Conrad and Masculinity

Gender and the Disciplined Body 97
However, the narrator’s view of her as a ‘little lady’ tends to make her
impotence seem a natural part of her femininity 4 : ‘the woman’s
instinct of devotion’ in contrast to ‘the man’s instinct of activity’ (74).
It is true, of course, that the novel tends to show the ultimate impotence
of all individuals in the face of economic and historical forces,
and that Mrs Gould is shown as doing good within the limited sphere
allowed her. Nevertheless, her earlier and greater understanding of the
illusory nature of her husband’s ideals is denied effective outlet in
action. This is of course plausible, historically, socially and psychologically.
The limitation of the portrayal is that the narrator seems to
share and endorse the idea of women’s role which set such limits.
Klein refers to Conrad’s ‘authorial attitude’, whereas I have been referring
to the attitude of the narrator. This is not because I regard Conrad
as clearly distancing himself from or ironizing the narrator but
because, as in The Secret Agent, the relationship of narrator and author
is uncertain. In each novel the primary narrator is uncharacterized
(extradiegetic and heterodiegetic) but adopts attitudes and tones of
voice which are coloured by the setting, mood and characters of the
particular novel. 5 Thus the narrator of Nostromo tends to Olympian
detachment, tinged with contempt or admiration, while the narrator
of The Secret Agent seems misanthropic and vindictively ironical. 6 The
narrative voice of Nostromo is, however, much more variable. In addition
to the use of characters (such as Decoud and Mitchell) as
homodiegetic subsidiary narrators, the narrative voice sometimes
mitigates its detachment by adopting a form of free indirect discourse
with respect to the Sulaco community in general, as in the account of
the legend of the lost Gringos of Azuera (N, 4–5). As Wollaeger aptly
puts it, ‘these modulations create the illusion of sometimes attending
to the mediated voice of a narrator, sometimes to the voice of the
author’ (FS, 139). This uncertainty creates problems but also opportunities
for the reader, since it tends to break down the illusion of total
authorial control, such control being a crucial philosophical issue in
Nostromo, as Wollaeger shows. 7
Despite the element of stereotyping, Conrad’s treatment of the
Goulds does not lack psychological depth. Gould’s character, and
more specifically the form taken by his masculinity, are shown to be
formed by the vicarious experience of his father’s frustration and
defeat, when the latter had the seemingly useless mine concession
forced on him by the corrupt government of Costaguana. In response
to his father’s futile rage, Gould develops that restraint and understated
determination which is one familiar form of heroic English