A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ‘DARKNESS AT NOON’

- Arthur Koestler

Submitted by – Dheeraj Pothugunta, Div – D, PRN - 20010324093

Under the guidance of Dr. Srinivas Bandameedi

SYMBIOSIS LAW SCHOOL, HYDERABAD

 ABSTRACT

‘Power and suffering’ are the most seen particularly at the times of war, this describes

that the people are ruled out completely by the powerplay people with regards to politics,

military, etc. This can be depicted by showcasing the WW (World War) where Hitler,

Stalin and many more being the most powerful leaders and completely took over the

power and humiliated them to death though there is no harm from the victim. Such

scenarios lead us to know why that is happening, what does the people wanted to confess

who got suffered. This kind of queries let’s a person to get deep through a study and

know those aspects of power and suffering. “Darkness at noon” is such a novel which

implies the hard times of Rubashov, Glintek, Ivanov’s thoughts being one of the suffered

ones during the Moscow trials. It was Woodrow Wilson who said, “There is no higher

religion than human service”, this remark here refers to the communism, but the

principals can be associated with one another. The fictional character Rubashov deals

with a very real tyranny of the communist regime. He states though all their principles

were right, the results are wrong. All this deals with historical aspects of suffering and

consent of the people depicted in the character that lived in the novel. This explicitly says

that Communist Russia represents a real figure in world history. The paper deals with

power, integrity, struggles, historical aspects, morality.

Keywords: regime, utopia, NKVD, power and suffering, communism, detriment, faith,

confession, bureaucracy,
 INTRODUCTION

The novel “Darkness at noon” written by Arthur Koestler depicts the historical

aspects of the citizens which kind of relates to the old Bolsheviks and the USSR

communist activities and their principles which are found by the worthless by Rubashov

the main lead of the novel. This novel is observed to be one of few books that would’ve

“changed the history". It has also been recognized as the world’s eighth best novel as of a

survey. Arthur Koestler was a Hungarian born British author and journalist. He was done

with his education in Austria. The novel was is a translation work where, the original

manuscript is thought be lost till 2015.

The novel has been the most effective explanation of the Moscow treason trials. And

it was categorized into four parts the first hearing, the second hearing, the third hearing

and finally the grammatical fiction. Though the researcher himself finds a number of

themes being expelled from the book from each and every scenario, he also observes how

every aspect is linked to the political struggles of that time. He explicit the acts and

principles which were expelled by the party despite of its 20 years of power did not get

closer in achieving the goals of socialistic utopia. Rubashov and the leads of the novel

believe that the gaining of socialistic utopia, will cause the imposed suffering to be

forgiven.

The human ideology of showing mercy towards other and arranging a better world

for the living citizens with no racism of religion and inferiority things has completely

been abolished in the minds of those powerplay roles. There has been no morality and

ethical values of how a better state can be made. The cruel minds always lead to the worst
scenarios is honestly said since the novel exaggerates it as the main theme on relating

communism and modernity, power and suffering, traditional aspects, humanity, etc. is

clearly observed by the researcher. And the researcher himself finds that every aspect of

the novel is related to the historical aspects like the old Bolsheviks and Marxist

interpretation of history which were speculated by the characters of the novel throughout

their imprisonment. The author in his novel examines the political urge and its vital play

on how the power is being misused and how the struggles of individuals and groups were

under the pressure of communism rule. The fictional character Rubashov from the novel

inspires the researcher to go deeper into the subject by Rubashov’s arrest by two secret

police known as NKVD where, one is formal, and the other is brutal. From this scenario

the researcher observes the theme tradition and modernity which can be keenly seen

between the older officer and the young one. The author says that the people are not

capable of self-governance and even Rubashov from the novel feels that the totalitarian

government is perhaps not unjustified as people would only steer society to their own

detriment way.
LITERATURE REVIEW

Michael Scammell

Michael Scammell in an interview overwhelmed his review on the novel Darkness at

noon. He said, “Especially important part of darkness at noon is Rubashov peeping

through the people to see what is going on in the corridor and what's happening

elsewhere. Well, this is actually a full step in the Soviet Union the cells did not have a

two-way people you could only look from outside in the guards could look in, but the

prisoner couldn't look out but in Spain it was a two-way people so this made its way into

Darkness at noon, but it was not affected well Luckily it's a novel, so it doesn't matter.”

(Michael Scammel, 2019)

Sidney Kingsley

Sidney Kingsley being a challenger to dramatizing novels, says that the times of

Soviet were majorly explained in the novel and how the people suffered at the time of

war. He also exclaims the novel ‘Darkness at Noon’ as a mind engine, which empowers

the reader to understand both ends of the metal. Kingsley said that other than many

novels existing in there, it is been a real challenge to him in dramatizing this novel

(Darkness at Noon). He also said, “Darkness at noon is an important world story, which

most of us did not know about.” (Kingsley, 1988)

John V. Fleming (Fleming, 2017)

“The novel excites the aesthetic dimensions of modern communism”, said by John V.

Fleming. Vandalized that it's really just a non-allegorical story about how a revolution

devours its revolutionaries after the revolution is achieved. They were guilty of suspicion

of having counter revolutionary thoughts and then it is just a simple story of how a

revolution disposes of its revolutionaries. Fleming enlightens the term ‘deviationism’,

under which the main lead of the novel Rubashov was put behind bars for which he is not

convicted to. Fleming said that one of his books called ‘Anticommunist Manifesto’ is a

reference of four novels that included Darkness at Noon, as the novels consists many

literary allusions and containing best literary culture and the author Koestler as a pioneer

and an influence on many out else.

Adam Kirsch

Adam Kirsch says that the novelist Arthur Koestler written darkness at noon by

inspiring the scenario of Moscow trials. The political aspect of Moscow trails and the

Bolshevik sufferings at the time of Nazis existing and all the themes of which the people

were up to and how Rubashov was imprisoned for no consent of committing crime or a

committed crime. The novel as a motto influences to be one of the must-read novels the

twentieth century to understand the cold war between countries and the people among

themselves. The views of the readers must be prevailing to the subject issue where the

novel particularly deals with social political economical as well as democratic issues.

(Kirsch, 2019)
Maya Chhabra

Maya Chhabra in her recent articles reviewed the novel ‘Darkness at Noon’. The

series of events that occurred during the Moscow trails in the guidance of USSR led by

Joseph Stalin, few of the victims of communist party being the defendants of higher

authority fought for the justice, where they have been put in charge for the acts that

weren’t performed by them. Chhabra said, “the open criticism is that the ‘Darkness at

Noon’ is not a novel first and foremost, but an argument for the fair win of Bolsheviks

and victims of the communist party.” (Chhabra, 2019)

Andrew Stuttaford (Stuttaford, 2019)

According to Stuttaford, the novel “Darkness at Noon” was the best-selling novels

during the postwar period. It also considered to be one of the most influential novels of

the 20th century. The novel visualizes the readers pertaining the situations of the series of

acts and he said, “the place where ‘Darkness at Noon’ taken place is still unanswered or

specified, but it doesn’t have to be.” The novel helped the readers to understand why

there were revolutions taken place in the history against to dictators and dictatorship

ruing. The themes portrayed in the novel emphasizes its role and scenarios where and

why the torture, truth, confessions, war, bloodshed, etc., teaches in one’s life.
Kirkus (Kirkus, 1941 (review posted), 2011 (review posted online))

Though there have been many releases in predicting and explaining the situation on

Moscow trails, the novel “Darkness at Noon” remains to be the finest of all the other

novels. As this novel is the only one which speaks fairly the truths on how the

revolutionaries have taken place, how were the situation of Bolsheviks during the trails,

etc. The Kirkus review says that the Koestler’s actual presence during the times of trails

have depicted the originality of the scenario during the trails as if the reader imagines

themselves in the fictional character Rubashov.

ANALYSIS

The novel which is taken for the part of research contains numerous themes, according

to the character, its situation in the novel, acts committed, etc., and many more. But from

all the themes that been portrayed in the novel, the researcher concentrates on the certain

themes to get a glance of the deeply hidden essence of the novel. They are humanity and

haunting, bureaucracy and suffering.

Humanity & Haunting

 The theme of humanity can be observed from the first beginning of the novel,

Rubashov’s arrest at midst of a night shows there was no courtesy among the state and its

people persuading a life with no proper organized way. Among the two officers who

came to arrest Rubashov, the old seemed to be mercy with minimum humanity still being

left in him, but the young one’s mercy is erased by the misuse and guidance of the youth

with wrongful essence being embedded in their minds and completely influenced to the

side of haunting, where there is shown no mercy, kind, equally and well-treated, etc.

Rubashov spending his life behind bars with a thought where his own party to which he

led all his services trying to make him the convict of those unlawful acts which were not

performed by him. Each character’s acts and choices linking their relations to the party

with all their social values, faith in common describes the moral and ethical values of

how a human being to lived on and the novel also portrays how the humanity got

eliminated in the minds and thoughts people during the Moscow trials and how were they

haunted with no kind left in their impure hearts.

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy means a system where governing or nongoverning body abides by the

important decisions made through some discussions by the officials and the elected

representatives. The scenario where, Rubashov was interrogated by Ivanov and Gletkin in

cruel way and tortured to death to make solvent for the crime or acts which were not

performed by him. And that was done only by the orders passed by their higher officials

where the bureaucracy got eliminated. The characters moving off step from the

ideological moral values of an official being in an honorable position of saving the justice
to being cruel and merciless by losing a concept of thinking what is right and wrong.

Ivanov for instance, believes Rubashov to be innocent for all the services lend to the

party by him (Rubashov). Ivanov considers that, “the differentiation between beliefs and

reality are to be epitomic logic.” The bureaucracy failed to act up to its dignity when

Rubashov realized it is ironic to find himself trapped in the prison by the party, where he

acted all the time according to the party logic.

Suffering

The thorough observation throughout the novel, the researcher found suffering to be

one of the elements to be given special observation to. From, the historical aspects it has

been known that there were many people who suffered a lot either due to pandemics,

health, wars, etc., and similarly here in the novel the suffering is by the unlawful acts of

the communist party. The ‘Old Bolsheviks’ of the party treated as slaves and some were

tortured to death and few were sentenced to death. Many millions of citizens have lost

their lives. The Moscow trails led to three million famine deaths during the revolution.

Holding up on the political power, the influence being negative washed the minds of

officials regards their ethical values at the duty and that is where Rubashov was also

forced and sentenced to death at last for no reason. The party’s acts were also abnormal

for its members, that the members of the party itself fought against to it for its

performance. The imprisonment of Rubashov, interrogating him in a cruel manner,

torturing to be solvent for events he did not committed to and finally executed to death

sentence is so pathetic. The suffering of a communist, Bolsheviks, and people by rude

political influence is depicted in the novel.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

The researcher after going through the novel has observed that the novel is itself likely

to be womb full of hidden essence, whereas the researcher finds new theme from context

to context with respect to the characters too. Though the theme of the novel exclaims to

be different from situation to the next, everything is interlinked like a chain of cycle that

prevails its meaning from the preceding situation or he concept.

The aspects of war, peace, revolution, historical laws, dictatorship, ruling, etc., were

keenly observed by the researcher and got to know why the novel is considered to be one

of must-read novel 20th century. Though, the characters and the context of places were

not specified, every scenario that was explained in the novel is based on the true events

that took place in the history of WW (World War). Finally, the novel ends by the final

hearing of justice with Rubashov’s execution. All the pertaining themes of the novel

concentrates on truth and confession, bureaucracy, confession, suffering and why were

people against to the dictatorial ruling which has got no democratic and socio-economic

values as said in the novel.

REFERENCES
Chhabra, M. (2019, November 18). "Logic Alone, All Love Laid by": Returning to Arthur Koestler's
"Darkness at Noon". Lare View of Books (LARB).

Fleming, J. V. (2017, October 03). Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon - John V. Fleming. Hillsdale,
Michigan, United States of America.

Kingsley, P. S. (1988, February). Sidney Kingsley: Darkness at Noon . (M. Wood, Interviewer)

Kirkus. (1941 (review posted), 2011 (review posted online)). Review on Darkness at Noon. Kirkus
Reviews, 219.

Kirsch, A. (2019, September 23). The Desperate Plight behind "Darkness at Noon". Retrieved
from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/

Michael Scammel, P. B. (2019, October 7). Darkness at Noon - Book Discussion with Philip
Boehm, Michael Scammel and Adam Kirsch. (R. H. Institute, Interviewer)

Stuttaford, A. (2019). 'Darkness at noon' Review: Confessions of a Revolutionary. The Wallstreet

Journal.