The Thames is described as “a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth.” This shows the Thames as the journey centre, the centre of the world from were you can go to anywhere in the world and is jingoistic in it’s superior, higher class tone. This jingoistic tone is continued as “men of whom the nation is proud” are described, these being “Francis Drake” and “Sir John Franklin.” These men were looked upon as heroes in Britain, in their ‘courageous’ and ‘heroic’ journeys, whereas in reality and somewhat ironically, Franklin’s boat got stuck in Canada, and he resorted to cannibalism and Drake was a pirate who stole from the colonies. This again reveals a hidden truth, where the public was not told the real story, and this theme arises throughout the story, none more so that in Marlow’s psychological struggles later in the novel. Conrad next uses bathos to build up a patriotic and jingoistic feeling, with references to “the sacred fire”, claiming all they were doing was under the flame of Christianity, and to civilise the people. The “fire” could also represent the destruction of the culture and peoples life in the darkness, which again undermines the original message that they were trying to get across. There is a build up to a climax, which builds tension, but in complete contrast to the build-up, he finishes “The dreams of men, the seeds of commonwealths, the germs of empires..” The seeds are what the British think they are planting in the darkness, civilising these ‘savages’ yet in reality they are germs, there through greed in want of money, and are really germs. “Germs” conjures images of dirty, and destructive, and is a complete contradiction to the build up, suggesting the truth is in contradiction to what stories are being told in Britain.
Marlow is first mentioned at the beginning of the novel, and is said to “resemble an idol.” This is somewhat symbolic of say a spiritual being, say the Buddha, a man who spread wisdom and light throughout the world, much like the British thought they were. Meanwhile, contrastingly, Marlow has dark knowledge, ironic to the Buddha and enlightenment; he spreads tales of despair and suffering. He also states ironically “And this also (London)…has been one of the dark places on earth” and “When the Romans come… light has passed out of this river ever since” The Romans originally brought civilisation to Britain, and now the British are spreading civilisation around the world. This brings up the question what exactly is civilisation and who are we to teach others? The reader starts the book looking at Marlow as a wise man, who is very aware, awareness that will taunt him later on, and deep thinking, much more so than many of the British people, and almost an impartial voice in this very opinionated world.
The opening of ‘The Heart of Darkness’ uses ornate, verbose language that is heavy to read. This is symbolic of the psychological journey in this novel, which is also difficult at times for Marlow to interpret and understand. It is also particularly gloomy, in contrast to London, which is described as the ‘light of the Earth’. Conrad’s use of very descriptive language, and long sentences to slow down the pace of the novel, arising quite a calm, tranquil start. The verbosity of the language at times makes the story very difficult to follow, arising a mysterious tone. Conrad also makes use of a narrator to convey the story to the reader. This distances the reader from the story and Marlow, much like the British public were distanced from the truth of what was going on in Africa. This reinforces the mysterious, confused tone, and the fact we are distanced from Marlow means we question the truth in what he is saying, meaning we are asking questions at this early point in the book, building suspense.
At the start of Marlow’s journey, he had to stop off an outer station, situated on the coast of Africa, which was like a stopping point before his journey onto the Congo and actually moving into Africa. He describes his view of the jungle from the boat as, “The edge of the colossal jungle, so dark green as to be almost black.” The ‘colossal’ size of the jungle gives the sense a huge person towering above you, giving the effect he is entering a dark, dangerous place, almost like a prison, a place where he will meet horrors and death. The description of colours as “dark” and “almost black” is symbolic of the evil and uncivilised world with, and is almost an ominous sign, warning him of the danger ahead, giving a sense this is the centre of the darkness. It could also be Marlow looking into himself, with his thoughts “almost black”, suggesting he has an evil core to his mind, one that will be difficult to penetrate, and much like a “jungle.” He also describes how he “…come upon a man-of-war…there wasn’t even a shed and he was shelling the bush.’ This emphasizes the futility of this invasion, and the indiscriminate evil on show by the, ironically, civilised British.
When getting off the boat, Marlow has to walk a short distance to the station. A theme of death arises immediately in the simile “dead as the carcass of some animal.” Again this sentence is a warning of what is to come and he comes across another case of futility immediately in “No change appeared in the face of the rock…this objectionless blasting.” The fact that this blasting is carried out for the sake of it is ironic, as the British claim to be here to civilise the ‘savages’ but they are completely contradicting themselves in random futility. A theme of suffering soon arises, and he describes some black men who pass him as having “joints of their limbs were like knots of a rope.” A rope is often symbolic of an item that saves a life, say from someone falling, giving the effect the British is here to save the Africans. Meanwhile, it is also symbolic of someone hanging on, in this case to their life, possibly where they have been mistreated or starved by the British. Marlow ironically and somewhat hypocritically calls them “savages”, seeing as the British are destroying their country and culture, spreading ‘civilisation.’ Marlow describes how the men smarten themselves in the presence of a white man, “…hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity.” Conrad builds up to a climax, with the use of bathos, as Marlow states sarcastically and ironically “After all, I also was part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings.” Thos shows Marlow was against what how the black men saluted him as a superior, and this is possibly his first sign of realisation that he is part of this atrocity, and deep down is the cause of it.
Marlow continues, “descending down to his left”, symbolically moving deeper into the darkness. He describes how he has seen “the devil of violence…the devil of greed and the devil of hot desire.” Meanwhile here he describes the British men as “lusty, red eyed devils” and the eyes being the pathway to the soul, the fact they are red shows that in each man, deep down is a source of evil. They are also “lusty” for the wealth, giving the sense nothing will stand in their way, thus the continuous futility. Marlow momentarily stops, stating, “For a moment I stood appalled, as though by warning” which shows Marlow’s conscience and awareness showing through. He also feels his brain, his mind telling him not to go further, further into the darkness, or he may be appalled. He continues, “descending the hill” moving further into the darkness, where he finds an “artificial hole…the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine,” showing the constant futility and the fact it is artificial meaning it must have been caused by the British. He also sees a “lot of imported drain pipes”, symbolic of civilisation, which was a “wanton smash up” showing how what the British were doing was almost anarchy, as a symbol of civilisation was completely destroyed, a complete contradiction to what they thought the were doing in bringing civilisation, arising the question of what is civilisation? He continues, passing “black shapes” and “dim light”, symbolic of evil. Another explosion takes place and Marlow states “The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some helpers had withdrawn to die” “The Work!” is evidently a hyperbole of the suffering taking place and this statement is conveyed in a sarcastic, exasperated tone, showing Marlow doesn’t understand the meaning of all this, and is beginning to recognise this is not so much a civilising mission as he first thought.
Conrad begins to describe people as inhuman, almost robots. Marlow describe “black shadow of disease and starvation” a shadow almost symbolic of half human and the fact their black, evil and despair. He describes the “sickened” as “inefficient”, almost calling them robots, void of emotions and feelings, showing these people had reached the ultimate point of evil, the heart of darkness. The fact these people were allowed to “crawl away and rest”, or die shows them completely lost of feeling, and the fact the only way they can leave this place is by dying shows their evil. The freedom of death makes you feel that you are trapped in life, and only free when you die, which is the only certain this to happen in life, so the ultimate question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ is raised. He also calls a pile of dead bodies “ two more bundles of acute angles” showing these men to be worthless and emotionless, and “creatures” showing we are all savages, wild and untamed, emphasizing the ultimate question. Meanwhile he looks eye to eye with a dying person, who has a “kind of blind, white flicker in the depths of the orbs, which died out slowly” reassures Marlow in his belief in goodness, as deep down there is a pure goodness in our souls.
Marlow then meet the accountant for the first time and immediately describes him as a “miracle”, symbolic of enlightenment and hope, ironically the exact opposite of him in reality. He gives a description of his appearance as:
“I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clear silk necktie and varnished boots.”
Immediately it is noticeable that the accountants “white” appearance is in contrast to the dark surroundings, almost portraying him as a beacon of hope in this bleak world. The chief accountant also keeps an immaculate appearance to keep an ordered world. Marlow, meanwhile, is at conflict within himself, half wanting to seek strength in him, stating, “I respected the fellow.” The way Marlow stares in awe of the accountant makes him a hypocrite, as earlier he criticised a black man for smartening himself in the presence of Marlow. On the other hand, Marlow doesn’t want to succumb to the horrors of this world, which seems exactly what the accountant has done, as he ironically states his reason for leaving the station was to get a “breath of fresh air”. This suggests he is completely oblivious to the horrors around him, meaning he has reached the ultimate point of evil, the heart of darkness. The accountant feels he is disassociating himself from the surroundings as he immerses himself in his work to the point he says, “the groans of this sick person…distracts my attention.” This shows he has lost faith in the goodness in the world, almost embracing or succumbing to the evil surrounding him. He continues, “And without that (concentration) it is extremely difficult to guard against clerical error in this climate” showing that he has reached the ultimate point, the heart of darkness, as he has absolutely no care for the suffering going on around him, and is no way trying to help or anything, instead almost embracing it. This shows the chief accountant to be pure evil, far more so than would appear to the eye, and as we later find out, than Kurtz himself.
On the day Marlow leaves the outer station, he ventures in a large group through the jungle. He hears drumming, which are “as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country.” Marlow is implying here that the locals use the drums as a use of communication, much like we do with church bells. The fact he relates them to church bell makes the drumming almost holy and sacred to the local people, which is in complete contrast to our viewpoint of the drumming, which we see as a signal of war, and a warning of the savageness and dangerous land ahead.
Kurtz is also mentioned for the first time during his stay at the outer station. The chief accountant describes him as a “remarkable person” and he is “at the bottom there” symbolic of being evil, in the underworld, the lowest point you can reach. These are the first time Marlow hears of Kurtz, the seeds of Kurtz being planted in his mind. He goes on to say Kurtz, “sends as much ivory as all the others put together” showing that Kurtz is an immensely skilful many and particularly good at the job he does.
Marlow’s interest in Kurtz soon becomes more of an obsession than an interest. Marlow is struggling to deal with and understand what is going on around him, but on hearing about Kurtz and his reputation, he immediately questions how Kurtz manages to deal with the evil surrounding him without becoming evil himself. This builds up suspense, as the reader also questions whether Kurtz is like his reputation, and this in turn builds up tension throughout his journey. Marlow sets out on a quest to meet Kurtz, consistently enquiring about him and finding out as much about Kurtz as he possibly could. The Bricklayer describes Kurtz as a “special being”, portraying Kurtz as some kind of iconic figure, above all others around him and also super natural. He is also is said to take “…an emissary of pity and the devil knows what else.” The fact he is called an “emissary” gives the sense that he is a holy figure, a light amongst the darkness, yet this contrasts with the “devil” later in the sentence, hinting that there is a more sinister, evil side to Kurtz, one that maybe is not immediate to the eye. Kurtz also has, “set his face towards the depths of the wilderness” showing he will go to any length to help needy people, yet also the deeper he goes, the more evil he will become. All these opinions build up a sort image of Kurtz in Marlow’s mind. Marlow sees Kurtz as a romantic, in the sense people look at him and try to emulate what he has done. He also looks upon Kurtz as an idealised figure, good at what he does and almost iconic, while also being a humanitarian man, who went to the darkness to civilise people, and managed to survive and live with these people. He claims that the ‘culmination of my experience is finding Kurtz’ showing how his obsession finally took over his original journey and how he seeks to find Kurtz to answer not only his own questions, but those of the reader too.
On finding Kurtz in the middle of the Heart of Darkness, it becomes immediately apparent that Kurtz does not wholly fulfil his reputation. Marlow immediately sees heads of Kurtz’s victims on poles surrounding his hut. This could be a show of strength from Kurtz, heightening his ego, yet is completely contradictory to his reputation that precedes him, claiming him to be a caring altruist.
Marlow finds Kurtz a divided character. Kurtz had originally come out to the darkness to bring the light of civilisation and culture, in the hope of conquering the darkness, but since then had changed. Kurtz was a clever man, who immediately recognised the evil surrounding him, and at the start fought against this, living up to his altruistic reputation. Meanwhile, Kurtz soon found out that he himself could be evil, and struggled against these thoughts, battling with his conscience, yet eventually temptation got the better of him, and he began to carry out evil actions. In Victorian Times, when the novel was written, the was a belief in ‘Original Sin’, a belief based on Adam and Eve, that man was naturally a sinner and bad, and needs laws to limit their immorality and badness. Marlow believed that people had a ‘fascination of the abomination, and in the darkness, a land of no laws, he believed ‘restraint,’ people’s morality and their conscience prevented them from carrying out evil actions. Kurtz was tempted by the evil around him, and eventually lost his ‘restraint’ turning his virtues into evil actions fuelled by greed. This shows Kurtz to be a tragic hero, a man who is greatly talented and aspires greatness, yet has one ‘fatal flaw’, in Kurtz’s case, lack of restraint. It was therefore Kurtz’s human limitations that turned him evil, limitations each and every human has, revealing deep down, evil lurks at the heart of us all. This also reveals that the darkness is not in the evil, savage actions carried out, yet it originates in the soul of every man. It is subsequently not so much an area of land, such as Africa, but a place where these evil intentions are carried out, in the case of Africa, by the colonists hoping to civilise the ‘savages’. This leads to a question of exactly what is civilisation, and is there such thing as a perfect society, as the British regarded themselves?
Kurtz had carried out ‘unspeakable rites’, rites being the natural progression of a human being. The fact Kurtz’s evil within finally progresses, breaking through the goodness shows Kurtz to be a weak man, half the man Marlow is who struggles with his conscience and morals, but who’s belief in goodness in the world eventually pulls him through. A rite is also symbolic of a ritual, and Kurtz believe that what he was doing, as he originally was, was for the goodness of the people, under the flame of Christianity, yet in reality he resorted to feeding his own evil and greed. At his death, Kurtz famously shouts ‘the horror, the horror’ showing he was aware of his moral struggle with evil, and only now in his death does he recognise he failed in his battle, and what evil he had carried out. The reader feels a sense of siding towards Kurtz, due to his honesty to realise he failed in his spiritual battle, and Marlow also respects Kurtz after his death, as he has had the same struggle that Marlow has battled through. He feels much more respect than he would have done for say the Chief Accountant, who ignored the evil going on around him. There is a phrase ‘Evil is when a good man does nothing,’ showing the accountant to be the most evil out of the three, more so than Kurtz especially, who tried to bring civilisation and light to the darkness, but failed. Marlow is therefore the strongest man, and he managed to pull through purely in his faith in goodness in the world, in this land of pure evil.
In the end, the finding and discovery of the real Kurtz is a huge anticlimax. Conrad made use of bathos throughout the plot, building the whole story and Marlow’s journey up to the time we met Kurtz for the first time, and finishing with a complete anti climax, and a sense of irony in the finding of the real Kurtz. This builds up tension throughout the story, and makes Kurtz not only an obsession of Marlow, but the reader as well, and keeps them constantly engaged.
After the death of Kurtz, Marlow feels that he must meet the Intended, Kurtz’s fiancé. Part of this instinct is based on the fact that he respected Kurtz at his death, particularly in his honesty in admitting he was wrong, and failed in his spiritual battle, a battle they both had in common, and both fought against. Marlow tells the Intended that Kurtz was a great man, who lived up to his reputation, and was the same man who left for the darkness. This not only relieves the Intended, who would have wanted to hear this, but also Marlow’s respect for Kurtz means he wishes Kurtz’s reputation to live on, and him to be remembered in this way, rather than the divided man he found towards the end of his life. Marlow also finds it difficult to accept that the evil in Kurtz triumphed over his goodness, and leaving Kurtz’s reputation to live on leaves him feeling that goodness won the battle, and keeps his faith in the goodness in the world. Meanwhile in reality, goodness never did, and probably never will win this battle.
Marlow is left at the end of the novel with a cynical view of the world, and claims to have seen ‘the glimpsed truth.’ This leaves Marlow, and also the reader, questioning what is the truth he ‘glimpsed’ and what exactly is our existence all about? He also questions the ultimate question, what is the meaning of life, and takes a different attitude to life and death. Seeing all the evil and death that Marlow run into, he is left with the feeling that life is very black and white, the world is an evil place and life is dull except for the occasional happiness, which is pointless in seeking. The fact Marlow, and also Kurtz, struggle so much with their consciences and morality is because of their awareness. They both realised the evil around them and tried to fight against it, but eventually they both realised that they too could be evil, and Kurtz’s fatal flaw, lack of restraint, allowed him to be tempted into being evil and reaching the Heart of Darkness. Marlow, on the other hand, managed to resist the urge, showing him to be stronger than Kurtz. It was Marlow’s faith in the goodness in the world that allowed him to pull through, and avoid reaching the Heart of Darkness, and he is left at the end of the novel wanting others to share this belief of his, and prevent the evil deep down from coming out. There was a Victorian work ethic ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’ which was used to get people into work. Marlow believed it was only through work, through continual aims and goals that we discover who we really are. He claims through working, and understanding your work, do we really find out our own reality.
Marlow is finally left looking into himself. He originally claimed that the ‘culmination of my experience is finding Kurtz’ which turned out to be a great disappointment and anticlimax. The real culmination of his experience was the realisation that he is in fact part of this whole process rather than having nothing to do with it, as he originally believed. He also realises that darkness originates from deep down in the heart of every human being, and is not so much the evil actions or an area of land as he had originally suspected. Kurtz also realised this, at his death, and through their shared struggle and joint realisation, Marlow is left feeling respect for Kurtz. Marlow is left wanting to spread this belief in goodness, a belief people even these days would be wise to listen to, amidst this world of war, a world that over 100 years appears to have learned no lessons.
