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AND NOT ONE JUMPS: THE WOMEN IN CONRAD'S NOVELS AND NOT ONE JUMPS: THE WOMEN IN CONRAD'S NOVELS By DIANA KNIGHT, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Diana Knight, August 2004 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2004) McMaster University (English) Hamilton. Ontario TITLE: And Not One Jumps: The Women In Conrad's Novels AUTHOR: Diana Knight, B.A, M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor R. Granofsky NUMBER OF PAGES: vii, 273 J1 Abstract There is more than one misperception about Joseph Conrad and women: He wrote novels that contain no female characters. He was a misogynist who, when he included female characters wrote about them in a misogynistic way. When he created women characters they were not true to life, but either one-dimensional or highly idealized. These untruths need to be dispelled. They help to perpetuate a reputation that is unfounded and unjust. Conrad did not include women in many of his short stories. However, his novels contain many female characters, and their portrayals reveal that Conrad's reputation as a man who disliked women has no solid foundation. Conrad's letters and biographies show that Conrad's opinion of women was often more than positive. He based much of his thinking on his memories of his mother, a woman admired by many for her tireless energy and commitment to the cause of Polish independence. Female characters who share his mother's many fine qualities appear over and over in his longer fiction. However, although these female characters display lively intelligence, profound insight, courage, endurance, and other strengths, they also display flaws that humanize them and make them seem rea) to us. Conrad shows his true opinion of women in ways that go beyond portraying them in positive ways He defies conventional literary forms and archetypes that perpetuate expectations for women in patriarchal societies. His subversion of inscribed codes of III behaviour for women reveals that Conrad viewed women as capable of being and doing far more than traditional literature indicates. Because he moves away from conventional forms and portrayals, Conrad is free to allow his female characters a voice by which he is able to comment critically on the way patriarchal, especially imperialist, societies operate. A point common to all his commentaries is that patriarchal societies are severely flawed because the men who run them are self-serving and often corrupt. For Conrad, women are more highly principled than men. If society is to focus on the betterment of its people, it must include women as leaders at all levels. This thesis will show that Joseph Conrad was not a misogynist writer, but a writer who has been misrepresented as one. IV Acknowledgements I wish to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Ronald Granofsky, for providing the razor-sharp criticism that I needed in order to complete this thesis. I will always be very grateful for his honesty. My only regret is that I have never had the pleasure of experiencing his lectures -- intellectually rigorous, I am sure. I am also very grateful to the ongoing support of Dr. John Ferns and Dr. Alan Bishop, whose undergraduate classes inspired my enthusiasm for English literature. (l will never forget Dr. Ferns's lectures on Gerard Manley Hopkins, or Dr. Bishop's class where we all laughed hysterically at Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale".) I cannot mention laughter without thinking of my original thesis supervisor, the late Dr. Aziz, a teacher who encouraged me to continue my graduate studies and fed me tea and home-baked cookies during our thesis meetings. I also wish to thank Antoinette Somo for her assistance throughout the long process of completion. One seldom accomplishes one's goals without the continued support of family, friends, and colleagues. They know who they are and that I thank each of them. v Table of Contents 1. Introduction.. .•........... ........................................................... 1 Conrad and the Critics ................................................................... 4 Conrad and Women ...................................................................... 13 Conrad and the Influence of Poland and its Literary Heritage ................... .23 Conrad and the Influence of England ................................................ 28 Conrad, Modernism, and Marlow .................................................... .37 2. Chapter 1: THE EARLY NOVELS (1895 - 1900) ........................... .44 Almayer 's Folly (1895) ................................................................ .46 An Outcast o/the Islands (1896) ..................................................... 62 Lord Jim (1900) ......................................................................... 78 3. Chapter 2: THE MAJOR PHASE I (1904 - 1911) ............................... 95 Nostromo (1904) ......................................................................... 96 The Secret Agent (1907) ............................................................... 119 Under Western Eyes (1911) ............................................................ 138 4. Chapter 3: THE MAJOR PHASE II (1913 - 1915) ........................... 162 Chance (1913) ................................................................................... 163 VIctory (1915) .................................................................................... 190 5. Chapter 4:THE LATER NOVELS (1919 -1925) ................................ 212 The Arrow o/Gold (1919) ............................................................. .213 The Rescue (1920) ...................................................................... 232 The Rover (1923) ....................................................................... 249 Suspense (1925) ......................................................................... 252 6. Conclusion ............................................................................... 257 7. Works Cited and Consulted.. .. ..... 262 VI Abbreviations All references to Conrad's works have been incorporated into the text and abbreviated according to the following key: AF Almayer 's Folly AG The Arrow of Gold C Chance HD Heart ofDarkness U Lord Jim N Nostromo 01 An Outcast ofthe Island TR The Rescue R The Rover S SU5pense SA The Secret Agent UWE Under Western Eyes V Victory Vll PhD Thesis - Diana Knight McMaster University - English Introduction Joseph Conrad wrote from within a patriarchal society; although many women in Conrad's time wrote novels, few women wrote criticism about them. Criticism was male­ centred and consequently male characters were more frequently studied and analysed, even in those works of Conrad that contain significant female characters. Moreover, the exotic locales of Conrad's early novels firmly established him as a writer of sea stories and adventure tales, genres populated by and popular with men. Conrad, however, wrote little fiction that did not contain female characters. It is fair to say that until recently few Conrad scholars and critics have looked closely at Conrad's female characters. Andrew Michael Roberts recounts reading a 1993 plot summary of Conrad's Lord Jim "which contained no mention of Jewel .,. a woman whose life is carefully placed by Conrad within a .. , history of colonial displacement"(vi). However, although much of the commentary on Conrad's women is sparse, it indicates that not all the critics held the same opinion of Conrad's female characters. Thomas Moser and Alfred Guerard perceive misogyny in Conrad's novels. Bernard Meyer's psychoanalytical interpretation of Conrad's work portrays the writer as a misogynist frightened of predatory females. Susan Brodie feels that because Conrad idealises his female characters, he does not create realistic women characters (69). Neville Newhouse views Conrad's description of women as "a serious failure of communication" because of Conrad's propensity to invest "femininity with an aura of sacred distance" (74). Some critics accuse Conrad of perpetuating conventional stereotypes. Frederick Karl, for example, describes Conrad's portrayals of virtuous PhD Thesis - Diana Knight McMaster University - English women as cliched and "disastrous" (902). Still others champion Conrad's treatment of women. Both Jeremy Hawthorn and Peter Hyland argue that Conrad criticized patriarchal ideology by exposing its injurious effects on women. Generally, however, Conrad has been perceived as a writer who does not "do" women well. In this study I maintain that Conrad does do women well and that what appears to many critics to be misogyny is actually parody or satire. This dissertation will involve close, critical analysis of Conrad's major novels. In it I will argue that the significant female roles in these novels undermine inscribed literary traditions of female portraiture and become vehicles through which Conrad critically investigates the patriarchal cultures he had experienced. In each of these cultures Conrad reveals that it is women, not men, who demonstrate qualities of heroism to which men aspire. To accomplish these ends Conrad employs a variety of techniques and strategies: he affords female characters substantial presence within his fictional works; he dramatizes complex, fully-rounded women whose delineation both parallels and stands in contrast to the characterization of his major male characters; he allows the female point of view access to the traditional patriarchal discourse;

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