"The Lagoon" is a short story by Joseph Conrad composed in 1896 and first published in The Cornhill Magazine in January 1897. The work was collected in ConradâÂÂs first volume of short stories Tales of Unrest (1898).
One of ConradâÂÂs âÂÂMalayan talesâÂÂ, âÂÂThe LagoonâÂÂ, at 5,500 words, is ConradâÂÂs shortest work of fiction. Frequently anthologized, Conrad reported that it was his favorite story.
A white man, addressed as "Tuan" (the equivalent of "Lord" or "Sir") arrives by canoe at the remote jungle dwelling of the Malayan Arsat. The two men were formerly involved in some regional intrigues. The white man finds that ArsatâÂÂs wife, Diamelen, is dying from a mysterious illness. Arsat begins to tell a story, starting with the time when he and his brother kidnapped Diamelen (who was previously a servant of the rajah's wife). They all fled in a boat at night and traveled until they were exhausted. Soon, they discover they are being pursued by the rajah's men. Arsat's brother told Diamelen and Arsat to flee to the other side, where there was a fisherman's hut. He instructed them to take the fisherman's boat and then stayed back, telling them to wait for him, while he tried to hold the pursuers off with his rifle. Arsat then starts pushing the canoe from shore, leaving his brother behind. He then sees his brother running down the path, being chased by the pursuers. Arsat's brother tripped and the enemy was upon him. His brother got up, then called out to him three times, but Arsat never looked back. The pursuers killed his brother and Arsat had betrayed his brother for the woman he loved, who was now dying.
Towards the end of the story, symbolically, the sun rises and Diamelen dies. With Diamelen's death, Arsat has nothing because he lost his brother and wife. After Diamelen's death, he tells Tuan he plans to return to his home village to avenge his brother's death.
The story is full of symbols and contrasts - such as the use of dark/light, black/white, sunrise/sunset, water/fire, and movement/stillness. Arsat's clearing is still, nothing moves, yet everything outside the clearing moves. Earlier in the story, his brother tells Arsat that he is only half of a man, for Diamelen has his heart and he is not whole. With Diamelen's death, Arsat becomes a whole man again. At the end of the story, motion finally enters Arsat's clearing. The movement signifies his leaving of "a world of illusion" and the fact that Arsat is finally a "free man". In the story, darkness represents ignorance and denial, whereas light represents enlightenment and the fact that Arsat is finally a free man.
The story is a tale of âÂÂimpulsive betrayal and permanent remorseâ in which an âÂÂact of redemptionâ will likely result in the protagonistâÂÂs death . Critic Laurence Graver remarks of ArsatâÂÂs tragic fate:
ArsatâÂÂs appeal to the white narrator of the story, who appears to âÂÂembody a moral positionâ is in fact merely an observer and can offer no insights into the MalayâÂÂs moral crisis. Literary critic Edward W. Said comments of the ArsatâÂÂs doomed search for guidance to resolve his dilemma:
English caricaturist Max Beerbohm included Conrad among the seventeen authors he parodied in his 1912 A Christmas Garland.
Beerbohm, in targeting âÂÂliterary falsenessâ singled out two of ConradâÂÂs Malay tales, âÂÂâ and âÂÂThe Lagoonâ for the âÂÂadjectival excessesâ of their styles.
âÂÂThe Lagoonâ in particular, according to literary critic Alfred J. Guerard âÂÂmay well have deserved Max BeerbohmâÂÂs amusing parodyâ¦And yet it has the very originality and personal accent that provokes parody. It is indeed an eccentric dreamâ¦â The âÂÂincoherencyâ of the story, which combines the elements of a âÂÂsymbolism prose-poem, a story of crime and punishment, and an exotic local-color storyâ was bound to provoke a burlesque: âÂÂThe obvious idiosyncrasy is the one of which Beerbohm made such capital.âÂÂ