SOURCE: Johnson, Julie M. “The Damsel and Her Knights: The Goddess and the Grail in Conrad's Chance.” Conradiana 13, no. 3 (1981): 221-28.

In the following essay, Johnson studies the parallels between the Grail legend and Joseph Conrad's novel, Chance.

Joseph Conrad's novel, Chance, is divided into two parts, the first entitled “The Damsel,” the second entitled “The Knight.” These allusions to the chivalric tradition have been understood to be a reference to Captain Anthony's sacrificial, celibate marriage to Flora de Barral, a marriage which embodies the romantic ideal of his father's poetry.¹ It also has been argued that the subtitles are intentionally ironic, that Conrad adopted them to belie any accusation that he failed to realize “how over-simplified and falsely romantic is his treatment of [Flora's] plight.”² However, it is my conviction that the subtitles are neither superficial nor, finally, ironic. Rather, they signify the underlying structure of the novel...