‘Oh, I hope he won’t talk!’ – Confronting the Other in “Amy Foster”
‘Oh, I hope he won’t talk!’ – Confronting the Other in “Amy Foster”

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the theme of confronting the Other in Conrad’s story “Amy Foster”. In an indifferent and at times even hostile or malevolent universe, Yanko Goorall’s fate seems to exemplify Man’s ultimate loneliness and the impossibility of reaching a full understanding of other people, as there is always an unbridgeable rift between individuals, of which linguistic and cultural barriers are but a small fraction. Limited by their narrow-mindedness or parochialism and overburdened by the bleak reality of everyday toil, Amy and the other villagers of Colebrook lack the capacity and sensibility that is needed to show understanding. They also lack the imagination to perceive Yanko’s basic needs and to acknowledge his longing for communication and natural human contact. However, the overall atmosphere of inhumanity and the general sense of estrangement appear to be slightly alleviated by – though not entirely compensated for – the empathy and yearning to find “a particle of a general truth in every mystery” exhibited in Doctor Kennedy’s account – which, characteristically, is framed by the primary narrator’s sincere interest in Yanko’s tragedy

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