The second section ,again by its very heading places importace upon the 'Isabels' and the action throughout either heading towards the Iabels or is situated on them with Nostromo and Decoud philosophizing about life and its rewards. The third section is hinged around the silver ingots hidden on the Big Isabel and the Lighthouse that eventually lights up the moral downfall and death of Nostromo and the unrequited love and death of Linda Viola. To enhance the cinematic mode of regard, Conrad makes use of two time frames in his novel. One is the chronological time which exists on two primary levels: the chronological duration of the reading of the novel/watching of the film which should be 3 to 5 hours, the chronological span of narrative events which could be a few days, several years or a decade.Nostromo takes us through 5 to 6 hours of reading time but through several years of living in Sulaco, which could perhaps be judged in terms of the growth of Linda & Giselle Viola who are merely 12 to 13 years at the start of the novel and are mature women by the end of the novel. But, unlike traditional novelists, the time frame for Conrad is not a medium consisting of simply consecutive units with a forward moving linear form of expression that is subject to the three characteristics of time- transience, sequence and irrversibility. Conrad, instead moves back and forth in time with ease. The novel starts with a revolution at Sulaco , goes back to the courtship days of Emilia and Charles Gould, travels back to Sulaco and their successful attempt to revive the San Tome mine and returns to Sulaco burning with patriotic fever in the midst of a revolution. The novelist , thus takes us through time by moving from one point in space to another, a method described by Panofsky as the 'dynamization of space'. Conrad in his novels also uses psychological time, which distends or compresses in consciousness and presents itself in a continuous flux. But unlike the traditional novelists, he handles the psychological time cinematically by measuring it against chronological time. And so he describes Nostromo on the Isabels: For a long time he gazed on , then let the parted bushes spring back and crossing over to the other side of the fort, surveyed the vast emptiness of the gulf. the darkness of the sky had descended to the horizon, enveloping the whole gulf, the islets and the lover of Antonio alone with the trea -sureon the Great Isabel...(p.349). Here the 'gaze' and its time span is measured against the 'sun high in the sky'
Part of the Dream Weave Walk 1999-2010