Conscience And Moral Life

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is a famous novelist of England. Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim (1900)are two representative works of him, and two centrally studied by researchers both at home and abroad in recent years. But the research field tends more to search the subject of works from a certain point of view.Based on the achievements of researchers in the research field. This thesis sought common ground on major issues while reserving difference on minor ones. On the aspect of subject study, this thesis strives to excavate the objective expectation of the writer when he was working out the plot of these novels. From this sense this thesis adopts from the writer's intention to research these works. At the same time, this thesis also pays attention to the detail of the text, and penetrates into these works themselves. In this sense, this thesis has at the same time the point of view of the search of works analyses.In the analysis of Heart of Darkness, this thesis borrows the three layers' division of "I" in psycho analytics. This thesis indicates that the degeneration of Kurtz lies in his wantonly expanded ego while as his superego (social moral and regulation) lost binding force and his ego was mined. But what the writer wanted to initiate through Marlow's "lie" to make readers to think is the very relation between the instinct of human nature and moral and regulation's external binding force of social civilization. Thus, under many layers of symbolism meanings, Heart of Darkness reveals the mystery of human nature and the conflict of social civilization and individual moral and ego. In Lord Jim, the writer went on his exploration of human nature. He unfolded the tendency of doing well of human nature. Jim sticks constantly to the moral and innate knowledge that Kurtz gained at the loss of his life, but he lost "some of that elasticity" and forced to exile to the wilderness and jungle. After he gained shortly the honor of "Lord", he could only stick to his faith with death. The whole life course of Jim is a disillusion course of a moral idealist's ideal. But the writer let Jim lead a noble life in his whole life, and searched a different outlet for the moral life. Do bad is the tendency of instinct, but the ability of doing well is the same as that of doing bad. The degeneration of Kurtz is a recall to the call of "unreal image" and "idol", but the reason why Jim should lead a moral life was that he has stuck to the moral and innate knowledge. The protagonists Kurtz and Jim in Conrad's two works are certainly a tragedy. That is Conrad's personal understanding about human .nature. We could not insist that Conrad could reach the height of Marxism theory of human nature.