| As the one of the salient novelists in British literature, Joseph Conrad can be labeled with the tag of uniqueness. Born a Russia-ruled Pole, he succeeded in the British literary circle. Beginning his career as a sailor, he transferred to an ultra strange field to start his second career as a writer at a rather old age. Undergoing low ebb after his death, his works now have become a must for every student of British literature around the world. Borrowing and inheriting many elements from the traditional, especially realist fiction, Conrad is regarded as one of the most important modernist novelists. As a writer, he blends three cultures, but it is the Polish culture that he puts most of his emotion in. As a Pole, he admires the glory of Britain, but he also condemns the Empire for her atrocity and exploitation of colonies. He succeeds in becoming the subject of the Great Britain, but the complex of betrayal of his motherland haunts him for the rest of life. As an individual Conrad is a man of contradiction and mystery. As a writer Conrad is a novelist meriting ceaseless investigation. Conrad, in a sense, is a riddle which up till now no one has solved in full comprehension.The present dissertation, in the following five chapters, is to study Conrad's thematic concern of morality and its modern presentation on the basis of meticulous research into his social context and ample citations from his works. Chapter 1 is a general review of Conrad's life experiences, the formation of his ideological commitment and moral concern in his main works. By claiming that morality is a traditional thematic concern in British literature, Chapter 1 draws a comparison between George Eliot and Joseph Conrad in the light of their common creation of characters at the crossroads of moral choice, their emphasis on the function of novel as historical record, and their common interest in the psychology of characters. In Chapter 1, I have also discussed in what aspect Conrad's life experiences have influenced his ideology. Finally, Conrad's modernity is discussed on the basis of above analysis. Chapter 2 deals with one of Conrad's representative novels in his early writing period Lord Jim. Based on the research into the association of Jim and his social context, this chapter meticulously discloses Jim's psychological journey after his misdoing, claiming that Jim's crisis is due to the milieu he has been nurtured in, and asserting that Jim's crisis is actually the crisis of western world. Seeing that the social context in which Jim is brought up has not changed, this chapter then discloses how and why Jim has been trapped in the predicament of redemption. Chapter 3 deals with Conrad's"most anxiously meditated"novel Nostromo. In this Chapter, based on the analysis of Conrad's portrayal of main characters, I study the conflict of Moral Idealism and material interests, disclosing the fragility of personal illusion while confronting material interests, and finally, arguing that Nostromo, Gould and Decoud are intrinsically similar in ideological commitment. In this chapter, I also discuss the conflict between social progress and personal destiny in the light of Carlyle's ideology. With ample analysis and citations from the novel, I then attempt to study Conrad's outlook of history and hero. Chapter 4 deals with Conrad's only Russian novel Under Western Eyes. In this chapter, Conrad's recurrent theme of"betrayal and punishment"is treated in a new perspective. In this chapter, the protagonist Razumov is closely observed in the light of his identity, which is the decisive force of"the rape of his life". Finally, with citations from the novel, the conclusion is drawn that Razumov's ending is different from Jim's since it is Conrad's deliberate choice: personal revitalization can only be obtained through social-individual unity. The three novels dealt with in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, though respectively independent, are closely related since they clearly outline the development of Conrad's moral world: from the concern of individual morality to the concern of collective morality. In Chapter 5 I conclude my assertion that Conrad's modernity mainly lies in his modern presentation of traditional theme of morality. Conrad's influence upon later writers is also briefed in this chapter.One thing common in these three chapters is that in the last section of each chapter I spend no little ink on Conrad's narrative innovation in the novel discussed respectively in each chapter. Conrad's thematic expression has much bearing on his innovative narration. Conrad's employment of narrative technique is to better render his thematic concern. In this section of each chapter, I mainly discuss how Conrad presents the traditional moral theme in a new way, which is regarded as the prominent quality in defining him as a modern novelist. In this chapter I mainly discuss the function of frame narrator of Lord Jim, the technique of Impressionism and disrupted chronology in Nostromo, the use of different types of speech and the significance of the English teacher as the narrator in Under Western Eyes.Conrad, as the outstanding novelist covering both the Victorian and Edwardian ages, displays distinct traits of modernism and internationalism. His broad perspective, his immense narration, and his in-depth investigation into the characters'psychology contributes a lot to the development of modern fiction. The present dissertation puts emphasis on close reading. It is on the basis of close reading that the essentials of a novel can be construed. As a dissertation dealing with a topic somewhat traditional, it nevertheless does not lack originality. Firstly, the present dissertation takes the three novels by Conrad as a whole since they represent the change of Conrad's creative mind in different periods. Seeing that morality is the central issue dealt with in the present dissertation, the assertion that Conrad's creative mind undergoes change is sensible. Secondly, the present dissertation argues that with the progress of Conrad's creative mind, Conrad's moral concern also undergoes change, that is, the development from individual morality to collective morality. This argument is testified with sufficient citations from the novels which belong to different phases of Conrad's writing. Thirdly, with three typical novels as samples, the present dissertation investigates Conrad's modernity, that is, the bearing of his thematic concern on his narrative techniques. Conrad's different treatment of the traditional theme is also discussed in each chapter, which is also the decisive element of Conrad's modernity. |
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