its expansive appetites, chimeras, reveries, pursuit of illusion. Jim’s isthe story of a man who comes to discern not only the pitfalls of thisimagination but also the need to free himself from its bondage. But to freehimself from bondage requires of Jim painstaking effort, endurance. He mustwork diligently to transform chimeric, if incipient, fortitude into an activevirtue as it interacts with a world that, like the Patna, can be „full ofreptiles“—a world in which „not one of us is safe.“
Conrad uses Jim to indicate the moralprocess of recovery. Conrad delineates the paradigms of this process as theseevolve in the midst of much anguish and laceration, leading to the severestscrutiny and judgment of the total human personality. Jim pays attention, inshort, to the immobility of his soul; it will take much effort for him todetermine where he is and what is happening to him if he is to emerge from the „heartof darkness“ and the affliction within and around him to face what iscalled „the limiting moment.“ It is, in an inherently spiritualcontext, a moment of repulsion when one examines the sin in oneself, and hatesit. His sense of repulsion is tantamount to moral renunciation, as he embarkson the path to recovery from the romantic habit of daydreaming.
In the end Jim comes to despise hiscondition, acceding as he Moral does to the moral imperative. He accepts theneed to see his
imperative to „trouble“ ashis own, and he instinctively volunteers to answer questions regarding the Patnaby appearing before the Official Court of Inquiry „held in the policecourt of an Eastern port.“ (This actually marks his first encounter withMarlow, who is in attendance and who seems to be sympathetically aware of „hishopeless difficulty.“) He gives his testimony fully, objectively,honestly, as he faces the presiding magistrate. The physical details of Jim’sappearance underscore his urge „to go on talking for truth’s sake, perhapsfor his own sake“—»fair of face, big of frame, with young, gloomyeyes, he held his shoulders upright above the box while his soul writhed withinhim.” Marlow’s reaction to Jim is instinctively positive: «I likedhis appearance; he came from the right place; he was one of us.» Instriking ways, Jim is a direct contrast to the other members of «the Patnagang»: «They were nobodies,» in Marlow’s words [13, 192].
It should be recalled here that Jimadamantly refused to help the others put the lifeboat clear of the ship and getit into the water for their escape. Indeed, as Jim insists to Marlow, he wantedto keep his distance from the deserters, for there was «nothing in commonbetween him and these men.» Their frenzied, self-serving actions toabandon the ship and its human cargo infuriated Jim—”‘I loathed them. Ihated them.’” The scene depicting the abandonment of the Patna is onefilled with «the turmoil of terror,» dramatizing the contrast betweenJim and the other officers— between honor and dishonor, loyalty and disloyalty,in short, between aspiration and descent on the larger metaphysical map ofhuman behavior. Jim personifies resistance to the negative as he tries toconvey to Marlow «the brooding rancour of his mind into the bare recitalof events.» Jim’s excruciating moral effort not to join the others and toignore their desperate motions is also pictured at a critical moment when hefelt the Patna dangerously dipping her bows, and then lifting them gently,slowly—«and ever so little.»
The reality of a dangerous situation nowseems to be devouring Jim, as he was once again to capitulate to the innervoice of weakness and doubt telling him to «leap» from the Patna. Futilityhovers ominously around Jim at this last moment when death arrives in the formof a third engineer «clutch[ing] at the air with raised arms, totter[ing]and collapsing].» A terrified, transfixed Jim finds himself stumbling overthe legs of the dead man lying on the bridge. And from the lifeboat below threevoices yelled out eerily—«one bleated, another screamed, one howled»—imploringthe man to jump, not realizing of course that he was dead of a heart attack: «Jump,George! Jump! Oh, jump… We’ll catch you! Jump!.. Geo-o-o-orge! Oh,jump!» This desperate, screeching verbal command clearly pierces Jim’sinternal condition of fear and terror, just as the ship again seemed to begin aslow plunge, with rain sweeping over her «like a broken sea.» Andonce again Jim is unable to sustain his refusal to betray his idea of honor.Here his body and soul are caught in the throes of still another «chancemissed.»
The assaults of nature on Jim’s outersituation are as vicious at this pivotal point of his life as are the assaultsof conscience on his moral sense. These clashing outer and inner elements areclearly pushing Jim to the edge, as heroic aspiration and human frailty wrestlefuriously for the possession of his soul. What happens will have permanentconsequences for him, as Conrad reveals here, with astonishing power ofperception [12, 93]. Here, then, we discern a process of cohesion anddissolution, when Jim’s fate seems to be vibrating unspeakably as heexperiences the radical pressures and tensions of his struggle to be more thanwhat he is, or what he aspires to be. Jim, as if replacing the dead officerlying on the deck of the Patna, jumps: «It had happened somehow… ,»Conrad writes. «He had landed partly on somebody and fallen across athwart.» He was now in the boat with those he loathed; “[h]e hadtumbled from a height he could never scale again.” “‘I wished I coulddie,’” he admits to Marlow. “‘There was no going back. It was as if Ihad jumped into a well—into an everlasting deep hole.’”
A cold, thick rain and «a pitchyblackness» weigh down the lurching boat; «it was like being swept bya flood through a cavern.» Crouched down in the bows, Jim fearfullydiscerns the Patna, «just one yellow gleam of the masthead light high upand blurred like a last star ready to dissolve.» And then all is black, asone of the deserters cries out shakily, “‘She’s gone!’” Those in theboat remain quiet, and a strange silence prevails all around them, blurring thesea and the sky, with «nothing to see and nothing to hear.» To Jim itseemed as if everything was gone, all was over. The other three shipmates inthe boat mistake him for George, and when they do recognize him they arestartled and curse him. The boat itself seems filled with hatred, suspicion,villainy, betrayal. «We were like men walled up quick in a roomy grave,»Jim confides to Marlow.
The boat itself epitomizes abject failureand alienation from mankind. Everything in it and around it mirrors Jim’sschism of soul, «imprisoned in the solitude of the sea.» Through thevarying repetition of language and images Conrad accentuates Jim’s distraughtinner condition, especially the shame that rages in him for being «in thesame boat» with men who exemplify a fellowship of liars. By the time theyare picked up just before sunset by the Avondale, the captain and his twoofficers had already «made up a story» that would sanction theirdesertion of the Patna, which in fact had not sunk and which, with itspilgrims, had been safely towed to Aden by a French gunboat, eventually to endher days in a breaking-up yard. Unlike the others, Jim would choose to face thefull consequences of his actions, «to face it out—alone for myself—waitfor another chance—find out… .»
«Jim’s affair» was destined tolive on years later in the memo-Fear vs. ries and minds of men, as instanced byMarlow’s chance meeting honor. in a Sydney café with a now elderlyFrench lieutenant who was a boarding-officer from the gunboat and remained onthe Patna for thirty hours. For Marlow this meeting was «a moment ofvision» that enables him to penetrate more deeply into the eventssurrounding the Patna as he discusses them with one who had been «there.»The French officer, at this time the third lieutenant on the flagship of theFrench Pacific squadron, and Marlow, now commanding a merchant vessel, thusshare their recollections, from which certain key thoughts emerge, measuringand clarifying the entire affair. The two men here bring to mind a Greek chorusspeaking words of wisdom that explain human suffering and tragedy. In essenceit is Jim’s predicament that Conrad wants to diagnose here so as to enlist thereader’s understanding, even sympathy. “‘The fear, the fear—look you—it isalways there,’” the French officer declares. And he goes on to say toMarlow—all of this with reference to Jim: “‘And what life may be worth… when the honour is gone… I can offer no opinion—because—monsieur—I knownothing of it.’”
For Conrad the task of the novelist is to illuminate«Jim’s case» for the reader’s judgment, and he does this, fromdiverse angles and levels, in order for the reader to consider all of theevidence, all the ambivalences, antinomies, paradoxes. If for Jim the struggleis to ferret out his true moral identity, for the reader the task is tomeditate on what is presented to him and, in the end, to attain a transcendentapprehension of life in time and life in relation to val-ues.1 Jimis, to repeat, «one of us,» and in him we meet and see ourselves onmoral grounds, so to speak.
In the final paragraph of his Author’sNote, Conrad is careful to point out that the creation of Jim «is not theproduct of coldly Jim’s function perverted thinking.» Nor is he «afigure of Northern mists.» In Jim, Conrad sees Everyman. In short, he isthe creative outgrowth of what Irving Babbitt terms «the high seriousnessof the ethical imagination,» and not of the «idyllic imagination,»with its distortions of human character. In other words, this is the «moralimagination» which «imitates the universal» and reveres the «PermanentThings.» In Jim we participate in and perceive a normative consciousness,as we become increasingly aware of Jim’s purposive function in reflective proseand poetic fiction, aspiring as it does to make transcendence perceptible.2Conrad testifies to the force and truth of the principles of a metaphysics ofart when, in the concluding sentence of his Author’s Note, he writes about hisown chance encounter with the Jim in ourselves: «One morning in thecommonplace surroundings of an Eastern roadstead, I saw his form passby—appealing—significant—under a cloud—perfectly silent. Which is as it shouldbe. It was for me, with all the sympathy of which I was capable, to seek fitwords for his meaning. He was ‘one of us.’»
A man of «indomitable resolution,»Jim strikes aside any «plan for evasion» proffered to him by a «helpinghand» like Marlow’s. Nothing can tempt him to ignore the consequences ofboth his decisions and indecisions, which surround him like «deceitfulghosts, austere shades.» Any plan to save him from «degradation,ruin, and despair» he shuns, choosing instead to endure the conditions ofhomelessness and aloneness [12, 104]. He refuses to identify with any schemesor schemers of a morally insensitive nature. The «deep idea» in himis the moral sense to which he somehow hangs on and the innermost voice towhich he listens.
Unfailingly Conrad reveals to us thenature of Jim’s character and will in a «narrative [which] moves through adevious course of identifications and distinctions,» as one criticobserves.3 Thus in the person of Captain Montague Brierly we have aparagon sailing-ship skipper, and an august member of the board of inquiry,whose overarching self-satisfaction and self-worth presented to Marlow and tothe world itself «a surface as hard as granite.» Unexplainably,however, Brierly commits suicide a week after the official inquiry ended byjumping overboard, less than three days after his vessel left port on hisoutward passage. It seems, as Marlow believes, that «something akin tofear of the immensity of his contempt for the young man [Jim] underexamination, he was probably holding silent inquiry into his own case.»Jim will not go the way of Brierly, whose juxtaposition to Jim, early on in thenovel, serves to emphasize the young seaman’s fund of inner strength needed toresist perversion of the moral sense. Unlike Brierly, Jim will not be unjust tohimself by trivializing his soul.
Nor will Jim become part of any businessscheme that would Jim’s destiny conveniently divert him from affirming themoral sense. A farfetched and obviously disastrous business venture (“[a]sgood as a gold-mine”), concocted by Marlow’s slight acquaintance, a WestAustralian by the name of Chester, and his partner, «Holy-Terror Robinson,»further illustrates in Jim the ascendancy of «his fine sensibilities, hisfine feelings, his fine longings.» Jim will not be identified with theunsavory Chester any more than he would be identified with the Patna gang.Marlow himself, whatever mixed feelings he may have as to Jim’s weaknesses,intuits that Jim has nobler aspirations than being «thrown to the dogs»and in effect to «slip away into the darkness» with Chester. Jim’sdestiny may be tragic, but it is not demeaning or tawdry, which in the end sumsup Marlow’s beneficent trust in Jim.
In a state of disgrace, Jim was to work asa ship-chandler for various firms, but he was always on the run—to Bombay, toCalcutta, to Rangoon, to Penang, to Bangkok, to Batavia, moving Man «wantsfrom firm to firm, always „under the shadow“ of his connection to thePatna „skunks.“ Always, too, the paternal Marlow was striving to find»opportunities” for Jim. Persisting in these efforts, Marlow pays avisit to an acquaintance of his, Stein, an aging, successfulmerchant-adventurer who owns a large inter-island business in the MalayArchipelago with a lot of trading posts in out-of-the-way trading places forcollecting produce [11, 123]. Bavarian-born Stein is, for Marlow, «one ofthe most trustworthy men» who can help to mitigate Jim’s plight. A famousentomologist and a «learned collector» of beetles and butterflies, helives in Samarang. A sage, as well, he ponders on the problems of humanexistence: «Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece… man is comewhere he is not wanted, where there is no place for him… ,» he says toMarlow. He goes on to observe that man «wants to be a saint, and he wantsto be a devil,» and even sees himself, «in a dream,» «as avery fine fellow—so fine as he can never be… .» Solemnly, he makesthis observation, so often quoted from Conrad’s writings: «A man that isborn falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea… The way is tothe destructive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your handsand feet in the water make the deep, deep sea keep you up.»
Marlow’s meeting with Stein provides for aphilosophical probing of some of the fundamental ideas and life-issues Conradpresents in Lord Jim. The human condition, no less than the kingdomofnature, is the province of his explorations. His musings on the mysteries ofexistence ultimately have the aim of enlarging our understanding of Jim’scharacter and soul [12, 128]. These musings also have the effect of heighteningJim’s struggles to find his true moral identity. Inevitably, abstraction andambiguity are inherent elements in Stein’s metaphysics, so to speak, even ashis persona and physical surroundings merge to project a kind of mystery; hisspacious apartment, Marlow recalls, «melted into shapeless gloom like acavern.» Indeed Marlow’s visit to Stein is like a visit to a medicaldiagnostician who possesses holistic powers of discernment—«our conferenceresembled so much a medical consultation—Stein of learned aspect sitting in anarm-chair before his desk… .» Stein’s ruminations, hence, have attimes an oracular dimension, as “… his voice… seemed to rollvoluminous and grave—mellowed by distance.” It is in this solemnatmosphere, and with subdued tones, that Stein delivers his chief pronouncementon Jim: “‘He is romantic—romantic,’ he repeated. ‘And that is verybad—very bad… Very good, too,’ he added.”
The encounter with Stein assumes, almostat the mid-point of the novel, episodic significance in Jim’s moral destiny,and in the final journey of a soul in torment. Stein’s observations, insightfulas they are, hardly penetrate the depths of Jim’s soul, its conditions andcircumstances, which defy rational analysis and formulaic prescriptions. Thesoul has its own life, along with but also beyond the outer life Stein images.It must answer to new demands, undertake new functions, face new situations—andexperience new trials. The dark night of the soul is at hand, inexorably, asJim retreats to Patusan, one of the Malay islands, known to officials inBatavia for «its irregularities and aberrations.» It is as if Jim hadnow been sent «into a star of the fifth magnitude.» Behind him heleaves his «earthly failings.» “‘Let him creep twenty feetunderground and stay there,’” to recall Brierly’s words. In Patusan, at apoint of the river forty miles from the sea, Jim will relieve a Portuguese bythe name of Cornelius, Stein & Co.’s manager there. It is as if Stein andMarlow had schemed to «tumble» him into another world, «to gethim out of the way; out of his own way.» «Disposed» of, Jim thusenters spiritual exile, alone and friendless, a straggler, a hermit in thewilderness of Patusan, where «all sound and all movements in the worldseemed to come to an end.»
The year in which Jim, now close to thirtyyears of age, arrives in Patusan is 1886. The political situation there isunstable—«utter insecurity for life and property was the normal condition.»Dirt, stench, and mud-stained natives are the conditions with which Jim mustdeal. In the midst of all of this rot, Jim, in white apparel, «appearedlike a creature not only of another kind but of another essence.» InPatusan, he soon becomes known as Lord Jim (Tuan Jim), and his work gives him «thecertitude of rehabilitation.» Patusan, as such, heralds Jim’s unceasingattempt to start with a clean slate. But in Patusan, as on the Patna, Jim is inextreme peril, for he has to grapple with fiercely opposing native factions:the forces of Doramin, Stein’s old friend, chief of the second power inPatusan, and those of Rajah Allang, a brutish chief, constantly locked inquarrels over trade, leading to bloody outbreaks and casualties. Jim’s chiefgoal was «to conciliate imbecile jealousies, and argue away all sorts ofsenseless mistrusts.» Doramin and his «distinguished son,» DainWaris, believe in Jim’s «audacious plan.» But will he succeed, orwill he repeat past failures? Is Chester, to recall his earlier verdict on Jim,going to be right: “‘He is no earthly good for anything.’” And willJim, once and for all, exorcise the «unclean spirits» in himself,with the decisiveness needed for atonement? These are convergent questions thatbadger Jim in the last three years of his life.
During the Patusan sequence, Jim attainsmuch power and influence: «He dominated the forest, the secular gloom, theold mankind.» As a result of Jim’s leadership, old Doramin’s followersrout their sundry enemies, led not only by the Rajah but also by the vagabondSherif Ali, an Arab half-breed whose wild men terrorized the land. Jim becomesa legend that gives him even supernatural powers. Lord Jim’s word was now «theone truth of every passing day.» Certainly, from the standpoint of heroicfeats and sheer physical courage and example, Jim was to travel a long way fromPatna to Patusan. Here his fame is «Immense!.. the seal of successupon his words, the conquered ground for the soles of his feet, the blind trustof men, the belief in himself snatched from the fire, the solitude of hisachievement.» If his part in the Patna affair led to the derision thatpursued him in his flights to nowhere, fame and adoration now define hisnewly-won greatness. The tarnished first mate of the Patna in the Indian Oceanis now the illustrious Lord Jim of the forests of Patusan.
The difficult situations that Jim must nowconfront in Patusan demand responsible actions, which Conrad portrays with alltheir Concrete complexities and tensions. There is no pause in Jim’s constant gestureswrestle with responsibilities, whether to the pilgrims on the Patna or thenatives in Patusan. The moral pressures on him never ease, requiring of Jimconcrete gestures that measure his moral worth. Incessantly he takes moralsoundings of himself and of the outer life [15, 211]. The stillness andsilences of the physical world have a way of accentuating Jim’s inner anguish.He is profoundly aware that some «floating derelict» is waitingstealthily to strike at the roots of order, whether of man or of society.
In the course of relating the events inPatusan, where he was visiting Jim, Marlow speaks of Jim’s love for a Eurasiangirl, Jewel, who becomes his mistress. Cornelius, the «awful MalaccaPortu- guese,» is Jewel’s legal guardian, having married her late motherafter her separation from the father of the girl. A «mean, cowardlyscoundrel,» Cornelius is another repulsive beetle in Jim’s life. Theenemies from without, like the enemy from within, seem to pursue Jimrelentlessly. In Patusan, thus, Cornelius, resentful of being replaced asStein’s representative in the trading post, hates Jim, never stops slanderinghim, wants him out of the way: “‘He knows nothing, honourable sir—nothingwhatever. Who is he? What does he want here—the big thief?.. He is a bigfool… He’s no more than a little child here—like a little child—a littlechild.’” Cornelius asks Marlow to intercede with Jim in his favor, so thathe might be awarded some “‘moderate provision—suitable present,’”since «he regarded himself as entitled to some money, in exchange for thegirl.» But Marlow is not fazed by Cornelius’s imprecations: «Hecouldn’t possibly matter… since I had made up my mind that Jim, for whomalone I cared, had at last mastered his fate… .» Nor is Jim himselftroubled by Cornelius’s unseemly presence and the possible danger he presents: «Itdid not matter who suspected him, who trusted him, who loved him, who hatedhim… ‘I came here to set my back against the wall, and I am going to stayhere,’» Jim insists to Marlow [15, 213].
The concluding movement of the novel, akind of andante, conveys a «sense of ending.» Marlow’s longnarrative, in fact, is now coming to an end, confluent with his «last talk»with Jim and his own imminent departure from Patusan. The language belongs tothe end-time, and is pervaded by deepening sorrow and pity, and by an implicitrecognition «of the implacable destiny of which we are the victims—and thetools.» A poetry of lamentation takes hold of these pages, and thelanguage is brooding, ominous, recondite. Concurrently, the figure of Corneliusweaves in and out and gives «an inexpressible effect of stealthiness, ofdark and secret slinking… His slow, laborious walk resembled the creepingof a repulsive beetle… » We realize that Marlow and Jim will nevermeet again, as we witness a twilight scene of departure. Having accompaniedMarlow as far as the mouth of the river, Jim now watches the schooner takingMarlow to the other world «fall off and gather headway.» Marlow seesJim’s figure slowly disappearing, «no bigger than a child—then only aspeck, a tiny white speck… in a darkened world.»
At the end of the novel, Jim finds himselfa prisoner and ultimately a victim of treachery as he fights against invadingoutcasts and desperadoes who, for any price, kill living life—cutthroats led Man’smoral by «the Scourge of God,» «Gentleman Brown,» a supremeincarnation of evil that Jim must confront. Conrad renders the power of evil inunalleviating ways, even as he sees man’s moral poverty as an inescapablereality. Indeed, what makes Jim’s fate so overpowering is that he never stopsstruggling against the ruthless forces of destruction that embody Conrad’svision of evil. What Jim has accomplished in Patusan by creating a more stablesocial community will now be subject to attack by invaders of «undisguisedruthlessness» who would leave Patusan «strewn over with corpses andenveloped in flames.» If Jim’s inner world, in the first part of thenovel, is in turmoil, it is the outer world, in the second part of the novel,that is collapsing «into a ruin reeking with blood.» What we hear inthe concluding five chapters of Lord Jim is the braying voice of universaldiscord, crying out with a merciless conviction that, between the men of theBugis nation living in Patusan and the white marauders, «there would be nofaith, no compassion, no speech, no peace.»
The last word of the story of Jim’s lifeis reserved for one of Marlow’s earlier listeners, «the privileged man,»who receives a thick packet of handwritten materials, of which an explanatoryletter by Marlow is the most illuminating. A narrative in epistolary formprovides us, two years following the completion of Marlow’s oral narrative,with the details of the last episode that had «come» to Jim. WhatMarlow has done is to fit together the fragmentary pieces of Jim’s «astoundingadventure» so as to record «an intelligible picture» of the lastyear of his life [15, 218]. The epistolary narrative here is based on theexploit of «a man called Brown,» upon whom Marlow happened to come ina wretched Bangkok hovel a few hours before Brown died. The latter was thus tovolunteer information that helped complete the story of Jim’s life, in whichBrown himself played a final and fatal role.
The son of a baronet, Brown is famous forleading a «lawless life.» He is «a latter-day buccaneer,»known for his «vehement scorn for mankind at large and for victims inparticular.» We learn that he hung around the Philippines in his rottenschooner, which, eventually, «he sails into Jim’s history, a blindaccomplice of the Dark Powers.» Their meeting takes place as they faceeach other across a muddy creek—«standing on the opposite poles of thatconception of life which includes all mankind.» This encounter is ofenormous consequence, as Jim, «the white lord,» contends verballywith the «terrible,» «sneering» Brown, who slyly invokestheir «common blood, an assumption of common experience, a sickeningsuggestion of common guilt… .» The conversation, Marlow was to recallin his letter, appeared «as the deadliest kind of duel on which Fatelooked on with her cold-eyed knowledge of the end.» Brown, with his «satanicgift of finding out the best and the weakest spot in his victims,» seemsto be surveying and staking out Jim’s character and capability. Jim, on hispart, intuitively feels that Brown and his men are «the emissaries withwhom the world he had renounced was pursuing him in his retreat.»
Perceiving the potential menace of Brownand his «rapacious» To underesti- white followers, Jim approaches theentire situation with caution; he knows that there will be either «a clearroad or else a clear fight» ahead. His one thought, as he informs Doramin,is «for the people’s good.» Preparations for battle now take placearound the fort, and the feeling among the natives is one of anxiety, and alsoof hope that Jim will somehow resolve everything by convincing Brown that theway back to the sea would be a peaceful one. Jim is convinced «that itwould be best to let these whites and their followers go with their lives.»Unwavering as always in meeting his moral obligations, he is primarilyconcerned with the safety of Patusan. But he underestimates the calculatingBrown, again disclosing the propensity that betrays him. Quite simply Jim doesnot mistrust Brown, believing as he does that both of them want to avoidbloodshed. In this respect, illusion both comforts and victimizes Jim, as theway is made clear for Brown, with the sniveling Cornelius at his side providinghim with directions, to withdraw from Patusan, now guarded by Dain Waris’sforces.
Brown’s purpose is not only to escape butalso to get even with Jim for not becoming his ally, and to punish the nativesfor their earlier resistance to his intrusion. When retreating towards thecoast his men deceitfully open fire on an outpost of Patusan, killing thesurprised and panic-stricken natives, as well as Dain Waris, «the only sonof Nakhoda Doramin,» who had earlier acceded to Jim’s request that Brownand his party should be allowed to leave without harm. It could have beenotherwise, to be sure, given the superior numbers of the native defenders. Onceagain, it is made painfully clear, Jim flinches in discernment and in leadership,naïvely trusting in his illusion, in his dream, unaware of the evil powerof retribution that impels Brown and that slinks in humankind. That, too,Brown’s schooner later sprung a bad leak and sank, he himself being the onlysurvivor to be found in a white long-boat, and that the deceitful Cornelius wasto be found and struck down by Jim’s ever loyal servant, Tamb’ Itam, can hardlycompensate for the destruction and the deaths that took place as a result ofJim’s failure of judgment. Marlow’s earlier demurring remark has a specialrelevance at this point: «I would have trusted the deck to that youngster[Jim] on the strength of a single glance… but, by Jove! it wouldn’t havebeen safe.»
Jim’s decision to allow free passage toBrown stems from his concern with preserving an orderly community in Patusan:he did Moral pride not want to see all his good work and influence destroyed byviolent acts. But clearly he had misjudged Brown’s character. Neither Jim’shonesty nor his courage, however, are to be impugned; his moral sense, in thiscase, is what consciously guided his rational conception of civilization. But afailure of moral vision, induced perhaps by moral pride and romanticism, blindshim to real danger. When Tamb’ Itam returns from the outpost to inform Jimabout what has happened, Jim is staggered. He fathoms fully the effects ofBrown’s «cruel treachery,» even as he understands that his own safetyin Patusan is now at risk, given Dain Waris’s death and Doramin’s dismay andgrief over events for which he holds Jim responsible. For Jim the entiresituation is untenable, as well as perplexing: «He had retreated from oneworld for a small matter of an impulsive jump, and now the other, the work ofhis own hands, had fallen in ruins upon his head.» His feeling ofisolation is rending, as he realizes that «he has lost again all men’sconfidence.» The «dark powers» have robbed him twice of hispeace.
To Tamb’ Itam’s plea that he should fightfor his life against Doramin’s inevitable revenge, Jim bluntly cries, “‘Ihave no life.’” Jewel, too, «wrestling with him for the possession ofher happiness,» also begs him to put up a fight, or try to escape, but Jimdoes not heed her. «He was going to prove his power in another way andconquer the fatal destiny itself.» This is, truly, “‘a day of evil,an accursed day,’” for Jim and for Patusan. When Dain Waris’s body isbrought into Doramin’s campong, the «old nakhoda» was «to letout one great fierce cry… as mighty as the bellow of a wounded bull.»The scene here is harrowing in terms of grief, as he women of the household «beganto wail together; they mourned with shrill cries; the sun was setting, and inthe intervals of screamed lamentations the high sing-song voices of two old menintoning the Koran chanted alone.» The scene is desolate, unconsoling,rendered in the language of apocalypse; the sky over Patusan is blood-red, with«an enormous sun nestled crimson amongst the tree-tops, and the forestbelow had a black and forbidding face.» Jim now appears silently beforeDoramin, who is sitting in his arm-chair, a pair of flintlock pistols on hisknees. “‘I am come in sorrow,’” he cries out to Doramin, who staredat Jim «with an expression of mad pain, of rage, with a ferocious glitter.… and lifting deliberately his right [hand], shot his son’s friend throughthe chest.»
At the end of his explanatory letterMarlow remarks that Jim «passes away under a cloud, inscrutable at heart,forgotten, unforgiven, and excessively romantic.» Such a remark, ofcourse, must be placed in the context of Marlow’s total narrative, with all ofthe tensions and the ambiguities that occur in relating the story of Jim’s lifeas it unfolds in the novel. Nor can Marlow’s words here be construed as a moralcensure of Jim [10, 156]. What exemplifies Marlow’s narrative, in fact, is theintegrity of its content, as the details, reflections, judgments, demurralsemerge with astonishing and attenuating openness, deliberation. There is nosingle aspect of Jim’s life and character that is not measured and presented infull view of the reader. If judgment is to be made regarding Jim’s situation,Conrad clearly shows, then affirmations and doubts, triumphs and failures willhave to be disclosed and evaluated cumulatively.
No one is more mercilessly exposed to theworld than Jim. And no one stands more naked before our judgment than he. Thescrutiny of Jim’s beliefs and attitudes, and of his actions and inactions, isrelentless in depth and latitude. He himself cannot hide or flee, no matterwhere he happens to be. Marlow well discerns Jim’s supreme aloneness in hisstruggles to find himself in himself, to master his fate, beyond the calumniesof his enemies and the loyalty and love of his friends—and beyond his ownrigorous self-judgments. The anguish of struggle consumes everything andeveryone in the novel, and nothing and no one can be the same again once incontact with him. In Jim, it can be said, we see ourselves, for he is «oneof us,» he is our «common fate,» which prohibits us to «lethim slip away into the darkness.»
2.2 «HumanBondage» and it’s moral duality
From a moral perspective the OfficialCourt of Inquiry literally takes place throughout Lord Jim. Jim never ceases toreact to charges of cowardice and of irresponsibility; never ceases to striveearnestly to prove his moral worthiness. He seems never to be in a state ofrepose, is always under pressure, always examining his tensive state of mindand soul. Self-illumination rather than self-justification, or evenself-rehabilitation, is his central aim, and he knows, too, that such a processmolds his own efforts and pain [15, 83]. He neither expects nor accepts help orabsolution from others, nor does he blame others for his own sins of commissionor omission. His character is thus one of singular transparency, acutelyself-conscious, and vulnerable.
Jim’s moral sense weighs heavily on himand drives him on sundry, sometimes contradictory, lines of moral awareness andbehavior. In this respect he brings to mind the relevance of Edmund Burke’swords: «The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of mathematics.They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of exceptions; they demandmodifications.»4 Gnostic commentators who view the moraldemands of this novel as confusing or uncertain fail to see that the lines ofmorality, even when they take different directions and assume different forms,inevitably crystallize in something that is solid in revelation and in value.5
Clearly Jim’s high-mindedness andcharacter are problematic, and his scale of human values is excessivelyromantic. Thus heromanticizes what it means to be a sailor, what duty is, evenwhat cowardice is. The fact is that he is too «noble» to accommodatereal-life situations. In essence, then, Jim violates what the ancient Greeksrevered as the «law of measure.» And ultimately his pride, his loftyconception of what is required of him in responsible leadership and duty, hishigh idealism, mar the supreme Hellenic virtue of sophrosyne-. Jim’sconduct dramatizes to an «unsafe» degree the extremes of arrogance,and of self-delusion and self-assertion. Above all his idealism becomes apeculiar kind of escape from the paradoxes and antinomies that have to be facedin what Burke calls the «antagonist world.»
In the end, Jim’s habit of detachment andabstraction manifestly rarefies his moral sense and diminishes and evenneutralizes the moral meaning of his decisions and actions. His self-proclaimedautonomy dramatizes monomania and egoism, and makes him incapable of harmonioushuman interrelations, let alone a redeeming humility. His moral sense isconsequently incomplete as a paradigm, and his moral virtues are finite. Andhis fate, as it is defined and shaped by his tragic flaw, does not attain truegrandeur. In Jim, it can be said, Conrad presents heroism with allits limitations [14, 147].
Despite the circumstances of his moralincompleteness, Jim both possesses and enacts the quality of endurance infacing the darkness in himself and in the world around him. Even when he yearnsto conceal himself in some forgotten corner of the universe, there to separatehimself from other imperfect or fallen humans, from thieves and renegades, andfrom the harsh exigencies of existence, he also knows that unconditionalseparation is not attainable. He persists, however erratically or skeptically,in his pursuit to reconcile the order of the community and the order of thesoul; and he perseveres in his belief in the axiomatic principles of honor, ofloyalty, prescribing the need to transcend inner and outer moral squalor. Hisdeath, even if it shows the power of violence, of the evil that stalks man andhumanity, of the flaws and foibles that afflict one’s self, does not diminishthe abiding example of Jim’s struggle to discover and to overcome moral lapses.
Jim can never silence the indwelling moral sense which inspiresand illuminates his life-journey. Throughout this journey the virtue ofendurance does not abandon him, does not betray him, even when he betrayshimself and others. He endures in order to prevail. In Lord Jim, Joseph Conradportrays a fitful but ascendant process of transfiguration in the life of asolitary hero whose courage of endurance contains the seeds of redemption. Sucha life recalls the eternal promise of the Evangelist’s words: «He that endurethto the end shall be saved.»
The major character of the novel, Philip, spends most of his lifein two places, which become the dominant settings for the book. From the timehe becomes aware of the world around him until his adolescence, Philip is foundin Blackstable and its neighboring town of Tercanbury. Even after he goesabroad to study, he keeps coming beck to Blackstable during the holidays andwhenever he feels the need for a change.
In the process of establishing hisidentity, Philip visits London twice and spends the major part of his matureyears in that city. Returning back from Heidelberg, he goes to London to becomea clerk in the company of Chartered Accountants. When he realizes he has noaptitude for accounting, he returns……
Philip Carey — an orphan with aclubfoot. He is the protagonist of the novel whose story Maugham traces from agenine to thirty.
William Carey — the uncle of Philip andthe vicar of Blackstable. He is self-centered and rigid in his views.
Mildred Rogers — Philip’s antagonist onone level. Selfish, shallow, and flirtatious, she successfully lures Philipwith her charms.
Thorpe Athelny — a boisterousjournalist. He is a loving family man who becomes Philip’s friend, philosopher,and guide.
Mrs. Carey — the kind and gentlewife of the vicar. She loves Philip and helps him fulfil his desires.
Mr. Perkins — one of Philip’swell-wishers. He is the scholarly headmaster of King’s School.
The novel is the story of Philip Carey.The story opens with his mother dying after childbirth. The nine-year-oldPhilip is taken by his uncle to Blackstable. After spending a few initial yearsat the Vicarage, the boy is admitted to King’s School at Tercanbury. Having aclubfoot, he is ostracized and becomes introverted, but his intelligence andhis aptitude for studies help him academically. Unable to bear the humiliationand taunts of his fellow students and the rigid norms of school, he finallyquits and goes to Germany. In Germany, Philip learns new languages, isintroduced to philosophy, and discovers the beauty of nature. His stay inHeidelberg expands his vision of humanity and life. He graduates and startsplanning his future.
After talking to his uncle, Philip decidesto go to London to become a clerk; however, he discovers after a few monthsthat he is more inclined toward art than accounting. Taking financial aid fromhis aunt, he leaves for Paris to study. The city gives him an insight into theworld of artists and their struggle to exhibit their talent. At the end of twoyears, he also discovers that he lacks the potential to be a great artist. As aresult, he leaves Paris and returns back to Blackstable.
Philip decides to take up his father’sprofession of medicine and enrolls as a student in St. Luke’s hospital. He doesnot, however, pursue his goal in earnest because of a waitress named Mildred[8, 121].
The major theme of the novel is that thesubmission to passion is human bondage, while the exercise of reason is humanliberty. Philip Carey loves Mildred passionately and, in trying to possess her,traps himself in her bondage. His freedom is curbed, his education isdisrupted, and his fortune is lost. All his reasoning, power, and intelligenceare eradicated by his passion for Mildred.
There are several minor themes in thenovel. The first is that inappropriate love can be destructive. In spite of hermany weaknesses, Philip loves Mildred and showers his affection and money onher. He even sacrifices his education and limited resources to please her. Inthe process, Philip wastes the important years of his life following a womanwho is not deserving of his love. It is definitely a destructive relationshipfor Philip, one that keeps him in bondage [8, 128].
The mood of the novel is serious, but notgloomy. Maugham, with irony and cynicism, presents the struggle of a lonelyprotagonist and the turmoil in his mind.
William Somerset Maugham, the youngestchild of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Maugham, was born in Paris, France on January 25,1874. At the time of his birth, his father was working as a lawyer for theBritish Embassy in Paris. In 1882, his mother died of tuberculosis. His threebrothers went to study in London, and William was sent to a clergyman attachedto the British Embassy. When his father died two years later, there was no oneto look after him in Paris. As a result, h e was sent to Kent to live with hisuncle, Henry Maugham. Since his uncle and aunt were childless, they found itdifficult to care for him. William, at the age of ten, was a lonely and unhappychild. His life at King’s School in Canterbury was no better. Frail andsensitive, he felt isolated from the other boys because of his stammer.
Maugham was smart, but the rigid schooldiscipline and the taunts of his classmates made him leave school before hecould complete his education. He left for Germany with the help of his uncle.
Of Human Bondage is semi-autobiographical.In it Maugham reveals his childhood, his student days in Heidelberg and London,and his philosophy of life. It was not, however, his first autobiographicalattempt. In the Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey, Maugham retold much ofhis first twenty-four years of life. The protagonist, however, was sent toRouen instead of Heidelberg and studied music instead of painting. The noveldid not come up to Maugham’s expectations and was not published. [10, 183]
The novel opens with the scene of a dyingwoman attended by a doctor and the nurses. She has just delivered a stillbornchild, and her condition is critical. At her request, the nurse brings herfirst-born child, Philip, to her bedside. Mrs. Carey caresses him, tenderlytouches his feet, and bursts into tears. The doctor advises her to rest, andthe boy is taken away by the nurse to his godmother, Miss Wilkens. Shortlyafterwards, the woman dies.
Philip is brought back home to meet hisuncle, William Carey, the brother of Philip’s father and the vicar ofBlackstable. The Vicar informs the boy that he would be accompanying him toBlackstable to live there. Even though William Carey and his wife are kind andchildless, the prospect of having a boy under their roof does not really delightthem. Their means are limited, and Philip’s father had left behind only 2000 pounds for the boy, which had to last him until he was old enough to earn his own living.
Philip, though disturbed by the thought ofleaving his home, is reconciled to the situation. As a mark of remembrance, hepicks up his mother’s favorite clock, visits his mother’s room, and prepares todepart. As he journeys with his uncle to Blackstable, he forgets his sorrowsand enjoys the countryside scenery. When they reach Blackstable, everythingabout the place and its people seems strange to Philip.
In these opening chapters, Maugham conveysthe poignancy of Philip’s situation through clear descriptions and shortconversations. It is a touching scene when his mother calls him to her bedsidebefore she dies. They obviously had a close relationship, as evidenced by hertender touches, by his taking her favorite clock as a remembrance, and by histrying to feel her presence left in her room. Because Philip has a clubfoot,she has probably been particularly gentle and patient with her first-born son[10, 187].
The loss of his mother and her baby aremade all the more tragic when Philip finds out he must leave home. Because heis now an orphan at the age of nine, he must go to live with his uncle, WilliamCarey, and his wife in Blackstable; unfortunately, they are not particularlypleased about raising the child, and Philip is not pleased about going. He doesnot want to leave his home and the memories of his mother. He goes into herroom to vent his emotions. Hiding his face in her clothes, he tries to breatheher into his being by touching and smelling the things that belonged to her. Inthese first chapters, Maugham does an outstanding job of presenting Philip as asensitive and intelligent child who craves affection and sympathy.
Philip shows his innocence when he lookswith curiosity at all the sights on his way to Blackstable; he is struck withwonder at the vision and temporarily forgets his sorrow and loneliness. He isalmost eager to see a new place. After all, as a handicapped child he has beenclosely watched and protected. He has not experienced much of the world.
At Blackstable, Philip finds the ways ofhis uncle and aunt quite different. Although they are kind, he is notcomfortable with them, and they feel strange with a child in the vicarage.Philip watches in amazement as his uncle offers him only the top portion of aboiled egg at tea, when he craves the whole thing. In spite of such peculiarhabits, Philip learns to adjust to his surroundings and tries to please hisguardians. It is important to notice several things in these opening chapters.Although Philip’s clubfoot is not made an issue here, it is mentioned becauseit becomes more important later in the novel. The interest in money is alsopresented. The Careys are not well off, and they worry that the 2,000 pounds (equivalent to about $10,000 at the time of the novel) will not be enough to provide forPhilip until he is on his own. A concern about money will be seen throughoutthe book, for Philip will have and lose a fortune. Finally, the Britishtradition of tea is presented and will be seen frequently throughout the novel.
The plot of Of Human Bondage traces thestory of one man’s struggle for survival in a cruel world. Most of the actionis mental, as the protagonist tries to conquer his passion and replace it withreason. There is a great deal of introductory material to establish Philip’sbackground and philosophies. It is not until the book is almost half over thatthe antagonist, Mildred, is introduced. The rising action of the plot is thenone misadventure with Mildred after another.
The dominant theme in the novel is human bondage.Throughout life, Philip experiences bondage to different things, and the novelis his fight to find freedom from the bondage. Philip is born with a physicaldeformity that causes him to suffer humiliation and isolation. His clubfootbecomes a bondage to him throughout the book. It curbs his physical activity inschool and makes him the object of criticism.
OfHuman Bondageis a novel of adolescence, initiation, passage into adulthood,… the traditionalbildungsroman, fashionable in the first half of the XXth century. It soonestablished itself as a classic and became a favorite of many readers in theirtwenties, mostly men.
OfHuman Bondageintroduces the hero, Philip Carey, at eight years old, as he becomes an orphanwhen his mother dies, soon after giving birth to a stillborn child. Philip issent to be raised by his uncle and aunt, sixty miles from London. His uncle, avicar, is self-centered and thinks only about fulfilling his appetites andattracting people to his church. His aunt cares for him but is very awkward atshowing her feelings, as she never had any children of her own.
Philipis afflicted by a handicap: a clubfoot that makes him a scapegoat in theboarding-school where he studies until he is old enough to be ordained andfollow in the steps of his uncle. But Philip, growing up, develops differentambitions…
Hefirst realizes that the almighty God who can move mountains can’t or won’t curehis clubfoot, despite his ardent prayers. Little by little, he looses his faithand starts to turn to philosophy to understand the world. Along the way, hemeets people who, with their perspectives on life, make him think differently;he progressively builds his own personality. Before graduating from school, hedecides that he will not go to Oxford, despite the fact that he is clever andhard-working enough to earn a scholarship: instead, he decides to spend sometime in Germany.
Hestarts to wonder about love and gets romantic ideas and ideals, first byobserving couples and then by a first-hand experience with an older woman, afriend of his aunt and uncle. But his frustration grows, when he realizes thathe has not experienced love as it is described in the numerous novels he likesto read [9, 96].
Trainingfor some months as an accountant in London, he understands that this is notwhat he is meant to do and, since he can draw, sets his mind on becoming anartist and goes to Paris to learn the craft. The part of the book set inMontmartre reminds strongly of Zola’s The Masterpiece. Sensing and having beenconfirmed that he has no real talent, he gives up la vie de bohême aftera while and returns to London to study medicine. Surprisingly, he shows realcompassion to his patients and finally succeeds in the profession that he choseas the last resort.
Butthe turning-point of the book, from which the title derives, is his passionateand destructive relationship with Mildred, a waitress whom he finds common,vulgar, stupid and anemic, but whom he is desperately attracted to, againstreason and his best interest. Because of this attraction, he will compromisehis studies, loose his money and almost his sanity.
OfHuman Bondagecertainly appeals most to readers between fifteen and twenty, at the age whenone spends hours philosophizing about love, arts and the meaning of life (laterwe turn to the Monthy Python to understand the meaning of life!)… The ideasdiscussed by Philip and his friends probably sound familiar to many readers,which explains why so many people are drawn to this book. I probably would haveenjoyed it more a decade ago…
Themain themes developed in the book are of course the passage into adulthood, theopposition between passion and reason, bondage and freedom, and we see thateven if Philip is completely aware of being used and ridiculed by Mildred, hecannot get away from her… Other minor themes treated along the way are art (howdoes one define a piece of art? does art reproduce reality or is realitydefined by the painter who gives to see?), religion (must a man abide by thelaw if he doesn’t believe in God, knowing that the conception of good and evilis based on Judeo-Christianism?), etc.
OfHuman Bondageis largely autobiographical. Somerset Maugham started of as a doctor beforebecoming a novel writer, a successful play writer, and again a novelist. Hismother passed away when he was eight, a very traumatic experience in his life,and he was raised, like Philip, by his vicar uncle. He didn’t have a clubfoot,but was stammering. Critics have pointed out that the clubfoot however didn’tsymbolize his stammer, but his homosexuality, that was considered a handicapback then. They also argue that Mildred’s description corresponds to a veryandrogynous woman (flat chest, thin lips, etc.). Somerset Maugham is not thefirst author to describe a heroine in ambiguous terms. After all, MarcelProust’s model for Albertine was probably a man and Poe’s Ligeia has masculinephysical features (for a different reason though: Poe couldn’t conceive an actualwoman clever and learned like his Ligeia is supposed to be: that is whathappens when one marries his thirteen-years-old tuberculous cousin!). Since Ilike to get unprejudiced ideas on the books I discover, I only read the prefaceafterwards and I had gotten a hint that Somerset Maugham was homosexual, notthrough the description of Mildred though, but rather, when he describes therelationships he shares with his male friends (Philip is jealous, exclusive,enjoys to be mothered by a friend while he is sick in bed): it had seemed to mepretty obvious then…

Conclusionto part II
Lord Jim (1900), Joseph Conrad’s fourth novel, is thestory of a ship which collides with «a floating derelict» and willdoubtlessly «go down at any moment» during a «silent blacksquall.»
This novel, from beginning to end, is the story of Jim; throughoutthe focus is on his life and character, on what he has done, or A story notdone, on his crime and punishment, his failure of nerve as aseaman.It is, as well, the story of his predicament and his fate, the destiny of hissoul—of high expectations and the great «chance missed,» of «wastedopportunity» and «what he had failed to ob- pretence stain,» allthe result of leaving his post, and abdicating his responsibility.
From a moral perspective the Official Court of Inquiry literallytakes place throughout Lord Jim. Jim never ceases to react to charges ofcowardice and of irresponsibility; never ceases to strive earnestly to provehis moral worthiness. He seems never to be in a state of repose, is alwaysunder pressure, always examining his tensive state of mind and soul.
Jim’s moral sense weighs heavily on him and drives him on sundry,sometimes contradictory, lines of moral awareness and behavior. In this respecthe brings to mind the relevance of Edmund Burke’s words: «The lines ofmorality are not like the ideal lines of mathematics.
The major theme of the novel is that thesubmission to passion is human bondage, while the exercise of reason is humanliberty. Philip Carey loves Mildred passionately and, in trying to possess her,traps himself in her bondage. His freedom is curbed, his education isdisrupted, and his fortune is lost. All his reasoning, power, and intelligenceare eradicated by his passion for Mildred.
There are several minor themes in the novel. The first is thatinappropriate love can be destructive. In spite of her many weaknesses, Philiploves Mildred and showers his affection and money on her. He even sacrificeshis education and limited resources to please her. In the process, Philipwastes the important years of his life following a woman who is not deservingof his love. It is definitely a destructive relationship for Philip, one thatkeeps him in bondage.
The major theme of the novel is that thesubmission to passion is human bondage, while the exercise of reason is humanliberty. Philip Carey loves Mildred passionately and, in trying to possess her,traps himself in her bondage. His freedom is curbed, his education isdisrupted, and his fortune is lost. All his reasoning, power, and intelligenceare eradicated by his passion for Mildred.
There are several minor themes in the novel. The first is thatinappropriate love can be destructive. In spite of her many weaknesses, Philiploves Mildred and showers his affection and money on her. He even sacrificeshis education and limited resources to please her. In the process, Philipwastes the important years of his life following a woman who is not deservingof his love. It is definitely a destructive relationship for Philip, one thatkeeps him in bondage.

GENERALCONCLUSION
On the basisof above-stated we came to a conclusion, that Literaturein 20th century begins with a serie of movements, some of them contradictorybetween them, as Symbolism, Decadentism, Impressionism and, in Hispanicliterature, Modernism, The Generation of ’98.
Duringthe two first decades, two literary conceptions are imposed to writers: Thosewriters for whom literary work is the expression of a cultural experience andfall in intellectualism; and writers who, in view of the chaos of the time andthe dissatisfaction of bourgeois world, see literary work as an adventure, asan irrational experience.
Inthe thirties, some historic and socioeconomic facts, affected literature. Itwill express the search, through the action, of ethical values.
Afterthe World War, writers will insist in the same attitudes: moral crisis andtechnical experimentation.
From a moralperspective the Official Court of Inquiry literally takes place throughout LordJim. Jim never ceases to react to charges of cowardice and of irresponsibility;never ceases to strive earnestly to prove his moral worthiness. He seems neverto be in a state of repose, is always under pressure, always examining histensive state of mind and soul. Self-illumination rather thanself-justification, or even self-rehabilitation, is his central aim, and heknows, too, that such a process molds his own efforts and pain. He neither expectsnor accepts help or absolution from others, nor does he blame others for hisown sins of commission or omission. His character is thus one of singulartransparency, acutely self-conscious, and vulnerable.
Jim can never silence the indwelling moral sense whichinspires and illuminates his life-journey. Throughout this journey the virtueof endurance does not abandon him, does not betray him, even when he betrayshimself and others. He endures in order to prevail. In Lord Jim, Joseph Conradportrays a fitful but ascendant process of transfiguration in the life of asolitary hero whose courage of endurance contains the seeds of redemption. Sucha life recalls the eternal promise of the Evangelist’s words: „He thatendureth to the end shall be saved.“
Of Human Bondage is a novel of adolescence,initiation, passage into adulthood, the traditional bildungsroman, fashionablein the first half of the XX-th century. It soon established itself as a classicand became a favorite of many readers in their twenties, mostly men.
Of Human Bondage is largely autobiographical.Somerset Maugham started of as a doctor before becoming a novel writer, asuccessful play writer, and again a novelist.
According to our aim and hypothesis of investigation,in our work we proved the reflection of problems of human morality andrelationships on the example of W. Summerset’s and J. Conrad’s creativity.
We solved such tasks as:— to research the main representatives of the prosewriting in the first half of thetwentieth century;— to investigate the similarity and difference ofthemes and genres of the leadingliterature representatives;— to research The problem of humanity in the work as aleading Inclination of
W. Somersetand J. Conrad.

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