Joseph Conrad: The Mirror Of The Soul

Conrad has long been regarded and respected as "writer of the sea tales" or "mirror of the sea". However, Conrad himself was not satisfied with such a label. In fact, being original and going it alone, Conrad "protested against all attempts at using established labels to describe and classify his works." ' When the famous "New York Edition" of his stories and novels were to be published, he confidently proclaimed, "I want the edition to be perfectly distinctive and to bear no specialized symbols or marks. I am something else, and perhaps something more, than a writer of the sea — or even of the tropics. I am not even generally exotic, tho' at first the critics were rather inclined to class me under one of these heads. But this is no longer the case. I am acknowledged to be something, if not bigger, then, at any rate, as something larger." 2 In my view, it's improper and unwise to judge a writer simply by the background his stories happen to take place. Conrad is undoubtedly a great observer and depicter of the sea, but there is something more in his sea novels or jungle books. Be it sea or jungle, Conrad merely employs it as a background for his stories and events, a stage for his heroes to perform their great shows, a platform to display their true humanity: to experience the subtle mental, emotional and psychological changes as a man with a heart, to fight against the nature or themselves to acquire a fuller identity as a man with a mind, to be tested and realize their value as a man with a soul. In a word, Conrad tries to search and paint the depth and scope of human true nature through events that take place on such background as isolated ships at the sea or primitive jungle. This thesis is an attempt to argue that Conrad is a mirror of our mental personality, a master of human soul.The present thesis contains three main parts. It begins with Conrad's family background and his personal experience that play an important role in the forging of Conrad's personality, which also serves as a key note of understanding and interpreting his characters and works. Chapter I first traces back to Conrad's extraordinary miserable childhood, his early orphan-hood and his going under the guardianship of his uncle who tried to bring him up in the way opposite to his parents, making him grow up with a dual soul; Conrad thus developed a multiple sense of self early ~ "a Pole, Catholic, Nobleman."3Conrad's language background is immediately followed up, which is another important element in the making of Conrad. Fluent in his mother tongue Polish and his approximate mother tongue French, reading widely in both languages, Conrad grew up bi-lingual and bi-cultural. The third language he acquired at twenty is English. Living between three different languages and cultures, Conrad humorously and paradoxically referred to himself as a "Homo duplex" 4 or "double man". Though he is actually a "homo triplex" or "triple man" with a triple identity in the strict sense. Being a hybrid "marginal man" 5 himself, he was able to be more acutely aware of the inner conflictstruggle and trouble of the human soul.For Conrad the writer, his life at sea as Conrad the sailor plays an extremely significant role. It is not exaggerating to say his first career lays a solid foundation for his second one. The sea has been his home for twenty years, carrying him throughout the world and leaving him numerous experiences and memories. As Henry James put it, "No one has known - for intellectual use - the things you know." ] Twenty year at sea, being cut off not only from his family, friends and country, but also from his crew by the fundamental differences that existed between himself and his fellow seamen - in age, culture, language, education, and experience resulted in his strong sense of alienation and isolation. His neat appearance and gentlemanly conduct was mocked as a "Russian Count," 2 his courteous manner and habit of reading made him a "queer feller." 3 However, this extreme state of "moral isolation" might be a blessing in disguise for Conrad the writ...