Riassunto esame Letteratura inglese, prof. Bendelli, libro consigliato Conrad - La Figura del Mare

Joseph Conrad: Il riflesso del mare

Conrad’s biography

He became an orphan at an early age, losing first his mother and then his father. He was adopted, at the age of 13, by his uncle, the brother of his mother. Conrad’s family consisted of Polish irredentists, that is, opponents of the Russian regime in their own land; his father, who had translated various works of European literature into Polish in his life, was in fact exiled because of his political views.

When his father died, Conrad was then adopted by his uncle. Like his mother and father, his uncle came from an aristocratic family which, for political reasons, had fallen from grace. Subsequently, Conrad set off on a trip for Venice, falling in love with the sea. Therefore, his uncle allowed him to leave for Marseille, where he arrived at the age of 17 with the French Merchant Navy. Once in Marseille, Conrad found himself in a difficult economic position and his uncle helped him to find a job. It was the beginning of a very complicated time for him, during which it seems that Conrad was involved in gambling and arms dealing, and it even seems that he attempted suicide. This incident is hardly ever mentioned, and when it is, people refer to it as “that unpleasant incident.”

Getting over this, Conrad left the French Merchant Navy to join the English one, starting at the lowest rank as a ship’s boy until reaching the position of Captain. Joseph Conrad is the writer par excellence of the sea. In fact, the sea is portrayed by Conrad as a mirror of the inner human condition of his characters. The stormy sea reflects the torment of the human soul, whilst the calm sea reflects the inner peace of his characters. The sea is often personified, becoming a life partner for the characters who represent the alter-ego of Conrad himself.

Conrad's works and the sea

His writing, which is often autobiographical, is actually born out of his experiences and his love of the sea. For example, “The Nigger of the Narcissus” took inspiration from a journey that he himself had made, with the only exception that the final destination was different. Both journeys departed from Bombay, but in the novel the final destination was London, whereas in reality it was Dunkirk.

One of Conrad’s series of papers that deals with his passion for the sea is “The Mirror of the Sea”, published in 1906. Subsequently, in 1919, all his writings were to be supplemented with so-called “Author’s Notes”, that is, notes that an American editor ordered him to add to all of his works, even those written earlier, as a sort of preface.

Although in “The Nigger of the Narcissus” Conrad is fascinated by the sea, in “The Mirror of the Sea” he has a greater understanding of it, and of how it really is. For Conrad, the sea is a reflection of the human psyche, with its positive and negative aspects: Conrad’s love for the sea is no longer blind. He now knows that the sea is not characterised solely by positive traits, and that, on the contrary, it could be man’s enemy.

In the chapter “Initiation” of “The Mirror of the Sea”, Conrad explains this concept (according to Said, in this chapter the reader can see a clear connection between Conrad the mariner and Conrad the writer).

Language and themes

Another feature of Conrad’s work is the accuracy of his language (as stated by Michele Mari), which is almost an obsession for him. Conrad has actually used nautical terminology as a way to practice and improve his English, something which allowed him to become one of the greatest writers of the language, despite being Polish. The respect that he feels for the English language is caused in part by his desire to master the language with the same ability as a native speaker, not only with regards to nautical language, but also common expressions.

Incidentally, it is interesting to read his work dedicated to anchors titled “Up Anchor” (which was later changed to “Emblems of Hope”). This same attention for detail in English can also be seen in the title of one of his works “The Mirror of the Sea”, which was translated as “Lo specchio del mare” in Italian. However, the word “specchio” does not have the same ample meaning in Italian as the word “mirror” has in English. In fact, “mirror” symbolizes the search for truth, whether it is an external image or a moral reality.

His love for geography emerges from his work (see “Maurizio’s Island”) and, along with his knowledge of technical nautical language, becomes a way to discover the world and truth. Behind the precision of his language and his love for geography hides his need to represent reality in the most honest possible way.

Conrad's dual career

In the 1900s, Conrad had to keep separate his two professions, that of a mariner and that of a writer. However, in 1912, with two pieces of writing dedicated to the Titanic, he managed to reconcile the two professions, which restored his confidence in his role of a “writer-mariner” who has something to say to society.

The Nigger of the Narcissus: il racconto del mare

From a literary point of view, “The Nigger of the Narcissus” is a short story. This expression refers to the oldest form of narration, which is tales that put emphasis on narration in its primordial sense. According to critics, short stories are congenial to Conrad and his works are characterised by an organic evolution. His work has a definite nucleus, from which branch out various narrative digressions. Conrad’s impressionist technique emerges from this novel thanks to the sheer prevalence of impressionist images linked to the external world compared to the inner one.

After his first two novels, “Almayer’s Folly” and “An Outcast of the Island”, in 1895 Conrad had the opportunity to once again live a life on the sea as the captain of a sailing ship, but he had to forgo this due to bad weather conditions. However, he continued to write novels and short stories associated with life on the sea, such as “The Nigger of Narcissus”, which was initially published in instalments in the magazine “New Review” and in one complete volume in 1897-1898.

Conrad’s novels and short stories are not only stories about the sea, but also they are characterised by a psychological study of the characters. Therefore, the sinister exotic landscape is not just a simple external scenario but reflects inner loneliness, and acts as a symbol of a mysterious inner landscape. Narciso was the actual name of a sailing ship on which Conrad embarked on a journey from Bombay to Dunkirk as an officer in 1884.

It was built in 1876 in the dockyards of Glasgow and was immediately used for trading on the colonial routes. It was a fast sailing ship, reinforced entirely in iron to allow it to carry more cargo than the early steam-powered ships, which were faster. Conrad embarked on Narciso in Bombay on 5th June 1884 to take the ship back to Dunkirk. The captain told him that on the outbound journey to Bombay, numerous mariners carried out a mutiny and so they were left in Bombay, forcing him to hire a new crew composed of English, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, Polish, Canadian and Australian mariners.

Among these new crew members, there was also a black mariner from Georgia, Joseph Barron, who had been ill when he embarked on the ship and after a lot of suffering he died and was buried at sea. The novel “The Nigger of Narcissus” certainly took inspiration from this event, even though there are some differences between the novel and the actual event:

• The actual final destination of the Narcissus was the port of Dunkirk, whereas in the book it is London;
• The crew in the novel was mainly made up of Britons;
• The captain in the novel was English, whereas in real life he was Scottish;
• The character “Jimmy” is very different from the real Joseph Barron.

The novel tells the story of an adventure at sea that involves the entire crew of the sailing ship “Narcissus” that had to face many adversities during the voyage: a storm, a dead calm and headwinds. The narrative structure is very linear, both in a chronological and spatial way, that is, the story begins in Bombay and ends in London.

La voce del narratore

Two narrators

The point of view in the novel “The Nigger of the Narcissus” is composed of two narrators, which are represented by the third person plural “they” and the first person plural “we”, which turns into the first person singular “I” in the last lines of the novel. The change of the narrator represents an evolution from an objective perspective to a personal, inner one.

The narrator “they” represents the omniscient narrator, which was typically used in the XIX century, while “we” and then “I” represent the “narratore testimone”, that is a sort of witness, who doesn’t know everything about the story and the characters, but he is only a sailor-narrator who lives the story itself together with the other sailors. This kind of narrator makes the comprehension of the novel easier, with all its meanings.

When the narration becomes more intense and emotional, Conrad uses “we” and “I”: “we” is used for example to express the sailors’ exasperation towards Jimmy, their fear during the storm and the sense of brotherhood in dangerous situations. Despite this change of narrator, Conrad maintains coherence in the narration, because each narrator has its own role: the omniscient narrator tells the story from the outside, with an objective point of view; the sailor-narrator tells it from the point of view of a member of the crew, someone who is on board.

This narrative choice is also coherent with the multifaceted vision of the world in the XX century. It means that there are many different points of view as there are different readers, who have to judge or comment on the events and the protagonists of the narration; there isn’t a single vision of the world, because the world is extremely complex.

Time of narration

The time of the narration is characterized by different tenses:

• The distance between the time of the story and the time of the narration is unspecified.
• Simple past: (element of tradition) this is prevalent in the whole story.