Amy Foster & The Mythology Of Love Essay, Research Paper

Amy Foster & The Mythology of Love

In “Amy Foster”, Joseph Conrad has written a great story that

shows the different types of love felt between Amy and Yanko as

described by Joseph Campbell in his essay on “The Mythology of Love”.

The relationship of Yanko and Amy is dynamic and changes as the story

progresses. At first, Amy feels compassion for Yanko; she does not see

the differences between him and the English people as the others of

Brenzett do. However, later in the story, compassion turns to passion.

Amy’s son is then born; distinctions appear and she is either no

longer able to love Yanko or she loves Yanko to such an extent that

she finds she is incapable of joining Yanko on an earthly plane as

Joseph Campbell describes (page 159). Whatever the reasons may be,

Amy refuses to aid Yanko in his time of need, resulting in Yanko’s

death. There is a great change of heart from Amy’s first compassion

for Yanko to her nonchalance of his death. However, the results may

have only been a product of the different levels of love felt by Amy

for Yanko. The general population of Brenzett treats Yanko an escaped

lunatic when he is first spotted in the seaside town. He is whipped,

stoned and beaten by many of the residents. In addition, he was

captured and caged like a wild animal. He is described as a “drunk”,

“tramp”, and “creature”. He is very different from the usual

Englishman and is treated as such. He is segregated and is forced to

work for Mr. Swaffer. However, one person sees through the

differences. Amy, perhaps because of her stupidity or an ability to

feel for Yanko, does not see a wild foreigner that screams at night

and dances strangely. She saw only the similarities, the oneness of

two human beings, and not the separateness. This is the basis of

compassion, as Campbell shows. Thus, Amy is able to be “selfless,

boundless, without ego”. This compassion shown for Yanko expresses the

affection felt by Amy for the foreigner and is received by him as

love. The love is returned by Yanko in his actions, when he buys Amy a

green ribbon and eventually proposes marriage. This is one of the

levels of love described by Joseph Campbell, compassion. It transcends

differences and differences. The nature of the relationship changes

after the two marry. It degrades from a “higher, spiritual order of

love” to an “animal passion”. It is no longer a oneness for which Amy

loves Yanko. Rather, it is the sex drive, the physical want of a male

for a female and vice versa. This type of relationship, as

Campbell states, still “transcends differences and even loyalties”.

Conrad writes, “Her infatuation endured. People saw her

going out to meet him in the evening. She stared with unblinking,

fascinated eyes up the road where he was expected to appear…” This

clearly shows that Amy no longer feels compassion; instead, she feels

passion for Yanko. Socially, it is more powerful to feel passion

rather than compassion. However, Campbell asserts that compassion

reveals a deeper understanding of oneness and connection rather than a

lower form of love such as passion, the mere sexual longing for a

member of the opposite sex. Therefore, what may seem to be a

development of greater love for one another may in essence be the

degradation of true love. Soon after, the passion evolves yet again.

There is some ambiguity to what type of love it has been transformed

into; there are two possibilities because of which Amy refuses to help

Yanko. It could be that Amy’s love for Yanko has developed into the

third love described by Joseph Campbell, a love for one specific

person. “For let us note well (and here is the high point of Mann’s

thinking on the subject): what is lovable about any human being is

precisely his imperfections,” says Campbell (page 167). Amy begins to

love Yanko for the individual that he is, not the person that is

connected to her or the member of the opposite sex. Amy sees how he

sings to their new son in a strange language, he teaches the boy how

to pray; she sees his differences, and realizes that she could never

really be one with him on “this earth”. Could this be why Amy allows

Yanko to die? Perhaps she love’s him so much she finds the only way to

be one with him is to allow him to die. Perhaps the “agony of love” is

too much for her to bear and thus she ends the pain. There also lies a

faint possibility that Amy recognizes the difference between Yanko and

the common man and that she loses the most important aspect of love,

similarity. Without the compassion or passion, she is unable to love

or care for Yanko, even in his time of need. Therefore, when Yanko

calls for her help, she looks at him as if he is an alien and does not

aid him, while she has lost all love for him. It is unclear to the

reader whether it is great love that Amy experiences – so great, she

cannot bear the pain – or it is an inability to love Yanko anymore

that causes her stay motionless as Yanko calls for her help as he dies

in front of her. The story of “Amy Foster” presents an incredible

mystery about the love between a dull woman and a foreign man. Even

with the aid of an extremely helpful analysis of love by Joseph

Campbell, it remains unclear why Amy acts the way she does as Yanko

lies on his deathbed. Does Amy feel an immense love for Yanko or does

she fail to love him at all? Whatever the reason may be, it is

clear that she expresses throughout the story many of the differing

types of love along with their implications discussed in Campbell’s

essay, “The Mythology of Love”.