CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Conrad endeavoured to portray in his fiction the moral dilemma

that the European coloniser confronted in the colonised lands, more
specifically, in Asia and Africa, and of imperialists in semi-feudal and pre­
capitalist societies of Latin America. The coloniser was unable to distance
himself from his own culture and view the new role which he was asked
to don in the conquered lands. The colonial mission itself, as perceived
by Conrad, was caught in a web of contradictions, especially in the
disjunction between what was conceived as a "white man's burden" but
was executed with brutality and rapine. For him there was little moral
content in the imperial conquests and colonisation which were carried
out during the heydays of global imperialism.

The impulse behind the concept of neo-imperialism that grew

during the last quarter of the nineteenth century was ostensibly that of a
civilising mission. But economic and political forces acted with such
relentless fury on the imperialist and colonialist actions that the noble
ideal of civilising humanity degenerated into a heinous crime of
aggrandisement and destruction. Not only were these ideas of
imperialism and colonialism precluded from any detailed scrutiny from
ethical and moral points of view at that time but, more blatantly, were
transformed into concepts of global domination and hegemony, justified
on the grounds of ethnic superiority of one race over the others and as a
necessary precondition for progress and civilisation all over the world.

Some of the more important issues which were thrown up in the

upheaval resulting out of imperialistic exploits pertained, specifically, to
the moral aspect which was tried to be circumvented. Did imperialism
gerse, demand an inhuman attitude? Was there any consciousness on
the part of the imperialists in regard to the far reaching repercussions
that such conquests brought after them? Granting that the history of

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mankind was destined to pass through a period when some self-
proclaimed civilisers were to dehumanise certain parts of the globe in
the name of civilisation, was such a calculated brutality comprehensible to
the civilsed nations or their consciences? What credibility was left of the
colonisers in the native minds in the aftermath of the colonising process?
Where were the ethical and moral arguments that were so eloquently
debated in the Berlin Conference of 1884, over darkness engulfing more
than half the globe, when natives were butchered and colonised peoples
were deprived of their history and conscience, nurtured so laboriously
over centuries of trial and care? Could the Western coloniser not imagine
alternative standards of behaviour and a different mode of thinking than
those in which he himself was cultivated?

Perhaps many factors contributed to the emergence of the ideas of

imperialism and colonialism and various forces acted and counteracted
for their peculiar dynamism. Development of such doctrines as neo­
mercantilism, Benthamite materialism and Social-Darwinism led to
authoritative and dogmatic assertions of the superiority of the white race,
which in turn gave explicit approval to the expansionist ideas of the then
ruling elites of the European nations.

One of the tragic results of the colonising process was the

estrangement between the coloniser and the colonised and the
consequent psychological aberration that it caused in the coloniser.
While the coloniser represented the cult of "civilisation", the colonised
embodied the spirit of the "primitive". In the words of Sheeran, colonial
relationship "chained the coloniser and the colonised into an
implacable dependence, moulded their respective characters and
dictated their conduct".1 The ethnocentric tendency on the part of the
coloniser led to the instrumental and exploitative nature of his
relationship with the colonised. As stated by Anthony Pagden, "For the
savage civil man is guilty of treating human behaviour as if it were
constituted like objects in the physical world"2. The bondage between the
two was thus inextricably linked to two antithetical dispositions which

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they represented. The alienation of the coloniser in the circumstances
was inevitable. Further, however much the coloniser exerted himself to
maintain his sanity and composure, the physical contours of the colonised
lands, their impenetrable forests, the mountainous terrains with their
probing peaks as if whispering to the vast universe, the meandering
motions of savage waters tearing open the thick vegetation that hid
darkness and covered the areas with a veil of mystery, were all in a
manner threatening him with predatory irrationality and primitivist
barbarity. He was confronted with a choice between atavism or brutal
extermination. His own instinctual barbarity surfaced in such situations
where the choice was between survival and death. The past merged into
the present and the future was a hazy insignificance. The coloniser
became a victim of his own proclivities and the thin line of demarcation
between him as a civiliser and the native as the one being civilised got
obliterated in the maze of contradictions and confusions in the civilising
mission itself. It was this anomaly that Conrad endeavoured to focus in
his writings.

Conrad had the merit of being an alien and an exile in the European
cultural situation, not only because of his being originally a Pole, but also
from the socio-political angle of his not having been a member of the
"imperialist" race itself. He was thus in a way, placed advantageously to
give expression to his views on imperialism and colonialism in his
O 1 JL

fiction, without being unduly burdened with the unconscious prejudices

of a colonising race. As a seaman by profession, he directly experienced
the inscrutable darkness and mystery of unexplored lands where the light
of civilisation had not yet penetrated. Needless to mention, seamen have
more leisure and are given to ruminations. In his long voyages, Conrad
could perceive individual alienation as a reality in the conflict emanating
out of cultural disjunction between the coloniser and the colonised and
how such a predicament could ultimately result in irreparable damage to
the psyche of the coloniser. The moral and ethical issues that were raised
by the anomalous perception of the imperialist adventurers in their
mission, as already mentioned, were tried to be analysed and discussed

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by Conrad in his fiction. In this effort he himself raised basic questions
directly affecting individual consciousness in the colonial milieu,
especially the moral imperative for the imperialist endeavour. He had
reservations about the intrinsic value that could be attached to the
civilising effort that purported to assimilate diverse cultures but in reality
disintegrated human societies. For him, the question of fidelity to one's
own consciousness was more relevant and urgent than the polemics of
progress and prosperity. His preoccupation in his fictional works was
with a continuing quest for a reasonable meaning and purpose to
individual life precariously confronting alien or perhaps hostile cultures.
For him also, cultural disparity was not an impediment to social and
psychological assimilation; rather it served as an opportunity to
amalgamate diverse views into one universal whole. Perhaps this attitude
was due to his innate aversion for any ideological dogmatism or
philosophical assertions. He only questioned the basis of imperial and
colonial pursuits without ascribing any value judgement on their merits
or demerits. Was individual identity possible in a situation where one
human being, conditioned in a certain social, political and ethical milieu,
desperately tried to assimilate himself into a totally different cultural
environment? That was Conrad's dilemma, which he addressed himself
to in his fictions . In the process he could discern a meaning in life in
general too.

In this dissertation I plan to analyse five major fictional works of

Conrad within the framework of his treatment of the imperialist-
colonialist theme, embodied in the idea of civilising mission, as a
paradigm for his novels and the manner of treatment of his characters.
Specific focus would be on the problem of alienation in the conflicting
cultural ambience that was peculiar to the relationship between the
coloniser and the colonised predominantly as one of confrontation.

The incompatibility of temperament between the coloniser and the

colonised or between the "outsider" and the "native" was inherent in the
colonising process itself which Conrad set as the basis for his plots. He

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accepted this irreconcilability with stoic resignation. Yet, this was not
pessimism covertly disguised, but as an acceptance of a fact. In the
early Malay novels, Almaver's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands. Conrad
depicted the process of alienation and the conflict of coloniser’s self with
native society through the external forces of nature reflecting the
elements of primitivist culture. In Heart of Darkness he tried to
encompass a wider perspective, questioning the moral validity of
colonial mission, especially when viewed in the context of alienation
transforming itself into atavism, which by itself need not imply
degeneration. Lord Jim and Nostromo were designed to study in depth
the phenomenon of alienation under two different socio-political
situations. In Lord Jim, the protagonist Jim, represented the inability of
individual consciousness to express its identity in a predominantly
friendly and acceptable alien society. His downfall exemplified the
irreconcilability of personal honesty to social fidelity. His alienation was
the result of misjudgment of his own self wherein he considered
himself, not as a redeemed soul but as a human being nurtured and
nourished in a particular socio-cultural environment that elevated him as
a Lord over the native Bugis. Nostromo. on the other hand, expatiated the
process of alienation where the individual consciousness refused to
accept a given situation in an alien society where the individual tried to
have total fidelity to an idea. While Nostromo was obsessed with his
untarnished image in the eyes of his clan, Charles Gould refused to
deviate from his avowed path of avenging his father's death in the hands
of the local people. Both Gould and Nostromo personified two aspects of
alienation, the former as an idealist of imperial domination and the latter
as a dreamer of personal glory and success. But both, unlike Jim, had to
cope with a hostile and militant native society.

Conrad had a sensitive mind with which he could mould his ideas
pertaining to the strength and follies of human mind. Living and writing
as he did during the period of imperialist glory, he could assimilate
within himself the varied experiences that presented themselves at
different points of time and at different situations in his eventful life.

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Though he was disturbed by the decadence that characterised the fin-de-
siecle imagination, he did not despair. He felt that evolutionism could
not explain the growth of man in the spiritual and intellectual fields. As
observed by Alan Hunter, 'his investigation shares an outlook similar to
Wallace’s scepticism at the applicability of Darwin's doctrine to all aspects
of life.'3 In short, Conrad's novels would basically exemplify the
humanness of his creative disposition in approaching his theme and the
sensitivity of his imaginative perception in shaping his characters.

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 Notes and references

1. P. J. Sheeran. "Colonists and Colonised : Some Aspects of Anglo-

Irish literature from Swift to Joyce". The year book of
English Studies. Vol.13 (1983), p. 100.

2. Anthony Pagden. "The Savage Critic : Some European Images of

the Primitive The year book of English Studies.
Vol. 13 (1983), p. 401.

3. Alan Hunter. Conrad and the Ethics of Darwinism. The

Challenges of Science. (London : Croom Helm, 1983),
p.12.