A Disturbed Mind (Conformist, the: A Novel - Alberto Moravia)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	Conformist, the: A Novel - Alberto Moravia
Date:	26/04/04 (682 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written, Gripping story

Disadvantages: Quite complex ideas

Alberto Maoravia is one of the most important Italian authors of the 20th century. He was a journalist, short story writer and poet as well as a novelist. Later in life he involved himself directly in politics after a life of being a left wing thinker. He suffered from tuberculosis in early life and spent much of his childhood in sanatoriums being deprived or a formal education, which make his literary achievements all the more praiseworthy. His books mainly deal with an exploration of sexuality and the alienation of man in modern society form a left wing perspective. This soon led to many of his books being banned and he himself had to flee from the Fascist authorities.

'The Conformist' is an attempt by Moravia to explain how an extreme ideology can utterly corrupt an ordinary man to become an unthinking unfeeling tool who exists with the sole purpose of promoting his beliefs.

Written in 1951 it marks a shift in Moravia's' style in this novel he adopts a more personal less objective first person narration, which was beginning to be the vogue amongst many modernist writers of the period and in this way he tries an succeeds in taking us into the mind of the fascist spy Marcello Clerici.

The story begins in the form of a long prologue that describes Marcello's troubled childhood and in particular a traumatic event that has serious repercussions for him throughout his later life. This experience is the key to why he becomes obsessed with a wish to conform and to why this eventually leads him to become an almost inhuman puppet of fascistic ideology. Because of his disturbing childhood experiences Marcello does not see himself as normal, deep within himself he feels there is a rotten core and he takes his actions as a child to be proof of this. His self-belief in his own humanity has been shaken and in order to survive he has to become
'normal', to conform, to be led and not to rebel from what he sees as the accepted principles of the society in which he lives.

This is Fascist Italy in the 1940's Marcello is a low ranking official in the Fascist government, he's a family man, loyal, hard working obsessed with a devotion to his party. This is Marcello's way of proving to others but more importantly to him that he is not a freak.

However below this surface of normality lies a maelstrom of repressed sexual desires and psychological torment. Matters reach a crisis point when he is asked by the Party to contact and assassinate a leading dissident intellectual. Marcello in his warped sense of duty has no problem with taking a life for the cause, this is just part of what he has to do in order to conform but when he realises that the man he has been asked to kill is his former teacher and one time friend Professor Quadri, he begins to have doubts. The situation is further complicated by a sexual attraction to the Professor's young wife Lina.

Moravia doesn't ever paint Marcello in a sympathetic light but he does give us an explanation as to why he has turned in to the disturbed individual he is. When dealing with any extreme view it is important for ordinary people to ask why is it that men and women can come to hold these views. It is often to easy to describe people as evil or inhuman this tends to circumvent any real understanding of the issues. Moravia is certainly no apologist for Marcello or Fascism but he more than many realises that in order to counter and defeat such extreme ideologies we all need to understand why people would be attracted to them.

'The Conformist' has been compared by some to Camus' 'The Stranger' but at first the two lead characters are quite different. Mersault in 'T
he Stranger' is the ultimate outsider, he fees totally alienated by his existence and thus feels no connection or any moral or emotional attachment to those around him. His ability to love or care for others is destroyed, he becomes devoid of an emotional centre. Marcello on the surface is a total opposite he doesn't see himself as an outsider that infact this is his nightmare, he wants to be a part of normal society as he sees it he wants no more than to conform to the mores and beliefs that the Fascists hold. The fact that fascism discourages free thought or a questioning of those beliefs is right for Marcello since to question himself and his motivations might unearth some dreadful truth deep within his psyche. It is the irony at the centre of the novel that by while wishing to conform so thoroughly he in fact loses his humanity and becomes alienated in the same way as the stranger in Camus' book. Marcello chooses not to see the corruption around him. His superiors and colleagues in the party are all weak and flawed in their adoption of the ideology.

Moravia does a superb job of conveying the motivations of Marcello to the reader. In Marcello he has created a powerful characterisation of the evils of unthinking, unquestioning obedience to a cause. Where the novel is less successful and this might have more to do with Moravia' personal experiences is in the portrayal of women. It seems that all the key female characters, Marcello mother, his wife and his lover are rather shallow limited in their scope. Marcello mother is an ageing flirt, caked in makeup and constantly flirting even uncomfortably with Marcello. His wife Giulia is simple wanting no more than to be married have children and life a comfortable middle class life, she loves Marcello in her own way but this like their very sexual relations mean little to him. Even after they have made
love and conceived their child he sees it as just another part of his acceptance of normality devoid of love or any emotion.

"I have been a man like all other men?I have loved, I have united myself with a woman and have begotten another human being."

The detachment of the character is chilling.

His 'lover' Lina is a manipulative temptress again a very sexual being that is intent on corrupting him and Giulia for her own ends. He is as much attracted to her as a woman as for his own realisation of the excitement he feels in doing something that is against his vision of normality.

It may be unintentional but showing the women in this way taking into account that we see the story from his disturbed mind then maybe the lack of sympathy or depth in the female characters is understandable and even necessary.

The conformist is a complex book written in a very easy clear style. The ideas involved in the story do not take away from the narrative, which is engaging and well paced. In essence this is a thriller using Fascist Italy as a backdrop. The reader gets a good feel for the stifling nature of the country at that time and the oppression and corruption that existed. It is a brilliant study of a disturbed weak man but also a cracking story that can be read and enjoyed on its own merits.

'The Conformist' is one of many of Moravia's novels that have been successfully adapted for the big screen. 'The Conformist' was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1970 and other adapted works include Two Women (De Sica 1960) and A Ghost At Noon (Godard 1964).

The Conformist is available from amazon.co.uk for £8.39 (+p&p)


Thanks for reading and rating this review.

© Mauri 2004

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