On The Theme Of Loneliness In Conrad's Victory

Joseph Conrad(1857-1924),a Polish-British writer,enjoys a high reputation in British fiction history.His former period works,which attract widespread attention at home and abroad,are principally divided into nautical novels,jungle novels and social political novels.Victory,one of his later representative works,hasn't been extensively researched by literary critics,especially in China.The previous studies on Victory mainly explore it from the perspectives of skepticism,colonialism,ecocriticism and so on.This thesis will try to study this novel from the perspective of the theme of loneliness."Loneliness" refers to one's subjective psychological feeling in general.Erich Fromm defines it more profoundly from the perspectives of philosophy and metaphysics.He regards it as a static,inborn and objective condition owned by the whole humanity.This kind of static loneliness will become active and dynamic as the external environment changes,and thus breed the sense of loneliness of social kind in people's hearts.Fromm holds the opinion that people have five fundamental needs.They are always not satisfied in the morbid capitalist society so that the sense of loneliness spreads.People encircled by the strong sense of loneliness will seek different psychological mechanisms to escape from loneliness.Based on Fromm's theory of loneliness,this thesis tries to find out the roots of the protagonists' loneliness predicaments,the methods of escaping from loneliness and the spiritual sublimation after conquering loneliness from the perspectives of people's five fundamental needs,three escape mechanisms and the connotation of positive freedom.The protagonists Heyst and Lena are the typical examples of British people who are disappointed and dissatisfied with the society at that time.They reflect that British people,no matter their genders or classes,are all struggling with the predicament of loneliness and adopting different ways to escape from loneliness.Firstly,the loneliness of Heyst and Lena is presented.On the one hand,Heyst's eccentric personality,lonely psychology and solitary condition are analyzed.On the other hand,Lena's numb obedience and the lost sense of identity,existence and belonging in the cruel reality are demonstrated.Then,Heyst's and Lena's attempts to escape from loneliness are researched.Through helping Morrison and saving Lena,Heyst tries to establish a sadistic-masochistic bond in which they are subservient to each other and become interdependent to avoid plunging into loneliness.By cheating Ricardo and protecting Heyst,Lena pursues positive freedom in her spontaneous creative activity to get rid of loneliness.Lastly,protagonists' sublimation is explored.Heyst's rebirth of attitudes towards life and belief in a brisk fire is discussed.Lena's realization of independent personality,identity and status and sublimation of morality,emotion and intellect in her self-sacrifice are expounded.By analyzing protagonists' constant fights against loneliness,this thesis unfolds the loneliness predicament of pre-'war British society and people.It draws a conclusion that the right way of conquering loneliness is to pursue positive freedom and persist in love and trust.Conrad expresses his concern for such spiritual crises,from the lack of belief and security to the lost sense of belonging.He appeals people to shake off loneliness and surpass it by using the right method.Meanwhile,He also conveys his hopes for people to conquer loneliness and win the victory in spirit by depicting Heyst's self-awareness and Lena's self-realization.