Title of Joseph Conrad's The Lagoon
Literally, ‘lagoon’ (from Spanish ‘laguna’) is a
salt-watered shallow lake partly or fully isolated from the sea (or the river
of the lake) by sand banks or coral reefs.
Here in Joseph Conrad’s short story “The
Lagoon” with a typical Malayan setting serves as a befitting background
against which is narrated a tragic tale of love and despair. The ‘lagoon’
stands for human frustration and the utter illusion of the world in which there
is “no
light and no peace”, “but there is death, death for many”.
Conrad does not name his short story after any of
its important character (e.g. Arsat, Diamelen). Rather he selects a precise
title for his story. The entire theme is set against a gloomy, stagnant, and
weird-looking lagoon. The main events centres round this lagoon, for the hut of
Arsat, hero of the story. Here, by the side of the abandoned lagoon, Arsat
nurtured his loves for his darling Diamelen. Arsat and Diamelen also remain separated from
their Malayan relatives and neighbours. Their sense of isolation has thus been
deepened by the use of the lagoon as a setting of the story.
Again the water of the lagoon is salty and hence
unfit for drinking purposes. In the same way Arsat’s hope of enjoying a happy
life with his sweetheart (for whom he betrays his blood brother) is completely
blasted. Diamelen’s sudden and premature death made his life as bitter as the
salt water of the lagoon.
The author had beautifully sketched lagoon from
sunset till sunrise. The changes through which he passes help us to scan the progress
of time and to mark the changes Arsat’s mood. As the night advances a mist
creeps over the lagoon ‘erasing slowly the glittering images of the stars’. Now
‘a great expanse of white vapour covers the land’. Arsat’s brain also seems to
be under the stress of vapour, deception and illusion. He is in search of such
a country where death is forgotten and unknown.
The night comes to an end. A brand new day deigns
with the new sun. The mist lifts and vanishes into flying wreaths. The sun
shows its edge above the tree-tops rising steadily. The breeze freshens; a
great brilliance bursts upon the lagoon and sparkles the rippling water. Arsat’s
mood is also in harmony:
He stood lonely in the searching sunshine; and he looked beyond the great light of a cloudless day into the darkness of a world of illusion.In the light over the lagoon he sees his course unclear: to go back to his native land and to strike against the enemies as retribution for the death of his brother.
The lagoon also serves some symbolic functions.
First, it alike a miniature universe, totally unconcerned about the joys and
sorrows of tiny human beings inhabiting in the earth. Secondly, the lagoon
represents the very heart of Arsat.
Murmurs and whispers, mist and vapour, stillness and gloominess,
illusion and deception far outweigh the other features of the lagoon. Similarly
Arsat thought he would be happy with Diamelen and love would triumph over his
brother’s death. But an acute sense of guilt robbed him of his love, and
Diamelen’s death robbed him of his utility of existence.
The title of the story is related to the environment
as well as the events in Arsat, the protagonist’s life. It has, in fact, a
symbolic suggestiveness , an environmental effect and well bears out the
brooding, gloomy spirit of the tragic tale of love and death.
~~~~~$~~~~~
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