Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

A Dark Rationale for Domination-Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Scum of the Earth

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Darkness at Noon, Scum of the Earth

1. "There are only two conceptions of human ethics, and they are at opposite poles. One of them is Christian and humane, declares the individual to be sacrosanct, and asserts the the rules of arithmetic are not to be applied to human units. The other starts from the basic principle that a collective aim justifies all means, and not only allows, but demands, that the individual should in every way be subordinated and sacrificed to the community --which may dispose of it as an experimentation rabbit or a sacrificial lamb." This passage from Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon (Random House 1941) suggests the danger of Nazi and Communist governments which place the survival of the State above the value of human life and dignity (Koestler 157). Darkness at noon, death in light, suffering in the twisted guise of progress, all suggest the perverse regimes during the height of German and Soviet dictatorship. Koestler's novel recounts the final days in the life of Party member Nicolas Salmanovitch Rubashov, who, after forty years of faithful service, is denounced and imprisoned by the people's Commisariat of the Interior for unknowingly taking a position against the Party leader No. 1 (258). The protagonist describes the officers as the Praetorian guards of the German Dictatorship" who wore " on their caps and sleeves . . . the aggressively barbed cross" (5) and addressed one another as "comrade" (9). As the officers transport Rubashov to prison, the main character thinks to himself that "History will rehabilitate" him; however, such is not the case (14). Ironically, Koestler says, "There was no certainty; only the appeal to that mocking oracle they called History, who gave her sentence only when the jaws of the appealer had long since fallen to dust" (15). In fact, the author scorns those who use history for their own deterministic purposes, saying that "history was more of an oracle than a science," and that subjective rather than objective factors influenced the development in the second quarter of the twentieth century [which] led to the triumph of the totalitarian principle in the East of Europe" (17). In the narrative, the author traces the protagonist's psychological quest for truth as he attempts to justify his past actions for the Party with the government's rationale for liquidating him. Rubashov spends day after day in a small cell six and one-half steps across, between a bed and a bucket and hearing scream after scream of the inmates condemned to die (17). From the onset, the hero thinks to himself, "They will shoot me. My motives will be of no interest to them" (24). Awaiting his fate, Rubashov recalls a Monday afternoon in 1933, in a picture gallery in southern Germany, a location which he later realizes was a place of his betrayal. There, the outstretched hands of the Pieta represent an "imploring gesture" of compassion and understanding ( 31). Koestler, in this recurring image, also contrasts the beauty and underlying faith of the Pieta with the barbarism of the country's government (31). In another image, Rubashov holds an edition of Goethe's Faust, which the author uses to contrast the spiritual and metaphysical tension the hero undergoes (33). Another prominent symbol Koestler uses is Rubashov's pince-nez, which represents his lack of an accurate vision of truth. Repeatedly, the protagonist drops his glasses or they fall from his face, in a manner suggesting his lack of insight or moral perception (238). Ironically, just before his execution do the glasses fall from his face and are recovered by the guard following him, thus suggesting that at last he sees the truth, yet only as he faces death (265). Koestler also uses a religious allusion when the porter Wassilij compares Rubashov to Peter who betrayed Christ "thrice " before the day ends (248). Rubashov's walk down the corridor to the place of his execution, the porter compares to Christ's walk "into the hall called Praetorium . . . where they clothed him in purple . . . beat . . . and spit upon him" (246).

2. Koestler creates of tragic tone of loss and betrayal as the hero realizes how the interrogator focuses on the minor details of his early life to destroy him, details and remarks that only other victims of similar oppression would fabricate to save themselves or their families. In the cold, dark prison cell, Rubashov suffers the fear, suspicion, and injustice of a totalitarian regime bent on his destruction, not because of his disloyalty but because of his earlier popularity with the people, a popularity that endangers public support for the current regime because his current views differ with the Party leader and cannot gain the public 's acceptance in any other manner than by denouncing him as a traitor. For the first time, the protagonist senses an enormous burden of guilt as he recalls his actions of violence against all opposition, and his failure to support fellow Party members at times when they most needed his testimony to save their lives, condemning acts of omission which subsequently destroy the fabric of his soul and spirit. Koestler also ironically suggests that Time itself changes History, as the achievements of one generation pales into obscurity and another forgets. This tragic set of circumstances serves to destroy the hero. A member of an earlier regime, Rubashov now faces a new, younger leadership which does not value nor respect the successes of the past, and because of their ineptitude, the new government has eliminated most of the protagonist's early associates, those who have ironically struggled and given their lives for their country and the cause of freedom (228). Rubashov criticizes Gletkin, his prosecutor, for this youthful disrespect and lack of forethought in the following passage: "How he [Gletkin] had raged in the great field of experiment, the Fatherland of the Revolution, the Bastion of Freedom! Gletkin justified everything that happened with the principle that the bastion must be preserved. But what did it look like inside? No, one cannot build Paradise with concrete. The bastion would be preserved, but it no longer had a message, nor an example to give to the world" (259). Stability at all costs forfeits creative leadership, compassion, and cooperation.