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'

quality generated by the progressive and regressive elements also identified as the erotic and the thanatic wish propelling the narrative. Most of the symbolic material through the novella remains Marlow's exclusive dominion. He is not willing to share it with anybody else. The existence of this third discourse can be supported through Conrad's perception of the role of the artist. Marlow wants to be a mythical hero who creates his world to the power of his word, but he is reduced to the status of the teller of the story. The idea of the protagonist becoming a discourse is repeatedly expressed in the novella. Marlow interprets Kurtz as discourse

4

5, and is himself seen as a discourse by the frame narrator.

4

6 Daphna Erdinast Vulcan's explanation reaches a similar conclusion, when she writes: He subverts the illusion of authority which is associated with the teller's voice, and pre-empts the notion of 'a clue' which the frame narrator anticipates of him, just as he had anticipated the darkness to be illuminated by Kurt's voice. The metaphysical vacuum, the denial of transcendental authority or 'voice', sets the scene for a modified view of the artist: no longer a mythical being, an omnipotent creator of the world, he is now seen in the Orphic role, as a hero who descends into hell, armed with a voice to enchant the furies for a 47 while, and returns empty-handed to tell his tale. But the two explicit discourses governing Heart of Darkness cannot create the meaning of the novella by themselves. Their very logic also seems to suggest the existence and even the importance of the third discourse. As light and darkness generate contrast, so do the two discourses create the third one. The third discourse looks back on 'hell' and 'heaven,' considering neither of them able to dominate the other. It is true that the heart of light is as intangible and threatening through its absence as is the heart of darkness, but the novella as a totality renews the validity they lose if interpreted separately. After all, we are face to face with an early fictional formula for a paradox convincingly interpreted by both the ancient and the modern mind. 4

5 Heart of Darkness, 113,115 4

6 Heart of Darkness, 83 4

7 Erdinast-Vulcan, Daphna: Joseph Conrad and the Modern Temper

, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, 108 176