A C T A U N I V E R S I T Ä T I S L O D Z I E N S I S
FO LIA LITTER A R IA 36, 1994
M aria Edelson
“MANY EYES WERE LOOKING” ; IMAGES OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN JO SEPH CONRAD’S FICTION
A s a w riter o f fiction Jo seph C on rad considered it very im p o rtan t th at his im aginary w orld should be presented in m o st accu rate and evocative term s which w ould give his readers a sense o f experiencing reality. In the preface to The N igger o f the 'Narcissus' he says:
My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power o f the written word to make you hear, to m ake you feel - it is, before all, to make you see1
T h e em phasis w hich C on rad puts on m aking his readers see is in keeping w ith the fact th a t he him self and m any o f his characters a p p ear to look carefully at the reality they deal w ith in ord er to see its hidden tru th . T h e sheer accum ulation o f references m ad e in his w ritings to looking, w atching, observing, to glances, gazes, and to eyes generally, produces significant literary effects and m eanings.
L o rd Jim m ay serve as a m o st telling exam ple o f this tendency; the
novel seems to be full o f w atchful eyes. T he very first sentence o f the bo ok c o n ta in s a m en tio n o f J im ’s “ fixed fro m -u n d er sta re ” 2. T he sentence con stitu tes a p a r t o f C o n r a d ’s description o f Jim ’s ap peara nce correspo nd in g to his inn er characteristics and a state o f m ind. T he w ay charac te rs look a t one an o th er and observe o thers looking and seeing m ay often represent a very com plex situatio n in w hich there is m uch m ore th an m eets the eye. F o r exam ple the passage in w hich Jim m istakes a rem a rk m a d e a b ou t a d o g for a sneer directed at himself, n o t only provides an inkling o f J im ’s
1 J. C o n r a d , Preface [in:] id ., The Nigger o f the 'Narcissus', Penguin Books L td, H arm ondsw orth 1975, p. 13.
2 J. C o n r a d , L ord Jim, Penguin Books Ltd, H arm ondsw orth 1969, p. 9.
feelings w hich he refused to adm it to, but it also conveys the probing, questioning attitu de o f M arlow , who wishes to find o u t the tru th abo u t the young m an. M arlow reports the incident em phasizing the intensity o f the eye contact between the two men:
[...] the man, raising his voice a little, said with a slow laugh, ‘Look at that wretched c u r , [...] I saw Jim spin around. He made a step forward and barred my way. We were alone; he glared at me with an air of stubborn resolution. [...] ‘Did you speak to me?’ asked Jim [...] I watched him [...] ‘Some mistake,’ I protested, utterly at a loss, and never taking my eyes ofT him. To watch his face was like w atching a darkening sky before a clap o f thunder [...] ‘W hat did you mean by staring at me all the morning?’ said Jim at last. H e looked up and looked down again. ‘Did you expect us all to sit w ith dow ncast eyes out o f regard for your susceptibilities?’ 1 retorted sharply. 1 was not going to submit meekly to any of his nonsense. He raised his eyes again, and this time continued to look me straight in the face3.
A nd in the final scene o f the novel, just before he dies, Jim sends right and left a proud and unflinching glance, he looks D oram in straight in the face when the latter shoots him throug h the chest; it is his eyes th at reveal his determ ina-tion n ot to give up his dream o f glory. M arlow , who has w atched Jim so attentively throu gh ou t the novel, m akes a guess tha t “ it m ay very well be tha t in the sho rt m o m ent o f his proud and unflinching glance, he had beheld the face o f th a t o pp ortun ity which, like an E astern bride, had com e to his side” 4. Jim ’s preoccupation w ith dream s o f heroism and his frequent looking tow ards the dream s rather than a t the immediate physical reality has been suggested also earlier in the novel. Both literally and m etaphorically Jim strains his eyesight to see the invisible. M arlow m akes the follow ing com m ent ab o u t it:
I could see in his glance darted into the night all his inner being carried on, projected headlong into the fanciful realm of recklessly heroic aspirations. [...] H e was very far aw ay from me w ho watched him across three feet of space1.
I f Jim has an ability to see m ore than ordinary people, he sees less at the same tim e since “ his eyes roam ing abo u t the line o f the horizon, seemed to gaze hungrily into the un attainable, and did not sec the shadow o f the com ing event” 6.
M arlo w ’s friend Stein diagnoses Jim as rom antic, but, in varying degree, ro m an tic dream ing which prevents one from seeing reality fully, m ust be regarded as p a rt o f hum an n ature in general. D eliberately lim ited seeing creates illusions ab o u t life. M arlow realizes it during “ a m om ent o f vision” he experiences while talking to the F rench officer. H e m uses:
3 Ibid., p. 58, 59. 4 Ibid., p. 313. 5 Ibid., p. 68. 6 Ibid., p. 21.
It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes shut, with dull ears, with do rm ant thoughts. P erhaps it’s ju st as well'.
Stein confirm s the pow er o f delusion once again in term s o f seeing and not seeing. A ccording to him m an “ w ants to be a saint, and w ants to be a devil - and every tim e he shuts his eyes he sees him self as a very fine fellow - so fine as he can never be. [...] A nd because you n o t alw ays can keep you r eyes shut there com es the real trou ble - the heart pain - the w orld p ain ”8. D elusion ab o u t the nature o f life and o f m an ap pears to be one o f th e m a jor them es o f L o rd Jim . It is also a principal m o tif o f H eart
o f D arkness. K u r tz ’s sketch in oil depicting a blindfolded w om an carrying
a lighted to rch represents allegorically spiritual blindness as well as frequently deliberate turnin g a blind eye to reality. One m ay delude oneself, as Stein tells us in L ord Jim , by assum ing m ost extrem e and often c on trad icto ry roles: K u rtz, unable “to be a sain t” seemed to have decided “ to be a devil” and m ay have th o u g h t him self “ a very fine fellow” indeed until he saw the unbearab le vision o f darkness th at he had no t been able to oppose.
A ra th e r different exam ple o f vision o f h o rro r brou gh t a b o u t by the blindness o f self-delusion is to be found in the case o f the chief engineer o f the P atna w ho m ain tains th a t he saw the ship’s m asth ead lights disapp ear a t the m o m en t o f its sinking which, as we know very well, did n o t take place in fact. Ironically, he boasts o f excellent eyesight which allows him to see m ore th an oth er people do and later, indeed, driven by guilt to excessive drin kin g and m adness, he is torm ented by visions o f pink to ad s th a t nob ody else can see. W hen M arlow visits the chief at the hosp ital, he sees “ a hin t o f spectral alarm th a t lurked in the blank glitter o f his glance, resem bling a n ondescript form of a terror crouching silently behind a pane o f glass” 9. T h e te rr o r conveyed thro ug h the seemingly incoherent raving o f th e chief is very real:
They turned me out o f my bunk in the middle w atch to look at her sinking, [...] O nly my eyes were good enough to see. I am famous for my eyesight. [...] 1 tell you there are no such eyes as mine this side o f the Persian Gulf. Look under the bed. [...] ‘W hat can you see?’ he asked. ‘N othing’ I said, feeling awfully ashamed of myself. He scrutinized my face with wild and withering contempt. ‘Just so,’ he said, ‘but if I were to look I could see - there’s no eyes like mine [...] Millions of pink toads. There’s no eyes like mine. Millions o f pink toads It’s worse than seeing a ship sink [...]. The ship was full of them. They’ve got to be watched, you know. [...] All pink. All pink - as big as mastiffs, with an eye on to p of the head’ f...] and while I looked dow n, the spectral h orro r in him broke trough his glassy gaze10.
7 Ibid., p. 111. * Ibid., p. 162, 163. 9 Ibid., p. 43. 10 Ibid., p. 45, 46.
T he difference between J im ’s illusions and the sclf'-deccption o f the chief engineer or the self-delusion o f people like K u rtz lies in the fact th a t Jim has his visions o f the ideal and a set o f instinctively adopted values to w hich he obstinately tries to be faithful while the o thers have either lost theirs or have never had any.
Inability to see reality m ay com e from w ithin, as when characters refuse to accept w hat really is, o r from w ithout w hen they are prevented from seeing by darkness or, ra th er, all they sec is darkness. A n interesting exam ple o f such a situ ation will be found in L ord Jim in the young m a n ’s description o f the scene after his fatal jum p from the P atna:
You couldn’t distinguish the sea from the sky; there was nothing to sec and nothing to hear. N ot a glimpse, n o t a shape, not a sound". f...l
It was jus t dark enough, too. We were like men walled up in a grave. N o concern with anything on earth. N obody to pass an opinion. N othing m attered1'.
Physically experienced darkness associates w ith spiritual and m oral sense o f chaos, loss o f m eaning and value in the face o f prevailing nothingness from which any “ field o f reference” is totally absent.
T he “ wall o f darkness” experienced by the young captain in The Shadow
Line creates sim ilar effects. T he captain notes:
Such m ust have been the darkness before the creation. It had closed behind me. I knew I was invisible to the man at the helm. N either could I see anything. He was alone. I was alone, every man was alone where he stood. And every form was gone too [...] everything was blotted out in the dreadful smoothness of tha t absolute nig ht15.
T he passage em phasizes the fact of u tter loneliness o f m an in co n fro n -ta tio n w ith darkness. It also brings the reader closer to u nd ers-tan d in g the n a tu re o f d arkness in C o n ra d ’s writings; it appears to be a negation o f m oral o rde r or any order, for th at m atter. A s a sym bol, dark ness points to the absence o f any given m eaningful orde r o f the universe and to the destructive effect nothingness can have on h um an beings. In C o n ra d ’s fiction one is left alone, w ithout any auth orativ e guidance and has to create o n e’s ow n m eaningful o rd e r o f things based on a few sim ple, instinctive notions such as sense o f duty o r fidelity. A nd it is fidelity to the sim ple m oral code th a t prevents d arkness from spreading. A s M arlow puts it:
[...] the tremendous disdain o f the D ark Powers w hose real terrors, always on the verge o f trium ph, are perpetually foiled by the steadfastness o f m an14.
11 Ibid., p. 90, 91. 12 Ibid., p. 95.
13 J. C o n r a d , The Shadow Line. A Confession, ed. L. C onrad, Paris 1919, p. 208. 14 J. C o n r a d , Lord Jim ..., p. 96.
T h ere are tw o a ttitud es to darkness which C on rad presents in fav ourab le light: one is best represented by Jim and the y oung M arlo w o f “ Y o u th ” w hose en th usiastic illusions o f glory do n ot allow them to see the d a rk e r aspect o f life, and the o th er depends on m atu re co n fro n ta tio n w ith d arkn ess an d look ing reality straig h t in the face so th at the tru th a b o u t it can be know n. C on rad seems to be indulgent and som ew hat envious a b o u t the form er, bu t he fully s up p orts and respects the latter.
G e ttin g to know reality m eans getting to know people and so C o n ra d ’s M arlo w looks a t them searchingly, qucstioningly, attentively. H e keeps Jim un d er ob serv ation from the m om en t w hen he sees him in the cou rt. H e says: “ M y eyes m et his for the first tim e a t the inq uiry” 15. A nd a t th a t p oint he begins his private inquiry which lasts th ro u g h o u t th e novel. W e arc m ad e aw are o f his ceaseless o bservation o f Jim and o f o th e r people by freq uent com m ents such as: “ I was looking a t him from th e sh ad e” (p. 33), “ I w atched the youngster th ere” (p. 38), “T hu s, a prop os o f Jim , I had a glim pse o f the real B rierly” (p. 57), “ I had them b oth under m y eyes” (p. 57), “T hen it w as th a t o u r glances m e t” (p. 57), “ I w atched him ” (p. 58), “ [...] never tak in g m y eyes o ff him. T o w atch his face was like w atchin g [...]” (p. 59), “ I looked at him curiously” (p. 62), „I saw him before m y eyes [...] I w atched him covertly” (p. 76), “ he would ap p ea r to m y starin g eyes” (p. 104), “ I looked at th a t absorbed sm oo th face” (p. 140), “ M y eyes follow ed his m ovem ents, b ut w hat 1 did see was not [...] I saw only the reality o f his destiny” (p. 165).
M arlo w looks so intently at o ther people, and often covertly as if spying on them , because he w ants to u nderstand them and, th ro u g h them , to u n d ersta n d h u m an n a tu re and himself. Very often, when M arlow and C o n ra d ’s o th er na rra to rs look at others, they see themselves. T his relationship betw een th e observer and the observed creates p rofo und significances in
H eart o f Darkness. In the w ords o f A lbert J. G uerard :
O bserving K urtz, and physically wrestling for his body and soul, M arlow can look on our original and savage nature in its nakedness. He can, that is, look into his own deepest self16.
S im ilar relation ships exist between several o th er pairs o f cha racters in C o n ra d ’s fiction: the cap tain o f The Secret Sharer and L eggatt; captain Brierly and Jim ; Jim and G entlem an B row n; the cap tain in The Shadow
L ine a nd B urns, H eyst and Jones in Victory. T he m ysterious link betw een
the characters, based on various degrees o f identification with the o th er,
15 Ibid., p. 32.
Is A. J. G u e r a r d , Introduction [in:] J. C o n r a d , "H eart o f D arkness" and "The Secret Sharer", Th e New American Library, New Y o rk-T o ro nto 1950, p. 15.
is very often presented in term s suggestive o f seeing m irro r reflections. T h e Passage in H eart o f Darkness in which M arlow , th inking ab o u t K u rtz, stands in fro n t o f the d o o r o f the dead m a n ’s “ Inten de d ” and secs, instead o f his ow n reflection, th a t o f K u rtz in the sm ooth surface o f the do o r, show s how high the degree o f identification can be:
I rang the bell before a mahogany do or on the first floor, and while 1 waited he seemed lo stare al me out of the glassy panel - stare with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe17.
T h e intense gaze o f M rs T ravers a t Im m ada in The Rescue also suggests th e m irro r reflection n atu re o f the con tact betw een the tw o characters and th e self-exam ining attitu de o f one o f them :
M rs Travers fixed her eyes at Im m ada [...] and she looked at her as one looks into one’s own h eart with absorbed curiosity, with still w onder, with an immense com passion1*.
C o n ra d ’s preo ccup ation with the m o tif o f the doub le self o r m irro r reflections o f self has been am ply discussed by the novelist’s critics. D o n ald C. Y elton, fo r example, w rites the following:
The theme o f psychic dédoublement is recurrent - we may even say an obssessive - theme in C onrad’s fiction. It is a critical comm onplace that, in Heart o f Darkness, M arlow ’s confrontation with K urtz implies a confrontation with self. [...] Viewed from a certain angle, Burns in The Shadow Line and G entlem an Brown in L ord Jim appear as “double” figures, the projection o f some dark psychic content which the protagonist confronts as though confronting a fragment of the self. [...1 There are many passages in C onrad in which this fissiparous quality of the self is hinted at by the device o f the man w ho confronts his image in a m irror111.
A p a rt from perception an d exam ination, looking and seeing usually involve direct or implied judgem ent. If Jim resents being stared a t by M arlow and o th er people du rin g the trial, it is exactly because he is painfully aw are o f their judgin g attitudes. Jim “ sto od elevated in the witness box, [...] and from below m any eyes were looking at him ou t o f d a rk faces, o u t o f w hite faces, o u t o f red faces, ou t o f faces attentive, spellbound [...]; the audience seemed com posed o f staring shadow s” , full o f “ th e attentiv e eyes w hose glances s ta b b e d ”20.
E ven w hen there is no direct suggestion o f judgement, o r evalua tio n in the m en tions o f the eyes o f onlookers C o nrad often m anages to give the im pression th at a silent weighing o f m eaning and value takes place in the
17 J. C o n r a d , Heart o f Darkness, Penguin Books Ltd, H arm ondsw orth 1983, p. 117. 111 J. C o n r a d , The Rescue, A Romance o f the Shallows, J. M . D ent and Sons Ltd, London 1949, p. 140.
D . C. Y e l t o n , Mimesis and Metaphor. An Inquiry into the Scope o f Conrad's Symbolic Imagery, M outon, The Hague, Paris 1967, p. 273, 274.
course o f seemingly indifferent observation as when for instance Brow n and Jim are w atched by the natives o f P atusan:
A t last Brown threw himself down full length and watched Jim out of the com ers o f his eyes [...]. T he houses in view were silent, as if a pestilence had swept them clean of every breath o f life, but many invisible eyes were turned, from within, upon the two men21.
T he unknow n intention o f eyes th at look in silence m akes a pow erful im pression on M arlow , who m akes a record of it in his accoun t o f his first enco unter with the E ast in Y outh:
And then 1 saw the men of the East - they were looking at me. The whole length of the jetty was full of people. I saw bronze, yellow faces, the black eyes, the glitter, the colour of the Eastern crowd. And all the beings stared w ithout a m urmur, without a sigh, w ithout a movement. They stared down at the boats, at the sleeping men
A disquieting atm osphere is often created by references to eyes that watch as if w ith a hidden purpose. W e rem em ber how M arlow w atched Jim “covertly” ; Brown looked at Jim “from the corners o f his eyes” , and Burns in The Shadow
Line gave the cap tain “ side glances” . W illems in A n O utcast o f the Islands is
followed and w atched by natives, and N ina in A lm ayer's Folly is un der close surveillance kept by the jealous T am in ah . A lot o f secret w atching and follow ing goes on, naturally, in The Secret A gent and Under Western Eyes.
T h e eyes o f the observers as well as o f those observed app ear, as a rule, “ inscrutable” ; C onrad frequently uses adjectives such as “ inscrutable” , “ p ro -found” , “im penetrable” to describe the eyes of his observers whose inner worlds are com plex and innaccessible. P erhaps there is nothing m uch to see behind the “ fishy eyes” or “dull eyes” o f the G erm an skipper and the “ indifferent glazed sunken eyes” or the “ glassy eyes” o f the chief engineer in L ord Jim , b ut the d a rk p rofo und eyes o f K u rtz ’s Intended seem to hide m ore than just tru s t and guilessness and Jim ’s “ im penetrable” eyes app ear to reflect com plexities th a t M arlow cannot fully understand. It is with a good reason that the eyes o f Jim ’s beloved Jewel m ake M arlow think o f a deep well; he was fascinated by “the big som bre orbits o f her eyes, w here there seemed to be a faint stir, such as you m ay fancy you can detect when you plunge your gaze to the bottom o f an immensely deep well. W hat is it th at moves there? you ask yourself. Is it a blind m onster or only a lost gleam from the universe?”23 M any questions in C o n rad ’s fiction rem ain ununsw ered ju st like this one, and the effort to penetrate the m ystery of other people - unrew arded. F requently one looks at others only to find eyes staring back a t one.
11 Ibid., p. 291.
22 J. C o n r a d , “Youth" [in:] "Youth. A Narrative"; “Heart o f D arkness"; " The End o f the Tether", J. M. D ent and Sons Ltd, London 1967, p. 40.
T h e aw areness o f the presence o f w atchful eyes in C o n ra d ’s presentatio n o f h um an relationships is intensified by the w riter’s use o f im ages o f no n-h um an eyes looking a t people. U sually it is the sun, sky, stars and o th er rem ote natu ral entities th at appe ar to be observing m an. Seldom do they direct kindly glances at people; and so the sun th a t looked dow n benignly at the sleeping D ain in A lm ayer's Folly “ dipped sharply” , when he sat up, “ as if asham ed o f being detected in a sym pathizing a ttitu de , and the clearing, which d urin g th e day was all light, becam e suddenly all darkness, where the fire gleam ed like an eye” 24. As a rule n atu re observes m an in an im passive, detached way.
T he im age o f stars looking dow n upon people m ay not ap p ear very original, b u t it has a special significance as a part o f C o n rad ’s larger scheme o f m eaning. C o nrad refers to them as “ w atchful stars” (e.g. in L o rd Jim , p. 21) or “ attentive stars” ( The R escue, p. 89) th at are distan t, silent and ap parently uninvolved in w hat goes on beneath them . H is ch aracters often feel u nco m fortably aw are o f the universe gazing at them and it is this feeling th a t the n a rra to r o f The Secret Sharer conveys in his description o f the starry sky:
The tide of darkness followed on swiftly; and with a tropical suddenness a swarm o f stars came out above the shadowy earth, while I lingered yet, my hand resting lightly on my ship’s rail as if on the shoulder o f a trusted friend. But w ith all th at multitude o f celestial bodies staring down at one, the comfort o f quiet com m union with her was gone for good25.
A sim ilar uncom fortable sense o f being watched creeps into the description w e find in The N igger o f the 'N arcissus':
A m ultitude of stars coming out into the clear night peopled the emptiness of the sky. They glittered, [...] more intense than the eyes of a staring crow d“ .
T here is perhaps a suggestion of a hidden m enace in the kind o f silent, b u t persistent surveillance especially w hen accom panied by a sense o f being surro u nd e d or crow ded in. In The Rescue the brig on the calm m irror-lik e surface o f the sea appears to be hypnotized into im m obility by th e staring eyes of the islands:
To the south and east the double islands w atched silently the double ship that seemed fixed amongst them 27.
24 J. C o n r a d , Almayer's Folly [in:] “Alm ayer's Folly" and "Tales o f Unrest", J. M. D ent and Sons Ltd, London 1947, p. 168.
25 J. C o n r a d , The Secret Sharer..., p. 20.
26 J. C o n r a d , The Nigger o f the ‘Narcissus’ [in:] "The Nigger o f the ‘Narcissus’ "; "Typhoon"; "Amy Foster"; "Falk"; "Tomorrow", Penguin Books Ltd, Harm ondsworth 1975, p. 35.
A nd in Youth, w hen the crew o f the Judea finally arrived a t an E astern p o rt, the “ E ast looked at them w ithou t a so u n d ”28.
W hen h u m an suffering is involved, the im passive w atchfulness o f the universe m ay ap p ear cruel as it docs to the crew o f the N arcissus: they toil and struggle against the dangers o f the sea while the sun stares a t the seam en and their ship “ w ith a burning, ro und stare o f undying curiosity ” 29 and it continues w atching them also when, after a night o f hard ship, they are com pletely exhausted (but determ ined no t to give in):
Mr Craighton, on his back, and very pale, muttered, ‘Well done’, and gave us, Jimmy, and the sky, a scornful glance, then closed his eyes slowly [...]. The sun was setting. A sun enorm ous, unclouded and red, declining low as if bending down to look into their faces. The wind whistled across long sunbeams that, resplendent and cold, struck full on the dilated pupils of staring eyes w ithout making them wink“ .
W h at seems to be n a tu re ’s lack o f com passion and cruelty is, in fact, an ab so lute absence o f involvem ent, to tal unconcern. T here can be no d o u b t, however, o f the m alice in the w atchfulness o f wilderness and dark ness as described by M arlow :
And this stillness of life did no t in the least resemble a peace. It was a stillness of an im placable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect11.
T h e m agnificent savage w om an, K u r tz ’s m istress, personifies the strange attra ctio n an d m ystery o f the wilderness. M arlow and o th er “ pilgrim s” stan d still, fascinated and spellbound, looking a t her while she looks at them “ w ith out a stir, and like the wilderness itself, w ith an air b ro od ing over an inscru table p u rp o se ” . A nd yet, at the sam e tim e, “ the w ilderness, the colossal body o f the fecund a nd m ysterius life seemed to look a t her, pensive, as thoug h it had been looking a t the im age o f its own tenebro us an d passionate soul” 32.
T h a t there is a deeper m eaning in the w atchfulness o f the universe is m ad e clear by C o n ra d ’s direct reference to the fact th at it is associated w ith “ the inner tru th ” . In view- o f w hat is at the core o f all things “ the m ere incidents o f the surface, the reality - the re ality ” , tells us M arlow , “ fades. T h e inner tru th is hidden - luckily, luckily. B ut I felt it all the sam e; I felt often its m ysterious stillness w atching me a t m y m on key tricks ju s t as it w atches you fellow s perform ing on your respective ropes [,..]” 33.
28 J. C o n r a d , Youth..., p. 41.
29 J. C o n r a d , The Nigger o f the "Narcissus"..., p. 35. 30 Ibid., p. 38, 39.
31 J. C o n r a d , H eart o f Darkness..., p. 66. 32 Ibid., p. 101.
A lso the tw o w om en whom M arlow secs in the waiting room o f the Brussels office, clearly personify forces m ore powerful th an hum an. T hey, too, have the peculiar qualities of C onrad’s non-hum an observers: dctachem cnt, silence, app arent unconcern, secret know ledge and m ystery. M arlow gives the following account o f the im pression they m ad e on him:
In the outer room the two women knitted feverishly. [...] The old one sat on her chair. [...] She glanced at me above her glasses. The swift and indifferent placidity of th at look troubled me. Two youths withs foolish faces and cheery countenances were being jolted over, and she threw at them the same quick glance o f unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about them and about me, too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful. Often far away there I thought o f these two, guarding the d oor o f D arkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery faces with unconccrncd old eyes34.
T he accum ulation o f such references to w atchful eyes th at look from beyond in o rder to scrutinize people w ho are in precarious positions on their “respective tight-ropes” can no t b ut lead one to suppose that the possible intention o f the scrutiny is to evaluate and judge hum an endeavour. T h e supposition wil be confirm ed by the passage from The Secret Sharer
in which the captain reflects on the sea voyage he and his ship are ab out to undertake:
In this breathless pause at the threshold of a long passage we seemed to be measuring our fitness for a long and ardurous enterprise, the appointed task of both our existences to be carried out, far from all hum an eyes, with only sky and sea for spectators and judges” .
T he idea o f m an being scrutinized and judged by forces external to the hu m an w orld contradicts the im plication o f C o n rad ’s im age o f the universe as a kind o f knitting m achine knitting people in and kn itting people out o f existence. It also underm ines the validity o f the view th a t “ there is no felt religious dim ension” in the novelist’s w ork36. C o n rad ’s iw ard complexities and often opposing tendencies result in occasionally contradictory im plications o f his w ork. T he novelist’s view of divine power ca nno t, therefore, be explained in unequivocal term s. Leon Seltzer, for exam ple, who has given som e atte ntio n to the problem , avoids direct explicit statem ents when he w rites th a t an exam ination o f C o n rad ’s w ork “ should m ake obvious his profou nd do u b t in a benevolent D eity - or, for th at m atter, in any deity at all” and th at the novelist “was unable to detect hum anity in heavenly forces governing m an ’s fate. In his view, w hatever G od there was had
34 Ibid., p. 37.
35 J. C o n r a d , The Secret Sharer..., p. 20.
36 Cf. H . Blamires’s entry on Conrad in: A Guide to Twentieth Century Literature in English, M ethuen and Co. Ltd, New York 1983, p. 58.
som ehow relagated H is tasks to an im personal universe, which perform ed them w ith neither intelligence no r com passion” 37. P erhaps the m ost penet-rating study o f the problem has been produced by Jó ze f U jejski, who argues th a t although C on rad never accepted the form ulas o f any variety o f C h ristian religion, or o f any oth er system of beliefs, he did believe in G od even if he was sceptical abo u t G o d ’s benevolent interference with h u m an life3".
T he frequent m entions o f eyes w atching and judging m an create an im pression th a t there are supernatural forces taking interest in hu m an affairs. C onrad him self strengthens the im pression when he says in the “ A u th o r’s N o te” in A lm ayer's Folly.
I am content to sympathize with common mortals, no m atter where they live; in houses or in tents, in the streets under a fog, or in the forest behind the dark line of the sea. F or their land - like ours - lies under the inscrutable eyes of the M ost H igh” .
A ltho ug h m a n seems to be u nder c o ns tan t scrutiny, no guidence, su pp ort, or spiritual com fort are given to him. I f there is an ideal o rde r o f things, he has no direct access to it and so m ust create his own m oral o rde r and choose his set o f values: he can only hope th a t they will correspond w ith the putativ e ideal ones; he can have no certainty th a t his m o ral choices m ade according to the guidelines o f his own m ake, are correct. C o n ra d ’s pessimism consists in his conviction o f the essential m o ral m eaninglessness o f the universe, uncertainty and fragility of m a n ’s order
im posed upo n chaos, and inscrutability o f the “ M ost H igh ” .
M an c an no t fully understand and possess the world o f na tu re and it seems to have no need o f him - the unwelcome intru der. Stein m akes a com m ent on this cosmic plight of m an:
Sometimes it seems to me that m an is come, when he is not wanted, where there is no place for him40.
T he cap tain from The Shadow Line shares S tein’s suspicion; he says:
As I emerge on the deck the ordered arrangement o f the stars meets my eyes: unclouded, infinitely wearisome. There they are: stars, sun, sea, light, darkness, space, great waters; the formidable work o f Seven Days, into which mankind seems to have blundered unbidden or else decoyed41.
37 L. S e l t z e r , The Vision o f Melville and Conrad. A Compative Study, Ohio University Press, A thens 1970, p. 21, 22.
38 Cf. J. U j e j s k i , „C onrad i świat” [in:] Wspomnienia i studia o Conradzie, ed. В. Koc, PIW, W arszawa 1963, p. 338-367.
39 J. C o n r a d , Alm ayer's Folly..., p. viii. 40 J. C o n r a d , Lord Jim ..., p. 159.
O ne is tem pted to ask: w here from? And is this b lundering into the universe and groping in the d ark ever since a punishm ent? A test? O r both? T he eyes th at look a t m an m ake one believe th a t he is indeed tested and judged according to incom prehensible criteria; it is im p o rta n t not to fail the test and deserve a favourable judgem ent, but one can no t hope to know fo r certain th e rules according to which the sentence will be passed.
C o n ra d ’s concern with m a n ’s m oral choices acquires a central position in his w ork largely because his characters are viewed and judged from various perpectives: cosmic, social and interpersonal and individual. Beacuse the characters w atch and strain their eyes to see tru th a nd, a t the sam e tim e, are aw are o f being w atched and scrutinized, this concern w ith m oral problem s becomes an intense alm ost physical presence. T he characte rs ca nn o t be certain o f w hat they discover ab ou t the world, o ther people and them selves, and they d o n ot k now m uch is observed o f them , but they continue to look for answ ers. A nd because they have themselves only to rely upo n in this undertaking, they are utterly lonely, bu t at the sam e tim e, because they are constantly w atched and judged - they are never alone.
Institute o f English Studies University o f Łódż
Maria Edelson
PERCEPCJA WIZUALNA JAKO MOTYW
I ŚRODEK LITERACKI PROZY JOSEPHA CONRADA
Josephowi Conradow i bardzo zależało na tym, by jego czytelnik mógł, dzięki odpowiednim technikom literackim, widzieć świat opisywany. Sposób patrzenia i postrzegania św iata często przybiera szczególne i wielorakie znaczenia w jego prozie, która, w pew nych zw łaszcza utw orach, obfituje we wzmianki, sytuacje, metaforyczne obrazy i aluzje dotyczące tego tem atu.
Postaci C onrada z napięciem przyglądają się sobie i innym, usiłując dociec praw dy o człowieku w ogóle i o sobie. Są też obserwowane (i oceniane) przez innych ludzi, a także przez sprawiający wrażenie obojętnego wszechświat. F akt ten wzmaga poczucie, że bohater C onrada stale podlega moralnemu osądowi nie tylko autora i czytelnika, ale także innych postaci oraz nie nazwanego ściśle przez C onrada absolutu, z którym kojarzy się w spominana przez pisarza „praw da w ewnętrzna”, istota wszechrzeczy.
Zagęszczenie obrazów i aluzji w ytw arzających to wrażenie w pływa n a intensyw ność moralnego zaangażowania prozy C onrada. Jego postaci samotnie dokonują w yborów moralnych, nie pozostają jednak bez świadków.
