Review - Heroic Quest

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1 Joseph Conrad born 1857 Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in the Ukraine Polish parents family was exiled to Volgada due to father s involvement with nationalist insurrection in 1863 mother died when Conrad was 7 father introduced him to works of Charles Dickens, James Fennimore Cooper and Captain Frederick Marryat (sea and historical novels for children); read in Polish and French father returned to Poland and died of TB 4 years later Conrad went to Marseilles in 1874 and was a sailor for 20 years 1878 served on English ships and learned English; eventually became a first mate sailed to West Indies, Constantinople, Sydney and ran guns for Spanish British subject in first novel, Almayer s Folly 1896 married Jessie George 1897 The Nigger of the Narcissus 1

2 Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness after piloting a steamer up river in the Congo in the summer of 1890 Part of his task was to carry a sick agent of King Leopold s Company Agent died en route When he wrote Heart of Darkness, it was first published as a serial in Blackwood s Magazine in 1899, before coming out as a complete text in pub in Youth: A Narrative 1900 Lord Jim 1901 The Inheritors with Ford Madox Ford 1903 Typhoon; Romance with Ford Madox Ford Nostromo 1907 The Secret Agent 1910 The Secret Sharer 1911 Under Western Eyes made little money but received critical praise 1913 Chance began period of financial success 1915 Victory 1919 The Arrow of Gold 1920 The Rescue 1923 The Rover interest in moral issues, personal psychology and selfawareness, isolation, imperialism 2

3 Review - Heroic Quest Involves an aristocratic warrior Male May seem to be of humble beginnings, but has innate qualities and skills part of quest may involve discovering his real parentage and true origins May initially resist the call to adventure undertakes goal oriented-activity (eg. Slay the dragon and recover the treasure) may share spoils with loyal retainers Traditionally, the role of women in the quest is limited, although not unimportant The heroic male figure leaves home and mom Women, when they appear, typically function as the object of the quest (marriage) Seldom subjects in their own right 3

4 From Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973) 245; Princeton University Press Campbell s diagram is a model Like a basic car without the extras Writers add flourishes, make changes and play with the basic model Skill comes in ways that the model is manipulated and defies expectations May not see all the stages laid out by Campbell May see events occurring in slightly different order 4

5 Summary of Class Discussion- Star Wars as example of Heroic Quest Heroic Figure: Luke Skywalker lives in humble circumstances in obscure location Jedi heritage (warrior) is unknown to him Has native talent (aristocratic background) + skills developed outside the academy Looking for adventure 5

6 Call to Adventure Finds Old Ben and sees the message from Princess Leia: Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi Obi-Wan reveals Luke s parentage (father fought against Darth Vader) and asks Luke to join him in trip to planet Alderon Luke s response: I can t get involved (ie. resists the call ) Eventually turns to Obi-Wan after death of his aunt and uncle Becomes Obi-Wan s apprentice; Obi-Wan instructs him in the way of the Jedi Luke is assisted by C3PO Threshold Journey Descent to the Underworld Obi-Wan, Luke and Droids go to Space Station Searching for a pilot and a ship Place of scum and villainy Unfamiliar surroundings; normal rules fail to apply Hero loses his bearings Obi-Wan s powers are revealed Flee into Space 6

7 Acquire additional helpers: Hans Solo, whose commitment to the objective is mercenary, and Chewbacca Original goal is immediately thwarted because Alderon has been blown up by the Empire Tested in various ways: Obi-Wan is weakened by deaths in Alderon, encounter Imperial warriors with superior fire power, separated from Obi-Wan, get trapped in trash compactor Find Princess Leia the elixir, the Holy Grail? Unlike typical quest, where woman are relegated to object of the quest or don t appear, the Princess is a subject in her own right Strong willed; leader of Rebel forces Verbal Takes charge Power struggle with Hans Solo Still expect outcome of marriage, but identity of groom is uncertain 7

8 See apotheosis of Obi-Wan dissolves and we are left with his voice: Feel the force, Luke Escape the Death Star with cunning and skill Luke is able to destroy the Death Star with Hans covering him Reveals Luke s innate abilities (Jedi heritage) coupled with his piloting skills honed on the farm Twists: Final scene suggests marriage at first glance, but with grooms walking down the aisle to bride waiting in white with flowers Audience is wondering, which guy gets the girl? Both? But it turns out to be a ceremony to honour the heroism of Luke and Hans Leia is restored to her rightful position as leader; character is not restricted to the wife of the hero 8

9 The Grail Legend Special case of the quest Wounded Fisher King; lack of leadership land is sterile; Waste Land; community is starving, drought or in chaos heroic knight must recover the Holy Grail but knight has no knowledge of nature of quest Weston describes the Grail hero as one who sets out on his journey with no clear idea of the task before him. He is taking the place of a knight mysteriously slain in his company, but whither he rides, and why, he does not know, only that the business is important and pressing (12). Must ask, What is the Holy Grail? grail is released to him and knight returns to community King is healed and fertility and wholeness is restored to the land 9

10 In mythic terms, see that both a male and a female principle for restore fertility Weston identified the male and female aspects of the lance and grail, respectively Two elements or aspects of the quest narrative Lance Masculine principle is goal-oriented Operates in linear or sequential time Can both wound and heal Grail (chalice) Feminine principle Process oriented Cyclical time (i.e. of the moon, the seasons) Both womb of birth and tomb of death; earth that gives birth to life and draws all life back into herself 10

11 Heart of Darkness First paragraphs of Heart of Darkness suggest a quest motif The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever but in the august light of abiding memories. Ad indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, followed the sea with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames. The tidal current runs to and fro in its increasing service crowded with memories of men and ships it has borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. It had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled the great knights-errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind returning with her round flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the Queen s Highness and thus pass out of the gigantic tale, to the Erebus and Terror, bound on other conquests -- and that never returned. It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith the men on Change; Captains, Admirals, the dark interlopers of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned Generals of East India fleets. Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth?... (ellipses in text) The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires. The sun set; the dusk fell on the stream, and the lights began to appear along the shore (4-5). 11

12 Cyclical time: Diurnal: end of day Lunar time: changing tide Timelessness: great spirit of the past Evokes heroic figures, who were knights Names ships and captains of exploratory sea journeys Higher purpose, bears of the spark from the sacred fire - suggest mythic realm British imperialism Conquest The sword Thames river carrying light and civilization from England to the rest of the empire Sequential time: History as inevitable progress But returning tide now only brings august light of abiding memories of greatness Where once it was said that the sun never set on the English empire, here, The sun set 12

13 Heroic quest Perhaps sense of failure. Marlow as anachronism; the only man of us who still followed the sea (5). Marlow says, 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 legionnaires 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 banks, marshes, forests, savages, precious little to eat fit for a civilised man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and 13

14 there a military camp lost in a wilderness like a needle in a bundle of hay cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush. They must have been dying like flies here. Oh yes he did it. Did it very well too, no doubt, and without thinking much about it either, except afterwards to brag of what he had gone through in his time, perhaps. They were men enough to face the darkness. And perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a chance of promotion to the fleet at Ravenna, by and by, if he had good friends in Rome and survived the awful climate. Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga perhaps too much dice, you know coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even to mend his fortunes. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery. The utter savagery had closed round him all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men (5-6). Sets up analogy between Rome conquering the British Isles and later English imperialism Difficulty of the endeavour: dying like flies here They were men enough to face the darkness reference also to darkness of the title Suggest further analogy between England and jungle, with awful climate, a swamp a savage place, with all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men (5-6). British Isles as once barbaric, uncivilized 14

15 They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it, not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. (ellipses in text) (7) But shift here no more noble knights, but brute force, theft of resources robbery with violence recognition of quest as literalized; perverted for material gain What redeems it is the idea only. and an unselfish belief in the idea 15