A Reading of Joseph Conrad's The Tale

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

The Tale is a short story by Joseph Conrad. Typical of a Conrad story it is set at sea. The sea is symbolic of the unconscious and this story may be read as a story of the unconscious. On the outside, it seems simple; a man tells a woman a tale of the commanding officer of a patrol ship who gives false directions to another ship and sends it to its doom. In between the lines of the seemingly simple plot, however, can be read another tale; one which speaks of a human sea deeper than the sea of water; deeper, darker, and infinitely more mysterious. Man has navigated the sea of water but the unfathomed sea of his own being remains, for the most part, undiscovered. This is a sea different from the sea of this world and Conrad sets sail on it by telling a tale from another world. Sailing with Conrad, the reader can look out on the infinite vastness and try to form a picture of the infinite depth of a sea which is not visible to the human eye.

Show object

• ISSN: 2300-2697
• Extent: Seite(n): 45-48
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences(4)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Soziologie, Anthropologie ; Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Zadeh, Mohammad Reza Modarres
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): SciPress
• (where): Schweiz
• (when): 2013

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.4.45
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln