Narcissus in the Underworld: Counterpointing Myths in "The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus'"

This paper analyzes Conrad's “The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’” within the framework of two contraposed mythic paradigms that are both invoked in the novel: those of Narcissus and Orpheus. It is argued that Conrad interweaves and at the same time juxtaposes these myths so as to communicate different facets of the essentially ambivalent conception of life he was articulating in his novel, the figures of Narcissus and Orpheus epitomizing the impulses towards egoistic self-absorption and group solidarity that are pitted against one another on a ship that is a microcosm of human society.