Marlow’s narrative is a speaking voice like when he says you say knights? And who’s that grunting. The Frame Narrator’s is seems to have been written down. You also get the feeling that when Marlow is talking its as if he is trying to understand the meaning of the story for himself. He is also a great story teller and uses delayed decoding by delaying and explaining incidents fully so that we experience them like he did this can be seen when his helmsman has been killed he believes that the helmsman had wrestled a cane from someone ashore but in fact you find out he died as Marlow says a pool full of blood lay very still he realises the helmsman has been struck by one of the natives and was dead. Marlow knew this before he began his yarn and yet he waited until the time within the story when he found out which could give you the impression that it was the first time Marlow had ever told the story aloud.
The first narrator’s view of the Thames suggests the nobility of Britain’s role in the colonisation of the world; the frame narrator shows explicit and implicit views on it.
Explicitly you can see the Frame Narrator’s view when he says dreams of men, seeds of commonwealth, the germs of empires (page 32) you can see easily that what he is saying gives the impression the colonisation is great.
Implicitly you can see his views on Colonisation when he says about the river being unruffled (page 32), which means smooth and calm, and it may mean the Frame Narrator has no troubles with Colonisation as it runs smoothly and therefore effectively.
Marlow’s view on the Thames is seen when he talks about the Romans went there to invade and says that the Thames was once a dark place. He talks about the decent young citizen in a toga (page 34) who can be compared to Kurtz I say this because the young citizen like Kurtz never had restraint and as the wilderness surrounded him he gave in like Kurtz on the Congo.
When Marlow arrives in Brussels he refers to the city as a whited sepulchre (page 37) a whited sepulchre implies death, and the phrase whited sepulchre was in the Bible by Jesus as he talks about the Pharisees and Sadducees being grand on the outside but completely the opposite on the inside, and this is what is said about Brussels which is something grand on the outside but something that contains horrors within. This makes the phrase appropriate for Brussels as what Marlow was going to Brussels for being the job down the Congo contained death and horrors, as we find out further on within the novel. This also links in with Imperialism as that contains horrors, which is shown through the job down the Congo.
Marlow’s view of the cruel and often foolish consequences of the trade established by colonialism can be seen in his description of the activities in his journey down the African Coast, where he says that some of the soldiers drowned in the surf but nobody seemed to care, this shows his view as he says that the steamer must go on even though some soldiers may have died in the process of the journey, this there fore means the trade must goes on. Also when he says names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister backcloth (page 41). This gives Marlow’s view as he says the trading places are part of something sordid which means disgusting and a farce this shows that he believes that the trade is a farce and as the trade is linked with the colonialism, he also thinks that’s a farce too. He also says that there was a touch of insanity in the proceeding (page 42) this gives you his view as if he says the proceedings on the French steamer were insane then he must believe the same about colonialism too, he would think colonialism is insane due to him believing that the natives aren’t the only ones that need to be civilised people like Kurtz also need to be civilised as they are insane.
Although Marlow talks about colonialism and Imperialism being cruel and foolish one can suggest that as much as anyone else Marlow also de-humanises the black population. When he is on the French Steamer and he sees the black fellows paddling he says the white of their eyeballs glistening (page 41). Also when he says they had faces like grotesque masks he would not say this about a white man, and you usually link masks with being scary. Also the fact that he is involved in Imperialism de-humanises the black population as they are so badly treated by white men like Kurtz who makes them treat him like a God.
Within the novel there are a lot of references to the wilderness, the contrasting references to interiors and exteriors, and the significance of light and dark.
The frame narrator sees London as the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth (page 31) the Thames and London being the place where Imperialism began demonstrating his views that Imperialism is a great thing. But Marlow’s views can be seen when he talks about the Romans invading the Thames and that is what Marlow would be entering down the Congo and the wilderness. He is saying that when the Romans came, the people on the Thames within the wilderness would have needed to be civilised like the Africans would have been when Marlow travels down the Congo, it shows that London and the Thames was once just like Africa, a dark horrible.
Darkness and the Wilderness are the main images within the novel; the wilderness can be seen as a physical reality when Marlow says beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight this shows the physicality of the wilderness as the phrase gives you a sense that the wilderness is high above. Also you can get a psychological view of the wilderness as Kurtz had been charmed by the wilderness, in a sense that the wilderness “took him under its wing”.
Journeys are also main images within the novel and like with the wilderness there are physical journeys and also psychological journeys too.
A journey to the Dark Continent is physical and psychological as he is going to Africa so that is a physical journey but he’s going to the Dark Continent, as what is within Africa is the reason for him saying dark. There’s also a journey into self-discovery to find what kind of human being Marlow and Kurtz really are and whether they can always be governed by a sense of morality. This is said as they both wanted to go to the wilderness but Marlow restrained himself and said the work saved him. Were as Kurtz didn’t show restraint and turned to the Wilderness.
In the early section of the novel Kurtz can be linked to the decent young citizen in the toga as he felt a fascination for the mysterious life of the wilderness, the fascination of the abomination this means that he wanted he wanted to explore the wilderness like Kurtz and he was fascinated by the wilderness and the fact that it is “detestable”.
Within the novel Marlow also has a fascination with the Congo River, he says its an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. The snake had charmed me (page 36) and temptation gets the better of him as he goes to Brussels to get a job on the River Congo. This shows that the snake being the river charmed him and snakes especially in the Bible are associated with evil, so the river is evil. Also when he says its tail lost in the depths of the land this phrase says the deeper in the river goes in land the darker it will be.
Within the novel there is an association with death e.g. when it says dead at the centre. And the river was there-fascinating-deadly-like a snake. Ough! (page 38) This shows that dead at the centre of the continent there is death and to get the point across he uses dead at the centre when he could have easily just said at the centre, also saying dead gives you the idea at the centre of Africa there is death, and there is Kurtz kills for Ivory. Ivory is also associated with death as Kurtz is willing to kill a man for it (page 76).
There’s an idea within the novel that the wilderness resists invasion, literally as Marlow says the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible (page 51) this gives the idea of resisting invasion as he says its invincible meaning it was incapable of being defeated. As well as resisting invasion literally it also does metaphorically because we resist exploring the darker sides of our minds, and the Wilderness is dark so Marlow or generally anyone else don’t wish to explore it.
The wilderness is personified to emphasise its power, we see this when Marlow says the wilderness patted him on the head (page 76), this is said about Kurtz, it seems as if the wilderness is in control of Kurtz as it patted him on the head, showing that it controls Kurtz and it re-iterates the point that the wilderness has “took him under its wing”. Its personification as its something your mother would do if you done well and this are what it seems to be like.
Within the novel there are perceptions of the Wilderness being a threat like when Marlow says it was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect (page 62). This shows that it was very mysterious and it may have wanted revenge for the invasion.
As well as that there is also a sense of mans insignificance compared to the power of the wilderness when Marlow says we were wanderers on a prehistoric earth (page 63). This phrase gives you the idea that they were wandering in unknown territory and they weren’t in control as the wilderness controlled where they were going, also in effect they were travelling back in time away from civilisation as a prehistoric earth is when there were no people and there was only the wilderness.
There is also a dream-like quality of Marlow’s experience on the river we see this when he says we glided past like phantoms (page 63) it’s a simile and to say they glided past like phantoms its gives the idea that they were floating along the river.
Marlow also says he has a remote kinship (page 64) with the ‘natives’, this shows that as his journey has went on and on he feels closer to the natives. He also says it was ugly, this shows that he feels that although he feels almost related to the natives he sees it as an ugly thing due to the fact that they had wild passions and they were wild in their behaviour, this is shown when the natives attack (page 72) the boat which Marlow is travelling down the Congo on.
Usually in everyday life you associate light and white with good and black and darkness with evil, but within the novel the distinction isn’t clear. This is shown in the opening of the novel where there is light on the river, luminous estuary (page 31) but there is darkness over London, the air was dark above Gravesend (page 31), this phrase shows that there is light on the river as that is the place for the beginning of Imperialism but over London were it is dark it shows that there is darkness at the centre of Imperialism.
This novel explores the issues surrounding Imperialism in complicated but strong ways. As throughout his journey he encounters cruelty, torture and close-on slavery. It shows that Europeans break down within Africa. It shows that Imperialism like wilderness may seem brilliant on the outside but when you look into it like Marlow did its not brilliant its savage and cruel.
