One of the profoundly evident recurring
themes of this course has been that of a moral fall-from-grace, so to
speak, that leads to men becoming corrupt monsters – both literally
and figuratively. We have read multiple works that begin with morally
upstanding and respectable characters who, throughout the course of
the story, make compromises to their character for a variety of
reasons including greed, lust, and desire for power. Upon looking at
the works of William Blake, Joseph Conrad, Thomas De Quincey, and
Robert Louis Stevenson, we may explain the motivations behind the
common literary trend of men becoming monsters in British literature.
In William Blake's Songs of
Innocence/Songs of Experience,
he explains that it is through the act of experiencing life while
growing older that mankind loses that innate state of child-like
innocence that we are born with. It is not because of one specific
life-changing tragedy that we shift into adulthood but rather through
a culmination of experimenting and failing that we become aware of
the negativity of world around us. While this alone does not
necessarily pertain to concept of man becoming something more
monstrous, a fine connection may be drawn between Blake's idea of the
fall from innocence and Thomas De Quincey's motivation to take opium
in his Confessions of an English Opium Eater. The
way that De Quincey describes the sensation of being on opium is very
much a state of child-like wonder. According to him, opium
“communicates serenity” and “gives a preternatural brightness”
to the world. This sounds like a state of bliss similar to that of a
child seeing the world through unadulterated eyes. While on the drug,
the hustle and bustle of society is grossly unattractive to De
Quincey and he cannot stand to be out in the adult world while taking
opium. It reverts him back to a state of innocence and wonder that
actually debilitates him from experiencing the world of, well,
experience. Because of this, De Quincey becomes a miserable shell of
a man unable to connect with the world around him for the sake of
pursuing the child-like state of innocence he has lost.
Additionally,
De Quincey states that opium greatly invigorates a man's sense of
self possession. He establishes that the drug increases his sense of
self-control and potential of what he is capable of accomplishing as
a man. This is an interesting contrast to Dr. Jekyll's motivation for
taking his own “drug of choice” in Robert Louis Stevenson's The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr.
Jekyll indulges on his medicine because it strips him of all moral
conscience and he feels free to do as he pleases while on it. This
side of Dr. Jekyll is known as Mr. Hyde – a coldblooded and
frightening maniac who terrorizes the public with no sense of
consequence for his actions. Dr. Jekyll's desire to escape the
formality of his profession and lifestyle is a commentary on the
stifling effect of strict social expectations in upper-class British
society. Dr. Jekyll rejoices in the freedom that comes from his
transformation into Hyde, as illustrated by the following clip from
the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Manners
and customs, taught and enforced by both the church and society, were
very much in opposition to the more primal and natural urges of man
in terms of sexual discretion and aggressive action. Class blogger
under the screen name of lago's personality coach stated it well when
he or she posted that “Maybe Dr. Jekyll was too nice - causing
frustration that had negative actions when control was lost.” While
De Quincey wished to become closer to his own personal conscience via
opium and was thus overwhelmed by the amount of insight it granted
him, Jekyll wishes the opposite and wants only to remove himself from
his own head for a while. This theme of escapism leading to
corruption and personal decay is evident in both of these works. By
surrendering moral conscience, Jekyll becomes the abomination known
as Hyde. In contrast, by inching closer and closer to the existential
core of his being by taking opium, De Quincey is hollowed out and
unable to carry on a normal life in society due to excessive
awareness of self. Jekyll discovered a way to relieve himself of the
burden of conscience and, in doing so, created a monster that
ultimately destroyed him.
Joseph
Conrad portrays men becoming monsters by motivations based not in
personal awareness or escape but rather as a result of their
environment and desire for dominance. In The Outpost of
Progress, Conrad introduces two
men named Kayerts and Carlier as upstanding and successful European
businessmen. They are assigned to an outpost in the African jungles
as representatives and agents of an ivory initiative.
As businessmen
from Europe, Kayerts and Carlier have expectations that they will be
immediately and unconditionally respected by the native population –
to whom the British colonists have traded technology and medicine
with over the previous years. As explained by class blogger Alpa
Chino, the men were under the impression that this yielded power in
their favor. “The white men wielded all of the 'power' for two
reasons:” he writes, “the first being the supplies coming from
other parts of the empire and the second was the fact that the
natives believed them to be powerful.” This delusion of power and
nobility serves as a set of blinders to the men and pushes them
further down the path of mental and moral decay. As Trudy Martinez
puts it in her essay, “An Outcast of Progress”, “Conrad makes
it apparent from the first day of their arrival that the men have no
immediate object of thought in the simple apprehension of their own
reality.” The men are in denial of their lack of authority and
consequently isolate themselves in their cabin for an extended period
of time. To them, the environment is so unruly that they are
reluctant to even attempt to establish dominance among the native
population. By isolating themselves, Kayerts and Carlier begin to go
mad and make moral compromises in the form of trading slaves for
ivory – a deal that proves to be very profitable albeit completely
illegal and against their moral codes.
 |
| The man in white on the right emphasizes the contrast between the native population and British colonists such as Kayerts and Carlier. |
Once
the men taste this slight bit of power, they begin their downward
spiral into becoming bitter and despicable. The vehicle by which the
two men become monsters is not the possession of power but their
unyielding thirst for and self-entitlement of it. In the jungle they
are left entirely to their own devices to obtain respect and, when
they are too afraid to venture out of their comfort zone afforded
them by their previous lives and company, they are driven crazy.
Rather than work with the locals and stoop down to their levels,
Kayerts and Carlier stubbornly hold on to the idea that they, as
white men, are superior. Because of this, the two men fall ill and
eventually snap under the pressure they have put themselves under. We
see their rationality and ability to reason break down as the two men
violently argue over sugar-cubes – a conflict that ends in Kayerts
shooting Carlier in cold blood. Because the men were unable to obtain
power outside of their comfort zone, they began savagely pursuing it
among one another.
The
pursuit of unattainable purity, the desire of escaping one's moral
conscience, and an insatiable thirst for dominance are all three
strong motivations that could drive a stable man to the edge and lose
himself. All three of these motifs are heavily backed by centuries of
tradition, imperialism, and ideologies present in British society. When it boils down to it, all of these men lost themselves in an attempt to control things that were not entirely meant to be controlled.
Works cited:
Martinez, Trudy A. "An Outcast of Progress by Trudy A.
Martinez: An Analysis of Joseph Conrad’s “The Outpost of Progress | Grama's
Space Bubble." Gramas Space Bubble. Bedford, 12 Dec. 2006. Web. 07 May
2013.
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