Some Patterns of Imagery in Joseph Conrad's Typhoon
Graduation Date
Spring 1960
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
Critics of Joseph Conrad's works are in general agreement concerning the merits of Typhoon, a long short-story written in 1901. F. R. Leavis, who defends Conrad against the charge of being always melodramatic, considers it to represent Conrad's "strength... in its purest form." Nine years later, Robert F. Haugh praised the tale as "remarkable for its exquisite balance and symmetry." Hugh Walpole, one of Conrad's early admirers, believes that Typhoon, is "poet's work at its finest," while R. L. Megroz, representing a period later than Walpole but earlier than the recent interest in Conrad, points out that "it is carried through by the unresting speed and glamour of the style and by Conrad’s wonderful character sketches."
The point of disagreement among the critics who value Typhoon highly, concerns the various factors in the tale which make it a masterpiece of its kind. Most attention has been paid to characterization, some to plot, some to Conrad's methods of handling chronology and narration, and some to "verbal felicity."…
…I have chosen to explore in this paper, the “striking images” which Conrad uses in Typhoon. I believe that a careful analysis of the tale will show the reader that one of the chief aspects of Conrad’s style in Typhoon is the careful choice of language and imagery to support the narrative theme, so that these images are indeed “at once concrete an symbolic.”