Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. Vol. 1. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 24)

Tibor Tóth: Conrad's 'Secret Garden'

II The central themes underlying the novella are then centered around imminent destruction and its official version as development, and through the fictionally supported strategy of 'intellectual coma,' attempt to revive the myths acknowledging with certainty the existence of God, without ignoring the fear regarding the collapse of this myth. Myth and reality journey together to the heart of the universe to be reconciled or destroyed, because in Conrad's perception the annihilation of God's authority over the universe is not the source of its liberation, but an enormous loss. Man is not endowed with the moral strength to master the responsibility that fell back onto him in a world characterised by the disappearance of the Almighty Father. This universe, Conrad tells us, is indifferent and amoral as man has lost his privileged position in the biblical and the natural scheme and progress contradicts all its promises. There are novels in which Conrad suggests that one can, even if only for a moment, reinstate the transcendental authority of the moral order, but in most of his novels, novellas and short stories he seems to suggest that the secularisation of Western culture makes man's attempt to interpret the world around him impossible. Still, Conrad insists on the impossibility of discarding the traditional interpretation and explores man's various attempts at recreating the power of myth in a universe he feels is morally incoherent. Nowhere in Conrad's works is this duality, the compulsory presence of socio-historical reality and the character's insistence on the necessity of altering it, so clearly envisaged as in Heart of Darkness. Marlow refuses the idealisation of the appointed task at the very beginning of the story when he tells his aunt that his role is not that of an emissary of light, a lower sort of apostle. Although he reminds her that the company is run for profit, his narration is characterised by strong Biblical overtones. His urge to explore the heart of darkness seems as inexplicable as his refusal to give up the duality of his discourse when sharing his experience of the journey with us. The paradox is generated by Conrad's insistence on the idea that myth can be reinstated, even if only for a moment. Marlow is not going to experience the proximity of God in his attempt to interpret the prehistoric world he visits, and the Biblical terms obsessing him will always be strongly contrasted by a reality he cannot transcend either. He denies authority over that world on as 154