San Fernando Valley State College

A Criticism of Malcolm Lowry's

Under the Volcano

A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English

by

Betty Koerber

Received: Approved:

C:fiairman, fZommittee on Honors

June, 1965 With grateful acknowledgment of the help of Richard W. Lid, Ph.D Under the Volcano is the story of a man to whom the problem of his own relationship with the universe is over­ whelming; pursued by guilt and harassed by those Who love him, he allows himself to be destroyed. In a particular way, the details of Under the Volcano closely mirror those of

Lowry's own life, particularly his tragic preoccupation with alcoholism. (See appendix for a brief biographical account of Lowry's life.) Fact and fiction are so interwoven in

Under the Volcano that it is impossible to separate them--nor is it necessary, for it is the larger pattern of Lowry's life, his search for a personal identity and a meaningful life to accompany it, which informs his work and gives depth and perspecti.ve to otherwise isolated fragments in the his­ tory of a man's personal destruction.

Evidence of Lowry's preoccupation with his various selves and their fictional counterparts can be found in Conrad

Knickerbocker's brief biographical account, "The Voyages of

Malcolm Lowry." Knickerbocker tells how Lowry reacted when he was notified that Under the Volcano had been accepted finally in both America and England:

What Lowry ..•recogni zed in a moment of terror was the self-consuming quality of the work. The Consul [the main chargcter in the novel] had taken more than his share; like an insolent fam­ iliar, he was never too far away. Lowry could not perform the vital surgery of separating himself from his characters. He suspected at times that he was not a writer so much as being written, and with panic he realized that self­ identity was as elusive as ever. (p.311)

1. 2.

The wider pattern of Lowry's involvement with self can

be seen from his plan to unite his individual novels eventu­

ally into a physical and spiritual journey under the general

title of The Voyage That Never �· Ultramarine, published

first in 1933, was to have been the first in this series.

This early novel reflects Lowry's travels at sea as a young

man, and it shows the beginnings of the themes and problems

so agonizingly worked out in the latter two novels. Lowry

describes, through the eyes of the young sailor Hilliot, his

feelings of isolation from the rest of humanity- -no doubt

dating partially from his forced absence from school in his

early teens--and he expresses a great need for identification

with some worthy cause or person he can respect. He also

manifests a strong sense of guilt for the young life he feels

he has wasted. (111 have lived only nineteen years, most of

them badly, " Lowry wrote in his first letter, to Conrad Aiken,

the man who became both mentor and guide to the young writer.

See appendix for details of this friendship.) By the end of

Ultramarine, the young sailor has turned more and more to

alcohol as a method of escape from his problems. Lowry brings

about a mechanical solution to the boy 1 s sense of iso.lation,

which was something he could not do in real life, and only

in this way was he able to end the novel on a note of hope.

Under the Volcano was to have formed the center of the - series. In this novel, Lowry explores more fully the prob­

lems stated in Ultramarine, in part through the opposition

of attitudes and goals of the two brothers. Hugh, with his 3. idealism and his desire for positive action reveals, it seems to me, one facet of Lowry's complex personality.

Geoffrey--pessimistic, addicted to alcohol, frequently de­ pressed and hopeless in outlook--seems to exhibit the other side of the coin from Hugh, and suggests parallels with

Lowry himself. He is the book's major figure, and it is his despair that in the end dominates. If Hugh represents the latent idealism in Lowry, and Geoffrey the open and un­ relenting despair, the failure of Lowry to achieve a realis­ tic relationship with the rest of the world is mirrored in

Geoffrey's inability to come to terms with the ruined land­ scape of his life.

Lowry reache� a theoretical resolution to the problems posed in his earlier novels and stories in Hear Us 0 Lord

From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place, and he intended it to be the last in his series. A collection of seven short stories, all but one dealing with the lives of alcoholic writers,

Hear � 0 Lord was not published until �962, five years after the author's death. In the seventh and last story, The Forest

� to the Spring, Lowry drops the thin disguises found in his other works, and writes a frankly autobiographical account, of his early attempt at rehabilitation. In 1940, he and his wife Marjorie went to live in a shack on the beach at Dollar­ ton, British Columbia; this is the setting for The Forest Path

!£ the Spring. After leading a very precarious existence under elemental conditions for some time, and closely observing his hardy neighbors who handled their lives so successfully, Lowry 4. developed a sort of code for living, which is embodied in the lives and beliefs of five or six persons in The Forest

Path. This ''code11 solved to a great extent the problem of identity which constantly pursued him throughout his life.

In sum, one had to be generous, compassionate and humble; he must by physically able to withstand the elements of nature and almost completely independent of the rest of the human race. But most important, he must respect the privacy of others, taking care not to interfere or to force his will upon anyone else. In order to maintain these qualities, it was necessary to lead as simple a life as possible, and to develop an acute awareness and concern for all aspects of natur�:;.

Such a way of life was impractical and idealistic, particularly in respect to isolating oneself from humanity; but it worked for him, because of his problem with alcohol, if only for a time. Unfortunately, he chose to ignore his own good advice, so painfully reached, knowing that a re­ turn to alcohol--and to the "outer world"--meant a return to the path of self-de.struction. The fact of his final choice, if indeed Lowry actually had a choice at this point in his life, makes Under the Volcano his most representative book. When this novel is examined apart from the other two, it appears almost as a rationale for the right of a man to destroy himsel f without interference from the rest of the world. Geoffrey Firmin, the Consul, spends the last day of 5. his life trying to understand the nature of his relationship to the world around him; he rejects help and he rejects life, 1 ending by choosing "Hell .••because, 11 he says, nr like it."

Under the Volcano grew out of a short story which Lowry wrote in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in about 1936. The action of the original story consists mainly of a bus ride from the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac, Mexico, to the neighbor­ ing town of Tomalin. There are three main characters: a

British Consul, his daughter Yvonne and her husband, Hugh.

The Consul, an alcoholic, suffers from a hangover, and has convinced himself he has "sworn off" as the story begins.

Half way to Tomalin, the bus stops in the open country; what is at first taken to be a man sleeping in the sun turns out

to be an Indian, robbed and left dying with a wound in his

head. Beside him is his horse, its saddle bags now empty.

The passengers on the bus refuse to become involved in any way with the dying man; they think of every possible reason

for not touching him: there are no phones in working order,

no doctors available anyway, the police are on strike, and

so on. Yvonne cannot stand the sight of blood, and flees

back to the bus. The Consul tells Hugh that if they should

touch this man, they would in fact be considered "accomplices"

to the crime. While they debate, a man who is either drunk

l Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, (New York, 1958),p.316.

Further references will appear in the text. 6. or drugged, steals some money which the dying man has hidden under his collar; he later pays his bus fare with these blood­ stained coins. The em otional strain is too much' for the Con­ sul, and he realizes that he will drink again at the earliest opportunity. When the bus reaches Tomalin, the three charac­ ters are stopped by the sight of an old lame Indian carrying another one on his back, an obvious reminder of their guilt at leaving the Indian to die alone by the roadside; for as feeble as he is, the old man is able to perform some service for one in worse circumstances than he.

The author has taken the central incident of this short story, that of the dying Indian, and made it the focal point of his novel; around it he has developed each of his four main themes. Isolated from its maze of symbols, the plot of the novel is fairly simple, although Lowry attached great importance to details. Yvonne is now the wife of the Consul, while Hugh is his half-brother. The action also takes place in the space of one day, the Day of the Dead, in November, l:938, in Quauhnahuac, Mexico. The opening chapter is seen from'· -. the point of view of Jacques LaRuelle, an unsuccess- ful Frencl1. film p.roducer, who recalls events which took place exactly one year ago. Haunted by his love for Yvonne, LaRuelle is reminded constantly of the violent deaths which befell both her and her husband, Geoffrey Firmin, former British Consul in Quauhnahuac. Stumbling upon an old letter t1f Geoffrey's which he had written to Yvonne during their separation, LaRuelle 7 reads of the depths of despair in alcoholism to which Geoffrey

has fallen. He recalls their childhood friendship together in

England and France, Geoffrey's troubled early life, and the later rumors concerning an obscure guilt on the part of the

Consul. During World War I; Geoffrey as a naval officer had supposedly ordered the burying alive of several captured German officers, although the extent of his responsibility was never determined.

With the second chapter, the action of the same day one year ago begins. Yvonne returns to Geoffrey in an attempt to achieve a reconciliation. She finds him in a local bar, or

"cantina�' in an even more advanced stage of alcoholism than

when she had left him. Geoffrey has been desperate for her

return, but now th�t she is back, he cannot face up to the emotional responsibilities involved, and he spends the rest of

the day drinking continuously. He informs Yvonne that his

younger brother Hugh is staying with him, but will be leaving for Vera Cruz the following day. Hugh has just resigned his

job as a reporter for the London Daily Globe, and unknown to

.

his brother, plans to take part in shipping. dynamite to the Loy- • .

alist forces currently engaged in the civil war in Spain.

Geoffrey also tells Yvonne that he and LaRuelle have been

spending a good deal of time together the past year. This comp­

licates the emotional scene for them both, since Yvonne has had

love affairs in the past with both Hugh and LaRuelle. She det-

d ht e two Of them walk to their old ermines to stay, however, an

state of disrepair. has 1et fa 11 into a home, which Geoffrey 8.

Here Yvonne learns that he has lost his job as Consul, and she realizes the extent of his deterioration. After an un­ successful attempt at making loye, Geoffrey falls drunkenly asleep. Hugh returns, and he and Yvonne go for a walk, after which they rent horses and ride to the outskirts of town. During the course of the ride, Yvonne tells Hugh of her plans to get away from Mexico with Geoffrey, and to be­ gin a new life "somewhere in the north, " perhaps Canada.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey has awakened and wandered out into his neglected, overgrown garden to locate a bottle of tequila he had hidden "for emergencies." Humiliated by his neighbor,

Mr. Quincey, because of his condition, Geoffrey suffers hal­ lucinations; he aw akens some time later to find that Hugh,

Yvonne and he have all agreed to go to Tomalin, a neighbor­ ing town, to watch the bullthrowing that afternoon. On their way to the bus station, they encounter Jacques LaRuelle; delighted to see Yvonne again, he asks them to his house for a drink. Yvonne escapes quickly with Hugh on the pretext that Hugh ·Should see the native dancing at the fair before he leaves Mexico; Geoffrey and LaRuelle have several drinks and walk to the fair where Geoffrey is to meet the o�hers.

LaRuelle upbraids the Consul for treating Yvonne so indif­ ferently on the day of her return� He leaves Geoffrey alone, and the latter continues to drink until he is intoxicated.

Some small children recognize Geoffrey's condition, begging him for· money; to avoid them, he· takes refuge on a violent 9. ride at the fair. When the chair he is riding in spins up­ side down, he loses his passport, which is never returned to him. Geoffrey "sobers up" with some tequila, and manages to meet Yvonne and Hugh at the bus station by two o'clock.

Half way to Tomalin, the incident involving the dying Indian, which formed the nucleus of the short story, . occurs; the thief who robs the man is now referred to as a Spaniard.

When the bus reaches Tomalin, with each of the three charac­ ters bea:ring a load of guilt, they go to watch the bull­ throwing, with Geoffrey drinking steadily from a bottle he has brought along. There is little action from the perform­ ers, and Hugh is bored to distraction. Leaping into the ring, he rides and subdues the bull himself. This gives

Yvonne and Geoffrey a few minutes alone together, during which time they have an emotional rapprochement; Yvonne tells him of her plan for them to get away from Mexico together and begin.: life again. The Consul retreats back into his alcoholic haze, and as they leave the arena, they encounter the old lame Indian car�ying the other on his back, seen also at the conclusion to the short story. At dinner in the Salon Ofelia, Geoffrey drinks more and more.

Quarelling finally with both Hugh and Yvonne, he flees the Salon and walks alone to the Farolito, a cantina several miles down the road. Here he continues to drink, reading some letters from Yvonne which she had sent there for him

months ago. In an alcoholic haze, he allows himself to be 10. led away and seduced by a young prostitute; the fact that he has no money with which to pay her arouses suspicions against him in the cantina, which is actually th e head­ quarters for a Fascist organization powerful in Mexico at that time. Unable to produce his passport because he has lost it during the day, Geoffrey is searched, which reveals only a copy of a telegram of Hugh's to the London Daily

Globe which asserts that he is investigating Fascist opera­ tions against the Jews in Me�ico. The Fascist leaders are convinced Geoffrey is a spy, and without warning or trial, take him out and shoot him, throwing his body down into a deep ravine. As he dies, a horse is released, again the horse of the dead Indian; it gallops down the path, killing

Yvonne, who has come too late to look for him.

By examining the no.ye.l and .determining ,:the. alterations to the short story, it is possible to see more clearly Lowry's intentions, and to discover the means by which he has worked out his themes. The Consul is now

Yvonne's husband, while Hugh is his half-brother. With this change, Lowry has created a sort of "triang1:e" in which the characters become foils for one another in the develop­ ment of the themes. Yvonne no longer possesses her father, but is searching for a replacement for her dead, alcoholic father; in this way Lowry has provided motivation for Yvonne to return to Geoffrey under the adverse circumstances which she would know so well. The author has also exploited the 11. possibilities of the father-daughter relationship on Geoffrey's part, which can be seen when Geoffrey realizes at last that his life is in danger: "Ah, if Yvonne, if only as a daughter, who would understand and comfort him could be at his side now! Even if but to lead him by the hand, drunkenly home- ward through the stone fields •••as he had seen the Indian children lead their fathers home on Sundays. " (p. 362.) A sort of father-son relationship is also suggested between

Hugh and his older half-brother. Hugh refers to him sar­ donically several times as "Papa, " and Geoffrey says, in an imaginary conversation with Hugh, 11there has been all too little opportunity to act, so to say, as a brother to you. Mind you, I have perhaps acted as a father. " (p. 78.)

A fourth main character is added to the novel, that of Jacques LaRuelle, who serves several purposes. LaRuelle is in love with Yvonne, and by introducing his point of view in the first chapter, Lowry is able to present her sympath­ etically, in spite of her unfaithfulness to Geoffrey. LaRuelle's presence in the novel also rupp11es reasons for Geoffrey 1s drink­ ing; a boyhood friend of Geoffrey's, LaRuelle is able to reveal the history of Geoffrey's formative years, touching upon in­ cidents which could not be naturally brought in through Geoffrey1s awn consciousness. However, Lowry provides so �ery many reasons, the that�final effect is almost one of contrivance: the death of his mother, a father who "simply yet scandalously disappeared," displacement from his original home in India, the alcoholic 12. example of'his adoptive family, and the discovery by Jacques of Geoffrey and his girl friend in a compromising situation, after which Geoffrey took his first drink, "ordering Johnny

Walkers all round loudly." {p. 21.) Lowry "protests" so much that the sum total of his rationale is not plausible, which may be because he was not sure of his own reasons for continuing to drink. 11The real cause of alcoholism is the complete baffling sterility of existence as sold to you,11 he once declared, (Prairie Schooner; p. 313) which explains why he could successfully abstain only when he removed him­ self almost completely from civilization.

A change has also been made in the minor character of

the thief who robs the dying Indian; Lowry has given him

the added identity of a Spaniard, with hands of "the con­ quistador," {p. 235) symbolizing the suffering of the Indians at the hands of the Spanish. This addition of nationality

also indicates Lowry's intention to expand his short story

into a novel with universal significance, as well as con•

tributing to the theme of guilt which he extends from the

individual to the whole of civilization.

The first of Lowry' s d::ec�ca:ln.c�pgesis a shift in

point of view. Instead of omniscient, the point of view

is altered. so that the action is seen through the minds of

each of the four main characters. Of the twelve chapters,

five are seen through the Consul's eyes, three each through

Yvonne's and Hugh's, and one through Jacques LaRuelle, which 14. view, one of his "familiars" assures him: "You were only drinking enough to correct your tremor, a masterly self­ control she does not and cannot appreciate." (p. 69. )

And later in the Consul's chapter Yvonne suggests that . they forget their plans to leave Mexico until later, when he is sober. "The Consul sat perfectly still staring at the floor while the enormity of the insult passed into his sou 1. " ( p • 84 • )

Presenting the novel through these different view­ points therefore gives Lowry an opportunity to justify his own feelings to some extent, allows him to explore the nature of his own reactions and personality, and finally, gives the reader an intimate picture of the mind of the alcoholic.

Within these several points of view, the author has utilized many different literary techniques as opposed to straight narrative. Stream of consciousness, particularly in the Consul's chapters, has already been mentioned. Many of the incidents are described in a naturalistic manner, and with great humor, such as the scene in the garden when

Geoffrey searches for his bottle of tequila while attempti�g to conceal 'llitmself from his neighbor, Mr. Quincey. In spite of such realism, Lowry employs a continuous flow of symbolism to support figuratively what his characters say and think.

He introduces signs, billboards, menus, schedules., brochures, and other printed material which his characters interpret in 15. terms of their own problems. For instance, a sign adver­ tising a coming movie attraction features nLos Manos de

Orlac, " or the hands of Orlac, a murderer. Hugh sees this sign during the morning while he is with Yvonne; he is reminded of his own guilt feelings, since he has had an affair with this woman who is his brother's wife. And shortly after he sees the sign, '�ere indeed it was again, the temptation, the cowardly, the future-corruptive ser­ pent •••' ' (p. 111) •

Lowry seems to be particularly fascinated with com­ binations of words printed in an orderly fashion, perhaps because the harmony and regularity of their order appealed to the great need for order in his own life. Foreign words and phrases too are used extensively in the novel, such as

Spanish, French, Italian, Latin and German, most of which are untranslated. Language seems to have an almost magical quality for this autho; and we can see a clue to the charac­ ter of the Consul in Elephant and Colosseum, one of the short stories in � Us 0 Lord � Heaven Thy Dwelling

Place. The writer Cosnahan could be either the Consul or

Lowry himself·as he tells of his pleasure in finding his book translated into a foreign language:

Cosnahan1s presence in Europe at .all was due to l:liis obscure but huge longing to find. himself, after so much former failure, actually trans­ lated (the very word ''translatedn had a mystical tinge to him) into other European languages ••• into French? Cosnahan and Flaubert! That was great, heroic. But Italian: that had grandeur and nobility too. Drumgold Cosnahan translated 16.

into the language of Dante, Garibaldi and Pirandello! Thus it was possible to say that he was actually in Europe because he had expected to find himself translated here. (�·us 0 Lord, p. 136.)

Lowry's foreign words and phrases thus appear to be an attempt to add a certain identity to his protagonist the Consul; also, they serve his obvious intention of giving the novel a more universal application. This same intention can be seen in Lowry's widely "\V.Sr:tetJe,sour•e.e•S!-:.:; of imagery and symbols, which have b.een taken from a cross secti on of time, and include references to .nature, mythology,

Christianity, history, classical and modern literature.

Such a mass of symbolism could tend to detract from the unity of a novel, but Robert B. Heilman has nicely summed up Lowry's accomplishment in this area by saying: "It is the effect of Lowry's allusions •••to push the imagination toward a final reality that transcends all historical events, however much each present may comment upon and even modify it." (Canadian Literature, p. 15.)

Another addition to Lowry's style is his experimenta­ tion with fragmented dialogue, which at times becomes remi­ ni�,cent of "theatre of the absurd"; two unrelated conversa­ tions are carried on at the same time, in a strange way connecting with one another. On Yvonne11S return, she asks

Geoffrey, '' What have you done with your -- '--life, ' came from beyond the glass partition. 'What a life! Christ, it's a shame. '" (p. 48.) Lowry may be using this type of 17. conversation for two reasons. First, he may wish to show that it is practically impossible for two people to isolate themselves from the interfering influences of the rest of the world; and secon&y, he may be illustrating the paran­ oid tendency of the alcoholic, who feels that everything he sees and hears relates back to hims elf.

Lowry has also added a sense of motion to his land­ ' scape which is sometimes called "pathetic fallacy." For instance, the ravine come·s '' patiently creeping after them"; while Popocatapetl '' beckoned them forward"; (p. 238)) "cactus swung past"; (p. 240); while at Ge.offrey's death, "the trees themselves were crowding nearer, huddled together, closing over him, pitying." (p. 376. ) This sense of mo·tion which

Lowry sees in the landscape ties in with his almost mysti­ cal relationship with nature, which is expressed through the character of Geoffrey, and which was incorporated into his own ·private "code" of living seen inThe Forest Path

!2 the Spring. In spite of the hostility which Geoffrey felt surrounded him, most·of the objects of nature are sympathetic to him: cats and dogs follow him everywhere; the trees ttoo are "£rightened11 by the airplane which dives over him; and when he dies, it is "raining softly, " and

"he could feel his li.fe slivering out of him •••ebbing into the tenderness of the grass.11 (p. 375) This interest in and empathy for natural obje·cts extends into the field of astronomy, as shown in the character of Yvonne, who has 18. studied it in college and likes to read astronomical maga­ zines. .Her death is expressed in terms of a whirling of the planets, and at last she is 11gathered upwards and borne towards the stars, through eddies of stars scatter- ing about •••" (p. 337). It is possible that Lowry's deep interest in nature is a reflection of the many failures of a sensitive man in the area of human relationships; dogs and cats, trees and plants are pleasing to the eye and do not object to one's having another drink. Despite his empathy with the creatures of nature, Lowry has used the landscape to point up the spiritual insufficiency and lack of inner resources of his characters--a sort of Mexican version ofT. S. Eliot's Wasteland. The countryside pro­ vides a backdrop which is dry, poverty-stricken, and dusty.

Everywhere there are rocks an d stones, with the lifeless form of the volcano forever in view, dominating every scene.

Lowry hated Mexico, and he made no attempt to idealize it; this hate seems to have been transferred to the landscape in his novel. Seventeen years after he left Acapulco, he wrote to a friend: "Mexico i.s the most Christ-awful place in the world in which to be in any form of qistress, a sort of Moloch that feasts on suffering souls." (Prairie Schooner, p. 308 .)

What emerges is a sort of dichotomy in the attitude of the author toward nature. Such expression of hostility to­ ward the countryside, coupled with Lowry's anxieties about 19.

the world, over which he felt he had no control, would sug­ gest that the Hpathetic fallacy" of his style served a need

of his own. Sigmund Freud describes such a situation in

the following way:

Life and the universe must be rid of their terrors ••••With the first step, which is the humanization of nature, much is already won. Nothing can be made of impersonal forces and fates; they remain eternally rem ote. But if elements have passion s that rage like those in our own souls, if death itself is not something spontaneous, but the violent act of an evil will, if everywhere in nature we have about us beings who resemble those of our own environment, then indeed we can breathe freely,. we can feel at home in the face of the supernatural, and we can deal psychically with our frantic anxiety

• • ••Such substitution of psychology for natural

sci-ence. provides not merely immediate relief, it also points the way to a further mastery of the situation. (The Future of an Illusion, - -- p. 28.)

Freud was referring to man's compulsion to create religion,

which is to say, to invent some sort of reaction against his

feelings of ninsignifieance and impotence in the face of the

universe." (Freud, p. 57.) In this respect, then, Lowry's

literary style in Under the Volcano could be said to serve

a religious purpose for its author.

A further change in the area of style is that Lowry has

shifted from a realistic short story to an essentially un­

realistic novel. This is obviously a conscious change, and

it is surprising that critics accuse him of constructing a

''mechanical plot" which works itself out only because of

the many coincidences . There are so many of these coincid ..

ences threading through the novel that it is not possible to 20. view it in the same light as a novel constructed on the

theory _t>f probability. For instance,· the Indian who is

found dying by the roadside has been seen once before

that day by Hugh and Yvonne during their horseback ride;

he is also seen by Geoffrey, who envies his lighthearted

singing as he gallops past him; and it is this same horse

which, released liast as Geoffrey is killed,. runs down the

path and tramples Yvonne to death. Such coincidences point

to Lowry's intention that his plot be fantasy to a great

extent. And yet he includes descriptions which are natural­

istic in their insistence upon minute details:

Now he saw it more vividly and as a whole, electrified: The corded mouth, the shaved wooden pemm�l behind which tape was hanging, the saddlebags, the mats under the belt, the sore and the glossy shine on the hip-bone, the number seven branded on the rump, the stud be­ hind the saddle buckle glittering like a topaz in the light from the cantina. {p. 374.)

Such "naturalism" is offset by another type of coincidence,

which Lowry uses extensively throughout the novel, wherein

one action serves as a commentary upon the preceding one.

For instance, Geoffrey and Yvonne speak of their plan to

get away and "begin life over agairl.'; they both immediately

see "a little silver lake glittering cool, fresh, and in­

viting before them. 11 This beautiful lake is symbolic of

their dream, but they both quickly realize that the lake

has been nothing more than a mirage, a ''broken greenhouse

roof belonging to El Jarin Xicotancatl: only weeds lived

in the greenhouse." {p. 280.) Lowry uses the coincidence 21. to show that their dream of a new life together, beautiful as it appears, is an impossibility; they are deceived ab out their future just as they were with the mirage of the lake.

Such instances occur over and over again, reinforcing the notion of despair which pervades the novel.

Also in the area of fantasy is the frequent confusion in the mind of the Consul between the real and the imagined.

Facts often blend into hallucinations, and the reader is

then .. 1 left to sort them out for himself. Geoffrey sometimes thinks he has spoken when he has only formed the thought in his mind, which adds to the sense of disconnection and isola­ tion fr om others which surrounds this character. Lowry also invests the Consul with a quality of mysticism; he is osten­ sibly writing a book ab out magic, and his library includes

:i:nstructibns :regahcfing� Cabbala, Siva ·mrship and alchemy.

LaRuelle thinks of him at one point as Dr. Faustus, and his mystical relationship with nature has already been discussed.

This exaggerated use of coincidence and fantasy leads

George Woodcock, writing in Modern Fiction Sttidies, to sug­ gest that Lowry has constructed, instead of a plot, a "mech­

anical trap"·in which to catch the character of the Consul, and that his plot is "too contrived to be realistic. One feels rather that all this has been brought about by arbi­ trary means of coincidence external to the man's characters, and that therefore it is ficti onally not wholly valid. "

(Modern Ficti on Studies, p. 153.) This'lnechanical trap," how- 22. ever, is the way in which an alcoholic views the universe, and it is this overall impression which Malcolm Lowry intends to convey. By deliberately writing an unrealistic novel, the author has allowed himself latitude to express the sick mind of the alcoholic, who actually sees connec- tions and coincidences where none exist. He is more in- terested in expressing a state of mind than in relating a logical plot, and it is probably th is aspect of the novel which causes critics like Jack Hirschman to say that'Under

� Volcano is one of those works in our time which is really a long poem.n {Prairie Schooner, p. 351.) Undoubtedly

Lowry gives a strong clue to his intentions along these

lines in a letter to Albert Erskine, an editor for the com- pany who published Under the Volcano for the first

time in the United States: 111 think unquestionably what

one is after is a new form, a new approach to reality itself. "

He then cites Chekov's play The Seagull and Pirandello's

Six Characters in Search of an Author as works which accom-

plish this 11approach, " in which "art •••is somehow realer

than life." {Canadian Literature, p. 40. ) By imposing the

element of fantasy onto a plot which was originally realistic,

Lowry has presented the picture of a tortured mind that is

"somehow realer than life" itself.

A last important change in the novel is seen in the

decceleration of the pace. The action becomes extremely slow,

with whole sections devoted to flashback biographies and 23. reflections. It is as if Lowry has taken his cue from a sentence in his short story, when the Consul suddenly realizes that he will definitely turn again to alcohol,

''the certainty that he would drink a million tequilas be­ tween now and the end of his life stealing over him like a benison and postponing for the moment the necessity for the first one." (Prairie Schooner, p. 300.) The inevit­ ability of the Consul's death, spelled out in every con­ ceivable way, removes the necessity for haste; the action therefore progresses at an extremely leisurely pace.

By adopting such a pace, the author has allowed him­ self a great deal of latitude and space in which to develop his themes He has accomplished this development through

a complex network of symbolism and a variety of literary techniques.

Because Lowry writes within the framework of the mind of an alcoholic, the themes which emerge are all part of this pattern, reflecting his personal problem. The wider significance which he attempts to introduce often se'ems incidental, and sometimes contrived. Four main themes, all interrelated, emerge from Under the Volcano: the search for identity of modern man, his burden of guilt, the conflict between interference and service to one's fellow man, and the right of man to choose to destroy himself. 24.

The theme involving the pursuit of identity arises

from Lowry's questioning of himself and his doubts as to

his existence (see appendix� complicated with the destruc­

tive influence of alcohol. As the Consul asks himself,

"How indeed could he hope to find himself, to begin again

when, somewhere, perhaps, in one of those lost or broken

bottles, in one of those glasses lay, forever, the solitary

clue to his identity? How could he go back and look now,

scrabble among the broken glass, under the eternal bars,

under the oceans"? (Volcano, p. 294.)

What was this lost or unrecognized identity, and how

does Lowry develop this theme? Earle Birney suggests that

. in his poetry, Lowry established 11a way of living, or at

least of dying, with his horrors, of subduing them by iden­

tification with them"; (Prairie Schooner, p. 332) it would

appear that he has done much the same thing in his novel.

Lowry presents his main character, the Consul, as a man

who can be seen in many different roles; consequently, the

novel operates on several levels at once.

On one level, Geoffrey can be seen as a fallen Adam,

an innocent man who has somehow allowed himself to be cor­

rupted. In his neglected, overgrown garden, Geoffrey sees

his unfriendly neighbor, Mr. Quincey, as God, a hostile and

intolerant God, and he suggests: "Do you know, Quincey, I've

often wondered whether there isn't more in the old legend

of the Garden of Eden, and so on, than meets the eye. What 25 if Adam wasn't really banished from the place at all? That is, in the sense we used to understand it .... What if his punishment really consisted, the Consul continued with warmth, in his having to go on living there, alone of course. "

(Volcano, p. 133) Geoffrey is indeed living in an isolated chaos he has in part brought upon himself. Yvonne makes some attempt to reclaim the "paradiseH they once shared by weeding and clipping the plants, but she gives it up as useless and goes for a walk with Hugh. Even the snake, or serpent, is present. The sign on Geoffrey's garden, translated, reads,

HYou like this garden? Why is it yours? We evict those who destroy!11 (Volcano, p. 128) This warning was too late for

Geoffrey, however, for like his creator, Malcolm Lowry, he continued to destroy-the "garden" of his life.

On another level, Geoffrey is presented as a Christ

figure: '! .•the beggars:, hacked by war and covered with sores,

one of whom one night after four drinks from the Consul had

taken him for the Christ." (p. 201) And Geoffrey says to a

starving pariah dog: "This day, pichicho, shalt thou be with

me in--," (p. 229) which symbol is supported at the conclusion:

"somebody threw a dead dog after him down the ravine." (p. 376)

Lowry seems to feel that, like Christ, he has suffered enough

for the whole of humanity; but he fears, as he believes of Jesus

Christ, that his suffering has no purpose but to lead to an 26. ignominious death.

· On yet another level; Geoffrey is .seen as the Emperor

Maximilian. This identity is established in the first chap­ ter by LaRuelle, and it is reinforced by Hugh and Yvonne as they visit the ruins of his old palace, which, like Geoffrey, "appeared so reconciled to its ruin that no sad­ ness touched it.'' (Volcano, p. 123.) There is a similarity in the fate of both Geoffrey and Maximilian in that they are both shot by Mexicans on false charges. Lowry uses this iden­ tity to give the Consul a certain dignity in death, and pos­ sibly to express his own personal feeling of being misjudged, since both th� Consul and Maximilian die summarily as a result

of hasty, incorrect judgment.

The only identity which Geoffrey is sure of, and the one he fears most, is that· of the confirmed alcoholic. During his drunken ride at the fair, he loses his passport, and feels a great sense of relief at the loss :

It could be difficult even for a Consul to be without a passport in Mexico. Ex-C onsul. What did it matter? Let it go! There was a kind of fierce delight in this final acceptance. Let everything go. Everything particularly · that provided means of ingres.s or egress, went bond for, gave meaning or character} or pur­ pose or identity to that frightful bloody nightmare he was forced to carry around with him everywhere upon his back, that went by the name of Geoffrey Firmin. (Volcano, p.223.)

Geoffrey is a sort of schizophrenic when he is in an al­

coholic state. He has several Hfamiliars," or voices which

"speak" to him, giving him advice,. reprimanding him, scorning; 27. pitying him; these are the voices of his conscience and his subconscious mind which indicate the constant conflict he feels within himself. Wanting to return Yvonne's love, which would constitute a form of identity, he is faced with the proposition of "beginning a new life" with her, and he asks himself : "And how could one begin all over again, as though the Cafe Chagrin, the Farolito, had never been? Or without them? Could one be faithful to Yvonne and the

1 Farolito both? �c · •••co uld one find one s way back, fight

one 1 s way back now •••from a place where even love could not penetrate"? (Volcano, p. 202. ) Geoffrey is forced to

make a choice between his need for alcohol and his need for love, and he chooses alcohol. For him, love is im­ possible, and he asks, '�o knows why man •••has been

offered love"? (p. 363.) He is reminded constantly by signs and symbols "No se puede vivir sin amar''-- no one

can live without love (p. 46). Since Geoffrey cannot love,

he walks into the path of death, the only way he can find peace from his conflict .•

Reflecting the author's own history� Geoffrey Firmin

is a man·who left his own country never to'return, travel"'

ling sporadically and somewha·t aimlessly from place to place,

so that there is no country he can identify as 41home. 11 This

self-imposed exile from his· own country is one concrete fac­

tor contributing to his sense of not-belonging, or isolation.

In this small Mexican town, he is considered an ''espider" 28.

{spy) by some, a disorderly, unemployed drunk by others, accepted totally by no one, and almost incapable of any positive action on his own behalf. Lowry deliberately refers to him as "the Consul" throughout most of the book, as a gently satiric reminder of the lost dignity of such a character, a dignity and identity lost forever.

Geoffrey has occasional glimpses of times in his past when his life had more meaning, and when he found a certain happiness in his work and his life. Looking through the binoculars� at LaRuelle1 s home, he asks himself, ''But what on earth was he, the Consul •••continuing the look for out there on the plains ••••Was it for some figment of himself, who had once enjoyed such a simple healthy stupid good thing as golf"? (Volcano, p. 204.) But most of the time he realizes that this past ''self " is impossible to recapture:

11Who was I, how find that I, where I had goneH? (p. 206.)

Moreover, seeing his deteriorating body, he prefers not to remembe-r the past, seeing hims·e lf as "a town gone haywire":

Ha picture of his soul as a town appeared once more before him, but this time a town rav.aged and stricken in the black path of chis':ex.c'es�·.�' :

Lowry supports this image with satire, as Hugh refers to him ironically severa 1 times as "Papa.'' {¢ .lL , p .117.)

The final ir()ny of Geoffrey's elusive identity comes at the conclusion. Hugh has worn his brother's coat that 29. morning and left a copy of his telegram t.o the London Daily

Globe in the pocket, which identifies him as anti-Fascist.

Unable to produce any identification because he has lost his passport, Geoffrey is shot because he is mistaken for someone else. As he is dying, he is called a upelado, " or thief; the author may be using this method of expressing the idea that Geoffrey has robbed himself and Yvonne of their life together· by his rejection.

It is impossible in this paper to go into the many

"selvesn which Lowry has associated with the character of the Consul; most are readily understandable, while others are much more subtle; each one adds a little more to the complex character of the Consul. David Markson, for in­ stance, has interpreted Under the Volcano completely in terms of myth, in which the Consul becomes a sort of modern day Ulysses, and his alcoholism parallels the ex­ perience of the Lotos Eaters. (Prarie Schooner, p. 339. ) ' This 11se-lf11 or identity which Geoffrey seeks is ·Often

. equated with his 11salvation," which actually consists of I his taking some sort of positive action or choice. His final, clear opportunity occurs with the central incipent of the novel. "Hugh looked at the Consul expectantly: he'd been in this country long enough to know what should be done; moreover; .he was the one among them most nearly

�epresenting authority. Yet th e Consul seemed lost in reflection." (Volcano, p.243. ) At this moment, Geoffrey is experiencing conflict within himself as to whether he should act (for there were clearly certain things that 30.

might have been done in spite of the '' hopelessness" of the

situation). But he does not act, and while he hesitates�

the "pelado" is able to steal the dying man 1 s money; Geoffrey

has lost his last chance for "salvation" in life; all that

is left is the "salv.ation" of being released from life.

Lowry uses the image of water, as representative of bap­

tism, to illustrate Geoffrey's search for this "salvation. 11

Each time he sees water--a swimming pool, a waterfall;�the

hallucination, of a mountain lake--he asks the same questi on:

'�ight a man drink there and slake his thirst11? The auth or

inc orporates this "thirst" int o the physical thirst from

Geoffrey 1 s hangovers, and the longing is never satisfied.

Lowry further contributes to the idea that baptism or sal­

vation is impossibl� for Geoffrey� thr ough the br oken Eng- lish of Senora Gregorio. Sb.e intends to say� t� Geoff:r�ey, "you

'Cannot· ·tliin}C d£· :::lu:;.J' .b.u.tt::21nst;.ead:rshe, �ays;/-�\you·teanno.b .. d:r..ink

of it." And Geoffrey repeats the phrase over to himself

later on. He feels that his present life is Hell, but the

only Heaven, or "Paradiee" he can visualize is· a town where

there are "innumerable white cantinas, where one could drink 1 forever on credit,. with ·the door open and the wind bl owing.1

And the''queeres t thing" about this paradise, "and at the � same time the most beautiful; there was nobody there, no

one .. ., ,.fi··t o interfere with the business of drinking, not

' even Yv o�ne, who so far as she was in evidence at all, was

drinking with him." (p. 304.) 31.

Unable to discover any identity or meaning in his life, and unwilling or incapable of taking any constructive action on his own behal£; Geoffr,ey i;s, it·-s�E;ms-tO'"ttle; ?char;;. acter who is damned in both life and death.

Lowry pursues the theme of the quest for identity also in the characters of Yvonne and Hugh, although both of them are subordinate in importance to the Consul. Lowry presents Yvonne as a woman who outwardly appears to have everything she wants, yet in reality she has nothing. He uses the device of the flashback biography to introduce her partic­ ular identity problem. Her many movie roles have served to confuse her self-image, and watching a motion picture of a rich young divorcee; Yvonne feels she is seeing a portrait of her own life. She feels "identification with the one hunted, the one haunted •••yet she in turn was also the hunter, was searching, was groping for something." (Volcano, p.267.) What she is searching for, like Geoffrey, is some kind of meaning in her. life, for she feels that everyone save herself has some kind of faith •••"and even faith in a cause was better than none." (p. 269.) Unlike Geoffrey, however, she has "never given up, or ceased to hope, or to try, gropingly, to find a meaning, a pattern, an answe�.'-' ..

(p.269.) Since for years she supported her own father--also an alcoholic and, coincidentally, a Consul at one time--she clings to her love for Geoffrey as the closest replacement for this comfortable, lost r�lationship. 32.

Hugh represents further characteristics of the author, a complement to the character of the Consul� Gerald Noxon, a personal friend of Lowry's, says that '�e [Lowry ] was a short, compact man, very broad in the shoulders, and ex­ ceptionally strong." (Prairie Schooner, p.318.) This physi­ cal description fits the character of Hugh exactly, as we see him "stretching himself to his full mental height of six feet two (he was five feet eleven)," (Volcano, p.l04) and subduing the bull at Tomalin. Hugh also shows Lowry's idealistic ·side, .and his desire for action, in his inten­ tions to aid in shippiqg dynamite to the Loyalists in Spain.

However, Lowry is honest with himself a·s to the motives be­ hind such "idealism": "Even what you persuade yourself is the best thing about you, your passion for helping the

Jews, has some basis in a dishonorable action of your own,"

Hugh tells himself. (p.l51.) Hugh is afraid of permanent identity with any one person, consequently he has never married and is interested only in married women, for he recognizes that he is "incapable of love altogether."

(p .179.) His affair with Yvonne has ·caused him extreme guilt feelings, and he identifi-es With Judas,, remorsefully, at the same time wishing,, "it were not so absolutely neces­ sary to go out and h�ng ;oneself. tt (p.lll.) His strong de­ sire to identify with a "cause" is treated satirically by the author as Hugh sees himself transfor-med into Christopher

Columbus, importantly standing at the wheel of his ship, 33. leading the world nout of the Western Ocean of its misery."

(p. l04.) But Hugh is in some ways the most pra ctical of

' the three ma in chara cters , in spite of his romanticism, for he fa ces himse lf squarely: '�ccept it ; one is a sentimen­ talist , a muddler , a realist , a dr eamer , coward , hyprocite , hero, an Englishman in short , unable to follow out his own me taphors--tuft hunter and pione er in disguise. Iconoclast and explorer. Undaunted bore undone by trivia lities."

(p . l82.) Hugh has not found in himse lf the identity he wants , but he is willing to settle for wha t he is- -the fa cet

Lowry seemed not to possess in himself , and wh ich is totally absent in the character of the Consul.

In an attemp t to universa lize this dis orientation of identity , Lowry ha s extended the confusion to the la ndscape.

He begins the novel wi th a sense of inme�iacy by giving in extreme detail the location of the small

Mexican t own of Qua uhnahuac:

It is situa ted we ll south of the Tropic of Cancer , to be exact on the nineteenth para llel, in- about the same latitude as the Revillagigedo rslands to the west in the Pa cific , or, very much further west, the southermost tip of . Hawaii- -and as the port of Tzucox to the east on the Atlantic seaboard of Yucatan near the border of British Honduras, or� very mueh-'fur­ ther east , the town of Juggernaut , in India, on the Bay of· Benga l. (p. 3.)

He then ·proceeds to tra nspose the landscape of one coun­ try onto tha t of another continually'throughout the novel.

Scene merges into scene , countries are 11exchanged" for one 34. another in the minds of the characters: LaRuelle muses upon the Mex.ican landscape :

Another planet, he reflected again, a stranger, planet where, if yo�. looked a little further, beyond the Tres Marias, you would .find every sort of landscape at once , the Cotswolds, Win- dermere , New Hampshire, the mead ows of the Eure-�t-Loire, even the grey dunes of Cheshire, even the Sahara ' a planet up (;)n vh ich;::iin :�th�- twink ­ ling of an eye, you could 'change climates, and, if you cared to think so, in the crossing of a highway, three civilizations .. r� .. {Volcano , 'P! 10)

Again, Geoffrey looks at pictures his mother painted of

Ka shmir : "a picture of wild torrential scenery, vaguely Scot­ tish, the gorge, the ravine at Gugganvir ; the Shalimar looked more like Cam than ever : a distant view of Nanga Parbat from

Sind Valley could have been painted on the porch here, Na nga

Parbat might well have passed for old Popo •••� (p . 83) Hugh, watching the peaceful fields of Quauhnahuac, sees them as

China (p.99) , and as they pass thick hedges twined with flowers, "they might have been in En�land, exploring some

little known bypath of Devon or Cheshire. " (p.lll.)

Lowry has, therefore, used both characters and setting

to show a confusion of identity in contemporary life ; he has also, by extending and interchanging the se specific charac­

ters and places, attempted to universalize this theme .

The second main theme, which is closely tied to the . theme of identity, is one of guilt. The burden of guilt which plagues modern man is particularized in the three main characters, and especially in that of the Consul. Unable to fa ll back on or thodox religious me thods of .expiation of sin, these characters are attempting to flee from themselves.

For the Consu l, it is mainly guilt concerning his alcoholism and its consequences , such as the loss of his job and break­ up of his ma rriage ; Hugh is bothered by guilt concerning his fa i lure to be actively helping his Communist cause , his affair with Yvonne , and wha t he feels is a 'wasted life 11 in genera l. Yvonne feels responsible for the failure of her marriage and guilt for her re fusa l to have children for

Geoffrey, and for her several love affa irs.

The centra l incident of the Indian le ft dying by the roadside focuses guilt upon all three of these characters , representing the guilt of the individua l; the guilt of collective society is symbolized by the bus load of passen­ gers who so successfully ignore the suffering bf a fe l low man; and the guilt of civilization as a whole is seen in the Spanish "pelado" who robs the dying Indian and looks

for approval of his act . Political guilt is shown through the me n who have actua lly killed the Indian, Fascists in the disguise of local police .

Lowry tro ip duces, in the chapter following this in­ cident , an old lame Indian carrying an older , more decrepit one on his back , to reinforce the neglect of responsibility by all of the chara cters at the roadside scene . (p.281.)

Symbols of gui lt appear everywhere . Lowry uses exter­ na l, unrelated obj ects and actions which :t:rerve as reminders 3(i, • to his characters of their individua l transgressions, and each interprets these event s in his own terms . During the morning , signs advertising the movie of the murderer

Orlac appear everywhere , and Yv onne and Hugh are conscious of the binoculars of the pr ison guards trained upon them.

Seeing a picture of an ancient rock now split into two the failur e of pieces, Yvonne feels distregs; the rock is symbolic of.Aher marriage which is irrevocably broken, and for which she feels responsibility. (p.54.) l;ler guilt for refusing to have chil­ dren for Geoffrey causes her to see the moon as the "dead child of the earth. " (p.324) ; wh ile later at the Hotel Popo, her eye s are arrested by the menu "upon which appeared a

.s ort of ha l lmark representing a happy mother caressing her

II Child • (p . 330.)

HughJ s guilt regarding the "cause" he feels he is de­ serting , the battle of the Ebro in the Civil War in Spain ,

causes him to interpret the sound s of the wind , the leaves in the trees, even the "fitful sound s of music" as proclaim­ ing his cowardice. (p .l51.) But Lowry is most successfu l, as with the theme of identity, when he de.a ls with the guilt

' of the Consul, and particularly when the lack of drama tic

distance between author and chara cter removes the ne cessity

for explanation, making for a less contrived situation.

Geoffrey 1 s guilt feelings are symb olized by the ''dreadful pariah dogs" wh ich follow him everywhere. Lowry invests 3'1 . him with an obscure guilt concerning the death of captured

German officers durihg World Wa r I,-bub>th�' pr·ec ise ,degr ee of responsib ility is never disclosed . Though acquitted, Geof­

frey did not receive the meda l which was due him for the

capture, thr ough wh ich Lowry implies at least a pa rtial guilt

in the matter , and he brings in cons tant reminders of this i episode such as the voice af.::(;E!of.frey-',s :' ''.famfliart• ;:which :asks : ''Did you say bloodthirsty, Commander Firmin11? (p ..85 .• ) Also, the

name of Geoffrey 1 s ship was "The Good Samaritan," to wh ich numerous references are made : Geoffrey informs Yv onne that

LaRue lle has been playing .the Good Samarita n to him during her absence, which is ir onical in view of LaRuelle 's past affa ir , with his wife. The Consul also interprets, thr ough his alcoholic ha ze , a love song as "Samaritans Mia ," adding

further irony in view. of the .deeds performed aboa rd the ship bear ing that name. Lowry also connects the name of Geoffrey's ship with the fact that the last chance for this character

to "redeem" himself comes when he ha.s the opportunity to be a ''Good Samaritan" to the dying Indian; but like · the

priest and the Levite .in the Christian parable, he "cr osses

to the other siae of the road."

There are numerous reminders to the Consul of his al­

coholic guilt , such as the train ·whistle wh ich seems to be screaming nborra cho" ! (drunkard) ; and he suffers fr om the

paranoia peculiar to the alc.oholic : he is convinced that 38 . a sunflower in his �ergrown garden is warching him with evil intentions , and when he sees LaRue lle , Dr . Vigi 1 and

Mr. Qu incey wa lking past the bar wh ere he is drinking , 11he suspected their conver sation to be;· entirely about him, wh at could be done with him." (p . 231.) Lowry indicate s

Geoffrey 's longing t:o be rid of his "sins" by having him see a confession box in place of the cage which encloses him on the ride at the fair , but the 1'box" opposite him is significantly empty; (p . 222) there is no one wh o can give him absolution . Later , as he drinks at the cantina of Senora Gregorio, he· sees her for a moment as -his mcither , and he longs to go to her "to cry like a child, to hide his fa ce on her bosom. " (p. 230 . )

Geoffrey is so burdened .with . guilt tha t he feels he must die . The book is so heavily laden with �ymbols of doom that George - Woodcock states� th"a t;:L�wry::"'� !t:f�e�eral ., intention is to depict in symbolica l terms the te·rror s of the underwor ld ·of spiritual torment and death . (Modern

Fiction Studie·s , p .153.) And certainly , this "s -nit"i t-n.JQ 1 torment u is ever;:' present .

A phrase is repeated over and over aga in: "A corpse­ sha ll be transported by express"; this is Geoffrey 's body which will presumably be returned to Quauhnah�a c for buria l.

The action .take s place on the Day of the Dead, in celebration of wh ich the children eat chocolate coffins and skulls, while 39 . the adults are dressed as skeletons. (p .369.) Shots from a rifle range are heard off and on through the morning .

Lowry even uses humor to predict the death of the couple :

Geoffrey sees a poster on the wa ll at the home of Jacques

LaRue lle, depicting the death of drunka·rds and the ir wive s; the drunkards fa ll downwards int o the flame s of Hell--some

of them with . obviou s relief--whi le the wive s rise to Para­ dise, not without envious look s downwa rd at th eir departing

spouses. (p.200.) The author ha s also introduced dramatic backdrops of scenery and weather, reminiscent of Joseph

Conrad, to add to the sense of forebod ing which permeate s

the book:

The sight tha t met their eye s as they emerged on the road wa s terrifying . The ma ssed black cloud s were still mounting the twilight sky. High above them, at a va st height , bodiless black birds, more like skeletons of birds, were drifting . Snowstorms drove along the sunnnit of Ixtaceihuatl, obscuring it, whi le its ma ss wa s shrouded by cumu lus. But the wh ole precipitous bulk of Popocatepetl seemed to be coming tow.grd them, travelling with the clouds , leaning for­ ward over the va lley on whose side , thrown into relief by the curious me lancholy light , shone one:' iittle rebellious hilltop with a tiny ceme­ tery cut into it .•••But suddenly it was .a s if a heliograph of lightning .t.<1ere stammering me ssages across the wi ld landscape.�' ,!'(Volcano, p.324).

The many signs of doom, coupled with the pervading

sense of guilt , are overdone to so me extent , and toward the

conclusion become somewha t tiresome , so .that it is almost

a relief when Geoffrey fina lly dies; perhaps this is the 40 . intention of the author , or perhaps he w:is hampered as a wr iter by the pr ob lem of the alcoholic, wh ose preoccupa ­ tion with death is usua lly intense.

The third ma in theme of the novel, also closely con­ ne cted with the other two , involve s the conflict in human na ture between interference and service to one 's fellow ma n.

Aga in, because of hi s alcoholism, Lowry ha s strong feelings in regard to interference .:. of "others." Where doe s he lpful­ ne ss le ave off and interference begin? And can either one be mora lly justified? Using the centra l incident of the dying Indian aga in, Lowry attempt s to show that there are time s whe n one should interve ne to prevent huma n suffering which doe s not concern one directly. Much of the burden of guilt of me n, he implie s � is a re sult of a general unwilling­ ne ss to "become involved" in situa tions which might require of them time , money, or emotiona l energy which they are not J prepared to give away. With this implication, Lowry points up a real pr oblem of modern man: no longer '�is brother 's keeper'' with the breakdown of orthodox religions , he avoids his individua l resp on sibility for the suffering of hi s neigh­ bor, an isolat'ion of the ·self whi ch threatens the structure of society and the future of civiliza tion.

The author uses the characters of Hugh and Ge offrey to express opposing views on the subj e·ct of collective action:

Hugh as a Communist fee ls the ne cessity for intervention, 41.

and his idol is a man who .. left a perfe ctly good " life at home to support the Loya list ca use in Spain. But Lowry

is we ll acqua inted with people who wa nt to ''he lp " in order

to fill a selfish need of the ir own , and he explore s this

idea through the Consul, who recognizes tha t part of the re lationship betwe en him and Yv onne consists iri her sub­

conscious desire for abuse : "A nd perhaps the soul thr ived

on its suffer ing s and upon the sufferings he ha d inflicted up on his wife -- her soul ha d not only thrived bu t flour­

ished ." (p .72.) And on a na tional level, Lowry uses Ge of­

frey to attack the character of the ''dishone st ma ss ra t ion­ aliza t ion of motive , justification of the common pathologi­

ca l itch. Of the motive s for interference ; merely a pa ssion

for fatality ha lf the .time . Cur iosity , Experience--very

na tura l ••••Bu t nothing constructive at bottom, only accep­

ta nce , rea lly, a piddling contempt ible acceptance of the

state of affa irs that flatter s one into feel ing thus noble

or useful. " (p .313.)

Later , Geoffrey attacks both Hugh and Yv onne in an alcoholic rage : "you bloody people, mark my words, you don't

' I mind our busine ss any be tter at home , let alone in foreign

countr ie s. Geoffrey darling, why don 1t you stop dripking ,

it isn 't too late--tha t sort of thing . Why isn 't it? Did

I say so"? (p . 314) . And again: 11You 're lilll the same , all

of you , Yv onne , Ja cques, you , Hugh , trying to interfere with 42 .

• other people 's lives, interfering , interfering • • and that 's pr ecisely what 's bringing about disaster in the world .11

(p .314 . )

Lowry 's ·c onclus ion , .in spite of Hugh 's enthusia sm and ; the guilt of the three characters at leaving the ma n to die , is obviously that interference in general is a contemptible thing . Several time s in the novel he touche s upon the sad consequences to the Ind ian of the Spani sh Conquest , using at one point the symbol of "pelado,11 wh o robs the dying In­ dian with hand s of the "conquistador " while wearing the cru­ cifix , the emblem of Christianity. (p .252. )

The author reinforces th is theme of interference thr ough

the use of fragmented dia logue , already illustrated in the

section on his literary style . The mome nts wh ich are most crucia l to Yv onne and Ge offrey in the ir attempt to come to a new understand ing , such a.s upon her immedia te return in

the morning , and aga in later in the Salon Ofelia., are both marred by such fragmented dialogue . Lowry is expressing ,

through this me thod , the destructive quality of intrusion

upon the live s of two pe ople who have a problem understand­

ing one another . Y�t Lowry, like the Consul, is unable to

dismiss the pr ob lem of interference , and at the conclu sion ,

it is the Consul wh o is �e ft dying alone almost, it seems ,

as a sort of judgment . The conflict is not solved in this

novel; it wa s not until The Forest Path !£ � Spr ing tha t 43 .

Lowry came to a resolution wh ich involved a "strict minding of one 's business" unle ss one 's neighbor or his property were threatened .

Lowry 's great protest against interference ma y have meant tha t he felt he had not yet rea ched such a sta te of ne ed in his own life ; as many alcoholics , he may have felt tha t he had contr ol over his own situation, seeing the ef­ forts of those who loved him not as help but as unwe lcome intrusion .

The result of the interweaving of the se three theme s

--inability to find one 's identity , a burden of guilt, and extreme conflict over interference in one ' s life--leads in- evitably to thoughts of destruction of th e self. Such prob­ lems , typical of modern ma n and intens ified in one addicted to alcohol , lead Lowry to conc lude tha t life is not worth the pa in, and he expre sses this rej ection of life th� ough the Consul. "Even almost bad poetry is better than life ,11

Geoffrey 's "voice sn tell him. (p. 288 .) And referring back

/ to the dying Indian, he asks Hugh, "Why should we have done anything to save his life? Ha dn't he a right to die if he wa nted ton? (p .31 1.)

Lowry attempts to portray a deliberate choice of self­ destruction on the pa rt of the Consul, yet in actua lity, such a person wou ld probably have little or no choice at th is point . The author uses the instance of Geoffrey's willingness to go with the young prostitute , and further

remove hims elf from the possibility of reconciliation with

Yv onne , as evidence of intentiona l self-destruction: 11It wa s as if out of an ulti�te contamination he ha d derived

strength . He felt free to devour the rest of his life in

pe ace .11 (p . 355)

Lowry also reinforces the notion of self-destruction

symbolica lly: Geoffrey recognizes with a start the ma n who mastermind s his "tria l " and orders his death, for he is the

i�ge of himself--silent , sinister, lean , br onzed and serious

--Fructuoso Sanabria is the counterpart of Geoffrey at the

crossroads of his career . (p .360.)

Such rejection of life by the individua l as Malcolm

Lowry expre sses leads as a ma tter of cour se to the conclusion

that nations will destroy each other and tha t civilization will come to an end . His novel shows ma n as unable to find

meaning within his own life , confused as to his proper role,

pursued by guilt, and torn by conflict between neglect and

interference with his fellow ma n.

One wonders, however, at the expression of such tota l

despair; and it is difficult not to suspect Lowry of indul­

ging in a certa in amount of agony for its own sake . He

admit s to a tendency of this sort in a letter to David Mark­

son, in 1954 , in wh ich he says : .45.

Margie suspects me sometime s of suffering some­ time s wi thout there being any proper obj ective correlative for it : as I her : but one ov erlooks th e fact tha t the mostly hellish kind of suffer­ ing of all can be simp ly because of tha t la ck --the Wa ste Land type . Or one ma y suffer beca use one ca n't suffer , because after all to suffer is to be aliv e .'' (CanaBian Literature , p.45.)

To wha t extent do the theme s in Under the Volcano express Lowry 's beliefs in regard to the state of the world in general, and to wha t degree are the y reflections of his . own persona l problem ba sed on a need to feel 11alive"? The wonderful sense of humor which is never very far away from th e scene seems almost incompa tible with such hopeless, black despair . Perhaps the wor st thing Lowry feared for the charac­ ter Geoffrey wa s his resemb lance to MBximilian's pa lace, which is 11so reconciled to its ruin that no sadness touched it. 11

I (p . l23.) Better for him to die than to live in a wa steland where he could not even have the experience of suffering .

Even allowing for the alcoholic 's ob session with death, and admitt ing the truth of his ob servations up on th e ba rbarity of mankind , one cannot escape the conv iction tha t .at least to some extent , Ma lcolm Lowry wa s also exploring despa ir for its own

sake .

Despite this tendency , Lowry ha s created a remarkable

" novel, its existence all the more unusual in view of hi s pr oblem with alcohol . But whether it wa s written in spite .i of this pr oblem or becatse of it , Under the Volca no is a novel which ha s many accurate commentaries to make , and it is one which will cont inue t o reveal new fa cets each time it is read . 46 ..

APPE NDIX

Malcolm Lowr y wa s born on July 28 , 1909 , in Merseyside ,

England , the last. of four children of a successful cotton br oker . His materna l grandfather wa s a Norwegian sea cap­ tain wh o, beca lmed in the Indian Ocean on a windj ammer , with his crew dying of cholera , gave orders to an oncoming gunboat to destr oy the ship with himself on board . During

Ma lcolm 1 s years between ten and fourteen, he suffered from near blindness, and wa s completely isolated fr om all read­ ing . He wa s able to comp ensate somewha t with sports, and when he entered the public school at Leys, Cambridge , he bega n to wr ite short stories of a rebellious na ture , often

including characters wh o were "bullie s,11 or interfering

type s su ch as immigration inspectors. It wa s during the se early years tha t Lowry's drinking problem began. He read a gr eat deal of Me lville , O'Neill, Conrad and Nordha l Grieg, and fina lly entered Cambridge in 1929 , gradua ting three year s

later . He left England , and spent the rest of hi s life moving

from pla ce to place, wh ich inc luded long spells in United

States, Mexico and Canada . Eugene O'Nei�l influenced him to

su ch an extent tha t he spent several years, off and on , at

sea during wh ich time he ma de menta l notes for his first

book, Ultramarine .

After reading Conrad Aiken 's Blue Voyase , Lowry felt a

peculiar kinship with its author , and he made a voyage to 47 . the United States to me et him. Twenty years his senior ,

Aiken enc ouraged Lowry to attemp t wr iting as a wa y of find­ ing me aning in his life . Conrad Knickerbocker , in 'Th,e_

.Y.C?.Y.E!.2:�.f! !?.�. �_l._c q� L()Wr�," says th at Lowry ha d , already , at the beginning of his friend ship with Aiken, a "feeling , terrib le at times, of not existing , and his identification with Aiken temporarily filled a void tha t would deepen as the years went on. " (Prairie Schooner , p.305.) The relation­ ship wa s one of father and son; unfortunately, an intense literary riva lry developed , and the two me n parted fina lly \ in 1937 , with the realiza tion that they were destr oying the creativity in one another . By this time , Lowry had developed a severe problem with alcohol , and his frequent binge s very often ended in jail. Possessing a considerable amount of musical talent , Lowry spent some time in the United States as a jazz musician, and this facet of hi s persona lity is seen in the frustrated mus ica l ambitions of the character of Hugh ; but his temperment wa s unsuited to thi s typ e of life , and at la st he wa s forced to give it up . He married twice , the fir st time to a young girl wh o had been admittedly chosen for him by Conrad Aiken; together the y spent some time in Cuernava ca , Mexico, wh ere Lowry bega n writing Und er the

Volcano . Their extreme incompatibility led to divorce in

1938 , and in 1940 he embarked up on a second , more successful ma rriage with Marj orie Bonner , a young novelist and actress wh o provided mu ch of the background for the character of Yv onne .

She helped him tremendously in his efforts to rehabilita te 48 . himself and to fina lly get Under the Volcano into suitable publishing form.

Lowry and his wife Ma rj or ie lived in �r itish Columbia ,

Canada , from 1940 to 1954 , except for br ief periods of travel­ ling to Europe and Mexico. Betwe en 1950 and 1954 , he wrote the stories found in � Y! 0 Lord � Heaven Thy Dwe lling

Place into a semi-final form , although the book wa s not pub­ lished until 19 62, five ye ars after his death . In spite of great efforts to absta in fr om alcohol, ·he.. returned to it aga in and again; finally, in June , 1957, on a trip to England ,

Lowry choked to death during an alcoholic stupor . He wa s forty- seven years old . (The Voyage s of Ma lcolm Lowry, p.301.) BIBLIOORAPHY

Birney, Earle . "Aga inst the Spe ll of Death," Prairie Schooner , XXXVII (Winter, 1963/64) , pp . 328-333 .

Edelstein, J.M. "On Re-Reading Under the Volcano ,11 Pr airie Schooner , XXXVII (W1.nter , '!"9'63/64) , pp . 336-339 .

Edelstein, J.M. "The Lega cy of Ma lcolm Lowry," 1'1!.!! Republic, (June 5, 1961) , p:r.24.

Edelstein, J.M. "The Voyage Tha t Never Ends," ---New Republic, (November , 1962) , pp . 22-23 .

Freud , Sigmund , -The Future £!An Illusion . Lond on , 1949 .

Heilman, Robert B. 'The Posse ssed Artist and the Ailing Soul," Cana dia n Literature , VI II (Spr ing, 1961) , pp . 7-16 .

Hir schman, Jack . "Kabba la/Lowry Etc.," Prairie Schooner , XXXVII (Winter , 1963 /64) , pp . 347-353 .

Knickerbocker , Conrad . "The Voyage s of Ma lcolm Lowry," Prairie Schooner, XXXVI I (Winter , 1963/ 64) , PP · 3of-3t4 .

Lowry, Malcolm. Hear Us 0 Lord From Heave n mhy Dwelling - Place . Phi liOe!pEia ano-Neir!Ork, !963:--

Lowry, Ma lcolm . Letter s: Prairie Schooner , XXXVI I, (Winter , 1963/64) , pp .321-327 .

Lowry, Ma lcolm. Letters: Canadian Literature , VIII , (Spr ing , 1961) , pp . 39-46 .

Lowry, Ma lcolm . Ultramarine . New York,- 1961 .

Lowry, Ma lcolm. Under the Volcano . New York, 1958 .

Ma rkson , David . 11Myth in Under the Volcano1111 Pra irie Schooner ,· XXXVII (Witer n , 1�/64) , pp . 3�-346 .

Noxon, Gerald . "Malcolm Lowr y : 193q" Pra irie Schooner , XXXVII (Winter, 1963/ 64) , pp . 315-320 .

Woodcock, Geo rge . nMalcolm Lowry 's Und er the Volcano," . Modern Fiction Studie s, IV, (Spring;-1958T , pp 151-156

Wood cock , Ge orge . "Under Seymour Mountain," Canadian Literature , VI II , (Spring , 1961) , pp . 3-6 .