Under western eyes is full of cynicism and conflict about the historical failures of revolutionary movements and ideals. Conrad remarks in this book, as well as others, on the irrationality of life, the opacity of character, the unfairness with which suffering is inflicted upon the innocent and poor, and the careless disregard for the lives of those with whom we share existence. The protagonist, Razumov, is an ambitious and zealous student with an unwavering faith in order and institutions: “Evolution, not revolution” is his motto. When the young anarchist Haldin, after assassinating a minister, asks him for protection, Razumov turns him in to the authorities and goes into the service of the Russian secret police as a spy and agent provocateur. But an encounter with Natalia, the conspirator’s sister, arouses in him an unknown need for sincerity and marks the beginning of a journey of redemption that culminates in the confession of betrayal. Conrad digs into the “case of conscience” to denounce tsarist despotism without hiding his aversion to revolutionary ideas that deny individual freedom: the reactionary-revolution dialectic rooted in the Slavic soul is incomprehensible to his “Western eyes, ” which in politics see only the violence of power and the disease of fanaticism.
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