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Volume :9 Issue : 35 1989
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Conrad's Victory: Probing the Mystery of Heyst's Actions
Auther : Mahmoud Kharbutli
Having rescued Alma from her exploiters and run with her to his island, Heyst broods on the mystery of his actions. This paper addresses this very issue, by probing Heysts character mainly in terms of Jungs psychology. Heyst conforms to Jungs conception of the introverted type, and his al-truistic outbursts are nothing but the eruptions of the unconscious, which, for Jung, has a compensatory relation to consciousness. Moreover, within the same framework Heyst is found to suffer from neurosis, the symptoms of which are his chronic fatigue and lack of will. His mistrust of life and the resulting inability to establish any permanent human community constitute two consequences of the condition. His failure to cope successfully with reality also underscores his neurosis. Instead of dealing with reality for purposes of healthy adaptation, he is persecuted by its overwhelming personal and cultural plenitude. What happens with him is that he fails to disti nguish between what is to remain objective and what has to be recognized as subjective. In other words, he fails to assert himself against the tyranny of the past and to achieve his freedom and individuality, both of which define victory for Jung and Conrad.