JOSEPH CONRAD AND HIS DEMONS

 

A paradox runs across the latter period of Joseph Conrad’s career in which many of his characteristic themes, notably the conflicts of the heart upon the realization of the horrors and brutality tied to a livelihood. Superficially, Conrad was branching out, delving more into the politics of Eastern Europe with The Secret Agent and, its spiritual successor, Under Western Eyes. Both deal with the rise of political terrorism as Russia was rising from the failed revolution of 1905 to its history making one more than a decade later. Both novels, however, are centered on a theme central to Conrad’s work, the moral dilemma of the protagonist torn between duty and ethics.

His short story collection, ‘Twixt Land and Sea, comprising stories written around these two later works, looks at the conundrums Conrad was exploring since Heart of Darkness from different angles. “The Secret Sharer”, one of his most famous short stories is, at first reading, a simple tale. The new captain of a commercial ship picks off a fugitive from another English vessel encountered off the coast of Manila. Leggatt, the fugitive, was charged with murder on the vessel he fled from and execution once the ship docks is almost certain. The captain that takes him in feels a kinship with this stowaway that can only be explained by the striking physical similarities he bears with the fugitive. Indeed, this captain (who remains unnamed, so his identity is all the less distinguishable to that of Leggatt), who has up to now been described as insecure and uneasy with his own position as captain, identifies with the fugitive he harbors and his motives (Leggatt murdered a crew member, whose stubbornness and arrogance during a storn would have sunk the ship) more than anyone he commands. So intense does the captain’s identification with Leggatt become that he violates maritime law, lies to his crew and even endangers them to hide the murderer with his face.

“A Smile of Fortune”, written shortly after, is one of Conrad’s most fascinating tales.  Again the story centers around a somewhat naïve captain of a merchant vessel stationed in Mauritius. He is assigned by the owners of the ship to meet while there with Ernst Jacobus, a local ship supplier well regarded in Mauritius as well as among merchant sailors. However, the captain is instead approached first by Ernst’s brother Alfred. This is in its own way a return to the concept of dualities explored in “Secret Sharer” but while the captain of that story saw himself in Leggatt, Alfred insists that his brother is a very “different kind of person”. Alfred is odd but congenial and, like his brother, well-known among the local traders. However, his dismaying reputation on the island, which begins to spread to the captain by association (are they too starting to be seen as one?) suggests Alfred has a scandalous history.

Once the captain does meet Ernst it is hard to see why he should not be regarded at least as lowly as his brother. He is hot-headed, scolding and, most unforgivingly, brutal with the young biracial man who waits on him. Inexplicably, the locals overlook this willingly. In fact, what the captain does learn about Ernst deepens the mystery. The biracial young man is, in fact, Ernst’s son, the result he cannot hide from an affair he would rather be forgotten, hence his animosity.

But Alfred, what is it with Alfred and why can’t his sins (whatever they are) be forgiven as easily as his brother’s?

Here the reader is also torn. We want Alfred to emerge triumphant as the better man because everything we have seen of him to this point shapes him into the man Ernst should be. And yet, his story reveals a man who is in some ways far more calculating and crueler than his brother. He too had an adulterous past, leaving his wife for a circus performer. Alice, the daughter born of this romance, is his own secret child. But while Alfred’s treatment of Alice has not the obvious violence his brother employs it is, in its own way, just as sinister, again the central question of how different we are than the brutes we condemn.

Alice is Alfred’s secret. She never leaves the house, spending most of her time in the flower garden. Her years living as a recluse have turned her paranoid, misanthropic and wild. Her only link to the outside world are newspapers, her spinster aunt and the sailors that come to the house to conduct business with her father. Alfred has often talked of sending her abroad but his reasons for delaying this soon become apparent to the captain and began to repulse him. Alice’s beauty and mysterious vulnerability draw the merchant sailors in, keeping them on the island where their supply needs can be met by her father.

At this point in the narrative there is no longer a question as to why Alfred is scorned by the locals. The conflict is now within the captain. He is disgusted by Alfred but cannot, despite many threats to do so, walk away from Alice. Knowingly and begrudgingly, he is falling for Alfred’s exploitative financial scheme.

Throughout his life, Conrad was torn by the beauty of exotic foreign lands, the riches they held and the romance of adventures at sea. But he was brave enough to acknowledge the crimes against his fellow man committed for the sake of such things. To what extent was he complicit?, he dared ask himself. It is a question that seemingly troubled him his whole life. As the captain in “A Smile of Fortune” asked himself, “Horrid thoughts of business interfered with my enjoyment of an accomplished passage.”