Inner Conflict In Waiting For The Barbarians By J.m Coetzee

In J.M Coetzee’s novel, Waiting For The Barbarians we take a glimpse of our main character the magistrate an older gentleman who is possibly in his late sixties trying to make some kind of change for his Empire and for himself as well but, it seems that the magistrate is going through an internal conflict in his character and his moral where he shows sympathy and compassion yet when he meets the barbarian girl he demonstrates his privilege. The Magistrate shows throughout the entire novel as a person who is an exploitative man of power and wealth as well as someone who is an activist of the freedom, equality, and the determination of the torture of the barbarian people. Which he shows when he took in the barbarian girl to his home and tries to show to her that he different the other people in the empire that he actually cares about the well-being and wants to make a difference to change the way the barbarians are seen as. His relationship with the barbarian girl shows that he generally cares for the girl and has the motivation to help her out but, also he shows through his actions with the girl through his dialogue and actions with her he shows someone who is selfishly using his statues as something over the barbarian girl, and he also has as well as a hero’s complex on saving not just her but all the barbarians also. Upon this, the magistrate shows a synthesis of both sides the one that wants to see change and the freedom of the barbarians and also his side of discrimination and his teaching and environment he grew up in the Empire. His personality, emotions, and moral will be brought into question throughout the entire novel and has shown a great deal of change.

To start, the magistrate shows himself at the start of the novel he is very intrusted into learning more about the barbarians. He becomes very curious about learning about the past which he does by going into the desert and looked up past of the barbarians on how they lived and what had happened to make what looked like a great empire into something that is now in the sand lost in time. He also shows some signs of compassion and wanting to make a change for the better, well-being, and fairness of the barbarians but, since he is in a seat of power and has eyes watching and making him the man that the people of the empire wanted. So he has to hide what he is filling and his morals come into check since the beginning he is a scared old man that is afraid of being seen different by his people which will make the citizens believe that he is becoming a barbarian. “I did not mean to get embroiled in this. I am a country magistrate, a responsible official in the service of the empire, serving out my days on this lazy frontier, waiting to retire (Coetzee 8-9). This quote indicates the magistrate’s denial, the violence, and torture that are occurring in the empire which he would like to retire from his duties so he can longer witness what is happening around him, he is trying to be innocent.

Secondly, when the magistrate actually takes in the barbarian girl is when he shows he is having a hero’s complex in him that had finally awakened in him. He would bathe her and heal her back to full health to recover, he became interested in learning more about her and wants to know what happened to her and how she ended up blind and sickly he has the filling of sympathizing with her yet he is not close to understanding what torments she had to endure he is looking through the eyes as the hero who is there for you and is able to help you through this as well as someone who knows nothing about being poor, hungry, or living out on the streets he only knows what he is taught by growing up in the empire for his entire life. He is very self-countess about himself; the way he looks, being old, fat and out of shape, and nothing to show for himself beside his statues in the empire. He starts to have a romantic relationship with the barbarian girl he sleeps with her and bathes and dresses her something a man in power shouldn’t have to do he could have one of the maids he have to tend to this yet he does it, is it because she is a barbarian girl that makes it different or is it he is having fillings for her because he thinks he can save her and make her his. 

Thirdly, is when he is brought to jail for two occasions the first is when he was seen with other barbarians with the barbarian girl and Colonel Joll brought him in for question about his involvement with the enemy when he was in jail they asked him to about his hobby of having artifacts he obtains from the times he was excavating the sites of past barbarian buildings and asked him to read what they artifacts said on them since he should be able to read since he is inspiring with barbarian people.