THE TREATMENT OF THE THEME OF

GUILT IN TWENTIETH CENTURY

LITERATURE:
Analyzed through Conrad’s Lord Jim and
O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night

SUBMITTED BY

TO

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

A DISSERTATION IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF

MASTER’S DEGREE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

August 2003

I certify that all the material in this dissertation borrowed from other
sources, has been identified and that no material is included for which a
degree has previously been conferred upon anybody. __ ^

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 THE TREATMENT OF THE THEME OF
GUILT IN TWENTIETH CENTURY
LITERATURE:
Analyzed through Conrad’s Lord Jim and
O’Neill’s Long Day*s Journey into Night

,C >

SUBMITTED BY

TO

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

LITERATURE

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

ISLAMABAD

August 2003
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 CONTENTS
Page
No.

Acknowledgements i

Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1
The Theme of Guilt in the Twentieth Century Lit«-ature 3

CHAPTER 2
The Theme of GnWim Lord Jim

CHAPTER 3
30
The Theme of Guilt in Long Day*s Journey into Night

Conclusion

Bibliography
 Acknowledgements

My humblest gratitude is to Allah Almighty Who endowed us with knowledge. Without

His benediction, I could not have been able to accomplish this task.

Words cannot speak of my gratitude and elevated feelings for my parents and my eldest
brother who enabled me to make progress in my academic and social life.

I am highly indebted to my supervisor. Professor A. Raoof Jamal who led me safely

through the labyrinthine paths o f research work. Without his generous guidance, support
and favour, it would not have been possible for me to solve the enigmas of the
dissertation.

I would reckon my thesis wanting, had I blinked at naming my cousin Ijaz Khalid whose
invigorating efforts, sincerity, and indulgence have brought the completion of this
strenuous undertaking.

I cannot be oblivious o f my Mends Usman Ghani, Minhaj ud din, Naeem ur Rehman,

Ubaidullah, Rehan Ali and T.M Woodman who have been quite helpful in the collection
of data and books.

During this period I have never been without the moral support and cooperation of my
family members especially Muhammad Arif, Abdul Hakim and Muhammad La La.

I am exceedingly grateful to Syed Naseer Ali Kirmani, Principal, The School of

Excellence, Fateh Jang, who remained very helpful and cooperative in the completion of
my dissertation.
Tariq
 Introduction
Guilt is a feeling o f self-reproach resulting from a belief that one has done something

wrong or immoral. There are two main forms of the idea o f guilt, moral guilt and legal
I

guilt. We may be morally guilty and legally innocent and vice versa. Guilt arises out of

the conflict between “duty and interest”, that is between what we ought to do and what

we most want to do. The degree of the guilt depends not on the outward features of the

situation and the magnitude o f the ill we do, but on4he will that would have been

required to do right. The core of guilt is an ethical one, which psychology does not

explain.

Conrad’s Lord Jim revolves around the theme of guilt. In the beginning of the novel, we

find Jim picturing himself as a hero, but he misses his chance when it comes. Later on,

Jim joins the Patna as a chief mate of a rickety ship carrying 800 passengers to Mecca.

One calm night, the ship is damaged at the sea and Jim unconsciously jumps into the life-

saving boat which, according to Conrad, is infidelity. Fidelity is the towering human

virtue which sets man against corruption and against the forces o f evil within one’s self

Later on, as a consequence, he brings destruction upon himself as a punishment for past
%
guilt.

- A

Similarly, O’N eiirs play. Long Day's Journey into Night is based on the theme of guilt.

He has written it from an intensely personal point of view, deriving directly from the

scaring effects of his tragic relationship with his family, his mother and father, who loved

and tormented each other; his elder brother, who both loved and corrupted him and died

vn
of alcoholism in the middle age; and O’Neill himself, caught and tom between love for

and rage at all the three.

The purpose o f the dissertation is to probe into the psyches of Conrad and O’Neill’s

characters and also to highlight the ethical implications o f the feeling of guilt and how

these two writers have treated the theme.

For convenience, I have divided my research work into different'chapters.

vui
CHAPTER 1

The Theme of Guilt in the Twentieth Century

Literature j

Guilt can be defined as a feeling of regret and remorse for real or imagined misdeeds,

either in the past or in the present. Such a sense of remorse is related to those thoughts,

feelings or attitudes that are negative, uncomplimentary or non-accepting. Mostly, it

arises when a person is unable to fulfill responsibility or duty; and if he displays an

inability to respond according to the obligation. Guih impHes the psychological and

mental condition of a person who has broken moral or political law. A man, suffering

from a guilty conscience, is unable to forgive himself for a perceived wrongdoing.

In terms of law, guilt is a breach o f conduct especially violating some law and

involving some penalty. It is a state of the mind of a person who has committed offense

consciously. From the viewpoint of action, guilt signifies the conduct which, on the one

hand, is contrary to the general order and, on the other hand, to the personal judgment or

understanding. In this respect, guilt signifies knowledge and understanding and feelings
^ "
o f one’s own conduct contrary to norms, or it is to be understood as a matter of

conscience. It is human psychology that man can never adopt an indifferent attitude

towards his past; through recollection he must regard past as a part of his nature. The past

exists always in the present, determining the nature of the present response.
 Guilt makes a man over-conscious. He frets over every action, because many irrational

beliefs lie behind the guilt. Man is overcome by the fear o f being ‘wrong’ that he

eventually collapses and chooses inactivity or silence, and becomes reluctant at every

step.

hi addition criticisms of the people around him increases the feeling of remorse.

Everyone feels guilty at sometime; however, some people feel guilty much of the time.

Whenever they commit a mistake, they continually remember and try to atone for it.

Man’s heart is an embodiment of good and evil, right and wrong. Since the dawn of the

universe, man is incessantly in conflict. Saint Paul’s words define it:

When you have advanced sufficiently in knowledge o f yourself, you

will find it a grief There will be, as it were, two men in your bosom.
When you wish to do wrong, a sense of shame will oppose you. Thus
a battle goes on in you.'

Jn this regard, guilt is one of the ultimate basic instincts of man. It is as mysterious as

existence itself. Though in different religions it is interpreted in different ways, yet the

common idea behind all interpretations is that, consciously or unconsciously, a man

commits mistakes and sometimes his conscience pricks him and he feels guilty

conscious.

Therefore, the feeling o f guilt is a universal phenomenon, and is one of the

cornerstone of everyman’s conduct. It is also a part o f the moral theory including

responsibility and obligations.

When we look at the roots of gross human right violations, the question of the roots of

good and evil, sin and guilt is never far away. Some religions have verified socially

harmful acts, behaviours or things we judge as ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ and personified with a

‘devil’. The working o f our mind appears to have a preference for dualism such as

‘positive’, and ‘negative’, ‘light’ and ‘dark’ or Go(o)d and (D)evil. The question of sin

and guilt has as ancient a history as man.

Greek philosophy sought explanation in different areas o f theology. For instance,

Socrates held that no one would willingly go astray from agathon (the God) except out of

ignorance. Plato, his disciple, by contrast, came to know good and evil (katon) not as

value judgments but merely as hypostatized realities, objects potentially willed by soul.

Evil was thought to be removable from the soul by purgation (katharsis). Aristotle, in

turn developed the notion o f evil as ambivalent by treating evil as transgression; however,

he also treated it as the indeterminate, inexplicable, ‘other’, (apeiron).

As far as Judaism is concerned, it does not discuss ‘evil’, ‘guilt’ or ‘sin’ very much.

The Encyclopedia Judaica has no entry under the headings, ‘Evil’ or ‘Guilt’. It clearly

shows that the Jews do not feel remorse for whatever they do/did. The Hebrew word that

is translated as ‘evil’ in the King James’ translation of the Bible is ra. Semantically, it

means ‘worthless’ or ‘useless’. We can extend it to ‘mean’, ‘bad’, ‘ugly’, or even ‘sad’.

In Christianity, the concept of sin is very complicated. Man is considered to be

inherently sinful. Though he is bestowed with moral freedom, called free-will, yet he is
unable to avoid the errors. According to the teachings of Jesus Christ, guilt is the gravest

of all the problems and man needs pardon. A person; who is guilty must have a sense of

morality, too.

In Confucianism, there seems to be a lack of a concept for ‘gratituitious malice’. In

Chinese and Japanese, a single character is used to express ‘badness’ and this character

appears to connote ‘disgust’ rather than ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’. The modem secular western

sense of the word ‘evil’ (meaning ‘morally depraved’, ‘bad’, ‘wicked’, ‘vicious’) refers

almost exclusively to physical suffering. This meaning stands quite in contrast to the

European Middle Ages when few people doubted the reality of ‘the Evil One’ or evil

beings who tried to destroy the integrity and welfare of the society, subverting it like a

worm in the bud. Hinduism, on the other hand, considers evil and suffering to be an

integral part of the creation itself. For the Hindus, all creation is the sport o f mad mother

Kali.

The Islamic concept of sin and guilt is different. Man is not considered to be inherently

sinful, but simply a weak one. Sin is considered as a habit which man acquires because of

his weakness. In the Islamic perspective, sin requires no atonement but repentance. It is

obligatory in the sense that, it implies sorrow and commitment not to do that sin again.

The question arises as how does the feeling of guilt pricks a man or when does he feel

guilty conscious? The answer is that it is a fear of being found out or being detected

which makes a man feel guilty. After committing an offense, a man discovers that he
would be criticised by the world for offense, and so he repents over his crime. But that

prick of conscience can be felt by those who have a sense of morality to some extent. It is

due to a fear of being detected that a man wishes to be more virtuous. He is also afraid of

the hostility of the community in which he lives.

Such complex human psyche is the basic trait o f the man of the twentieth century. Its

development in the twentieth century has made man so curious about the motivation of

his conduct that he feels intellectually fascinated when a writer exposes the inner working

of the mind of a character. The breakdown of the old values has resulted in an increased

inwardness. Inwardness, moral perplexity, scepticism and anxiety have been studied and

observed by the philosophers and psychologists. In this connection, the names of Freud,

Jung, Nietzsche and Russell are worth mentioning. Their philosophical ideas about the

conduct and the Conscious changed the mind of the modem man..

Freud’s views o f human psychology with reference to the Conscious, the Subconscious

and the Unconscious have changed man’s perception of his own self. He points out that

intellectual persuasions were justifications o f the emotional needs. Human beings are not

rational as they are supposed to be; their conduct is not guided and controlled by the

Conscious, rather it is at the mercy o f the force lying buried deep within the

Subconscious and the Unconscious.

Jung and Bergson carried Freud’s views to their logical conclusion. In this way, a new

dimension has been added to the assessment of human behaviour and more and more
emphasis is being laid on the study of the Unconscious. The moral attitude of the

twentieth century is deeply influenced by these views regarding the Conscious, the

Subconscious and Unconscious. Intellect is no longer regarded as the mean of true or real

understanding. Much emphasis is placed on feelings and intuition. So the interest has

been shifted from the ‘Overt’ to ‘Covert’ or from the ‘outer’ to the ‘irmer’.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Freud and Jung shook the foundations of

human thought by their revolutionary discoveries in the field of psychology. They

revealed that human consciousness has very deep layers and thoughts buried under the

Subconscious and the Unconscious constantly keep coming to the surface and an account

of human personality cannot be complete and satisfactory unless these hidden elements

are given their due weight.

Psychological guilt is also much discussed by Nietzsche. He presents his views

regarding the dual system of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. He observes that there is a contradiction

between deity and guilt. In his book The Geneology o f Morals he describes:

History shows that the consciousness of being in debt to the Deity

did not by any means come to an end with the organization of
community... He also inherited along with the tribal and family
divinities, the burden o f still unpaid debts and o f the desire to be
relieved o f them.... The guilt feeling of indebtedness to the Divinity
continued to grow for several millennia always in the same measure
as the concept o f God and the feeling of Divinity increased on earth
and was carried to the heights.. }

In his book Twilight o f the Idols he extends his conception o f God and guilt, and

puts an end to the concept o f free-will. According to him:

Men were thought o f as ‘free’ so that they could become guilty. We no

longer have any syn^athy with the concept o f ‘freewill’. Everywhere
 accountability is sought, it is usually an instinct of punishing and
judging. The doctrine o f ‘will’ has been invented for the purpose of
finding the people guilty.^

Nietzsche’s concept o f ‘freewill’ and ‘guilt’ summarizes most distinctly which became
i

a dilemma for the Victorian writers, especially novelists, who follow the idea that we as

human beings are at liberty to make or unmake our world, and that freedom does lead to

guilt, especially when the world does not seem to improve noticeably despite our best

efforts.

Bertrand Russell opens the mystery o f human conscience, “conscience is a voice of

God and present everywhere. Whenever man goes astray, it pricks him”."^

It is not particular to any era but is a universal in its essence. According to Russell, the

roots of sin are hidden in the Unconscious and not in the Conscious. It is the sacred codes

made by the society and parents which become imprinted on the mind o f a child. As he

grows, he forgets all about the values and social norms. But he does not entirely forget

his limits. After committing sin, when he later realizes his mistakes consciously, his

conscience pricks him. Russell advises to avoid the prick of conscience in the matter

where no harm is done'to anybody:

Whenever you begin to feel remorse for an act which your reason tells
you is not wicked, examine the cause o f your feeling of remorse, and
convince yourself in detail o f its absurdity. Let your conscious beliefs
be so vivid and enphatic that they make an impression on your
conscience strong enough to cope with the impression made by your
nurse, or your mother.^
 In order to understand the concept of guilt, we will have to understand the

background o f human mind and psychology. As Daniel Bom has pointed out; “The

unbreakable connection o f self with sacred order is best seen in the sense of guilt”.^

It is parents and the society which provide the pattem of the model of admired ‘good’

to the young one. As the infant grows in the midst of these social standards, he,

instinctively, learns the norms and becomes attached to the elders. So the earliest years

prepare a moral background for the development of a child’s intellect and rationality. As

he grows up, man not only understands and approves his relation with the society but also

can be aware o f his own ‘self. Thus the ‘self-ideal’ and the ‘super-ego’ simultaneously

exist in the mind of man. Sometime he is diverted from the right track but whenever he

tries to blink away these ethical standards or sacred codes, the ‘super-ego’ condemns

him. Super-ego, like conscience, detains man from evil action. It is harder than the codes

or injunctions o f the society and conscience (conscience being a Christian concept here).

Modem man is suffering from the same duality between duty and desire. His sense of

responsibility and sense o f deity move him towards the right path. But due to the working

of the Unconscious, or ‘S elf, sometimes, he overlooks his moral, spiritual code.

Modem man’s religious beliefs were also shaken by the Evolutionists and

Behaviourists like Darwin and Karl Marx. In the twentieth century, scientific progress ,

democratic movements, modem hberal institutions, industrial progress, individual human

development, application of the scientific industry and, at the same time, the World Wars
changed the whole set up of the modem European society. Spiritual barrenness made man

lose all sense o f purpose. During the wars, modem man witnessed devastation and

decline of the moral and spiritual values. Everywhere there was nihilism, rootlessness and

irrationalism. Modem world or the twentieth'century is more complex than the previous

centuries’. All the existing complications affected the literary works to a great extent.Ruth

Etchells is o f the view:

There is a sense of guilt in modem writing because what we see

around us echoes in ourselves... It is interesting to note that writers are
groping their way through an understanding o f evil inherent in the heart
of man.^

Modem authors are well aware of the complexity of their era. In their literary

outputs, sense of guilt, responsibility and evil are obvious. Modem literature touches the

psychological dimensions and also man’s perception o f his own self The vmters are

interested in the inner working of mind rather than the outer self of man. The Dictionary

o f Literary Terms and Motifs tells us, “It is only in the twentieth century that
o
responsibility becomes the central theme of literary works.”

Thus personal responsibility means commitment to self-imposed goals. Patrick Reilly

is also of the same view about the twentieth century literature, “This Judas moment when

the self gages at its own cormption has become the salient, almost a defining

characteristic, o f modem literature” ^

As we have already discussed ,guilt is a feeling of responsibility for an offence.

Therefore, sense o f responsibility is an ethical phenomenon. It includes duty, obligation,

sense of morality and virtue. It is the core of moral theory, and its omission makes moral

chaos, which leads to guilt.

The literature o f the twentieth century openly discussed the theme of guilt and

responsibility. Iris Mardoch is perhaps the best known novelist to analyse such a theme in

The Unicorn. She portrays the fantasy world in which all the characters give rise to the

problematic issue o f guilt. The Bell is more particular in relating individual responsibility

and collective guilt.

Doris Lessing in The Eye o f God in Paradise (a story published in a collection called

The Habit o f Loving) presents the individuars conflict and complex sense of guilt. The

writer presents a public figure who is “a moral product of his race and at the same time

the agent by whom the moral shape o f that race is determined”.

In the Seed and the Sower, Laurens Vander presents the theme o f guilt. He discovers

the history o f an officer who faces a terrible death in a Japanese-Prisoner-of-War-Camp.

The hero (officer) commits a crime against the government and his own brother. Later, he

spends his life in amending this sin and bears the burden of guilt upon his soul. He curses

himself for his irresponsible act o f treason.

English literature, particularly, is marked by the theme of guilt almost since its

beginning, Hamlet, Doctor Faustus, Macbeth and many others are an ample proof of it.
 In the late nineteenth century, Mark Twain gives much place to the conscience in his

novel The Adventures o f Huckleberry Finn, Here, he discovers the sense o f responsibility

and the feelings of guilt through the portrayal of Huck, who helps the negro, Jim, to

escape. ,

The Russian novelist Dostoevsly’s Prestuplenie I nakazanie {Crime and Punishment,

1866) projects the inner working of the mind of a student who first imagines a sin and

then unconsciously commits it, by blinking away the sacred standards o f morality. After

committing the offense, he feels anxiety and conflict and guilt in his mind and tries to

atone for the committed offense.

In the later period o f the nineteenth century, consciousness of the society was

presented in an objective way with full details. In the novels o f Dickens, Hardy, Conrad

and Tolstoy we catch the glimpses of the working of the conscience. Their views

regarding human psychology are influenced by the scientific theory o f naturalism. The

Individual is considered a product o f his heredity and environment and the idea of

fi-eewill is neglected. In this connection Hardy’s novel Jud, the Obscure (1896) and Tess

o f the D ’urbervilles are worth mentioning because the writer shows that man is helpless

in front of the natural order. He can not act according to his freewill. He is victim of the

circumstances. These views of the nineteenth century literature are still under discussion

in the twentieth century i.e. naturalism, responsibility and the feeling of guilt.
 Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy (novel, 1925) carries the same theme that

the character of a man is built up in the society in which he lives. If he has weakness in

his character, it is because o f the lack of guidance in his early life. The novel is about the

life of a murderer from boyhood to his death. He was not provided with good

environment and the unfavourable circumstances made him a man of devilish nature.

While discussing the twentieth century literature, we should not miss the name of

Franz Kafka who openly discusses the inner conflict of man’s conscience. In his novel,

De Prozers (The Trial, 1925) he puts forward his assessment that moral obligation is too

difficult to fulfill. No one can ever be pure and sinless.

Bernard Malmud’s novel The Assistant projects the theme o f guilt. Brain Moor’s The

Emperor o f Ice-cream (Novel, 1965) presents the grown up conscience of a protagonist

who is responsible for himself and the others, and he negates the internal voices opposing

the sense of responsibility. In Alfred Dolin’s novel Hamlet order die Langer Nachtnimnt

ein Ende (Hamlet or the long night comes to an end, novel, 1956), the hero is in search of

truth. Throughout the novel the discussion is that whether man is fi-ee in his acts or a

puppet in the hands o f God. In another novel, Berlin Alexander Platz (1929) portrays a

character of the protagonist who discovers positive views regarding human psyche that

men save each other if they have feeling of the shared humanity. The same theme is

presented by Albert Camus in his novel The Plague (1947).

 Modem man is spiritually arid. Feelings of scepticism and nihilism have deeply

influenced his conduct, and that is why he commits mistakes. Authors of the modem era

have focused their attention on those complicacies:

Its central thesis is the idea that man is what he makes of himself; he is
nether predestined or predetermined by God, biology or society, rather
he has a freewill and the responsibility to use that will to make choices.' ‘

Graham Green’s novel The Queit America (1955) shows the same concept of

responsibility when Flower discovers that he must get involved in sense of moral

obligation. But his unconscious betrays him and he kills Pyle in order to evade further

sufferings. But after committing the sin of kilhng him, his soul is tormented by the guilty

feeling. His conscience pinches him. Another novel of Green The Power and the Glory,

projects the same working o f conscience and guilty feelings. Here the duality of the

vision of the priest either to perform religious duty or to flee from it is portrayed.

Albert Camus’s novel L 'etranger (The Stranger, 1942) presents the theme of external

happiness that man can enjoy if he follows the sacred standards imposed by the society.

Throughout the twentieth century the theme of responsibility and guilt is the

underlying issue and integral part of the various works. Most of the modem authors have

projected the theme with its multiple ramifications (moral, social, religious and political).

Modem literature explicitly reflects the society of shattered beliefs, changing

standards, complex and contrary authorities and also the unreasonable world views. Alvin

Toffler’s works Future Shock (1970) and The Third Wave (1985) cany the same issues.
 Hardy and Conrad deal with the problematic issues of the modem world like despair,

disappearance of the belief in God, scepticism and guilt. The theme o f guilt is highly

dramatized in their works. Hardy’s less o f the D urbervillacs reflects the same spirit.

Conrad is also one of the eminent writers who have mainly focused on the theme of

guilt and atonement, hi this regard. Lord Jim is the most important novel. The hero of the

novel feels guilt for the unconscious act of jumping out o f Patna. His roots are fixed in

the civilization in which he lives, hi spite of the nobility o f his character and moral

conscience, he commits the crime. But later, throughout the novel, he is busy in expiation

of his guilt. In order to redeem himself, and his lost honour, he even sacrifices his life.

The theme of guilt is at its climax in Lord Jim,

 Endnotes
' James Hastings (ed.). Encyclopedia o f Religion and Ethics (New York; Charles Stribner’s

Sons, n.d.), p.537

^ Danial Bom, Guilt in the English Novel (London: TheUniv. O f North Carolina press, n.d.), p.

20

^ Ibid., p. 20

^ Bertrand Russell, The Conquest o f Happiness (n.p., n.d.), p.78

^ Ibid., p. 79

^ Bom, p. 8

^ Ruth Etchells, Unafraid to Be (London: Inter Varsity Press, 1969), p. 52

* Jean-Charles Seignevrent, et al, Dictionary o f Literary Themes and Motifs (New York;

Greenwood Press, 1988), p. 1066

® Patrick Reilly, The Literature o f Guilt ( MacMillan Press, n.d.), p. 1

Ruth Etchell, p. 48

Jean-Charles, p. 1066
CHAPTER 2

The Theme of Guilt in Lord Jim

The major trends o f the twentieth century literature are the stream of consciousness and

impressionism. The novel o f the century is psychological, dealing with the inner

workings of man. The psychological novelist analyzes the motives, impulses and

mental processes which move his characters to act in a particular way. He depicts the

inner struggle of his characters and thus lays bare their soul before the reader. Such a

novel deals with soul-dissection. For this purpose, the writer uses the techniques of the

stream of consciousness and impressionism.

The stream o f consciousness is the best way of presenting the inner bent of mind. The

inner reality cannot be indicated by what a character says or does, because the words

are often conventional. Under the influence of social norms, the inner reality is often

suppressed. Therefore, to know characters truthfully, we must know what is happening

inside their minds. In addition to this, we must know them not only as they are in

present but also as they were in the past. We must also see them at critical moments in

their lives, for it is such a moment that frames their present and future. The stream of

consciousness also presents the characters without the limit o f time and place and

chronological order of events.

Impressionism reveals that soul is not a simple thing, functioning logically. It cannot be

individualized but is common to all races, sexes and social groups. Our Conscious is a
small proportion of our soul. It works out in certain moments when we are under the

pressure of urgent need. For the most part, it is the Unconscious that dominates our

action. The soul is free from the limits o f past, present and future.

Modem writers are concerned with the modem concepts of psyche or soul. They

have devised new techniques and new procedures for representing the psyche. Joseph

Conrad, being a novelist of the twentieth century, represents the mental process with

the help of the techniques o f the stream of consciousness and impressionism. Lord Jim

carries the impression of all these traits. Conrad is more interested in the inner

emotional and spiritual life o f his characters. And he uses the impressionistic technique

to depict human psyche. If we judge the novel from the traditional point of view, we

find that it has no logical and chronological order. Action mns from the consciousness

of one character to another, from the present to the past and from internal to external.

In this way his characters are emotionally connected with the past with the other

characters and with their world. He is also deeply inclined towards the subjective

experience of characters and their inner world. At the same time, he is well aware of

how they look from the outside of their tone, manner and setting in which they play

their part.

Conrad unfolds the inner-recesses o f the mind i.e. the Conscious, the Subconscious and

the Unconscious. Consequently the feeling of guilt is the dominant feature of the novel.

He also takes interest in the sudden impulsive actions that discontinue the normal

course of law and order. It is the deviated role of man that makes him “utterly different
from those who have never gone astray, or fallen or jumped.”’

According to Doctor Raghukul Tilak:

There are few men who, without planning or intending it, are
forced into a damning act of decision by a completely unforeseen
configuration o f circumstances, by some extreme and
unpredictable menace some unavoidable exposure to a hostile and
undreamt situation.^

Conrad and his treatment o f themes other than guilt need no elaborate introduction at

this point, yet we shall discuss them briefly. It is Conrad’s major psychological

dilemma that in his life he was continuously running from one impulsive action to the

other. Through the character of Jim, Conrad objectified his own guilt-complex. Guerard

comments on the universality o f that trait, “Nearly everyone has jumped off . some

Patna, and most of us are reconciling what we are with what we would like to be.”^

Such impulsive actions o f jump are oflen irremediable. Yet man tries to rehabilitate

himself and even pays heavily in this game of rehabilitation. It is true in the case of Jim

who faces the penalty o f a single impulsive act and sacrifices himself to regain his lost

honour. It is for this that, as Marlow says, ‘Jim is one of us.’"* . Conrad’s approach to

the theme of guilt is not only subjective but it also carries elements of universality

telling the moral truth:

« All take plunge out o f rigidly conventionalized and ordered way o f

life. It is in these people that, Conrad thought, we could see the moral
problems working themselves out.^

As we are well aware, guilt is the ultimate trait of human beings. Having done illegal

acts, why do we feel the prick of conscience? The answer is that it is the influence of

the moral teachings a man receives in his early life. That is why he feels remorse and

regret. It is human that, as he grows up, he gradually forgets his moral teachings and
code of life. But he does not completely shun his moral teachings. Li fact, he stoically

surrenders himself before the unconscious suggestions and forgets temporarily the

moral code. When he realizes it, he feels the prick of conscience.

Such psychological or inner working of man is vividly portrayed by the writer when he
*

tells us about the family background of Jim. He is a son of a clergyman. In chapter 36,

we come across the letters which are a sort of piece of advice from his father:

Virtue is one all over the world and there is only one faith, one
conceivable conduct of life, one manner of dying, he hopes his “Dear
James” will never forget that. “Who once gives way to temptation, in
the very instant hazards his total depravity and everlasting ruin.
Therefore, resolve fixedly never, tiirough any positive motives, to do
anything which you believe to be wrong.”®

It is due to the influence o f those teachings that he becomes a man of deeper sensibility

and noble thoughts though, temporarily, he forgets his religious and moral dogma and

inadvertently commits a crime of jumping out of the Patna. Yet he is willing to face

the consequences of his offence. In order to rehabilitate himself in his own eyes and in

the eyes of the world, he sacrifices his life. In this way, the theme o f guilt revolves

around Jim. His mind is badly tom between intention and action. It is because of his

over-wrought imagination that he fails to act at the proper time. Richor Curie describes

the pathetic condition of Jim in this way:

It was a difficult, tortuous road he had to pave out, all the more
difficult, tortuous because o f ten^erament, though it was this very
tenqjerament of idealistic extremism which if it made him
abnormally touchy and scrupulous, also gave a heroic tinge to his
single-mindedness.^

Jim’s jump enlists him in the category of those who violate the virtue of loyalty,

solidarity and responsibiUty. He unintentionally commits the crime of deserting the ship

because o f overpowering imagination. It creates a conflict between his action and

The novel projects the inner world of human beings. It is because of it that a man

commits something wrong or deviates from the normal course of action. In this

connection, Guerard presents the inner working of human beings:

It offers a major dramatic image o f the will and the personality in

conflict, of the conscious mind betrayed by the unconscious o f the
intent rendered absurd by the deed. The conscious mind discovers
belatedly what the betraying dark power has accon^lished.®

After committing a crime he realizes the intensity o f his indeliberate action and says, T

had jumped it s e e m s . . . Jim is mentally distressed and the glimpses o f his tormented

soul are well described by Marlow, Conrad’s mouth-piece:

I looked at him. The red of his fair sun-bimit complexion deepened

suddenly under the down o f his cheeks, invaded his forehead, spread
to the roots of his curly hair. His ears became intensely crimson, and
even the clear blue of his eyes was darkened many shades by the rush
o f blood to his head. His lips pouted a little, trembling as though he
had been on the point o f bursting into tears. I perceived he was
incapable of pronouncing a word from the excess o f his humiliation.
From his appointment too, perhaps, he looked forward to that
hammering he was going to give me for rehabilitation."*

Marlow tells us that Jim is painfully sensitive to the offence.

In chapter 8, Jim gives the details of the drowning of the Patna and also tries to

justify his act of jumping. His desertion of the ship is the result of impulsive action.

Later, he realizes that he had actually jumped. He gives the detailed account o f what

actually happened to the Patna. Jim got paralyzed when he thought of the inadequacy

of the lifeboats:

The only distinct thought formed, vanishing and reforming in his

brain was: “eight hundred people and seven boats” .somebody was
speaking aloud inside my head, he said a little wildly, “Eight himdred
people and seven boats, and no time: just think of it...”“

Jim got Stunned and could not move. Overpowered by the horror of panic, he
unintentionally jumped into the lifeboat and deserted the ship. It is the confounded

imagination that evoked in him the horror of panic. He is well aware of his sin of

betrayal and, “of his own craft and the community o f sailors, for on the high seas of

virtues of Fidelity, Solidarity and Duty are essential for survival.”^^

He wants to regain his lost honour and solidarity. The guilt has nightmarish effects

upon his soul. It haunts him day and night. It is because o f the prick o f conscience that

he cries like a wretched creature; “I wish I could die... There was as if I had jumped

into a well, into an everlasting dark hole..

He confesses his guilt and revolves to do his best to atone for it. He passes through trial

and makes up his mind to bear all the humiliation, disgrace and criticism. Unlike other

officers, he does not escape but prefers to go on trial:

“I cannot put up with this kind of thing”, he said very singly, “ and I
don’t mean to ... in court it’s different; I have got to stand that ...
and I can do it.*'*

After facing the trial, he considers himself an outcast who has no share in this

world. Marlow narrates his state of mind:

No doubt he had very hard time of it, He was rooted to the spot, ...
he was fighting, mostly for his breath... He stood on the brink of a
vast obscurity like a lonely figure by the shore o f his somber and
hopeless ocean.*^

Although he hears the news of the safe arrival o f Patna by a streamer, yet he

cannot come out o f the guilty feeling. He is still waiting for a chance of redemption. He

passes through various stages of contemplation:

Still the idea obtrudes itself that he made so much o f his disgrace
while it is the guilt alone that matters. He is taking too much the
mere consequences o f his failure.’*^
 He wants to get rid o f the dead past and begin with a clean state. It is the deadly

past that tortures his conscience. He unwillingly leaves successive jobs, although he

proves himself a proficient employee. In fact, he does not want to face the harsh reality
r
of the bygone time that is still fresh in his mind. Conrad wants to raise the point

whenever someone or something associated with his past comes in front of him; his

agony and distress increase. It is only the guilt complex which led him to escape the

reality rather than to face it. It is natural with human beings in ‘civilized world’.

Chapter 21-22 deal with Jim’s settlement to the far-off Patusan island. It is

expected that Jim can work here freely without the threat of the disclosure of his

offensive past. Jim is a little optimistic and eager to fulfill his heroic dream. He

considers that it is a place where no one remembers his secret o f the jump and to work

in such a place is as good as rebirth. Here Marlow reveals an important note with

reference to the theme o f guilt, it is not I or the world remember... it is you- you,
1n
who remember.’

One cannot get rid of his past (especially if it is guilty). It is due to the guilty

conscience o f a man that, after committing a wrong, he cannot conceal his past. Though

he can conceal it from the eyes o f the world, yet directly or indirectly his conscience

reminds him of his past. In this way a man can never adopt an indifferent attitude

towards his past but, through recollection, must regard that past as part of his nature. In

other words, it is the past which colours and determines the nature of the present. This

is what Jim is facing throughout the novel. Though he adopts a very cautious attitude.
actually he is unaware of the looming dark shadows of the dead past. A glimpse of his

resolution is presented thus:

“All right, all right... I promise to take care of myself. Yes; I would
not take a risk. Not a single blessed risk... I would not spoil such a
magnificent chance! A magnificent chance!” Well it was
magnificent, but chances are what men make them..

Through his courage, determination and honesty he transforms the land of

Patusan into a peaceful community. He also succeeds in winning respect and

recognition. It is the place where he can rehabilitate. Though he succeeds in achieving

everything he wanted, yet sometimes he gets desperate. The reason behind his dejection

is the feeling o f guilt. His conscience still pricks him; “I have got my confidence in

myself... a good nam e... yet some time I wish... No! I shall hold what Tve got.”*^

When Marlow departs, he asks him to ‘tell them ...’ but when Marlow asks him

‘Whom!’ Jim broods and says, ‘N o ... nothing’, and turns away.

His mental process reminds him of his past. In chapter 41, the situation gets

worse as Brown, a pirate, arrives in Patusan Island. Jim’s negotiations with Brown

works as a reminder of his guilty past, while conversing with Jim, Brown deliberately

uses such language as reminds him o f his lost honour:

This is good junking off place for me as another. I am sick o f my

infernal luck. But it would be too easy... I am not the sort to jump
out o f trouble, and leave them in a lurch.^“

Such a sarcastic remark weakens Jim ’s position. He gets a terrible shock and feels as if

he is ‘dragged down to the land o f humiliation and degradation. Again, the reality

which he wants to escape is in front of him.

 Brown puts forward two options either to let him go or to fight with him. Jim

allows Brown and his companion to go back silently, despite the unwillingness of

Doramin. Jim not only allows him to go but also defends Brown without knowing the

actual fact; “That they are wicked men but that they were, “erring men”, whom

suffering had made blind to right and wrong.”^*

He convinces Doramin that they will go without any bloodshed. He also

resolves that if any harm should befall his people, he would pay for it with his life. It

would be upon his head.

Unfortunately, Jim was xmaware of the intrigues and conspiracy of Cornelius.

As a result, Dain Waris, son o f the chief Doramin, is shot dead. The irony of the

situation is that it is Jim who permits Brown to go away. The people o f that community

and the chief Doramin start to blame Jim for the murder o f Dain Waris. Being a man of

deep sensibility, he decides to sacrifice his life. His soul torments him bitterly than ever

before for his one error o f wrong decision. He takes the responsibility of Dain Waris’s

murder:

He had retreated from one world, for a small matter o f an ingjulsive

jump, and now the other, the work o f his own hands, had fallen in
ruins upon his head.^^

Jim betrays Stein, Jewel and Tamb’ Itam, and goes to his death in the egoistic

belief that his sacrifice will atone for his sin. Such an act o f bravery can be associated

only with a man of conscience. He boldly faced the board of enquiry when he deserted

the Patna and now again he tries to atone for the death of Dain Waris. He considers that
everything is gone and he who had once been disloyal to his trust, has lost again all

men’s confidence.

Jim’s tortured conscience is well portrayed by Conrad. Jim sacrifices himself

and ‘goes away from a living woman to celebrate his pitiless wedding with a shadowy

ideal of his conduct.’

 Endnotes
' Dr. Raghukul Tilak, Joseph Conrad; Lord Jim ( New Delhi; Rama

Brothers, 1996), p. 153

^ Ibid., p. 155

^ John Balchotor, Lord Jim : Twentieth Century Criticism (London:

Allen and Unwin, 1998 ), p. 197

^ Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim ( London: Penguin Books, 1994 ), p. 313

^ Tilak, p. 155

^ Lord Jim, p. 297

’ Tilak, p. 80

® Albert J. Guerard, Conrad the Novelist ( New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1966 ) , p. 276

’ Lord Jim,

Ibid., p. 61

Ibid., p. 70-71

TilakT p. 145

Lord Jim ,1^.10

Ibid., p. 62

Ibid., p. 132-3

Ibid., p. 136

Ibid., p. 180

Ibid., p, 183

Ibid., p. 251

Ibid., p. 288

Ibid., p. 296

Ibid., p. 307

Ibid., p. 512
 CHAPTER 3

The Theme of Guilt in Long Day*s Journey into

Night

Long D ay’s Journey into Night presents the theme of guilt in a very psycho-analytical

manner. Most o f the utterances of the play are in the form of soliloquies and monologues.

O’Neill delves deep into the Unconscious, Subconscious and the Conscious of all the

characters. When, for example, Mary is left alone at the end o f the scene with Cathleen,

in Act Two, she speaks o f her past in a long monologue that arises naturally from her

addiction to morphine. The words arise involuntarily out of her loneliness and guilt and

speak o f her longing for the life of the girl that once she was. It is as if she speaks to the

girl in the past so as to assuage the loneliness of the present. Similarly, the long

monologues o f Edmund and his father, in Act Four, evoke the past as the only surcease

from the doped present:

Yet to call Long D a y’s Journey into Night a ‘domestic tragedy’ is to

underestimate seriously its emotional effect. It is enlarged not in the
Aristotelian ‘heightening’, but more by its unremitting movement
‘behind life’, which means that it expands inward through the surfaces,
and towards the core of life itself. ‘

The themes o f pain and suffering, guilt and regret, love and hate go side by side

throughout the play. Each of the four major characters of the play commits some fault or

the other and feels guilty conscious. Tyrone is an incorrigible miser on account of his

mission to know the value of dollar. Mary is a confirmed dope-fiend but she admits
before any character, from beginning to the end o f the play, that she uses morphine

injection to mitigate her rheumatic pain in her hands. Jamie is a victim o f dipsomania but

he feels too guilty to admit it. His contrition fails to force him to confess it. Edmund is a

confirmed patient of consumption but feels guilty of dipsomania.

Each of the characters tries to evade the questions put by the other and feels guilty when

pressed for the correct answer. Jamies looks away guiltily when he feigns to praise his

mother’s hair:

MARY: Why are you staring, Jamie ?

(Her hands flutter up to her hair)
Is my hair coming down? It’s hard for me to do it up
properly now. My eyes are getting so bad and I
never can find my glasses.

JAMIE: (Looks away guiltily.) Your hair’s all right, Mama. I

was only thinking how well you look.^

In the course o f the play, shifts repeatedly from a young girl to a cynical

embittered, self contemptuous woman. Her guilt at failing to take care o f her dead child,

Eugene, is converted into insane hatred o f her husband, “I know why he wants to send

you to a sanatorium’V she tells Edmund:

To take you away from me! He’s always tried to do that. He’s been
jealous o f every one of my babies! He kept finding ways to make me
leave them. That’s what caused Eugene’s death. He’s been jealous o f
you most of all. He knew I loved you best because-

All these expressions o f love for Edmund do not prevent her from blaming him for being

bom and starting her on the dope habit. Edmund is her scourge and should never have

been bom. When Mary complains to Edmund of her loneliness, he flounders guiltily ,to

tell his mother that on account of her morphine addiction, she would not have wanted any

visitors:
 EDMUND: Anyway, you’ve got to be fair, Mama. It may have
been all his fault in the begimiing , but you know that
later on, even he’d wanted to, we couldn’t have had
people here-
( He flounders guiltily.)
I mean you wouldn’t have wanted them.

MARY: ( Wincing- her lips quivering pitifully.)

Don’t. I can’t bear having you remind me.®

After a short conversation, Edmund blurts out guiltily to his mother that she used

morphine in the spare room:

MARY: ( She turns on him- sharply.)

I insist you tell me why you act so differently this
morning- why you felt you had to remind me-

EDMUND: ( Hesitates- then blurts out guilty.)

It’s stupid. It’s just that I wasn’t asleep when you
came in my room last night. You didn’t go back to
yours and Papa’s room. You went in the spare room
for the rest of the night. ®

Mary’s hatred for Jamie is less ambiguous. She does not reciprocate Jamie’s need for her

as a mother. She hates his cynicism, turns from him in fear that he will discover her need

of the dope and silently accuses him of murdering the dead child:

Jamie would never have been allowed, when he still had measles, to go
in the baby’s room. I’ve always believed Jamie did it on purpose. He
was jealous o f the baby. He hated him. ^

Jamies, on the other hand, is suspicious of his mother that she has started taking

morphine. Mary gives way to a flurry o f guilty nervous excitement when she informs

^Edmund about Jamie’s suspicion o f her drug dose, “Your brother ought to be ashamed of

himself He is been insinuating. I don’t know what.” *

Soon, afterwards, she overcomes her guilty nervousness and stammers in her Irish accent:

I - forgive me, dear- you are right. It is useless to be angry now.

 ( There is again a pause o f dead silence when she speaks again, her
face is cleared and is calm, and the quality o f uncanny detachment is in
her voice and manner.) ’

Under the effect of morphine she treats her husband with a mixture o f love and contempt,

dwelling on his failures and yet maintaining the truth of her love for him. Mary’s refusal

of all her responsibilities has bred in her a guilt she is incapable of bearing. The

morphine is necessary for her to use to wipe out “ the pain- all the pain- I mean in my

hands.”*® In the morphine trance , she moves gently back in time, seeking to recreate the

illusions of a happier world, before there was a past to make her what she has become.

is, however, sure that someday, when the Blessed Virgin Mary forgives her and

gives her back the faith in her love and pity, she will not have to feel guilty any more:

But some day dear, I will find it again some day when you are all
well, and I see you healthy and happy and successful, and I do not bear
to feel guilty any more- some day when the Blessed Virgin Mary
forgives me and gives me back the faith in her love and pity I used to
have in my convent days, and I can pray to her again- when she sees no
one in the world can believe in me, and with her help it will be so easy.
I will hear myself scream with agony, and at the same time I will laugh
because I will be so sure o f myself.”

Like Mary, Tyrone is also doomed to an endless life o f regret for something lost in the

past, hold to a hope that has no reality in it. When Mary reminds her husband of his pre­

marital debauchery he retorts with guilty resentment.

For God’s sake do not dig up what is long forgotten. If you are that far
gone in the past already when it is only the beginning o f the afternoon,
what will you be tonight?'^

Tyrone’s failures as an artist and a husband has made him guilty beyond pardon. “ Like

a lugged bear, he stands as a target for all o f his family’s recrimination.” Yet more

than any other, he shoulders the responsibilities o f their lives. He has kindness in him,

and a devotion to his wife that overrides all her animosity; “You are a fine armful now
Mary, with those twenty pounds you have gained.” For Edmund, he demonstrates little

close feeling. He reveals a generalized and somewhat distant affection for his younger

son. But at times, when he thinks about his consumption, he gets affectionate and loving.

In Act Four, Tyrone asks Edmund to switch off the bulb. But, he, in return, blames his

father of being a great miser. Tyrone gets infuriated on his younger son’s remarks about

him and wants to give him thrashing on account o f disobeying his orders. But suddenly,

he remembers Edmund’s illness of consumption and becomes guilty conscious and

shamefaced.

TYRONE: Forgive me, lad, I forgot- you should not goad me

into losing my temper.

EDMUND; ( Ashamed himself now.)

Forget it, Papa. I apologize, too. I had no right being
nasty about nothing. I am a bit soused, I guess. I’ll
put out the damned light.
(He starts to get up.)

Tyrone feels guilty before Edmund in many of the utterances between each other. He is in

fact, guilty that he has not been able to get him cured at a good hospital and that the sole

cause of his illness is his negligence. Though he does not proclaim his guilt, yet he feels

guilty in one guise or the other. For example, in their conversation on the subject of

poetry and taste in authors, he feels guilty:

They lie! I don’t doubt he liked his glass- It’s a good man’s failing but
he li e w how to drink so it didn’t poison his brain with morbidness and
filth. Don’t compare him with the pack you’ve got in there.

( He indicates the small bookcase again.)

Your dirty Zola! And your Dante Gabriel Rossetti who was
dope fiend.
( He starts and looks guiltily.)

When Tyrone tells Edmund about Mary’s father , his conversation ends on his getting
guilty-conscious:
 He became a steady champagne drinker, the worst kind. That was his
grand pose, to drink only champagne. Well, it finished him quick- that
and the consumption.

( He stops with a guilty glance at his son.)

In Act Four, when Edmund seems to prove that his father is a “ stinking old tightwad,’

Tyrone shrinks back in his rocker under such an attack and guilty contrition becomes

stronger than his anger:

Be quite! Don’t say that to me! You are drunk! I won’t mind you. Stop
coughing, iad you’ve got yourself worked up over nothing. Who said
you had to go to this hilltoira place? You can go anywhere you like. I
don’t give a damn what it costs. All I care about is to have you get well.
Don’t call me miser, just because I don’t want doctors to think I’m a
millionaire; they can swindle.

Jamie, like his father and brother, is lost embittered and cynical who wants to have

affection o f his mother. But his mother’s hatred for him intensifies as she takes more and

more morphine in isolation. To compensate for her loss, he has sought to destroy himself

with the profligate life o f the Broadway Rounder. In addition, he has also tried to corrupt

his brother, in the pretence of making him wise about women. Liquour, far from making

up his loss, makes it unbearable while Edmund is focused over, even babied by her. No

one tries to help Jamie out of his troubles. Jamie, however, feels guilty of promiscuity

and dipsomania.

Edmund, as O’Neill presents him, is clearly drawn. He is a very neutral figure except

in the scene with his father in Act Four. Even then he speaks out o f a solitude that is

unlike the isolation o f the others. He seems to be a victim of the family; unwanted,

betrayed, led astray by his brother and, now, with tuberculosis, suffering under his

father’s penuriousness. It is easy to sympathize with him. He feels guilty of accusing his
father of miserliness. But he gets profoundly impressed by his father’s justification and

says; I am glad you have told me this. Papa, I know you a lot better row,”

The discussion above is enough to show Long D ay’s Journey into Night as a play of

agony, guiU, pain and psychological suffering. It shows how we have to feel guilty over

the wrongs that we commit either to ourselves or the others.

 Endnotes
'• Travis Bogard, The Door and the Mirror (New York and London, n.p. 1972), p. 423

Eugene O’Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night ( New York, Yale Univ .Press, 1975),p.

20

Ibid., p. 119

Ibid., p. 119

Ibid., p. 45

Ibid., p. 46-47

Ibid., p. 87

Ibid., p. 63

Ibid., p. 75

Ibid., p. 47.

"• Ibid., p. 94

Ibid., p. 86

Bogard, p. 425

LDJN, p. 14

Ibid., p. 128

Ibid., p. 135

Ibid., p. 137

Ibid., p. 145

Ibid., p. 145-146

Ibid., p. 148
 CONCLUSION

Guilt is a feeling of regret and remorse for a misdeed o f any sort. It implies the

psychological and mental condition of a person who has broken some moral or political

law. In terms o f law, guilt is a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving

penalty. So guilt signifies the knowledge and understanding and feelings of one’s own

conduct contrary to the norms.

The feeling o f guilt is a universal phenomenon, and one o f the cornerstones of every

man’s conduct. Every man, consciously or unconsciously, commits mistakes and his

conscience sometimes pricks him and he feels guilty conscious. Guilt and sin have as

ancient a history as man himself. It has persisted in the Greeks, Jews, Christians,

Confucians , Hindus, Muslims and all others, ever since.

In the twentieth century, Freud, Jung, Nietzsche and Russell’s ideas about man’s

conduct, his Conscious, Subconscious and Unconscious changed the mind of the

modem man. The inwardness, moral perplexity, skepticism, and anxiety have been

studied and observed by these philosophers and psychologists. Besides them, the beliefs

of the modem man were also shaken by the Evolutionists and Communists like Darwin

and Marx. The scientific progress, democratic movements, modem liberal institutions,-

industrial progress, individual human development, and application of the scientific

industry were the major factors which changed the whole set up of the modem

European society. The modem man got curious about the motivation of his conduct and

started feeling fascination for the exposure of the inner working of mind of a character.
That is why, there is a sense of guilt in modem writing, that is, we see around us what

echoes in ourselves. The modem authors are well aware of the complexity of their era.

Therefore, the sense o f guilt, responsibility, sin and evil are obvious in their literary

outputs. Modem literature touches the psychological dimensions and also man’s

perception of his own self The writers are interested in the inner working of mind

rather than the outer self of man. So the literature of the twentieth century openly

discusses the theme o f guilt.

Conrad is one o f the eminent writers who have mainly focused on the theme o f guilt

and atonement. In this regard Lord Jim is the most important novel. The hero of the

novel feels guilty conscious due to the indelibrate act of jumping out of the Patna. In

spite o f the nobility o f his character and moral conscience, he commits the crime. Later,

throughout his life, he is busy in expiation o f his guilt. In order to redeem himself and

his lost honour he even sacrifices his life. The theme of guilt in Lord Jim is at its

climax. It is the dominant feature o f the novel.

Jim suffers throughout his life and faces the penalty of a single impulsive act and

sacrifices himself to regain his lost honour. Telling the moral tmth, Conrad’s approach

to the theme o f guilt is not only subjective but it also carries the element of universality

and objectivity. Jim ’s psychological and inner working is vividly portrayed by Conrad.

Jim is a son o f a clergyman. It is because o f the religious teachings that he becomes a

man o f deeper sensibility and noble thoughts, though, temporarily, he forgets his

religious and moral dogma and commits the crime of jumping out o f the Patna. In order
to rehabilitate in his own eyes and in the eyes of the world, he sacrifices his life, later

on. His mind is badly tom between intention and action. It is because of his over­

wrought imagination that he fails to act at the proper time. The overpowering

imagination creates a conflict in his mind, between his action and thinking. His

desertion of the ship is the result of his impulsive action. He gets paralysed when he

thinks of the inadequacy of the life-boats. It is the confounded imagination that evokes

in him the horror o f panic.

His jump enlists him in the category of those who violate the virtue of loyalty,

solidarity, and sensibility. But he wants to regain his lost honour and solidarity.

Because o f the prick o f the conscience, guilt haunts him day and night. He confesses his

guilt and resolves to do his best to atone for it. He passes through a trial and makes up

his mind to bear all the humiliation, disgrace and criticism. Having faced the trial, he

considers himself an outcast who has no share in this world. Although he hears the

news of the safe arrival o f the Patna, by a steamer, yet he cannot come out of the guilty

feeling. He is willing to avail himself of any chance of redemption.

Therefore, Jim begins with a clean state wanting to get rid o f the dead past. He

unwiUingly leaves successive jobs although he proves himself a proficient employee.

In fact, he does not want to face the harsh reality of the bygone time that is still fresh in

his mind. Whenever someone or something associated with his past comes in front of

him, his agony and distress increase. It is only the guilty ^omplex which led him to
escape the reality rather than to face it which is natural with human beings in the

‘civilized world.’

Jim gets settled in the far-off Patusan island where he is expected to work freely

without the threat o f the disclosure of his offensive past. He is optimistic and eager

enough to fulfill his heroic dream. He considers his stay there as good as his rebirth.

Through his courage, determination and honesty, he transforms the land of Patusan into

a peaceful community. He also succeeds in winning respect and recognition. But

sometimes he gets desperate and dejected due to the prick o f his conscience. The

situation gets worse when Brown arrives there. Jim ’s negotiations with him remind him

of his guilty past.

He fully accepts the responsibiHty o f Dain Waris’s murder. Being a man of deeper

sensibility, he decides to sacrifice his Hfe. His soul torments him more bitterly than ever

because of his one error of wrong decision. Jim betrays Stein, Jewel and Tamb’ Itam

and goes to meet his death in the egoistic belief that his sacrifice will atone for his sin.

Such an act of bravery can be associated with a man o f conscience. He boldly faced the

board of enquiry when he deserted the Patna and now again he tries to atone for the

death o f Dain Waris. In this way; he sacrifices himself and goes away “from a living

woman to celebrate his pitiless wedding with a shadowy ideal of conduct.”

Long Day's Journey into Night also presents the theme of guilt in a psycho-analytical

manner. Like Lord Jim, it also has many utterances in the form of soliloquies and
monologues. O ’Neill delves deep into the Unconscious, Subconscious and the

Conscious of all the characters. M aiy’s monologues arise naturally from her drug

addiction. The words arise involuntarily out o f her loneliness and guilt. Similarly, the

long monologues of Edmund and his father evoke the past as the only surcease from the

doped present.

Each of the four major characters of the play commits some crime or the other and feels

guilty. Tyrone is a great miser and feels guilty on being so. Mary uses morphine

injection to mitigate her rheumatic pain in her hands. Jamie is a victim of dipsomania

but he feels too guilty to admit it. Each of the characters tries to avoid the question put

by the other and feels guilty when pressed for the correct answer. Mary reminds her

husband of his pre-marital debauchery on which he feels a great resentment, Tyrone’s

failure as an artist and a husband also makes him feel guilty beyond atonement.

In addition to Mary, Tyrone feels guilty before Edmund. He feels guilty over his son’s

illness which is because o f his penuriousness. He has not been able to take him to a

good doctor though he can afford it. But he does not proclaim his guilt. Jamie, however,

feels guilty o f promiscuity and dipsomania. Edmund is guilty of accusing his father of

miserliness. In this way, Long Day's Journey into Night is also enlisted as a play of

agony and guilt, pain and psychological suffering.

Lord Jim and Long D ay's Journey into Night also stand in contrast in that the causes
■
V

and nature of guilt are different. ^In Jim, it arises because of his noble origin and
religious background, though he should not have felt it from the logical point of view as

it was impulsive rather than premeditative. In O’Neill’s play, it arises because of the

suffering and torment that each character inflicts on the other. Jim’s guilt is atoned as
i
he behaves gloriously in the end and all his sins are cleared in the eyes of the reader.

But all the Tyrones’ sins are not atonable, the incidents of the play are ample proof of

it.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Balchotor, John. Lord Jim : Twentieth Century Criticism. London: Alien and Unwin,

1998.

Bogard, Travis. The Door and the Mirror. New York and London, n.p. 1972.

Bom, Danial. Guilt in the English Novel London: The Univ. O f North Carolina press, n.d.

Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim. London: Penguin Books, 1994,

Etchells, Ruth. Unafraid to Be. London: Inter Varsity Press, 1969.

Guerard, Albert J. Conrad the Novelist. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1966.

Hastings, James (ed.). Encyclopedia o f Religion and Ethics. New York: Charles Stribner’s

sons, n.d.

O’neill, Eugene. Long D a y’s Journey into Night. New York, Yale Univ .Press, 1975.

Reilly, Patrick. The Literature o f Guilt. MacMillan Press, n.d.

Russell, Bertrand. The Conquest o f Happiness, n.p., n.d.

Seignevrent, Jean-Charles et a l Dictionary o f Literary Themes and Motifs. New York:

Greenwood Press, 1988.

Tilak, Dr. Raghukul. Joseph Conrad; Lord Jim. New Delhi: Rama Brothers, 1996.