Conrad and Masculinity

96 Conrad and Masculinity
throughout his work that Conrad took great interest in what he saw
as the characteristics of different nations. In the same letter he
explained that he had gone to some trouble to differentiate Nostromo,
as an Italian, from Spanish or South American ways of behaving (‘As
to his conduct generally and with women in particular’). 3 However,
Fredric Jameson identifies a political subtext beneath this apparent
concern for accuracy. He points out that the novel effectively takes
the side of the aristocrats in South America by demonizing the
Monterists, for which purpose they must be sharply distinguished
from the tradition of European popular revolution associated with
Nostromo’s friend and surrogate father, Viola, and thus with Italy.
Jameson argues that
Conrad never went further politically than in this sympathetic
portrayal of the nationalist-populist ideal; at the same time, it must
be said that he contains and carefully qualifies this pole of his new
historical vision, primarily by separating off one genuine Latin (but
European) revolutionary impulse – the Italian, which is here exotic
and foreign – from the indigenous Monterista variety.
(PU, 274)
Nevertheless, the novel not only calls into question the implicit moral
claims underlying Gould’s Englishness, but also demonstrates the
moral and emotional vacuity of ideals of normative masculinity, since
Gould and Nostromo are both revealed as hollow men of modernity.
Imagining themselves to be heroic leaders and moulders of events,
they discover themselves to be the tools of impersonal and often
destructive forces. In the case of the women characters Conrad seems
rather more in the thrall of the stereotypes, less ironical in deploying
them. As Karen Klein judiciously concludes, in probably the most
telling study of the role of the body in Conrad,
Not the least of the ironies ... however, is that [Conrad’s] authorial
attitude toward Mrs. Gould as a female – an idealization that masks
his deep condescension based on his sense of superiority – is
precisely the attitude of the men in power to Nostromo and is the
basis of their exploitation of him.
(FP, 115–16)
Mrs Gould is given moral insights into the cruelty and futility of much
political action and economic development in this colonial society.