The Human Conscience

The decision between right and wrong is as old as time. It controls our thoughts, actions, and ultimately our future. This concept is even used in art and literature. In Louis de Bernieres’s novel, Corelli’s Mandolin, the perception of right and wrong shows its strongest points in most of the characters during the war. The story is set in World War II on Cephallonia, a small island off of the coast of Greece. The protagonist, Pelagia, is torn between two men, Mandras, the fisherman turned young soldier she is betrothed to, and Captain Corelli, a peace-loving Italian captain. One of the best-known trials that the conscience of the human mind shows up the best in is in chapter twenty-eight, Liberating the Masses.

The chapter follows the character Mandras, a young man on a mission to win his love, Pelagia’s, honor and a dowry from her father, Dr. Iannis, through proving his worth by fighting in World War II. He is in his  second tour of duty of the war. While on duty in the mountains, he meets Hector, a local Communist leader, and his rebel group, ELAS. At which point he is given a choice to join or die. He joins them because he would be killed if he didn’t do so. Hector then gives Mandras the task of beating and killing an old man. This is where the universal concept of right and wrong do their ancient dance. Hector orders Mandras to beat the old man because he was apparently accused of theft. At first, Mandras is in shock because the man is very old and looks innocent. The right path is to spare the old man from suffering and death and in turn spare his daughter the misery of losing him. The immoral path is to obey Hector’s order to be a butcher and kill the old man. The consequences of which look grim. If Mandras spares the old man, he himself will be killed. If he his kills the old man, his hands would be forever stained with innocent blood.

With the decision whether to the commit murder or not come the voices of those who would have him to do wrong. The role of peer pressure slides in when Hector states, “’If you want to be with us, you’ve got to learn to administer justice. This man…’ he pointed ‘… has been found guilty. Now beat him.’” (Pg. 192.) Sound familiar? This is the forever-present peer pressure to be accepted into the desired clique. It is strong during the teen years of human nature. Mandras chose the immoral path by beating and shooting the old man.

This is a powerful internal conflict in the young soldier’s mind. What makes it more so, is the fact that Mandras is as the novel states, “A lost soul, a little embittered without knowing why, young enough to be impressed and delighted by the attaching of resonant names to lofty concepts, lonely and sad enough to be befriended.” (Pg. 190.) This is how media portrays most characters with the human conscience. The character tends to be a lost sheep looking for acceptance to society. In Mandras case, he is looking for a way to prove his worth to Pelagia, Dr. Iannis, and the people in what is left of his village. He wants to be seen not as a goofy fisherman on the island, but as a hero. He went to war for that reason alone. Through his first tour, Mandras lost his mind and his spirit ended up crushed. To top it off, Pelagia doesn’t recognize him when he comes home and she treats him as a faceless patient just like her father’s other patients. By going back, he would have a chance to redeem himself.

As I researched this Psychological Literary Criticism theory, I was presented with the different ways of dealing with past trauma and problems. They are: Repression (hiding one’s desires and fears in the unconscious), Isolation (disconnecting one’s emotions from a traumatic event), Sublimation (redirecting an unacceptable desire into a creative act), Displacement (replacing an unacceptable object of one’s emotion with a safe one), Denial (refusing to accept one’s unacceptable desires or fears or a traumatic event), Projection (placing one’s unacceptable or unworthy desires or fears onto another), Intellectualization, (avoiding one’s desires and fears by analyzing them and rationalizing them – instead of feeling them), and Reaction Formation (believing the opposite is true to avoid facing the truth about a traumatic event).

Judging by these methods of coping, it would seem that Mandras is experiencing displacement and intellectualization.  Mandras’ unconscious motivations were proving his self-worth and love. After his spirit was crushed, he seemed to be desperate to redeem himself. At first, He didn’t want to kill the old man. But, the young soldier thought of himself as just a hand to his new commander, Hector. Then, he saw Dr. Iannis in the old man and remembered that he was getting a dowry for marrying Pelagia. Mandras thought that the world would go on without one more old man and he shot him. That shows my conclusion that he experienced displacement and intellectualization. He replaced guilt with reason and acceptance. Intellectualization came in when Mandras decided that one more old man was useless to the planet and it was all right to kill him. If you broke it down, Mandras was just trying to show that is man enough to be in ELAS. The unconscious pieces of this chapter were Mandras’ conscience (the devil and angel so to speak) and his desire to make something of himself.

    De Bernieres wrote this particular chapter to show the reader the effects that war has on the human conscience and their decisions between right and wrong. He wrote the entire chapter as a grim opportunity to place the reader in the young soldier’s place. He discreetly asks the question, “What would you do in this situation?” Mandras is in this case a tool to show society the results of going down the immoral road.