The Knitting Machine

Letters from Joseph Conrad to R.B Cunninghame Graham

Joseph Conrad had a conservative mindset, which his friend Robert Cunninghame Graham did not share. Robert Cunninghame Graham had a more socialist view of anarchism, and thus Conrad wrote two letters to help Graham understand the reasons behind such a rationalist view. In these two letters, Conrad explains the political system the human race is in control and that no treatment would help destroy it. The author does this by using a ‘knitting machine’ as a metaphorical personification to explain the working of the political hierarchy.

R.B Cunninghame Graham

Joseph Conrad calls Graham, a “hopeless idealist” (A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 263). This shows that Conrad had a more rationalist view on the topic of politics. In his letters he also explains that in his book The Secret Agent he was not “satirizing the revolutionary world.” (A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 265) He believed that anarchy was not a ‘revolution’ but a ‘sham’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 265). Indirectly Conrad connected it to the fact that he believed that Graham was ‘an idealist’. The author supports this view by adding –“You want from men faith, honour, fidelity to truth in themselves"((A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264). .In the Victorian times the political system held the social system so strongly that even that went against that system was either criticized harshly or was punished. Conrad said that the difference between himself and Graham was that Conrad ‘did not believe’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264). This meant that anyone who did believed in change was dangerous to the ‘respectable men’.

Joseph Conrad

Conrad uses personification of a ‘knitting machine’ and the ‘professor’ to explain that political wheel. The fact that Conrad uses a machine to explain the political system shows the coldness of the political system: “It evolved itself out of chaos of scraps of iron and behold! – it knits.” (A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264) The political system was built from many trails and errors, and eventually showed results that people high in the hierarchy order was pleased of. Thus, the machine is a full proof system due to the results that it gave. Due to the specialization of the machine Conrad believed that:“I feel it ought to embroider-and it goes on knitting’(A letter to R.BCunninghame Graham ,pg 264), here Conrad uses the same concept of an expecting ‘an apple tree to grow oranges’. Furthermore the author adds: “I might expect something out of it but the function of the machine is to knit supports his next view which says, “you cannot by any special lubrication make embroidery with a knitting machine”, shows the *fact that the structure is so perfect that changing it would be almost impossible to do because it has only one function(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264). That one function has its own oil than cannot be changed as the oil is made for that particular system. The political system had its own morals that it was built upon thus a change would be impossible to make because the structure of the morals was too rigid to break. The author continues with: “And the withering thought….made itself’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264), shows the confidence that the system built in itself which made it impossible to breakdown. The “withering” thought is that is does not have any emotions thus would not accept change. The repetition of ‘without’ helps making an impactful argument that the machine is too tight knit to accept foreign ideas. Furthermore, the author also explains that the machine is built without ‘conscience’ thus is monotonous is cold in the work it does. The author himself asserts that ‘you can’t interfere without it’ and it is ‘indestructible’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264). Such personification and imagery of the knitting machine makes the point more convincing. The professor in the book connects to this machine that Conrad uses in his letter to Graham. The author also mentions that “in making him say ‘madness and despair...I wanted to give him a note of perfect sencerity’, the sincerity is shown towards the author's own point of view on the 'perfect anarchist'. The Professor, is a character that shows the same view as the author did about he defination of the perfect anarchist. However, the difference was that the professor is a 'megalomaniac' (A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 265) because he aimed for change, but the author did not believe in change. 

Knitting Machine in the Victorian Age

Conrad ends the letter with ‘it knits us in and knits us out,’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264) which is an allegory of how the political structure shapes the society because of the fact that it is indestructible and thus has the power to do so. The author here repeats that the machine is not prudent about its consequences because: ‘It has knitted time, space, pain, death, corruption, despair and all the illusions- and nothing matters’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 264), this combines the whole argument that Conrad ‘does not believe’. Conrad also did not believe in change because the machine was too blind to change and would throw out any foreign ideas because it has no 'conscience' or 'eyes'. Conrad in the end believed that the ‘true anarchist’ was the ‘millionaire’(A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham ,pg 265). The millionaire is the only man that can make his own rules and stays apart from the ‘knitting machine’ because he would know how to make an ‘embroidery machine’. The millionaire would also know how to keep the ‘knitting machine’ on the side but could also completely shun it when needed.

In conclusion, the point that Conrad makes throughout the letters is extremely powerful because the political system now and then has the same implications of ‘corruption’ and ‘illusion’. The political system in the Victorian ages was more stringent than the political system now. The democratic government is more hypocritical than the one before as the government lies about the morals they follow. However, due to the many mishaps that exposed the political system many have started to question the working of the government. The diction that he uses helps the reader to understand the system in a more thorough way and relate to it. As in the end a person cannot change the knitting machine but only give it a different kind of thread to knit.

Citations:

1. Conrad, Joseph. “A letter to R.B Cunninghame Graham,” In the Secret Agent. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press,2009.