Humanity in J. Conrad's and W. Somerset's creativity

Clearly Jim’s high-mindedness and character are problematic, and his scale of human values is excessively romantic. Thus heromanticizes what it means to be a sailor, what duty is, even what cowardice is. The fact is that he is too "noble" to accommodate real-life situations. In essence, then, Jim violates what the ancient Greeks revered as the "law of measure." And ultimately his pride, his lofty conception of what is required of him in responsible leadership and duty, his high idealism, mar the supreme Hellenic virtue of sophrosyne-. Jim’s conduct dramatizes to an "unsafe" degree the extremes of arrogance, and of self-delusion and self-assertion. Above all his idealism becomes a peculiar kind of escape from the paradoxes and antinomies that have to be faced in what Burke calls the "antagonist world."

In the end, Jim’s habit of detachment and abstraction manifestly rarefies his moral sense and diminishes and even neutralizes the moral meaning of his decisions and actions. His self-proclaimed autonomy dramatizes monomania and egoism, and makes him incapable of harmonious human interrelations, let alone a redeeming humility. His moral sense is consequently incomplete as a paradigm, and his moral virtues are finite. And his fate, as it is defined and shaped by his tragic flaw, does not attain true grandeur. In Jim, it can be said, Conrad presents heroism with all its limitations [14, 147].

Despite the circumstances of his moral incompleteness, Jim both possesses and enacts the quality of endurance in facing the darkness in himself and in the world around him. Even when he yearns to conceal himself in some forgotten corner of the universe, there to separate himself from other imperfect or fallen humans, from thieves and renegades, and from the harsh exigencies of existence, he also knows that unconditional separation is not attainable. He persists, however erratically or skeptically, in his pursuit to reconcile the order of the community and the order of the soul; and he perseveres in his belief in the axiomatic principles of honor, of loyalty, prescribing the need to transcend inner and outer moral squalor. His death, even if it shows the power of violence, of the evil that stalks man and humanity, of the flaws and foibles that afflict one’s self, does not diminish the abiding example of Jim’s struggle to discover and to overcome moral lapses.

Jim can never silence the indwelling moral sense which inspires and illuminates his life-journey. Throughout this journey the virtue of endurance does not abandon him, does not betray him, even when he betrays himself and others. He endures in order to prevail. In Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad portrays a fitful but ascendant process of transfiguration in the life of a solitary hero whose courage of endurance contains the seeds of redemption. Such a life recalls the eternal promise of the Evangelist’s words: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved."

The major character of the novel, Philip, spends most of his life in two places, which become the dominant settings for the book. From the time he becomes aware of the world around him until his adolescence, Philip is found in Blackstable and its neighboring town of Tercanbury. Even after he goes abroad to study, he keeps coming beck to Blackstable during the holidays and whenever he feels the need for a change.

In the process of establishing his identity, Philip visits London twice and spends the major part of his mature years in that city. Returning back from Heidelberg, he goes to London to become a clerk in the company of Chartered Accountants. When he realizes he has no aptitude for accounting, he returns……

Philip Carey - an orphan with a clubfoot. He is the protagonist of the novel whose story Maugham traces from age nine to thirty.

William Carey - the uncle of Philip and the vicar of Blackstable. He is self-centered and rigid in his views.

Mildred Rogers - Philip’s antagonist on one level. Selfish, shallow, and flirtatious, she successfully lures Philip with her charms.

Thorpe Athelny - a boisterous journalist. He is a loving family man who becomes Philip’s friend, philosopher, and guide.

Mrs. Carey - the kind and gentle wife of the vicar. She loves Philip and helps him fulfil his desires.

Mr. Perkins - one of Philip’s well-wishers. He is the scholarly headmaster of King’s School.

The novel is the story of Philip Carey. The story opens with his mother dying after childbirth. The nine-year-old Philip is taken by his uncle to Blackstable. After spending a few initial years at the Vicarage, the boy is admitted to King’s School at Tercanbury. Having a clubfoot, he is ostracized and becomes introverted, but his intelligence and his aptitude for studies help him academically. Unable to bear the humiliation and taunts of his fellow students and the rigid norms of school, he finally quits and goes to Germany. In Germany, Philip learns new languages, is introduced to philosophy, and discovers the beauty of nature. His stay in Heidelberg expands his vision of humanity and life. He graduates and starts planning his future.

After talking to his uncle, Philip decides to go to London to become a clerk; however, he discovers after a few months that he is more inclined toward art than accounting. Taking financial aid from his aunt, he leaves for Paris to study. The city gives him an insight into the world of artists and their struggle to exhibit their talent. At the end of two years, he also discovers that he lacks the potential to be a great artist. As a result, he leaves Paris and returns back to Blackstable.

Philip decides to take up his father’s profession of medicine and enrolls as a student in St. Luke’s hospital. He does not, however, pursue his goal in earnest because of a waitress named Mildred [8, 121].

The major theme of the novel is that the submission to passion is human bondage, while the exercise of reason is human liberty. Philip Carey loves Mildred passionately and, in trying to possess her, traps himself in her bondage. His freedom is curbed, his education is disrupted, and his fortune is lost. All his reasoning, power, and intelligence are eradicated by his passion for Mildred.

There are several minor themes in the novel. The first is that inappropriate love can be destructive. In spite of her many weaknesses, Philip loves Mildred and showers his affection and money on her. He even sacrifices his education and limited resources to please her. In the process, Philip wastes the important years of his life following a woman who is not deserving of his love. It is definitely a destructive relationship for Philip, one that keeps him in bondage [8, 128].

The mood of the novel is serious, but not gloomy. Maugham, with irony and cynicism, presents the struggle of a lonely protagonist and the turmoil in his mind.

William Somerset Maugham, the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Maugham, was born in Paris, France on January 25, 1874. At the time of his birth, his father was working as a lawyer for the British Embassy in Paris. In 1882, his mother died of tuberculosis. His three brothers went to study in London, and William was sent to a clergyman attached to the British Embassy. When his father died two years later, there was no one to look after him in Paris. As a result, h e was sent to Kent to live with his uncle, Henry Maugham. Since his uncle and aunt were childless, they found it difficult to care for him. William, at the age of ten, was a lonely and unhappy child. His life at King’s School in Canterbury was no better. Frail and sensitive, he felt isolated from the other boys because of his stammer.

Maugham was smart, but the rigid school discipline and the taunts of his classmates made him leave school before he could complete his education. He left for Germany with the help of his uncle.

Of Human Bondage is semi-autobiographical. In it Maugham reveals his childhood, his student days in Heidelberg and London, and his philosophy of life. It was not, however, his first autobiographical attempt. In the Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey, Maugham retold much of his first twenty-four years of life. The protagonist, however, was sent to Rouen instead of Heidelberg and studied music instead of painting. The novel did not come up to Maugham’s expectations and was not published. [10, 183]

The novel opens with the scene of a dying woman attended by a doctor and the nurses. She has just delivered a stillborn child, and her condition is critical. At her request, the nurse brings her first-born child, Philip, to her bedside. Mrs. Carey caresses him, tenderly touches his feet, and bursts into tears. The doctor advises her to rest, and the boy is taken away by the nurse to his godmother, Miss Wilkens. Shortly afterwards, the woman dies.

Philip is brought back home to meet his uncle, William Carey, the brother of Philip’s father and the vicar of Blackstable. The Vicar informs the boy that he would be accompanying him to Blackstable to live there. Even though William Carey and his wife are kind and childless, the prospect of having a boy under their roof does not really delight them. Their means are limited, and Philip’s father had left behind only 2000 pounds for the boy, which had to last him until he was old enough to earn his own living.

Philip, though disturbed by the thought of leaving his home, is reconciled to the situation. As a mark of remembrance, he picks up his mother’s favorite clock, visits his mother’s room, and prepares to depart. As he journeys with his uncle to Blackstable, he forgets his sorrows and enjoys the countryside scenery. When they reach Blackstable, everything about the place and its people seems strange to Philip.

In these opening chapters, Maugham conveys the poignancy of Philip’s situation through clear descriptions and short conversations. It is a touching scene when his mother calls him to her bedside before she dies. They obviously had a close relationship, as evidenced by her tender touches, by his taking her favorite clock as a remembrance, and by his trying to feel her presence left in her room. Because Philip has a clubfoot, she has probably been particularly gentle and patient with her first-born son [10, 187].

The loss of his mother and her baby are made all the more tragic when Philip finds out he must leave home. Because he is now an orphan at the age of nine, he must go to live with his uncle, William Carey, and his wife in Blackstable; unfortunately, they are not particularly pleased about raising the child, and Philip is not pleased about going. He does not want to leave his home and the memories of his mother. He goes into her room to vent his emotions. Hiding his face in her clothes, he tries to breathe her into his being by touching and smelling the things that belonged to her. In these first chapters, Maugham does an outstanding job of presenting Philip as a sensitive and intelligent child who craves affection and sympathy.

Philip shows his innocence when he looks with curiosity at all the sights on his way to Blackstable; he is struck with wonder at the vision and temporarily forgets his sorrow and loneliness. He is almost eager to see a new place. After all, as a handicapped child he has been closely watched and protected. He has not experienced much of the world.

At Blackstable, Philip finds the ways of his uncle and aunt quite different. Although they are kind, he is not comfortable with them, and they feel strange with a child in the vicarage. Philip watches in amazement as his uncle offers him only the top portion of a boiled egg at tea, when he craves the whole thing. In spite of such peculiar habits, Philip learns to adjust to his surroundings and tries to please his guardians. It is important to notice several things in these opening chapters. Although Philip’s clubfoot is not made an issue here, it is mentioned because it becomes more important later in the novel. The interest in money is also presented. The Careys are not well off, and they worry that the 2,000 pounds (equivalent to about $10,000 at the time of the novel) will not be enough to provide for Philip until he is on his own. A concern about money will be seen throughout the book, for Philip will have and lose a fortune. Finally, the British tradition of tea is presented and will be seen frequently throughout the novel.

The plot of Of Human Bondage traces the story of one man’s struggle for survival in a cruel world. Most of the action is mental, as the protagonist tries to conquer his passion and replace it with reason. There is a great deal of introductory material to establish Philip’s background and philosophies. It is not until the book is almost half over that the antagonist, Mildred, is introduced. The rising action of the plot is then one misadventure with Mildred after another.

The dominant theme in the novel is human bondage. Throughout life, Philip experiences bondage to different things, and the novel is his fight to find freedom from the bondage. Philip is born with a physical deformity that causes him to suffer humiliation and isolation. His clubfoot becomes a bondage to him throughout the book. It curbs his physical activity in school and makes him the object of criticism.

Of Human Bondage is a novel of adolescence, initiation, passage into adulthood,… the traditional bildungsroman, fashionable in the first half of the XXth century. It soon established itself as a classic and became a favorite of many readers in their twenties, mostly men.

Of Human Bondage introduces the hero, Philip Carey, at eight years old, as he becomes an orphan when his mother dies, soon after giving birth to a stillborn child. Philip is sent to be raised by his uncle and aunt, sixty miles from London. His uncle, a vicar, is self-centered and thinks only about fulfilling his appetites and attracting people to his church. His aunt cares for him but is very awkward at showing her feelings, as she never had any children of her own.

Philip is afflicted by a handicap: a clubfoot that makes him a scapegoat in the boarding-school where he studies until he is old enough to be ordained and follow in the steps of his uncle. But Philip, growing up, develops different ambitions…

He first realizes that the almighty God who can move mountains can’t or won’t cure his clubfoot, despite his ardent prayers. Little by little, he looses his faith and starts to turn to philosophy to understand the world. Along the way, he meets people who, with their perspectives on life, make him think differently; he progressively builds his own personality. Before graduating from school, he decides that he will not go to Oxford, despite the fact that he is clever and hard-working enough to earn a scholarship: instead, he decides to spend some time in Germany.

He starts to wonder about love and gets romantic ideas and ideals, first by observing couples and then by a first-hand experience with an older woman, a friend of his aunt and uncle. But his frustration grows, when he realizes that he has not experienced love as it is described in the numerous novels he likes to read [9, 96].

Training for some months as an accountant in London, he understands that this is not what he is meant to do and, since he can draw, sets his mind on becoming an artist and goes to Paris to learn the craft. The part of the book set in Montmartre reminds strongly of Zola’s The Masterpiece. Sensing and having been confirmed that he has no real talent, he gives up la vie de bohême after a while and returns to London to study medicine. Surprisingly, he shows real compassion to his patients and finally succeeds in the profession that he chose as the last resort.

But the turning-point of the book, from which the title derives, is his passionate and destructive relationship with Mildred, a waitress whom he finds common, vulgar, stupid and anemic, but whom he is desperately attracted to, against reason and his best interest. Because of this attraction, he will compromise his studies, loose his money and almost his sanity.

Of Human Bondage certainly appeals most to readers between fifteen and twenty, at the age when one spends hours philosophizing about love, arts and the meaning of life (later we turn to the Monthy Python to understand the meaning of life!)… The ideas discussed by Philip and his friends probably sound familiar to many readers, which explains why so many people are drawn to this book. I probably would have enjoyed it more a decade ago…

The main themes developed in the book are of course the passage into adulthood, the opposition between passion and reason, bondage and freedom, and we see that even if Philip is completely aware of being used and ridiculed by Mildred, he cannot get away from her… Other minor themes treated along the way are art (how does one define a piece of art? does art reproduce reality or is reality defined by the painter who gives to see?), religion (must a man abide by the law if he doesn’t believe in God, knowing that the conception of good and evil is based on Judeo-Christianism?), etc.

Of Human Bondage is largely autobiographical. Somerset Maugham started of as a doctor before becoming a novel writer, a successful play writer, and again a novelist. His mother passed away when he was eight, a very traumatic experience in his life, and he was raised, like Philip, by his vicar uncle. He didn’t have a clubfoot, but was stammering. Critics have pointed out that the clubfoot however didn’t symbolize his stammer, but his homosexuality, that was considered a handicap back then. They also argue that Mildred’s description corresponds to a very androgynous woman (flat chest, thin lips, etc.). Somerset Maugham is not the first author to describe a heroine in ambiguous terms. After all, Marcel Proust’s model for Albertine was probably a man and Poe’s Ligeia has masculine physical features (for a different reason though: Poe couldn’t conceive an actual woman clever and learned like his Ligeia is supposed to be: that is what happens when one marries his thirteen-years-old tuberculous cousin!). Since I like to get unprejudiced ideas on the books I discover, I only read the preface afterwards and I had gotten a hint that Somerset Maugham was homosexual, not through the description of Mildred though, but rather, when he describes the relationships he shares with his male friends (Philip is jealous, exclusive, enjoys to be mothered by a friend while he is sick in bed): it had seemed to me pretty obvious then…

Conclusion to part II

Lord Jim (1900), Joseph Conrad’s fourth novel, is the story of a ship which collides with "a floating derelict" and will doubtlessly "go down at any moment" during a "silent black squall."

This novel, from beginning to end, is the story of Jim; throughout the focus is on his life and character, on what he has done, or A story not done, on his crime and punishment, his failure of nerve as a seaman. It is, as well, the story of his predicament and his fate, the destiny of his soul—of high expectations and the great "chance missed," of "wasted opportunity" and "what he had failed to ob- pretence stain," all the result of leaving his post, and abdicating his responsibility.

From a moral perspective the Official Court of Inquiry literally takes place throughout Lord Jim. Jim never ceases to react to charges of cowardice and of irresponsibility; never ceases to strive earnestly to prove his moral worthiness. He seems never to be in a state of repose, is always under pressure, always examining his tensive state of mind and soul.

Jim’s moral sense weighs heavily on him and drives him on sundry, sometimes contradictory, lines of moral awareness and behavior. In this respect he brings to mind the relevance of Edmund Burke’s words: "The lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of mathematics.

The major theme of the novel is that the submission to passion is human bondage, while the exercise of reason is human liberty. Philip Carey loves Mildred passionately and, in trying to possess her, traps himself in her bondage. His freedom is curbed, his education is disrupted, and his fortune is lost. All his reasoning, power, and intelligence are eradicated by his passion for Mildred.

There are several minor themes in the novel. The first is that inappropriate love can be destructive. In spite of her many weaknesses, Philip loves Mildred and showers his affection and money on her. He even sacrifices his education and limited resources to please her. In the process, Philip wastes the important years of his life following a woman who is not deserving of his love. It is definitely a destructive relationship for Philip, one that keeps him in bondage.

The major theme of the novel is that the submission to passion is human bondage, while the exercise of reason is human liberty. Philip Carey loves Mildred passionately and, in trying to possess her, traps himself in her bondage. His freedom is curbed, his education is disrupted, and his fortune is lost. All his reasoning, power, and intelligence are eradicated by his passion for Mildred.

There are several minor themes in the novel. The first is that inappropriate love can be destructive. In spite of her many weaknesses, Philip loves Mildred and showers his affection and money on her. He even sacrifices his education and limited resources to please her. In the process, Philip wastes the important years of his life following a woman who is not deserving of his love. It is definitely a destructive relationship for Philip, one that keeps him in bondage.

GENERAL CONCLUSION

On the basis of above-stated we came to a conclusion, that Literature in 20th century begins with a serie of movements, some of them contradictory between them, as Symbolism, Decadentism, Impressionism and, in Hispanic literature, Modernism, The Generation of '98.

During the two first decades , two literary conceptions are imposed to writers: Those writers for whom literary work is the expression of a cultural experience and fall in intellectualism; and writers who, in view of the chaos of the time and the dissatisfaction of bourgeois world, see literary work as an adventure, as an irrational experience.

In the thirties, some historic and socioeconomic facts, affected literature. It will express the search, through the action, of ethical values.

After the World War, writers will insist in the same attitudes: moral crisis and technical experimentation.

From a moral perspective the Official Court of Inquiry literally takes place throughout Lord Jim. Jim never ceases to react to charges of cowardice and of irresponsibility; never ceases to strive earnestly to prove his moral worthiness. He seems never to be in a state of repose, is always under pressure, always examining his tensive state of mind and soul. Self-illumination rather than self-justification, or even self-rehabilitation, is his central aim, and he knows, too, that such a process molds his own efforts and pain. He neither expects nor accepts help or absolution from others, nor does he blame others for his own sins of commission or omission. His character is thus one of singular transparency, acutely self-conscious, and vulnerable.

Jim can never silence the indwelling moral sense which inspires and illuminates his life-journey. Throughout this journey the virtue of endurance does not abandon him, does not betray him, even when he betrays himself and others. He endures in order to prevail. In Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad portrays a fitful but ascendant process of transfiguration in the life of a solitary hero whose courage of endurance contains the seeds of redemption. Such a life recalls the eternal promise of the Evangelist’s words: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved."

Of Human Bondage is a novel of adolescence, initiation, passage into adulthood, the traditional bildungsroman, fashionable in the first half of the XX-th century. It soon established itself as a classic and became a favorite of many readers in their twenties, mostly men.

Of Human Bondage is largely autobiographical. Somerset Maugham started of as a doctor before becoming a novel writer, a successful play writer, and again a novelist.

According to our aim and hypothesis of investigation, in our work we proved the reflection of problems of human morality and relationships on the example of W. Summerset’s and J. Conrad’s creativity.

We solved such tasks as:

- to research the main representatives of the prose writing in the first half of the

twentieth century;

- to investigate the similarity and difference of themes and genres of the leading

literature representatives;

- to research The problem of humanity in the work as a leading Inclination of

W. Somerset and J. Conrad.

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