Conrad from a different perspective.

Widely popular for addressing the themes of nature and existence, Joseph Conrad was by profession, a mariner. Born to Polish parents in Ukraine, Joseph Conrad alias Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski is well-known for his novels like 'Heart Of  Darkness', 'Lord Jim', 'The Secret Agent', 'The Secret Sharer', 'The Nigger Of The Narcissus', etc.

Although a pioneer of symbolism, Conrad is known for the contradictory statements he made in his writings. For instace, in a letter to Cunninghame Graham he writes, "There is no morality, no knowledge and no hope", while in 'Notes on Life and Letters' we find, "It must not be supposed that I claim for the artist in fiction the freedom of moral Nihilism. I would require from him many acts of faith of which the first would be the cherishing of an undying hope."

Albert J. Guerard in his book, ‘Conrad, The Novelist’ offers a list of prominent paradoxes that one might find in Conrad’s writings. Some are:

“…A declared distrust of generous idealism – doubled by a pronounced idealism…;

…A declared fidelity to law as above the individual – doubled by a strong sense of fidelity to the individual…”

Conrad focuses mainly on death and isolation, the limited understanding and acrimony between one man and another. While in ‘Heart Of Darkness’ Kurtz dies and Marlowe gains enlightenment; in ‘Lord Jim’ Jim is murdered by the natives he had tried to help out; whereas in ‘The Secret Agent’ we find Winnie drowning herself after stabbing her husband.

The loneliness and the seclusion depicted in Joseph Conrad’s works is not merely the physical isolation which individuals face on ships surrounded by the endless sea or in outposts encompassed by dense jungle, it is the loneliness which occurs within crowds or within marriages, when egotism seeps in.

Since he left his motherland at an early age, Conrad was sensitive to the idea that he could be regarded as a betrayer, hence his works have a strong fixation with loyalty and betrayal - what is loyalty for one could be betrayal for another. When Jim jumps from the ship PATNA,

 believing it is going to sink and later experiences humiliation because of his act, he strives for redemption by toiling in a far-away land. Gustav Morf in ‘The Polish Heritage Of Joseph Conrad’ has speculated that Conrad was trying to sublimate his feelings of guilt by portraying such an incident in his novel 'Lord Jim'.

In a letter to Cunninghame Graham, Conrad had mentioned, “Fraternity means nothing unless the Cain-Abel business… Man is a wicked animal. His wickedness has to be organised… Society is essentially criminal - otherwise it would not exist…”

Conrad is however, not entirely consistent with his pronouncement of distrust of human nature. There is a simultaneous sense that society holds in check the ever-present tendencies to disruption. Joseph Conrad was original with his criticism of imperialism and the rivalry between various industrialized nations. He believed that man is fallible and corruptible and that civilized men are not likely to be any better than the so-called inferior masses. It was ‘one-man imperialism’ which caught his interest and his works are a proof of the same.

An early modernist, Conrad dealt with the exploration of the inner consciousness while focusing on the outer world view and his narrative technique had cast an influence on many authors including T.S.Eliot, Graham Greene, even Salman Rushdie in recent times.