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THE SYMPATHETIC BOND in the WORKS OP JOSEPH CONRAD by HARRY HUGH DIOKSONT B.A., the U N I V E R S I T Y O F B R I T I S H Columb

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THE SYMPATHETIC BOND in the WORKS OP JOSEPH CONRAD by HARRY HUGH DIOKSONT B.A., the U N I V E R S I T Y O F B R I T I S H Columb THE SYMPATHETIC BOND IN THE WORKS OP JOSEPH CONRAD by HARRY HUGH DIOKSONT B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1959 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of ENGLISH We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE. UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. October, 196% In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of - British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study, I further agree that per• mission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that, copying or publi• cation of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission* Department oi The University of British Columbia, Vancouver 85 Canada Date &sj£JL Z.lMf- „ ABSTRACT Conrad's firmly held ideal of an ordered and stable society appears to conflict with his undeniable assault on traditional values and the revelation in his works of the inadequacy of those simple virtues which he extolled in later years. The inescapa- bility of human solidarity does not always appear to be inherent in the moral and metaphysical isolation which besets the individ• ual separated from his fellows. Those critics who see as most significant human isolation and the power of the irrational and their result in negation and despair are those who emphasize the force of doubt and skepticism in Conrad's works. Those who seek affirmation emphasize the ideals of duty and fidelity and their function in supporting human solidarity and a stable society. Primary in Conrad's, thought, however, was his recognition of the power of sympathy with and compassion for the suffering of other individuals. This compassion is most strikingly manifested in the relationship which I have called the sympathetic bond. It reveals both the force of individual isolation and the profound inevitability of human solidarity, man's need for order and the value of dissension, his loneliness in an indifferent universe and the liberating bondage of his commitment to the human society. When the sympathetic bond takes effect, one character enters a state in which he feels, recreated in himself, the experience and suffering of another and the effects and implications of that iii other's experience. Through his response to the experience and suffering of the other finite individual, he feels the claims of his own humanity acting upon him in a way which leads him out of himself into a general commitment to the claims stemming from his moral ties with all other men and to a trust in life. The sjmrpathetic "bond is felt when all other ties and values have been destroyed or revealed as ultimately meaningless unless they share in the motive force of sympathy and compassion which must invest all social organization. With an understanding of this relationship and of the need for "sympathetic imagination," we can see that any human institution must be inadequate, meaningful only as long as it takes account of the reasons for its existence, and we can see from another perspective why all virtu® and ideals and all traditional values must he suspect. The frequency of identification in Conrad's works is a reflect• ion of his personality and creative temperament. Considered in terms of technique, the sympathetic bond is an' extension of the form of identification which has been called "recognition," the process of seeing oneself and the evil within embodied in the other self* But it tends to he self-forgetful in contrast to the egoism and heightened self-awareness implicit in the latter re• lationship. However, the process of recognition can prepare the character who experiences it for the development of the sympathet• ic bond. This is the case in "The Secret Sharer," "Heart of Dark• ness" and "The End of the Tether." In the latter two stories and in "Karain," the sufferings of the central characters instruct and inform with sympathy the iv? younger men who feel a bond with them. The sympathetic bond brings about a selfless compassion which extends beyond a concern for the individual sufferer to a general compassion for all man• kind. We feel the strength of the individual's necessary commit• ment to the moral community in these works; the effect of the moribund state of society on that moral community is the most persistent impression conveyed by The Secret Agent. Sympathetic identification is destructive to those who experience it unless it results in an enlarging of their sympathies, and general com• passion requires an outlet in social organization. Conrad suggests in The Secret Agent that the social order can be regenerated only if the sympathy and compassion of its individual members are made to work within it. The claims of human solidarity are unavoidable, however, in spite of the moribund state of society. When they are recognized, they are felt more intensely and more urgently because of this state. Their modus operandi becomes, not increased knowledge, but pure power. Those individuals most affected by the disintegration of social order are described, symbolically, as experiencing the impact of an explosion, the shock of which stuns and casts a spell over them. The energy thus released is the energy of life and compassion which had previously invested society, and it is re• presented by imagery of explosions and the sun. At the end of The Secret Agent, we are left with a choice be• tween the Professor, who embodies wisdom without compassion, and Ossipon, whose moral sense has been awakened by the sympathetic bond which he feels with the dead Winnie. Ossipon is destroyed V by his recognition of the moral bond5 which he has too long denied. In The Rover. Conrad was able to affirm his hope in the triumph of the normal and the healthy. The sympathetic bond acts to re• claim the central characters for life. Peyrol's sacrifice re• establishes a stable society; and his renunciation makes possible a return to the normal for Real and Arlette. His affirmation and trust in life is fulfilled in them; for in them is released the "sense of triumphant life." vi CONTENTS./ CHAPTER PAGE I Introduction:- Part I Gonrad Criticism and the Sympathetic Bond. I Part II—"The Secret Sharer 32 II "Karain" and "Heart of Darkness" 5k "The End of the Tether" 89 III The Secret Agent 105 IV The Rover 1^2 Bibliography I69 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I feel that I must express my thanks to three people. To Dr. E.B. Gose for nurturing what sensitivity in the reading of the English novel I may possess and for teaching me much about critical methods. To Dr. J.G. Spaulding for his encourage• ment in my undergraduate years. To my wife for typing and proof-reading and for her helpful suggestions on one line of research. I CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: PART I:- CONRAD CRITICISM AND THE SYMPATHETIC BOND There is general critical agreement as to what were Conrad's major concerns and the important themes of his work, hut there remains a disagreement and confusion over his ultimate judgments and values. Conrad's intentions often seem as enigmatic as the motives of his characters; neither render up their secrets readi• ly to the analytical probings and categories of the critic. Conrad's own explicit statements of his beliefs often add less to our clear understanding of his position than they detract through their disconcerting simplicity. If we are to exonerate him from the charge of obscurantism—which of all insults would most have offended the conscious artist—we must attempt to show why his position in so many of his works has been capable of such a be• wildering array of interpretation, why in fact Conrad seems to hold a variety of views which conflict, and we must do this with• out oversimplifying his moral and aesthetic vision. This thesis can take only a small step toward such a goal. With the aim, then, of finally revealing a fundamental affirmation in Conrad's thought which embodied his hope for mankind and his resolution of many conflicts in his belief, we may begin with a brief survey of the conflicts and some comment on the validity of present Conrad criticism. 2 First, what are the conflicts: in Conrad's thought which have stimulated critical disagreement and which bear on the topic of this thesis, the sympathetic bond? A conflict between the claims of discipline, control, order and authority on one hand and romantic individualism and revolt on the other was central to Conrad's temperament and also invested his novels with their peculiar tension. This conflict is manifested in his political and psychological judgments and in the major themes of his works. It resulted in a fear and suspicion of revolution and also of democracy coupled with a hatred of autocratic government, and in an ambivalence in his valuation of imagination and self-knowledge. Conrad's firmly held ideal of an ordered and stable society con• flicts with his undeniable assault on traditional values and the revelation in his works of the inadequacy of those simple virtues which he extolled in more personal statements. Even more funda• mental is the conflict between solidarity and isolation. Despite Conrad's famous invocation of "the subtle but invincible convic• tion of solidarity,""1' the inescapability of human solidarity does not always appear to he revealed in the moral and metaphysical isolation which besets the individual separated from his fellows; the loneliness of mankind in a material and mechanistic universe indifferent to his concerns is not apparently in accord with the recognition of a "world of moral and spiritual values." Morton 1 The Nigger of the "Narcissus." p.
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