CONRAD, WELLS, AND IDEAS REVOLUTION
Daya N. Wijaya
Dayawijaya15@yahoo.com
MA History, University of Sunderland, UK
It is believed that period of nineteenthcentury havemany changes of ideas not only coming from situation and condition of war but also people havemany inventions in term of science. There is a lot of people use their logics to understand human condition and show to the world through many works, one of them by literature. Literature tended to influence all of mind by imagination of author and also in this age, Conrad and Wells introduced common society with scientific studies and their rules to have the truth. However, they used a fiction book but the reader knows their purpose to have the rational logics. Having different ways to find rightness of things brought them to the conflict of ideas reflecting the condition of the age of ideas revolution. It was a natural condition to transform the logics of man from irrational to rational thinking. Learning from Marx, in term of dialectics, it is clearly seen that the principle of development by contrast and conflict can modernize the human way of thinking. In this age also, the war of ideas started between idealism and emprism. But, Karl (1973, p.1049) stated that it is not a new thing because the discussion existed since Plato & his student, Aristotle between the power of mind and experience.
In Literature, the rapid changes of ideas influenced the man ways of thinking to be more rational and logic. Wells’ job of “The Time Machine” and “the Island of Docor Moreau” had well described how science become a sign of changing in term that people call modernity. Childs (2000, p. 38) pointed out that the both of works brought the mood of decades to the reader because written at the end of century when societies were always discussed it. The Time Machine reflecting current issues of human development, degeneration, and depravity. Then, the Island of Doctor Moreau, asked the reader to use the critical views that science had many advantages and also disadvantages for the development of world.
In brief, the novel of Wells under the title of The Island of Doctor Moreau told the reader about someone who had a name Prendick got a shipwrecked in the ocean and Montgomery (the doctor) revived him then explained him they were on the way to unnamed island where he worked. After arrived on the Island, Prendick met Doctor Moreau who conducted a research in that place and he was really curious with his research. Hence, Moreau explains to him that he had been on the island for eleven years, striving to make a complete transformation from animal to human. Apparently, his reason for the pain was scientific curiosity. Prendick accepted the explanation as it began life on the island. One day, Moreou had a difficulty when the puma was free of his restraints and escape from the lab. Moreau pursued it, but the two end up killing each other. Montgomery fell apart, and having gotten himself quite drunk, decided to share his alcohol with the Beast Men. Prendick tended to stop him, but Montgomery threatened violence and leaved the enclosure alone with bottle in hand. Later in the night, Prendick heard a commotion outside; he rushed out, and saw that Montgomery appeared to had been involved in some scuffle with the Beast Folk. He died in front of Prendick, who was now the last remaining human on the island. He did not attempt to claim Moreau's vacant throne on the island, but he instead settled for living with the Beast Folk as he attempted to build and provision a raft with which he intended to leave the island. Luckily for him, he had a raft in the beach and leaves the next morning. He was picked up by a ship only three days later.
It is interesting to elaborate Prendick’s psychology and his reflection after returning to England. He said:
“and unnatural with my return to mankind came, instead of that confidence and sympathy I had expected, a strange enhancement of the uncertainty and dread I had experienced during my stay upon the island. No one would believe me, I was almost as queer to men as I had been to beast people.....I do not expect that the terror of that island will ever altogether leave me, at most times it lies far in the back of my mind, a mere distant cloud, a memory and a faint distrust; but there are times when the little cloud spreads until it obsecures the whole sky..... (Wells, 1974, pp. 174)”
The assertions above shows that he get a traumatic event in the island and this event exist in his mind especially in his unconscioussness. Then, his unconscious indirectly determine his behaviour and his activities. In moses and monotheism, Freud explains a lot of theories, especially latency memory, about this phenomena. He explains the neurotic stages theory and one of stages, called latency stage. The latency, which exists both in the individual and the collective, is a sort of mental period of incubation, where the traumatic event is forgotten to the conscious mind, but remains subconsciously and gains strenght, so that when it erupts, it is much more potent than it was at the time of the traumatic event. It is specially worthy of note that every memory returning from the forgotten past does so with great force, produces an incomparably strong influence on the mass of mankind, and puts forward an irresistible claim to be believed, against which all logical objections remain powerless. Beside that, Prendick also said about his views of human nature:
“......I look about me at my fellow men. And I go to fear. I see faces keen and bright, others dull or dangerous, others unsteady, insincere; none that have the calm authority of a reasonable soul. I feel as though the animal was surging up through them; that presently the degradation of the islanders will be played over again on a larger scale. I know this is an illusion, that these seeming men and women about me are indeed men and women, men and women for ever, perfectly reasonable creatures, full of human desires and tender solicitude, emancipated from instinct, and the slaves of no fantastic law-being altogether different from the beast folk....” (Wells, 1974, pp. 175).
However, the assertions show that human and animal are different things because humans are rational and animals are instinctive but Freud believes that Humans are animals with inborn biological "drives" for sex and aggression. Every person is subject to unconscious mental processes that are capable of influencing behaviour. Freud changesthe view of human nature from that of a rational being to a complex animal of primitive urges, desires and emotional preferences barely kept under control by peer pressure and the repression of society.
It can be clearly seen that Wells emphasizes on empirism using empirical evidences and experience to conclude his theme of human nature. On the contrary, Conrad uses rationalism assuming his thesis can be supported by his experiences and empirical evidences. Conrad’s work of “The Heart of Darkness” give the reader understanding of colonialism and confrontation of the civilised and savage man reflected by Marlow’s character. In brief, Heart of Darknessfollowedone man’s nightmarish journey into the interior of Africa. Aboard a British ship called the Nellie, three men listen to a man named Marlow recounted his journey into Africa as an agent for the Company, a Belgian ivory trading firm. Along the way, he witnesses brutality and hate between colonizers and the native African people, becomes entangled in a power struggle within the Company, and learned the truth about the mysterious Kurtz, a mad agent who has become both a god and a prisoner of the "native Africans." After "rescuing" Kurtz from the native African people, Marlow watches in horror as Kurtz succumbs to madness, disease, and finally death. Finally,Marlow returns to England, but the memory of his friend haunts him.
The issue of tyranny was a central theme in conrad’s work not only in private life just like Conrad’s work “Chance”, he showed that the feminism espoused by Mrs Fyne provides a mistaken solution to its threat (Hayes, p. 104) but also public life, depicted in The Heart of Darkness above, the tyranny of Roman conqueror to the world. The novel also gave illustration of colonialism in Congo from the journey of Marlow and alongside it; he had inner conflict between employee of the company and the feeling of humanity. As known that manifestation of colonialism was present in military control, administration, the establishing of lines of communication (railways), the exploitation of a native labour force to produce the country’s natural resources. In the final point of producing natural resources, colonial governed corruptly and always used one of brutal physical control: detribalization was not only a removal of natives from their normal environment and habitual social groupings and practices but also the imposition of an alien language and transformation of indigenous cultural practices and rituals through the introduction of European Culture (Fothergill, 1989, P.40), it is called tyranny in term of colonialism.
Marlow is the central man in Heart of Darkness because Conrad tends to emphasize his ideas to the character. It is interesting to elaborate the psychology of Marlow in the novel, why he has inner conflict while he accepts to do the job. He said:
“....and presently he said, very slow—‘I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…. Light came out of this river since—you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine—what d’ye call ‘em?—trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries—a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been, too—used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read. Imagine him here—the very end of the world, a sea the colour of lead, a sky the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina— and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sand-banks, marshes, forests, savages,—precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink....” (Conrad, pp.8-9)
It is clearly seen that he (and his society) has a repressed memory of Romans colonialism and held his unconciouss, continuing to influence his consciousnees. According to Freud having the views of human mind, believed that the majority of what people experience in the lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level. He believed that most of what drives (instinct or wishes) them is buried in our unconscious. If people remember the “Oedipus and Electra Complex”, they were both pushed down into the unconscious, out of our awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused. While buried there, however, they continue to impact them dramatically. The role of the unconscious is only one part of the model. Freud also believed that everything people are aware of is stored in the consciouss. The final part is the preconscious or subconscious. This is the part of us that people can access if prompted, but is not in our active conscious. It’s right below the surface, but still buried somewhat unless we search for it. Information such as our telephone number, some childhood memories, or the name of your best childhood friend is stored in the preconscious. (Boeree, 2006, pp.5-6).
Commonly, people use iceberg analogy to illustrate Freud's structure of the human mind. The mind is likened to an iceberg, only the tip of an iceberg, or the mind, is visible. This is our conscious, or awareness. Just under the water line is our preconscious or dream state. The vast bulk of the iceberg or mind is hidden from view. We are unaware of it. This is our unconscious. Our unconscious contains our instincts, passions and fears. It is where long-forgotten memories of personality-forming experiences are held. Often parts of an iceberg break off and float to the surface. Likewise Freud thought bits of our unconscious could break off, and float to the surface of our conscious awareness in terms of neuroses.
The best sample of the concept above as depicted byFreud, in his work ‘Moses and Monotheism’, gives the reader great analysis of relations between Judaism and Christianity in Europe also Jews and German in particular. Judaism is the root of monotheism and the figure of Moses is central. He argues that there are two Moses, one is Egyptian because the word “Mose” means children in ancient Egyptian and Egytian Moses intruduced circumcision (rite) to Jews as a mark of holiness. The other is a Midianite who introduced the Jews “Yahweh” means the god. So Judaism is fusion of ancient Egyptian god and “Yahweh”. One day, Jews killed the Egyptian Moses and refused to acknowledge that they had done to do it. This killing of father figure was a traumatic event which continued to influence the Jews unconsciously. The Jews produced an attempt to handle this repressed memory by developing christianity (originally Judaism). In this stage, the son (christianity) tended to offer his father to assuage the guilt (murder of Egyptian Moses). But, Jews turned to against christianity and killed the founder of christianity. The Jews were subjected to pogrom in this period of European History. Hence, Nazism tried to awake his nation to be Supermen and they believe there are no race better than German. They really hated Jews because they had a glamorous live and reacted jealous feeling and anti-semitism for them. Finally, they decided to kill a lot of Jews (Bocock, 1983, pp.110)
Based on Freud explanation through learning religious narratives of Moses and relations of Judaism and Christianity, people can understand human condition and the causing factors of the present events. Freud also uses his critically thinking of Torah or Bible in order to be trapped of misunderstanding because some assertions of the holy book having many ambiguities. Hence, literary work shows people the zeitgeist or soul of age from society in form of words and naturally this work coming from author’s reflection or author’s imagination. Both of them can equip each other to make people have comprehensive understanding.
References
1. Bocock, R., ‘Sigmund Freud’ (Sussex: Ellis Horwood Ltd,1983)
2. Boeree, C., ‘Personalities Theory’ available at http://www.ship.edu/%7Ecgboeree/ perscontents. html (2006)
3. Child, P., ‘Modernism’ (London: Routlegde, 2000)
5. Fothergill, A., ‘Heart of Darkness’ (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1989)
6. Hayes, P., ‘Conrad, Male Tyranny and The Idealization of Women’, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 28 (1997) pp. 97-117, available at http://ariel. synergiesprairies.ca/article/download.3047-3044-1PB.PDF
7. Karl, FR., ‘Conrad, Wells, and The Two Voice’, PMLA 88 (1973) pp. 1049-1065, available at http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/461639
8. Stenudd, S., ‘Freud’s Moses and Monotheism’ available at http://www.stenudd.com/myth /freudjung/freud-mosesmonotheism.html.
9. Wells, HG., ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ (London: Heinemann, 1974)
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