"The Lagoon" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

composed in 1896 and first published in ''

The Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictionary ...

'' in 1897. The story is about a white man, referred to as "Tuan" (the equivalent of "Lord" or "Sir"), who is travelling through an Indonesian

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

and is forced to stop for the night with a distant Malay friend named Arsat. Upon arriving, he finds Arsat distraught, for his lover is dying. Arsat tells the distant and rather silent man a story of his past.

Plot

Tuan hops aboard a boat to visit a long-lost friend named Arsat. When he meets Arsat, he finds out his wife, Diamelen, is dying. Arsat then tells him a story, starting with the time when he and his brother kidnapped Diamelen (who was previously a servant of the

rajah ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested fr ...

's wife). They all fled in a boat at night and traveled until they were exhausted. They stopped on a bit of land jutting out into the water to rest. Soon, however, they spotted a large boat of the rajah's men coming to find them. 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 a limited amount of gunpowder. 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. He now had nothing. After Diamelen's death, he tells Tuan he plans to return to his home village to avenge his brother's death. The story concludes with "Tuan"s simply leaving, and Arsat's staring dejectedly into the sun and "a world of illusion".

Analysis

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.

External links

"The Lagoon"
as originally published in ''The Cornhill Magazine''
"The Lagoon"
by Conrad {{DEFAULTSORT:Lagoon, The 1897 short stories Short stories by Joseph Conrad Works originally published in The Cornhill Magazine