JOSEPH CONRAD'S POLISH HERITAGE
OF HOPEFULNESS IN "YOUTH"
Abstract ¡@ Sister Heliena M. Krenn, SSpS

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Fu Jen Studies 16 (1983).

Marlow's introductory remarks in "Youth" suggest that the voyage of the Judea is symbolic of human existence. He seems to propose an extremely gloomy, pessimistic outlook on all human endeavor. If taken literally, Marlow tries to convince the reader of the impossibility to achieve anything in life, as illustrated by the Judea's abortive attempt to reach her eastern port of destination. Marlow's audience, all of whom have been successful in some way and who at the story's ending are still expectantly waiting for something out of life, refute a reading that remains on the surface.

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By taking into account Conrad's Polish origin, a clue to the "inwardness" of "Youth" which begins and ends in the personality of the author may be found. Conrad himself has admitted that he had a share in "that truly Polish hopefulness" that finds expression in the poetry of the Polish Romantics Mickiewicz and S_owaki. This leads to the question whether there exists a connetion between Mickiewicz's "Ode to Youth" and Conrad's "Youth."

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Despite a superficial difference of form a similarity of thought and effect is obvious, and in its composite effect "Youth" is as much an ode as Mickiewicz's poem. There is a marked divergence in "Youth" from the decidely religious tone that prevails in the "Ode," but the Polish heritage of hopefulness is as genuinely reflected in it as it is in the "Ode." Conrad's synthetic imagination made him present a vision of life that is marked by contrasts because his inclination toward pessimism and doubt was counteracted by his inborn tendency to remain hopeful in seemingly hopeless situations.

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