Darkness At Noon

2 Pages 619 Words

Darkness at Noon

In America today, as in all countries at war or engulfed in revolution, there is turbulence in what society feels about different theories and issues challenging the peace of our nation. In Arthur Koestler’s historical fiction Darkness at Noon, a post-revolutionary society once again faces such conflict with the Communist party replacing an old dictatorship. In his novel, Koestler makes several significant political, social, and philosophical statements, which serve to clarify the motivations and justify the reasoning behind why such unrest takes place in this society.

Koestler’s story unfolds with the incarceration of Nicolas Salamanovich Rubashov, an aging revolutionary that had served side by side with Stalin, who he refers to as “No. 1”. Together they had fought a dictatorship and pressed for a society where “politics means working with x [the anonymous masses] without worrying about its actual nature”. In other words, Rubashov desires a society where individualism is virtually negated. While in prison, Rubashov has a meeting with one such former comrade, Ivanov. However, this man lets slip in one instance his anti-party beliefs, and is replaced by Gletkin, a closeted individualist, who quickly orders the murder of Ivanov. With this series of events, Koestler makes the political statement that it is impossible for a dictatorship to be overthrown and replaced with anything else but a dictatorship because it is only human nature to want to succeed and that eventually certain men and women will rise from the anonymous x.

In addition to powerful political statements, Koestler also points out certain social patterns that emerge in this society. When in prison, Rubashov paces back and forth in his cell compulsively smoking cigarettes, retracing his history in the revolution and the actions he had taken. In a quote inserted in the novel, Saint Just states, “Nobody can rule guiltlessly.�...