摘 要

约瑟夫·康纳德,是一位闻名于世的波兰裔英国作家。作为英国现代主义小说的先驱，他的写作手法兼有现实主义和浪漫主义，作品多带有悲观神秘色彩，印象主义。 《礁湖》是他的早期作品，小说里描述的是，19世纪欧洲殖民者殖民了亚洲南部之后，马来西亚人阿尔萨特在面临紧要关头时所作出的一系列选择。同时小说通过大量的环境描写，营造出了极其压抑的氛围，毫不掩饰的揭露了人性中的黑暗面，让人不禁思考阿尔萨特所作选择背后的伦理性。本文借助于文学伦理批评理论来剖析阿尔萨特所作出的选择以及选择所带来的结果，旨在更好地理解小说内容以及给面临重大人生选择的人们提供参考建议。同时通过深入探索阿尔萨特选择背后的原因，了解到即使是遵从本心做出的选择也不一定带来好的结果这一事实。

关键词：康纳德；文学伦理批评；《礁湖》；选择

Abstract

Joseph Conrad was famous as a Polish-born English novelist. As a precursor of modernist literature, his writing style had the features of realism and romanticism, tragedy and impressionism. The Lagoon was one of his early short story. In this story, the Malaya, Arsat made series of extremely important choices, which happened when Europeans colonized southern Asia. At the same time, the story used many surrounding descriptions to build the atmosphere of depress and straightly exposed the darkness in human nature. It forced people to consider the ethic behind the choice that Arsat had made. This paper attempts to expound on the choice Arsat made and consequences of the choice based on ethical literary criticism, in order to digest more about the novel and provide advice for those who are faced with extremely significant choices in real lives. In the meanwhile, the truth that making choices by following real hearts might not bring about good outcome is learned through exploring reasons behind Arsat’s choice.

Key words: Conrad; ethical literary criticism; The Lagoon; choice

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Joseph Conrad and The Lagoon 1

1.2 Ethical Literary Criticism 3

2 Arsat’s Choice between His Brother and Lover 5

2.1 Arsat’s Choice 5

2.2 Relationships between the Main Characters 5

3 Reasons for Arsat’s Choice 7

3.1 External Reasons 7

3.2 Personal Reasons 7

4 Ethical Analysis of Consequences of Arsat’s Choice 9

5 Conclusion 11

Reference 13

Acknowledgements 14

Ethical Interpretation of Arsat’s Choice in The Lagoon

1 Introduction

1.1 Joseph Conrad and The Lagoon

Joseph Conrad, known as modern writers in the history of English literature, is extremely remarkable and prestigious in nautical novels. And actually he is regarded as the master of nautical novels. However, it was surprising that Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist. And it was not until he was in his twenties, did he speak English, let alone write in English. The reason why Conrad could be regarded as one of the greatest novelist in English was tightly associated with his life experience. Conrad was born on December 3^rd, 1857 in Berdychiv. At that time, Berdychiv was part of Ukraine which had belonged to the Kingdom of Poland. And in the period when Conrad was born, Berdychiv was ruled by Russian. Furthermore, Conrad was the only child of his father Apollo Korzeniowski and his mother Ewelina Bobrowska. Conrad’s father had studied law and languages at St Petersburg University and he was also a writer, translator, political activist, and would-be revolutionary. Apollo was fiercely patriotic and attended the “Red” political faction which aimed at reestablish the pre-partition boundaries of Poland. Moreover, his father and mother were both political activists. And the family moved repeatedly due to Conrad’s father’s attempts at farming and political activism. Even though Apollo brought about a few troubles to the family, he still effectively influenced in Conrad’s early reading. Apollo did his best to home-school Conrad. And the boy’s early reading later dominated Conrad’s writing and composing life. Due to the political activities, the family was eventually deported to Vologda. Because of Ewelina’s poor health, in 1865 Apollo was allowed to move to Chernigov, where within a few weeks Ewelina died of tuberculosis. And Apollo died four years later, leaving Conrad orphaned at the age of 11.

Then Conrad was raised by his uncle Tadeusz Bobrowski. With the help of his uncle, Conrad attended the school, but he was really disobedient. He was only good at geography. Bobrowski allowed Conrad to travel at the age of 16 to Marseille and to begin a career as a seaman. Conrad eventually became a British merchant sailor and he joined the British merchant marine in 1878, and was finally granted British nationality in 1886. Though at that time he only knew six words, he tried his best to learn English and write stories and novels. Influenced by his long nautical life experiences, he composed many works with a nautical setting which depicted trials of the human spirit of an impassive and inscrutable universe. He traveled widely in the east. He took on a stint as a steamer captain in 1890 in the Congo, but became ill within three months and had to leave. In 1896, he married Jessie George a typist from Peckham. Conrad retired from sailing and took up writing full time.

When it comes to Conrad’s major works, we usually firstly think of The Nigger of the Narcissus, Lord Jim, Nordstromo, and Heart of Darkness. And among these works, the most famous one is Heart of Darkness. And The Lagoon which also concentrates on the humanity and darkness in human nature just as Heart of Darkness does, is ignored by a number of scholars. Just like most of Conrad’s works, as one of Conrad’s early short stories, The lagoon is also connected with the nautical activities. This short novel mainly told about things happening to the protagonist, Arsat. And the core of the story is the several choices that Arsat made. Furthermore, the theme the novel is related to many aspects, including darkness in human nature, inescapable death and remorse. Ordinary people may not go through such relentless choices as Arsat made in their whole lives. But considering such kind of selections is benefit to our lives, just as the saying goes, living for thinking and thinking for living.

The Lagoon can be regarded as a story concentrating on Arsat’s choices which depend on the conflicts between Arsat’s id and superego (马秀琳，2015). Although this short story is similar to Heart of Darkness which is also connected with choice, it does not attract enough scholars to devote themselves to the study of it. Besides of the study focusing on Arsat’s id and superego, most studies of the limited researches of The Lagoon in China are about the angle of modernism and colonialism. Though the plot of the story is quite simple, the surrounding descriptions are really complicated just like the other novels of Conrad. And in addition, there are many symbolic things, such as the lagoon in the story. In describing the lagoon as stagnant, motionless, dead, inert, or foul and rotting, Conrad was also describing the life of Arsat and Diamelen since their arrival at their isolated forest dwelling. As Conrad drew the reader deeper into the story, he just mixed into the stillness the darkness of the forest, which symbolized the darkness in Arsat’s heart. The story is also filled with symbols and contrasts, for instant, dark and light, black and white, sunrise and sunset, water and fire, movement and still, and so on. Conrad was expert in depicting the inner world of characters, and in The Lagoon his scenery description perfectly reflected the changes of the protagonist’s inner world(娜和芽，2014）.

The story is mainly concerning to a man that is referred to as ‘Tuan’, a white man traveling through an Indonesian rain forest. And the white man stopped the boat for finding his distant friend called Arsat in the night. Therefore, he asked Arsat and Arsat told him a story which was associated with his experience. It was really a sad story related to sex. Arsat told the white man how he and his brother kidnapped Diamelen who was his lover and previously a servant of the Rajah’s wife. Escaping from the Rajah’s control, they tried their best to flee in a boat at night until they were exhausted. And having a rest, they had to stop on a bit of land in their sight. However, it was not a long time before they had found the Rajah’s boat. Arsat’s brother suggest that Arsat and Diamelen should escape to the other side of the land as he knew there was a fisherman’s hut. At the same time, Arsat’s brother offered to block the Rajah’s men and he told Arsat and Diamelen to wait for him. To the brother’s surprise and disappointment, Arsat seemed to forget the promise, and he just fled with Diamelen without looking back to the disappointed and desperate expression of his brother. Undoubtedly, Arsat betrayed his brother for a woman he loved.

When it comes to the end of the story, we can easily find out the writer’s attempt trying to end with symbolic surrounding. The sun rose but Diamelen died. Suffering a lot, Arsat seemed to see a world of illusion. Losing everything, Arsat determined to revenge his brother’s death but died in the process.

1.2 Ethical Literary Criticism