The Idiot: A short story

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The Idiots (short story)

The Idiots tells us about a farmer, Jean-Pierre Bacadou, who, after returning from the war, finds that his parents no longer manage the farm very efficiently, and in order to take over from them, Bacadou gets married and wants to have a family of his own. When his first two boys — twins — are born, the joy experienced in the household is but of short-lived duration as it becomes evident that both children are mentally handicapped and will never be able to take over the farm from their father.

Bacadou has firmly set his mind on a male heir, however, and so, in the course of the next few years, makes his wife give birth to two more children, who suffer from the same mental impairment.

Instead of accepting the idea that his farm will one day pass on to someone of only remote kin, Bacadou finds this an infuriating prospect and again wants to force his wife to have yet another child but his attempt at raping her starts a chain of fateful events. In the hands of a lesser author, the plot of The Idiots would have become a trite didactic story with a moral, but Conrad makes it very ambiguous and includes various motifs that preclude us from pigeonholing the characters and what they stand for.

This ambiguity already starts with the change of perspective we experience in this story, which is, at first, told from the outside by an unnamed first person narrator, who sees the four mentally retarded adolescents by the roadside and later learns the story behind them. When the story is told, its first part is closer to the point of view of Bacadou, allowing us to share his worries about the farm and its future, but the second part is given from the perspective of his desperate wife, who is probably repeatedly raped by her husband and finally only sees one way out of her predicament.

Another device that makes this short story such a very compelling read is the contrast between the soil and the sea that is conjured up here. Conrad presents the Bacadous as typical farmers, stubborn, firm of purpose, not given to strong emotions, and in this he likens them to the soil they cultivate.

And it seemed to him that to a man worse than childless there was no promise in the fertility of fields, that from him the earth escaped, defied him, frowned at him like the clouds, sombre and hurried above his head. Having to face alone his own fields, he felt the inferiority of man who passes away before the clod that remains. View all 5 comments.

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Jun 27, Marts Thinker rated it really liked it Shelves: A short story by Conrad, telling the unfortunate tale of a small farming family This was such an unexpectedly sad tale. I guess money really can't buy you happiness.

A delightful short story, so very well constructed, such a very sad story of two innocents husband and wife and their four imbecilic children, the parents absolutely devastatingly distraught, with a very real tragic ending. A product of a very mature skillful author. Aug 04, Carielyn Mills rated it really liked it. Aug 15, Sadig rated it liked it.

Very interesting topic choice and skillful depiction of human emotion at certain moments. Bryan rated it it was ok Mar 21, Arthur rated it liked it Aug 28, Infeliz Hg rated it really liked it Jul 21, Izz rated it liked it Jan 06, Alice rated it it was ok Dec 11, Jun 28, Laura marked it as to-read Recommended to Laura by: Free download available at http: Ysul rated it liked it Jan 07, Lambros Skaranis rated it really liked it Sep 10, Fitriaolga rated it it was ok Apr 11, Katya Sheshko rated it really liked it Oct 14, Klaudio Marashi rated it it was ok Jan 06, Joe rated it did not like it Nov 17, Ana Campanha rated it liked it Nov 08, Mitchelle R Jansen rated it it was ok Jul 27, Steve Birchmore rated it liked it Feb 02, The story was included in the Conrad collection Tales of Unrest , published in Set in Britanny , the story describes a couple whose children have intellectual disability ; the strain on the family leads eventually to murder.

1896 short stories

The stone-cutters are in it, our landlady is in it, and the feeling of our surroundings, perhaps a little more sombrely than the reality", and explained how the story originated: And all in the same family. That's a little too much. And the priests say it's God's will! Conrad had a poor opinion of this story, writing that it was "an obviously derivative piece of work"; he did not name a model, but critics have supposed that it was influenced by Guy de Maupassant.

The reader is introduced to "the idiots" as the narrator is driven near Ploumar in Brittany and they are pointed out on the road by the driver. The earlier story of the family follows. Jean-Pierre Bacadou, returning from military service, finds his elderly father's farm is in a poor state, and resolves to make improvements. He marries Susan; the celebration of the event at the farm is picturesquely described.

Twins are born; Jean-Pierre notices something is wrong. His wife says, dully, "When they sleep they are like other people's children.

The parish priest calls on the local landowner, the Marquis de Chavanes, to say that Jean-Pierre Bacadou, a republican, has attended Mass, an unheard-of event. The Marquis, a royalist and former mayor, thinks this is significant, and thinks he will win the next communal election, since he regards Jean-Pierre as influential.

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