The Fall Of Man In Araby And Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

From each of the works studied, the characters experience the fall of man in which the world 's "centre cannot hold", consequently leaving the characters where the essences and God are lost. A world without God is a world of anarchy, violence and death also know as a fallen (postlapsarian) world, and characters experience this world after the fall of man occurs. The works in which characters treat the problem of living in a fallen world include: James Joyce 's "Araby", Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness, Sophocles ' Oedipus Rex, Wordsworth 's "Tintern Abbey", and Mathew Arnold 's "Dover Beach". After exploring the works, it is clear that when the characters and speakers recognize that they are living in a fallen world, they decide how

In James Joyce 's "Araby" and Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness, characters have sex and death experiences that catalyze their problem of living in a fallen (postlapsarian) world. From "Araby" readers come across a boy who experiences sex after his sexual awakening where he falls in love with his friend 's sister. At the same time the boy experiences death as he is living in the home of a deceased priest. These experiences cause the boy to lose his innocence and create his frustration as he cannot buy a gift for Mangan 's sister like he desires. The boy is living in a fallen world and readers discover how he treats this problem when he says: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger". The boy treats the problem of living in a

However, unlike the other works there is a positive way to treat the problem instead of becoming beasts, gouging eyes out, etc. In "Tintern Abbey" the speaker is living in a postlapsarian world consisting of "evil tongues", "rash judgements", and "the sneers of men". The speaker visits his memories where nature has "beauteous forms" where "sensations sweet" and are "felt in the blood, and felt along the heart". Fortunately for the speaker, nature 's power over the mind renders the mind from seeing what the fallen world consists of and instead sees "cheerful faith that the world is full of blessing". In "Dover Beach" the speaker describes the fallen world that lies before them that "Hath neither really joy, nor love, nor light,/Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain". In this postlapsarian world science and evolution is what kills essences such as truth, faith or love. Although, the speaker is in this lonely world of diminishing fate, he is capable of tackling the pain and uncertainty of living in the fallen world. Both of these works face the problem of living in a postlapsarian world where the speakers treat the problem in a positive way compared to the other works. Dover beach treats the problem of living in a postlapsarian world by being "true to one another" and in