All page numbers reference Penguin Classics edition (isbn 0-14-043288-4) edited and with an introduction by David Lodge and notes by Patricia Crick, 1987.
It is easy to be simply frustrated by Fleda Vetch. To be frustrated by what seems her "systematic...idiotic perversity"(183).
If the apparatus of the Penguin edition I used is to be believed, the critical community has viewed Fleda with some ambivalence, seeing her as a young woman who is frightened by what she wants and at cross-purposes with her own self. She is a classic James motherless heroine, trying to forge an alliance but deeply ignorant and terrified of all matters sexual. In the introduction, Lodge mentions a number of Freudian interpretations of Fleda's actions and motivations.
Perhaps, by the end of the book, I find myself at one with Mrs. Gereth who comes to greater understanding of Fleda after long exposure, who "resigns" herself to Fleda's choices after "some practice in following queer movements prompted by queer feelings"(189). Nevertheless, its difficult not to identify with a character as compelling, brave and extraordinary as Fleda Vetch. After some practice, I'm not sure she is best or most completely explained by all the critics who see her as sexually frustrated.
In part, Fleda takes a collector's, a connoisseur's approach to her relations. And, this is not just in matters of person or physical form but in terms of their manners and morals. At the last meeting of Owen and Fleda in the book, the two acknowledge their love for one another, there is the extraordinary embrace, "he clasped her and she gave herself....something prisoned and pent, throbbed and gushed"(161). But, then, Fleda holds back and insists that Mona must release him. That Owen made her a promise and only Mona can release him from it. Perhaps its a fine moral point, but its in Fleda's nature to insist on such fine points, whether the fine points are related to a piece of furniture or to the conduct of the young man potentially in her life. In the flush of these moments of their coming to a knowledge and an understanding, Owen exclaims, "'Oh, I'm so awfully happy'"(164) and James writes, "'You'll be happy if you're perfect!' Fleda risked"(164). Owen laughs at her statement and Fleda wonders if "he saw the absurdity of her speech and that no one was happy just because no one could be what she so easily prescribed"(164).
The last sentence is filled with complicating detail. It clearly shows Fleda is attached to perfection, in people as well as furnishings. It also shows her aware of how impossible her attachment and program is, however helplessly she professes it. Yet, it may be what drives her, however inappropriate or impossible collectors' standards may be when it comes to including people in one's life. And, it complicates what drives Fleda's attachment to Mrs. Gereth which may be the most important relationship in Fleda's life.
General Notes
Fleda Vetch:
"She herself was prepared, if she should ever marry, to contribute all the cleverness, and she liked to figure it out that her husband would be a force grateful for direction"(40).
"On that flushed and huddled Sunday a great matter occurred; her little life became aware of a singular quickening"(40).
of Mrs. Gereth's son Owen: "It was clear enough, however, that the happy youth had no more sense for a motive than a deaf man for a tune; a limitation by which, after all, she could gain as well as lose"(46).
Adela Gereth: "She trod the place like a reigning queen or a proud usurper; full as it was of splendid pieces it could show in these days no ornament so effective as its menaced mistress"(63).
"...it left her occasion to marvel at the way a man was made who could care in any relation for a creature like Mona Brigstock when he had known in any relation a creature like Adela Gereth"(63).
In a fit of pique, Mrs. Gereth accuses, "it was his failure from the first to understand what it was to have a mother at all, to appreciate the beauty and the sanctity of the character. She was just his mother as his nose was his nose"(65).
"The shimmer of wrought substances spent itself in the brightness"(71).
"She thought of him perpetually and her eyes had come to rejoice in his manly magnificence more even than they rejoiced in the royal cabinets of the red saloon" (71-72).
Timeline:
Mrs. Gereth seems to accede to Owen's request and accepts a move to Ricks after visiting: "at the turn of a corridor," Fleda finds Mrs. Gereth "with the hanging hands of despair and yet with the active eyes of adventure"(70). Mrs. Gereth tells Fleda "'I'm thinking over what I had better take!'"(70).
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Nostromo and Decoud
Nostromo is a deeply flawed hero who accuses himself of betraying two people: Senorita Viola and Martin Decoud.
As to the latter, he leaves him on the Isabel with the silver and heads back to Sulaco. When he does so, he appears intent on returning or in somehow assisting Decoud. Decoud must stay on the isle given the enmity between himself and the Monterist forces (259). At the point he leaves Decoud, Nostromo is not aware that the public believes the lighter with the silver was sunk. He believes he will have to account for it. When he discovers from Monygham that the public believes the silver sunk, this knowledge changes the equation and Nostromo then seems to abandon Decoud, maybe with the idea of making the silver his own? At a minimum, once Monygham charges him with the noble, saving task of travelling to enlist Barrios and his troops, the prospect of another grand, public gesture and the acclaim it will add to his prestige and legend quickly makes him "forget" about Decoud stranded on the Isabels.
As to the latter, he leaves him on the Isabel with the silver and heads back to Sulaco. When he does so, he appears intent on returning or in somehow assisting Decoud. Decoud must stay on the isle given the enmity between himself and the Monterist forces (259). At the point he leaves Decoud, Nostromo is not aware that the public believes the lighter with the silver was sunk. He believes he will have to account for it. When he discovers from Monygham that the public believes the silver sunk, this knowledge changes the equation and Nostromo then seems to abandon Decoud, maybe with the idea of making the silver his own? At a minimum, once Monygham charges him with the noble, saving task of travelling to enlist Barrios and his troops, the prospect of another grand, public gesture and the acclaim it will add to his prestige and legend quickly makes him "forget" about Decoud stranded on the Isabels.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Nostromo: the telling of history
Conrad generally does not relate the large, historic events. He is rarely the narrator of such events. Instead, he steps aside and others tell those portions of the tales. Battles, riots, the stuff of newspapers.
Thus, he serves to tell of Barrios departure for Cayta, when the Riberist forces are battling the Montero forces for control. Dona Emilia, Martin Decoud, Antonio and sundry others see the troops off. Later, there is a meeting at the Casa Gould of the various Europeans and local political players with ties to the Riberists. After he has left, Martin returns to tell Mrs. Gould of something he has learned from Nostromo on the way home: the Riberist forces have lost (197). He tells her of his plans for an independent Occidental Republic and ask for her help, her keeping it a secret so the Silver can be brought down. She agrees with "an almost imperceptible nod of her head"( 204).
This brings us to the end of chapter 6 of The Isabels section of the book. Much occurs between the end of 6 and the start of 7, but this happens off-stage, is not presented by the narrator. We only read of it in the written account Decoud sends his sister after the events. He sends her an account of the prior two days of rioting, suppression and conniving. What apparently happens: the news of the Monterist victory gets out. Already, two moderate provincial assembly men have started to lean that way and come out in open favor. There is a great demonstration on the plaza and things get edgy. At this point Ribero himself appears, having fled across the mountains and the crowd begins to attack him. Nostromo spots the commotion and comes to his aid, spiriting him away to a boat that departs Sulaco (206).
Similarly, there is a gap in the action right after Nostromo decides to enlist in the cause of the Occident Republic and head down to Cayta to get Barrios and his troops aboard. This occurs at the close of chapter 9. With the start of Chapter 10, time has passed, the tumultuous events are in the past, and we are told of them by the pompous, ridiculous OSN Steamship Captain Mitchell.
Mitchell is a fool, "proud of his experience, penetrated by the sense of historical importance of men, events, and buildings, he talked pompously in jerky periods, with slight sweeps of his short thick arm, letting nothing 'escape the attention' of his privileged captive"(395-396). Captain Mitchell is prone to clichés and stereotypes in his self-aggrandizing telling of the events giving rise to the Occident Republic. "The phrase 'In my delicate position, as the only consular agent then in port, everything, sir, everything was a just cause for anxiety,' had its place in the more or less stereotyped relation of the 'historical event' which for the next few years was at the service of the distinguished strangers visiting Sulaco"(394).
The reader does not experience the "historical event" but is told of it. Given a choppy relation, in the past tense, as Mitchell takes a guest around town, showing him the sites. Here is where Barrios put down Pedrito Montero's troops. Here is the home of Antonia Avellanos, who Mitchell comically describes as "'the beautiful Antonia. A character, sir! An historical woman!'"(396). Here is where the miners' army confronted the Nationals, saving their boss Don Carlos. There is the former bandit Hernandez, who was enlisted in the fight back in the day, and created the legendary "Carabineers of the Campo"(399). Conrad interrupts, so to speak, to add "The programme went on relentlessly, like a law of nature"(400).
As with the self-important, Mitchell nurses grievance. Mitchell elevates his role in events. He tells his visitor how Nostromo went to Barrios in Cayta to enlist him in the Separation efforts but that he wasn't aware Nostromo was alive or so sent at the time these events occurred. As Mitchell tells it, "'I was never told; never given a hint, nothing-as if I were unworthy of confidence"(401). But, he sees Nostromo's actions as central to the events and is quick to point out that he discovered Nostromo. So, in the end, the Occidental Republic would have never happened but for him, Mitchell. "The merciless cicerone"(404), Mitchell, boasts, "'you can't get over it, Sir...the "Treasure House of the World", as The Times man calls Sulaco in his book, was saved intact for civilization-for a great future, sir'"(402).
Conrad sympathizes to the listener of Mitchell's history, "the privileged passenger....stunned and as it were annihilated maentally by a sudden surfeit of sights, sounds, names facts, and complicated information imperfectly apprehended, would listen like a tired child to a fairy tale"(404-405).
Conrad comes close to saying here is history. Here is its source. Here are its objects: nations, armies, great men. Here is its typical end-to show action in defense of "civilization." But, this history is not the center of his story. Suspicious of stories that have tidy shape, clear ends and morals, Conrad ends his story with the tragic, compelling tale of Nostromo's end, reshaping Nostromo into something other than heroic and far more fascinating.
.
Thus, he serves to tell of Barrios departure for Cayta, when the Riberist forces are battling the Montero forces for control. Dona Emilia, Martin Decoud, Antonio and sundry others see the troops off. Later, there is a meeting at the Casa Gould of the various Europeans and local political players with ties to the Riberists. After he has left, Martin returns to tell Mrs. Gould of something he has learned from Nostromo on the way home: the Riberist forces have lost (197). He tells her of his plans for an independent Occidental Republic and ask for her help, her keeping it a secret so the Silver can be brought down. She agrees with "an almost imperceptible nod of her head"( 204).
This brings us to the end of chapter 6 of The Isabels section of the book. Much occurs between the end of 6 and the start of 7, but this happens off-stage, is not presented by the narrator. We only read of it in the written account Decoud sends his sister after the events. He sends her an account of the prior two days of rioting, suppression and conniving. What apparently happens: the news of the Monterist victory gets out. Already, two moderate provincial assembly men have started to lean that way and come out in open favor. There is a great demonstration on the plaza and things get edgy. At this point Ribero himself appears, having fled across the mountains and the crowd begins to attack him. Nostromo spots the commotion and comes to his aid, spiriting him away to a boat that departs Sulaco (206).
Similarly, there is a gap in the action right after Nostromo decides to enlist in the cause of the Occident Republic and head down to Cayta to get Barrios and his troops aboard. This occurs at the close of chapter 9. With the start of Chapter 10, time has passed, the tumultuous events are in the past, and we are told of them by the pompous, ridiculous OSN Steamship Captain Mitchell.
Mitchell is a fool, "proud of his experience, penetrated by the sense of historical importance of men, events, and buildings, he talked pompously in jerky periods, with slight sweeps of his short thick arm, letting nothing 'escape the attention' of his privileged captive"(395-396). Captain Mitchell is prone to clichés and stereotypes in his self-aggrandizing telling of the events giving rise to the Occident Republic. "The phrase 'In my delicate position, as the only consular agent then in port, everything, sir, everything was a just cause for anxiety,' had its place in the more or less stereotyped relation of the 'historical event' which for the next few years was at the service of the distinguished strangers visiting Sulaco"(394).
The reader does not experience the "historical event" but is told of it. Given a choppy relation, in the past tense, as Mitchell takes a guest around town, showing him the sites. Here is where Barrios put down Pedrito Montero's troops. Here is the home of Antonia Avellanos, who Mitchell comically describes as "'the beautiful Antonia. A character, sir! An historical woman!'"(396). Here is where the miners' army confronted the Nationals, saving their boss Don Carlos. There is the former bandit Hernandez, who was enlisted in the fight back in the day, and created the legendary "Carabineers of the Campo"(399). Conrad interrupts, so to speak, to add "The programme went on relentlessly, like a law of nature"(400).
As with the self-important, Mitchell nurses grievance. Mitchell elevates his role in events. He tells his visitor how Nostromo went to Barrios in Cayta to enlist him in the Separation efforts but that he wasn't aware Nostromo was alive or so sent at the time these events occurred. As Mitchell tells it, "'I was never told; never given a hint, nothing-as if I were unworthy of confidence"(401). But, he sees Nostromo's actions as central to the events and is quick to point out that he discovered Nostromo. So, in the end, the Occidental Republic would have never happened but for him, Mitchell. "The merciless cicerone"(404), Mitchell, boasts, "'you can't get over it, Sir...the "Treasure House of the World", as The Times man calls Sulaco in his book, was saved intact for civilization-for a great future, sir'"(402).
Conrad sympathizes to the listener of Mitchell's history, "the privileged passenger....stunned and as it were annihilated maentally by a sudden surfeit of sights, sounds, names facts, and complicated information imperfectly apprehended, would listen like a tired child to a fairy tale"(404-405).
Conrad comes close to saying here is history. Here is its source. Here are its objects: nations, armies, great men. Here is its typical end-to show action in defense of "civilization." But, this history is not the center of his story. Suspicious of stories that have tidy shape, clear ends and morals, Conrad ends his story with the tragic, compelling tale of Nostromo's end, reshaping Nostromo into something other than heroic and far more fascinating.
.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Nostromo: Martin Decoud
The man who imagines the new Occidental Republic prides himself on his lack of faith in anything. He is moved by love, which is defined as "the strongest of illusions"(92) by Conrad.
The night before he and Nostromo set out in a boat with the silver, he paces the floor of the Albergo of United Italy, before the picture of Garibaldi, "the Fathful Hero [who] seemed to look dimly ....at the man with no faith in anything except the truth of his own sensations"( 209).
"In the most skeptical heart there lurks at such moments, when the chances of existence are involved, the desire to leave a correct impression of the feelings, like a light by which the action may be seen when the personality is gone, gone where no light can ever reach the truth which every death takes out of the world"(210).
Suggesting a strength latent in a profound cynicism, Decoud writes, "I have the feeling of a great solitude around he [he continued]. Is it, perhaps, because I am the only man with a definite idea in his head, in the complete collapse of every resolve, intention and hope about me?'"(210).
The night before he and Nostromo set out in a boat with the silver, he paces the floor of the Albergo of United Italy, before the picture of Garibaldi, "the Fathful Hero [who] seemed to look dimly ....at the man with no faith in anything except the truth of his own sensations"( 209).
"In the most skeptical heart there lurks at such moments, when the chances of existence are involved, the desire to leave a correct impression of the feelings, like a light by which the action may be seen when the personality is gone, gone where no light can ever reach the truth which every death takes out of the world"(210).
Suggesting a strength latent in a profound cynicism, Decoud writes, "I have the feeling of a great solitude around he [he continued]. Is it, perhaps, because I am the only man with a definite idea in his head, in the complete collapse of every resolve, intention and hope about me?'"(210).
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