"We are the hollow men" : an insight into inner conflict and the self in a selection of Joseph Conrad's novels

Abstract

The dissertation seeks to establish the concept of the human condition in Joseph Conrad's novels Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, as well as in his novella 'The Secret Sharer'. The issue of inner conflict and the notion of the self in Conrad's work are brought to the surface through the illustration of the psychological elements of the novels which lie beneath the more observable themes of colonialism and life at sea. By making reference to a number of psychological theories, the dissertation will hence attempt to illustrate what Conrad himself refers to as 'a glimpse of truth'. The first section of the analysis revolves around Heart of Darkness. It attempts to expose the novel as a psychological journey towards one's inner darkness, in which Marlow and Kurtz struggle with the wilderness and ultimately with themselves. Likewise, with regards to Lord Jim in the second section, the dissertation reveals how Jim's failure to live up to his own idealized image has produced within him an internal struggle which has in tum led him down the destructive path. Marlow's psychological quest and identification with Jim are also investigated as the disse1iation demonstrates how this recognition subsequently produces an unconscious battle within Marlow himself. The third section of the dissertation examines 'The Secret Sharer' in an attempt to uncover how the narrator's trial as a captain is also one which reflects the self. In dealing with the concept of the self in the final section, the chapter demonstrates how Conrad minors his own identity in his fiction, by drawing upon the similarities between the author and the figures of Marlow, Jim, Kurtz and the Captain in 'The Secret Sharer'. The study therefore analyses the consequences of the deception of the idealized self in Conrad's subjects as they question their moral identity. In tum, it also seeks to question how this deception produces an internal struggle within the protagonists and in mankind. It is such internal conflicts which ultimately lead to man's own destruction making all humanity, to use T.S. Eliot's phrase, 'hollow men'. The aim of the research is thus to explore the portrayal of human nature in Conrad's work in order to bring out the underlying truth in Conrad's novels as well as to determine that his fiction is reflective of the author himself.