Analysis of Heart of Darkness
In the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the journey of a steamboat captain up the Congo is experienced by the reader. The phrase "Heart of Darkness" itself is mentioned many times in the novella, and many people have formed different opinions as to what the Heart of Darkness actually stands for. In reality, it stands for many things: it is a political statement exposing the evils of imperialism, an exploration of the evil in the human heart, and an example of what can happen if one gives in to temptation. The themes, structure and language of the novella intertwine to form an unconventional multi-layered story.
Although Marlow's trip to the Congo lends itself to many interpretations, there are many themes that run through the novella Heart of Darkness. There are however three main and significant ones. These are the theme of colonialism, man's journey into self and restraint. Heart of Darkness is on one layer an inquiry into the nature of colonialism and a dehumanization of it. At the same time, it questions the value of white civilization an the desirability of its transplantation to so-called primitive countries. As Marlow indirectly suggests by referring to the conquest of Britain by the Romans, colonialism has existed since the earliest times of human history. One of the merits of Conrad's novella is to present colonialism not as a political or economic venture only, but as a consequence of the individual's lust for power and possessiveness and even as an epitome of man's capacity for evil. From the very beginning, Conrad presents several approaches to colonialism. The anonymous narrator sees it only as a glorious adventure, at once an expression of England's greatness and means to add to it. He is unaware that be calling English conquerors "hunters for gold or pursuers of fame" p.7 he associates them with the Roman invaders who "grabbed what they could for the sake of what was to be got" p.10 and with all the characters in Marlow's tale who take part in the colonialist enterprise for selfish purposes. Nor does he realize that by pointing to the symbols of that enterprise "the sword" and "the torch" p.7, he is actually referring to brutal force and to the negation of native culture by the so-called light of civilization.
Marlow brings a certain duality to the idea of imperialism, while he subscribes to the notion of his aunt that they are emissaries of 'the light', as he goes up the river he notes 'a touch of insanity' about the man-of-war firing blindly into the bush. Eventually, the manager becomes no more than 'a common trader', and the desire of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition is to "tear treasure out of the bowels of the land... with no more moral purpose... than burglars breaking into a safe."
The journey up the river is also known as a journey of self discovery for Marlow, and also of discovery of other people, as he makes moral judgments of the events that he sees. This gives him a deeper understanding of the true nature of the human heart, the 'fascination of the abomination', and he is even irritated by the complacency of the other citizens he sees, since they have not experienced the true nature of the capacity for evil, "they could not possibly know the things I know." In the setting of the jungle, it seems to Marlow and the reader that the whites are more evil than the black natives, Marlow calls the cannibals "Fine fellows... in their place.", but he sees the colonialists as quite evil: they use the adjective of 'criminals' to justify chaining and collaring the slaves, and 'enemies' to explain firing blindly into the scrub where Marlow is assured a native camp is hidden somewhere. Although Marlow's mission is limited to rescue Kurtz, there is a sense in which his trip to the Congo is a recreation of the colonialist expedition, which enables him to understand its nature.
Heart of Darkness doesn't deal exclusively with colonialism; it also recreates a man's journey into self, which is a recurring theme in the novel. Conrad reconciles Marlow's experience, that is, his confrontation with the reality of colonialism and an introspective voyage leading to spiritual change. Conrad's symbolic language evokes a journey into the self. However, Conrad does not present two separate issues, a public one (colonialism) and a private one (knowledge of the self). The two are indivisible, and Marlow's story implies that the kind of world men make for themselves largely results from the character of individual behavior. For example, Kurtz will- to - power lies at the core of colonialism. During Marlow's mission to find Kurtz, he is also trying to find himself. He, like Kurtz had good intentions upon entering the Congo. Conrad tries to show the reader that Marlow is what Kurtz had been, and Kurtz is what Marlow could become. Every human has a little of Marlow and Kurtz in them. Marlow says about himself, "I was getting savage," meaning that he was becoming more like Kurtz. Along the trip into the wilderness, they discover their true selves through contact with savage natives. As Marlow journeys up the Congo, he feels he is traveling back through time. He sees the unsettled wilderness and can feel the darkness of its solitude. "Marlow comes across simpler cannibalistic cultures along the banks. The deeper into the jungle he goes, the more regressive the inhabitants seem." Kurtz had lived in the Congo, and was separated from his own culture for quite some time. He had once been considered an honorable man, but the jungle changed him greatly.
Here isolated from the rest of his own society, Kurtz discovered the evil side and became corrupted by his power and isolation. Marlow realizes that only very near the time of death, does a person grasp the big picture. He describes Kurtz's last moments "as though a veil had been rent." Kurtz's last "supreme moment of complete knowledge," showed him how horrible the human soul really can be. Marlow can only guess as to what Kurtz saw that caused him to exclaim "The horror! The horror," but later adds that "Since I peeped over the edge myself, I ...
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Here isolated from the rest of his own society, Kurtz discovered the evil side and became corrupted by his power and isolation. Marlow realizes that only very near the time of death, does a person grasp the big picture. He describes Kurtz's last moments "as though a veil had been rent." Kurtz's last "supreme moment of complete knowledge," showed him how horrible the human soul really can be. Marlow can only guess as to what Kurtz saw that caused him to exclaim "The horror! The horror," but later adds that "Since I peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare... it was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness. He had summed up, he had judged." They are spoken to Marlow in private as the steamboat makes its return journey to the Central Station. Of course, the most important question, generally the most frequently asked question related to the novella, concerns what Kurtz means by the statement. One interpretation is that the horror is a great emptiness, a profound nothingness that lies at the heart of everything. Marlow guesses that Kurtz suddenly knew everything and discovered how horrible man can be. Marlow learned through Kurtz's death, and he now knows that inside every human, there is a horrible evil side.
Marlow's trip from Europe to the Outer, then to the Central station already tests his capacity to discriminate between good and evil since he witnesses actions that elicit a moral judgment from him, such as the futile firing of a man-of-war into the African continent, and what amounts to genocide at the grove of death. His detailed account of what happens there shows his compassion, which contrasts with the accountant's indifference and fits of hatred.
The importance of restraint is stressed throughout Heart of Darkness. In the novella Marlow is saved by restraint, while Kurtz is doomed by his lack of it. Marlow felt different about Africa before he went, because the colonization of the Congo had "an idea at the back of it." Despite uneasiness, he assumed that restraint would operate there. As Marlow penetrates further into the unknown, his capacity for self-control and "inborn strength" are tested. He soon reaches the Company station and receives his first shock, everything there seems meaningless. He sees no evidence here of that "devotion to efficiency" that makes the idea work. In the middle of this, Marlow meets a "miracle". The chief accountant has the restraint that it takes to get the job done. He keeps up his appearance and his books are in "apple-pie order." Marlow respects this fellow because he has a backbone. "The cannibals some of those ignorant millions, are almost totally characterized by restraint." They outnumber the whites "thirty to five" and could easily fill their starving bellies. Marlow "would have as soon expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield." The cannibals action is "one of those human secrets that p.2 baffle probability." This helps Marlow keep his restraint, for if the natives can possess this quality Marlow feels he certainly can. Kurtz is the essence of the lack of restraint Marlow sees everywhere. Kurtz has "kicked himself loose from the earth." "He owes no allegiance to anything except those animal powers, those various lusts, those unacceptable aspirations lurking in the darkness of his inner station. Marlow also responds to these dark callings, and he almost becomes their captive. He confuses the beat of the drum (the call to man's primitive side) with his own heartbeat, and is pleased. Yet he does not slip over the edge as Kurtz does. Marlow keeps to the track. When he is confronted with the ultimate evil where a man "must fall back on his own innate strength, upon his own capacity for faithfulness," he is able to do so, he shows the necessary restraint, which makes him different than the other men in the novella who give in to temptations and the darkness within them. Though Kurtz exists as a character in his own right, there is a sense in which he is also Marlow's shadow or double.
Conrad conveys the themes through the structure and language used in Heart of Darkness. The structure Conrad used was ahead of its time, and the language was masterly weaving the plot and themes of the novella.
In the very first part of the frame narration Marlow mentions the Roman conquerors of England, and suggests the other on the boat imagines what the land would have been like before civilization came. He draws a comparison between England and the Congo which he traveled up, all desolate and unusable wild land, with warring natives
The beginning and the end of the novella, presented by a first narrator who introduces Marlow's tale and concludes on it, are usually referred to as the frame. The presentation of a story within the story is a modern device and has since led to a kind of novella in which a novellaist or artist is the hero of his own work of art. One major effect of Conrad's use of a frame and two narrators is to provoke a chain of reaction. Marlow's story is told to four listeners, one of whom tells it to the readers, who may react to it differently to it as the listeners do. Among them, there are a lawyer, an accountant, the company director and the unnamed first narrator. The first narrator is only attentive listener to Marlow's tale, the others either sleep or do not see what he is driving at, as it could be interpreted from their reaction. The first anonymous narrator interrupted Marlow's tale saying," I listened, I listened on the watch for the sentence, for the word, that would give me the clue to the faint uneasiness inspired by this narrative". His uneasiness is a motivation to seeing and understanding the moral significance of Marlow's experience. Before Marlow speaks, however, Conrad allows the reader to glimpse the narrator's values and assumptions. He first speaks of the Thames as a "venerable stream" that exists to perform "unceasing service" to those who have tamed it: "The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks." To the narrator, nature exists to serve mankind, especially mankind's commerce and trade. This idea of mankind's dominance over the earth is questioned by Marlow later in the novella, as he looks out at the jungle and asks, "What were we that had strayed in here? Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us? I felt how big, how confoundedly big, was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was deaf as well. What was in there?" Conrad's reason for framing Marlow's narrative thus begins to become apparent: The narrator's values and assumptions are challenged-although indirectly-by Marlow's story, and the reader is meant to perceive these two points-of-view as two different understandings of man's relationship to the natural world and the people in it. Although the narrator states that the Thames leads "to the uttermost ends of the earth," he never imagines that his civilized London could ever have been (as Marlow calls it), "one of the dark places of the earth."
Such a contrast between the narrator and Marlow's attitudes is more readily seen in the way the narrator speaks of what he sees as England's glorious past. According to him, the Thames is a river that has served the nation in efforts of both trade and exploration. The narrator finds glory and pride in his nation's past, assured in his knowledge that "knight-errants" of the sea have brought "sparks from the sacred fire" of civilization to the most remote corners of the earth. While these "knights" may have resorted to the "sword," they have also passed the "torch," and, in doing so, made the world a more prosperous and civilized place. (Recall the painting by Kurtz that Marlow sees at the Central Station.) The narrator knows the men and their ships and speaks of them in a reverential tone. Europe's past is the history of brave adventurers conquering the unknown, and, in the process, transforming "the dreams of men" into "the seeds of commonwealths" and "the germs of empires."
The narrative is divided into three chapters. The breaks between these chapters are the significant moment in Marlow's approach to Kurtz: the first break when Marlow hears of Kurtz and wonders if Kurtz has the same moral ideas as his. The second is at the height of Marlow's curiosity about Kurtz before he discovers what Kurtz is really like. Moreover, the pauses in the narrative have a specific function and draws attention to Marlow's listeners and their reactions. The first substantial interruption (p 10), for example, elicits from the first narrator comment on the inconclusiveness of Marlow's
experience and awakens the reader's curiosity about the nature of Marlow's tale and therefore of the novella. Another significant pause takes place when one listener has apparently broken it with the exclamation: "Absurd!" which unnerves Marlow to a 5-page outburst that summarizes the themes of the novella.
Conrad uses irony to intensify Marlow's indignation and render it more effectively than if he expressed it in so many words. It also provokes in the reader the same reaction as in Marlow. There are several ways of achieving irony. One is called "verbal irony" and occurs when the real meaning of he words is opposite of that which is literally expressed. Referring to the hens over which Fresleven fought, and as a result killed, Marlow says: " the cause of progress got them" and calls the affair "Glorious" emphasizing the futility of the reason over which Fresleven was killed. Calling colonialism "the merry dance of death and trade(p.20) or "high and just proceedings" (p. 23), or "the great demoralization of the land" are examples of contemptuous and incisive verbal irony. Another irony is implied in the contrast between the colonialist's professions of intention and what they are actually up to, for example, the contrast between Kurtz eloquence and the postscript to his report: "Exterminate all the brutes!"
Verbal irony interconnects with dramatic irony when the first narrator contradicts Marlow in perception using parallels, echoes and contrasts , for example, for the first narrator the Thames has the "dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth" but Marlow points out that England too was once "the end of the world" there is also an ironic contrast between the fact that the accoutant's books are "in apple-pie order" while "everything else in the station was in a muddle-heads, things, buildings" the juxtaposition of "heads" and "things" is also ironic". Conrad's use of parallels and contrasts relies for effect not on explicit statement but on the reader's capacity to trace the associations.
Conrad used symbolism even in the title of the novella. The title is symbolical and covers a psychological as much as geographical reality. It refers to the ambivalent force at the heart of the wilderness; it also refers to the central darkness Kurtz discovers within himself, and possibly at the heart of all civilized consciousness. The plot of Heart of Darkness, the voyage from Outer to Central to Inner station, symbolizes a journey into the self. The characters, too, are symbolical. Kurtz can be looked upon as Marlow's shadow. The native mistress represents the African soul while the Intended stands for the idealism of the western civilization. Moreover, the natives at the grove of death are like phantoms in hell.
In Heart of Darkness ivory plays a dual role in significance. On one hand it is representative of evil and greed, and on the other, it is representative of the measures taken to acquire it in the first place, for example, mistreatment of blacks. Conrad's use of ivory in order to symbolize darkness is also in keeping with his occasional reversal of the colors normally associated with good and evil, white and black. Ivory as a material is one of the purest and whitest found in nature, while Kurtz's soul is purely black.
The references to ivory can obviously be seen as a representation of the white man's greed. Towards the end of the book ivory comes to symbolize the oozing evil that drips from the heart of darkness. Conrad makes commentary on the greed of the whites. He says that the men at the Central Station are, "like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. Conrad further explains in the following lines when he says, "The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." In their rapacity the "pilgrims" have placed ivory as their God, a realization that has greater meaning towards the end of the book.
The significance of ivory begins to move away from avarice and takes on a purely evil connotation as Marlow approaches those hearts of darkness: the Inner Station and Kurtz. Kurtz's relationship with ivory seems to have been reiterated by every company member through the course of the story. Of course Kurtz "harvested" more ivory than all the other stations combined, and therefore it almost seems appropriate that Conrad would use extensive ivory imagery in describing Kurtz. Earlier, during his digression on Kurtz, Marlow says, "The wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball-an ivory ball". By the time that Kurtz is carried out on a stretcher the evil has so overtaken him that, "I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arms waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze". The evil has now grown to encompass his entire body, and soul. Kurtz's lust for ivory is recounted by the Russian. Once he threatened to shoot the Russian, who was squirreling a small quantity of ivory-"because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him from killing whom he jolly well pleased." The almost god-like power that Kurtz wields is unchecked, save for disease.
Literally, the Congo River is the means by which the Europeans enter the region. It is also their main method of transportation. Marlow equates the river with a coiled snake. Thus, it is a symbol of danger; it lies in wait, ready to strike. It should be noted that Marlow's journey upriver, into the heart of the Congo, is a very time-consuming and arduous. This suggests that the journey into oneself is both a slow and difficult task. Darkness is an important symbol in the novel. Marlow's tale opens and closes in darkness, and many of the novel's significant events happen in darkness as well. As a symbol darkness represents the core of our being. It is what's left after we throw off the illusions and comforts of civilization, a tremendous emptiness. It is the symbolic equivalent of Kurt's message "The horror! The horror!"
Imageries evoke the themes of the novella and create a different dark and deep perspective of colonialism. Also, they give a visual image of the setting which helps the reader to experience Marlow's journey. Conrad uses a sea image, "a rolling wave... crested... ready to topple", to convey the sense of threatening engulfment Marlow experiences, and to foreshadow the impact of the jungle on Kurtz. The light and darkness imagery pervades the narrative and is one of Conrad's most effective tools in conveying his meaning. Conventional symbolism associates light and white with good, and black with evil. Conrad mostly departs from this connotation. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad successfully manipulates color, the imitation of color and descriptions of color to conceal his symbolic messages to the reader. When Marlow is starring at the map on the wall of the Brussels office he observes large sections of red, which he remarks as "always good signs of civilizations." The red denotes English territories abroad. He also recognizes yellow areas that represent his homeland's, Belgium's, sphere's of influence. Furthermore Conrad uses black and white repeatedly to describe good and evil. Although the "invaders" are white, Marlow describes them as having black souls, while the oppressed blacks are described as having pure and white souls. Marlow's predecessor is also killed over two black hens. In the Brussels office, Marlow sees white women weaving black cotton, while in Africa he sees black women with white cotton.
At the beginning of the novella, the image of the sun over the estuary is "striken to death" by the touch of the gloom over the city, is a powerful image suggesting that the civilized men are responsible for the darkness in the world. The phrase a "brooding gloom in sunshine" sums up the theme of the novella, the existence of darkness at the core of a shinning civilization. One of the more distinctive examples of color symbolism occurs when Marlow noticed a starving, young black boy with a rope of white cotton around his neck. This symbolizes the white men choking the people of Africa. ". Images of death abound in the novella, linking the white man's activities in the metropolis with their actions in the wilderness. Both blacks and whites are victims of the deadly enterprise. The association between ivory and death is even clearer in the juxtaposition that suggests itself between the "ivory ball" of Kurtz's head and the "black, dried, sunken" ball of the head on the pole in front of Kurtz's house. There are other images less obviously connected with death but equally suggestive of the destructiveness or futile presence of the white man in Africa.
Conrad's use of language adds intensity to the meaning. He used adjectives excessively, punctuation unconventionally and words which offer duality serving the themes and plot.
The narrative develops on two levels, the literal and symbolical. Marlow's very concrete rendering of his journey evokes an expedition to the psyche. An example of the double meaning of the narrative, when Marlow steps "into the gloomy circle of some inferno" at the Outer station, the disturbing shadows he comes upon are exploited men, but can also be seen as so many inner selves. Marlow's matter-of-fact tone enhances the impression of horror created by his words. It also adds to the irony which pervades his narrative and arises from the discrepancy between the apparent commonplaceness of some of his statements and the reality to convey. When, for example, he comes across a vast artificial hole and wonders why it has been dug, he declares "it might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do". The juxtaposition of "philanthropic desire" with criminals expresses indirectly but forcefully the monstrosity of the whites' enterprise.
In conclusion, the themes of restraint and man's journey into self run through Heart of Darkness and actually become intertwined. It is interesting to note that Marlow and Kurtz coming from the same background do not end up the same in the novel. Kurtz is doomed by his lack of restraint. The themes, symbols and imageries are a harsh reality in the Congo where everything is dark in some way, whether it is the darkness of the blacks skin, the dark evilness of the whites or the gloominess of the environment. The theme where the whites have supremacy over the blacks is evil and very dark goes along with the dull and dreary setting, neither has any life to it. The environment is dark and lifeless and the blacks have no freedom due to the manipulation by the white men. Finding one's self in Heart of Darkness is created by mood and atmosphere. The ideas and mood behind the atmosphere brush off against the state of the reader. While reading the novel I was able to reflect on my own journey to the soul. Any reader can reflect and realize the inevitable. The journey is not a pleasant one, it is a very difficult task, where evil lurks in the smallest of places. These places could be anywhere including the soul and the soul is one of man's most unique qualities. It determines who we are and how we treat everyone surrounding our presence. In this universe people live and die but a soul is immortal and will undertake an eternity.
Mai Al Natour
University of Jordan
English Department
Professor M. Shaheen
Heart of Darkness
Term paper for Novel course
Student's name: Mai Al Natour
Student's ID number: 8070575