Joseph Conrad: The Lagoon

2.     Though he did not speak English fluently until he was in his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.

3.     Conrad is considered an early modernist, though his works still contain elements of 19th-century realism

4.     His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Graham Greene,] Gabriel García Márquez, V.S. Naipaul, J. M. Coetzee and Salman Rushdie

5.     Joseph Conrad was born on 3 December 1857 in Berdychiv, in a part of Ukraine that had belonged to the Kingdom of Poland before 1793 and was at the time of his birth under Russian rule

6.     Conrad was christened Józef Teodor Konrad after his maternal grandfather Józef, his paternal grandfather Teodor, and the heroes (both named “Konrad”) of two poems by Adam Mickiewicz, Dziady and Konrad Wallenrod.

7.     The Korzeniowski family played a significant role in Polish attempts to regain independence.

8.     The boy’s early reading introduced him to the two elements that later dominated his life: in Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea he encountered the sphere of activity to which he would devote his youth; Shakespeare brought him into the orbit of English literature

9.     In 1894, at the age of 36, Conrad reluctantly gave up the sea, partly due to poor health, partly because of the unavailability of ships, and partly because he had become so fascinated with writing that he had decided on a literary career.

10.   His first novel, Almayer’s Folly, set on the east coast of Borneo, was published in 1895.

11.     Its appearance marked his first use of the pen name “Joseph Conrad”

12.   The lack of a common cultural background with his Anglophone readers meant he could not compete with English language authors writing about the Anglosphere.

13.   The choice of a non-English colonial setting freed him from an embarrassing division of loyalty: Almayer’s Folly, and later “An Outpost of Progress”  and Heart of Darkness (1899, likewise set in the Congo), contain bitter reflections on colonialism.

14.   Almayer’s Folly, together with its successor, An Outcast of the Islands (1896), laid the foundation for Conrad’s reputation as a romantic teller of exotic tales

15.   Edward Said describes three phases to Conrad’s literary career.

16.   In the first and longest, from the 1890s to World War I, Conrad writes most of his great novels, including The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ (1897), Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907) and Under Western Eyes (1911).

17.   The second phase, spanning the war and following the popular success of Chance (1913), is marked by the advent of Conrad’s public persona as “great writer”.

18.    In the third and final phase, from the end of World War I to Conrad’s death (1924), he at last finds an uneasy peace; it is, as C. McCarthy writes, as though “the War has allowed Conrad’s psyche to purge itself of terror and anxiety.”

19.   Conrad suffered throughout life from ill health, physical and mental

20.  In March 1878, at the end of his Marseilles period, 20-year-old Conrad attempted suicide, by shooting himself in the chest with a revolver

21.   In March 1896 Conrad married an Englishwoman, Jessie George

22.  The most extensive and ambitious political statement that Conrad ever made was his 1905 essay, “Autocracy and War”, whose starting point was the Russo-Japanese War

23.  On 3 August 1924, Conrad died at his house, Oswalds, in Bishopsbourne, Kent, England, probably of a heart attack

24.  He wrote oftener about life at sea and in exotic parts than about life on British land because— unlike, for example, his friend John Galsworthy, author of The Forsyte Saga—he knew little about everyday domestic relations in Britain

25.  Writing in what to the visual arts was the age of Impressionism, and what to music was the age of impressionist music, Conrad showed himself in many of his works a prose poet of the highest order

26.  The first half of the 1900 novel Lord Jim (the Patna episode) was inspired by the real-life 1880 story of the SS Jeddah, the second part, to some extent by the life of James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak

27.  The singularity of the universe depicted in Conrad’s novels, especially compared to those of near-contemporaries like his friend and frequent benefactor John Galsworthy

28.  In 1975 the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe published an essay, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’“, which provoked controversy by calling Conrad a “thoroughgoing racist“.

29.  In 1890 he made a difficult journey to the Belgian Congo that inspired his great short novel Heart of Darkness.

30.  With his 1913 novel, Chance, Conrad finally achieved not only celebrity but also financial security.

2.     The word ‘Lagoon’ taken from the Spanish word Laguna means, a lake of salty-water parted from the sea by the low sandbanks.

3.     Joseph Conrad completed the story in 1896 and published it in Cornhill Magazine in 1897.

4.     It was later collected in Tales of Unrest which appeared in 1898.

5.     The other stories in the collection are Karain, A Memory, An Outpost of Progress, The Return, and The Idiots.

6.     Joseph Conrad later claimed, ‘It is the first short story I ever wrote’

7.     “The Lagoon” is a classic example of a Conrad tale of violence, death and potential redemption.

8.     The story is set in Southeast Asia (on the Malay Peninsula or in the Malay Archipelago) on a river flowing eastward to the ocean, on a creek flowing inland through dense forest, and at a small house on a lagoon.

9.     The action takes place in the last half of the nineteenth century after Europeans colonized southern Asia and after the Malay kingdoms of Wajo, Soping, Boni, and Si Dendring fought wars over who should succeed as rajah of Si Dendring.

10.   Joseph Conrad tells the story in omniscient third person point of view, enabling the narrator to reveal the thoughts of the characters

11.    Conrad divides the story into three main sections:

a)    The white man travels to Arsat’s dwelling and discovers that Arsat’s wife is dying. In this section, the narrator establishes the somber tone and atmosphere of the story.

b)    Through flashback, Arsat tells the story of how he eloped with Diamelen with the help of his brother and how his brother died when the rajah’s men chased them.

c)    Diamelen dies. Arsat prepares to avenge his brother’s death as the white man leaves.

12.   In “The Lagoon,” Conrad employs the device of a frame story

13.   Much like Marlow in Heart of Darkness, the white man hears first hand about the brutality of the jungle. The story itself is also comparable to Conrad’s novella in that it contains numerous symbols of darkness and light, black and white, movement and stillness, dreams and reality.

14.   This story is also significant because it was published a couple of years before Heart of Darkness, making this story one of Conrad’s first biting critiques of European colonialism

15.   The White Man is a traveller who captains a sampan propelled by Malay oarsmen. A Malay friend, Arsat, addresses him as Tuan, a title of respect meaning sir or mister.

16.   The white man is the vehicle through which we learn of Arsat’s story

17.   “We will pass the night in Arsat’s clearing. It is late.”- The white man said this to the steersman.

18.   Arsat is the protagonist, a Malay who has been living in a small house on a lagoon with his beloved, a woman named Diamelen, who was once the servant of a rajah’s wife.

19.   He uses verbal repetition (‘every tree, every leaf’) then repetition of construction with variation (‘every tendril of creeper and every petal of minute blossoms’) followed by what is almost his trademark – an abstraction qualified by ponderous nouns (‘an immobility perfect and final’).

20.  Juragan (Malay): steersman- the chief member of the crew.

21.   The canoe is given a ghostly aspect. “The carved dragon – head of its prow…” is compared to “some slim and amphibious creature, leaving the water for its lair in the forests”

22.  The “narrow creek” is still another image as the river has been to penetrate into Arsat’s mind. In the beginning, it was the river which performed this role but as the narrative proceeds, the way into Arsat’s subconscious becomes harder and harder.

23.  The creek widens, the forest recedes as soon as the white man’s canoe reaches the “lagoon”. A plausible interpretation for this fact would be that we have finally come to the place where something is going to be revealed.

24.  “The creek broadened, opening out into a wide sweep of a stagnant lagoon.” In describing the lagoon as stagnant (motionless, dead, inert; or putrid, foul, rotting), the narrator is also describing the life of Arsat and Diamelen since their arrival at their isolated forest dwelling

25.  “…proclaims that he is not afraid to live among spirits that haunt the places abandoned by mankind” and “such a man can disturb the course of fate by glances or words”

Here we are led to think that Arsat has committed some wrong deed or has something mysterious to tell by the description of his isolation, as no man would live in such a place without having a powerful reason for it.

26.  Arsat was a man of young, powerful, with broad chest and muscular arms. He had nothing but his sarong. His head was bare.

27.  the darkness of the forest symbolizes the darkness in Arsat’s heart

28.  The “river” imagery stands far away into Arsat’s mind to whom we have been introduced because nothing has happened yet: the forest is static, and the atmosphere prepares us for a sad story.

29.  The river, a way to reach his mind, his subconscious, hesitates and seeks a way out. The east, with its connotation of mystery and exoticism, is where one finds both/darkness of the subconscious life, of sin, and light for consciousness and reasoning.

30.  We can see an analogy with this trip along the river in “The Lagoon” with Classical mythology, where the river Styx separates the world of the living from the world of the dead.

31.   We enter Arsat’s but through the white man “in the dim light of then dwelling”. With this dim light imagery, the writer conveys that we are going to learn more about Arsat; that the shadows are letting in some light that clarifies how and why he went to live alone in that “ghostly” lagoon.

32.  The “lagoon” is a symbol for isolation, not only physical but also moral.

33.  The mind longs for liberation from darkness but the journey continues, and in this gloomy setting, we only hear:

“The repeated call of some bird, a cry discordant and feeble, skimmed along over the smooth water and lost itself”

34.  Mara bahia! (Malay) : O calamity!

35.  Inchi Midah: Her relationship to the Ruler is not explained, but she is evidently older than he. She may die (Arast’s brother hopes), so perhaps is a dominating mother or aunt. She may, less probably, be his mistress. Diamelen was her servant until the latter eloped with Arsat.

36.  He believes his failure to save his brother caused Diamelen’s illness and death.

37.  Their life together has been lonely, uneventful, and motionless; the fester of Arsat’s guilt has poisoned their opportunity for a contented life just as the mosquitoes from the lagoon have poisoned Diamelin’s veins with deadly disease.

38.  Arsat says, “[Y]ou have seen me in time of danger seek death as other men seek life! A writing may be lost; a lie may be written; but what the eye has seen is truth and remains in the mind!”

39.  When Diamelen dies, morning light begins to drive out the darkness of the forest, signifying a change in Arsat.

40. An eagle soars heavenward, symbolizing the rising soul of Diamelen. But, does Arsat see the eagle? No, he was in the hut with his Diamelen, still wrapped up in sorrow and superstition.

41.   Diamelen apparently dies of malaria.

42.   “There is no worse enemy and no better friend than a brother.”

43.  Arsat feels so contrite that he wants to “and a country where death is forgotten, where death is unknown”

44. “Was she not there in that canoe?” Perhaps by saying this, he tries to justify his betrayal by saying how he was in love at the time.

45.  “Three times he called–but I was not afraid of life”: It shows his fear of death.

46. Arsat betrays his brother three times, as Saint Peter has denied Jesus three times: a man who had been a brother to him, who had given his teaching and friendship to Peter. Like Peter, Arsat prefers life to death, and like Peter he repents from his deed and praises his brother’s name.

47.  Conrad sharply contrasted the brilliance of sunlight with the dumb darkness of human frustration.

48. “…seemed to enter the portals of a land from which the very memory of motion had forever departed”: Here The writer conveys that we are entering a region – Arsat’s mind – where action has stopped

49. The sense(see: eyes; hear: lips) imagery is repeated to show that, after she dies, only the conscious world will be left for him alone to face. And Arsat realizes this.

50.  “…the red brilliance of departing daylight.”-Red and Dark imagery – Life and Death – portrays, very dramatically, the parting daylight as Diamelen’s parting from life.

51.   “A plaintive murmur rose in the night, a murmur saddening and startling…”

Sounds, stirring murmurs foreshadow that Arsat is no longer to keep silence about his past.

52.  “…and the eyes of day look upon my sorrow and my shame, upon my blackened face’: His “blackened”, sinful face expresses his tormented conscience.

53.  “You went away from my country in the pursuit of your desires, which we men of the islands cannot understand”- Here, Conrad also opposes the native to the white man not only by the colour of their skin but by their reactions: the native, simple, sincere, and the white man, distant, ambitious.

54.  “The lights blazed on the water, but behind the boats there was darkness.”- The day in which the brothers are to kidnap Diamelen is all marked by red – for desire and passion – and darkness, for sin and treason imagery.

55.  “…a murmur powerful and gentle, a murmur vast and faint; the murmur of trembling leaves”- Sounds are heard and the whole nature seems as if alert to what is to happen.

56.  “I saw a low but above the black mud and a small canoe”- The adjectives emphasize Arsat’s descent to his private hell, and with the “small” canoe he will cross the “river” – entering his subconscious world of isolation from where he will only come out after Diamelen is gone – that will take him to his future “loneliness”.

57.  Sumpitan is a blow-gun made by the aborigines of Malaya from a hollowed cane, from which poisoned arrows are shot.

58.   “The sun had risen… The mist lifted …the unveiled lagoon”- The “lagoon” has lost its gloomy, weird aspect. Isolation is now over. The subconscious is set free and consciousness comes painfully back to Arsat.

59.  Arsat has killed himself in his brother: he kills what is best in him.

60. Use of alliteration:

somber and dull, stood motionless and silent on each side of the broad stream.
but her big eyes, wide open, glittered in the gloom, 
sunset put out by the swift and stealthy shadows
He flung his arms wide open, let them fall along his body, then stood still with unmoved face and stony eyes. . . .

A.    Stagnant  existence

B.     Earthly and moral isolation mixed with guilt

C.    Salty existence with guilt

D.   Death and stagnant condition

B.     Anaphora

C.    Allusion

D.   Dramatic irony  

In rhetoric, an anaphora is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.

In contrast, an epistrophe (or epiphora) is repeating words at the clauses’ ends.

Ex: “…their reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued…”

The combination of anaphora and epistrophe results in symploce.

Ex: If the argue, we will resist. If they fight, we will resist. If they invade, we will resist.

I cannot begin to love you. I cannot recommend anyone else to love you.

A.     Omniscient third-person point of view

B.    Third person point of view

C.    Second person point of view through the White Man

D.   Nota

Why does the author repeat the same word/s here?

A.    For the sake of style

B.     For the sake of emphasis

C.    For the sake of rhetoric

D.   For the sake of conveying a deeper ssense.

A.    Irony

B.     Paradox

C.    Metaphor

D.   Antithesis

[Note: Contradictory statement that may actually be true]

A.    Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.    Hyperbole

D.   Anticlimax

[Note: Comparison of darkness to an oozing liquid]

A.    Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.    Allusion

D.   Hyperbole

[Note: Comparison of the earth to a battlefield of ghosts]

A.     Malayan boat with a triangular sail and an outrigger.

B.    Palm tree

C.    Long boat

D.   Malayan bow

A.    Fever

B.     Malaria

C.    Malnutrition

Viral fever

A.     Rear position or behind the boat

B.    On the stern of the boat

C.    On the front part of the boat

D.   Archaic use of stern

A.     In one of the battles in which the British helped the Malayan people in their struggle against the Chinese

B.    In time of battle and war where Arsat might have helped the White Man’s life

C.    In the battle in which the British fought against the Rajah

D.   Nota

A.    Tuan

B.    Terence Tuan

C.    Thomas

D.    Nota

A.     In order to convey a sense of something unnatural lurking the forest in the form of Arsat’s clearing

B.    In order to prepare the readers psychologically for a cold blooded murder

C.    In order to convey a sense of unnatural setting

D.   In order to convey a sense of prey and the predator

A.     Shoaling is an increase in wave amplitude that happens.

B.    Shallow water

C.    Rotten water

D.   Darkening water

A.     Arsat lived in a kind of cursed place and might have some supernatural power to harm

B.    They had old enmity with Arsat

C.    They did not trust him

D.   They hated his way of life.

A.    For 2 days

B.    For 4 days

C.     For 5 nights

D.   For a week

A.     The darkness in Arsat’s heart

B.    A dark country full of intrigue and murder

C.    Dark foreboding in the story

D.   Dark oriental place

A.    Conrad

B.     White Man

C.    Arsat

D.   Nota

A.     Perennial fear of the oriental people about the occident

B.    Choas in the East

C.    Despotic monarchy

D.   Occidental inability to understand the orient

A.    The White Man’s cultural superiority

B.    Fear of the boatmen of the white man

C.    The white man’s courage to venture into such a land

D.    Medicine

A.     Head boatman

B.    Malayan boatmen

C.    Sailor of long boat

D.   Cook of the boat

A.    It perfectly illustrates his warmth of love

B.     It will come back as a symbolic state of night when Diamelen dies

C.    It expresses his sexual urge

D.   NOTA

A.     Arsat became mentally weak in the company of Diamelen

B.    Arsat will betray his brother

C.    Arsat will come back to avenge

D.   Arsat is selfish now

A.    His sunlight Diamelen is gone and everything is dark

B.     He has lost both his brother and Diamelen and his mind is filled with complete gloom

C.    He will take revenge

D.   He finds his guilt covering engulfing his peace

A.    He ruminates philosophically on the emptiness of life

B.     His attempt at being happy with Diamelen turned futile

C.    After the death of his brother and Diamelen the world is just an illusion

D.   His life has been a complete illusion

A.    Indian writers in English

B.    Diasporic writers

C.     Writers of the former colonies

D.   Nota

A.    The Nobel Prize

B.     Knighthood

C.    Booker

D.   Pulitzer

A.     The contrast between darkness and light

B.    The contrast between civilization and the forest

C.    The contrast between life and death

D.   The contrast between the White Man and the Malayans

man and Arsat?

A. distrustful and competitive

B. friendly and trusting

C. angry and jealous

D. unequal but respectful

A. the white man

B. Arsat

C. the steersman

D. the author

A. People cannot escape the results of their past actions.

B. Love is the greatest human need.

C. Bridging cultural differences is worth great effort.

D. People can never understand the depths of others’ love.

A. He represents European colonialism that distrusts anything eastern thereby adding a new dimension to the story by making it more apparent.

B. His presence allows Arsat to tell  his past stories

C. He is the author who might have met such a person and got the story

D. He represents civilization in a contrast to Arsat and the Malayans.

A. Arsat

B. Arsat’s brother

C. White Man

D. Nota

A. Tragic

B. Pathetic

C. Selfish

D. Coward