DIscuss The Title Of Conrad's 'Heart Of Darkness'

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Discuss the title of Conrad’s ‘Heart Of Darkness’

‘Heart of Darkness’ is considered to be the first example of ‘modernist literature’. It was written in 1902 by Joseph Conrad, who was a Polish novelist, though he wrote many of his works in English. ‘Heart of Darkness’ is one of the first novels in which the writer removes the use of grammar and punctuation, in order to convey a ‘stream of consciousness’, like we are viewing the events of the novel from the perspective of the protagonist.

The novel is set in Africa, along the river Congo, at around 1902, the peak of colonialism, and the point at which The British Empire covered a third of the world. However, this was, the ‘peak’ of the British Empire – the empire did not grow after this point. After the Boer War in South Africa, Great Britain had started to decline. Slavery also began to decline, it was outlawed in Britain, but a blind eye was turned towards slavery in the Dark Continent. The West carried on with their occupation of Africa, under the pretence that they were was spreading Christianity, and bringing the ‘light of civilisation’ to the ‘Heart of Darkness’, i.e. Central Africa.

In a nutshell, ‘Heart of Darkness’ is about the journey of a man named Marlow into Africa. The main journey is the narrated tale, of the protagonists’ physical journey, as he goes deeper and deeper into the heart of the jungle, or the ‘Heart of Darkness’, in search of Kurtz. However, as Marlow travels along the River Congo, he goes on a psychological journey into himself, and he discovers that there is evil in the soul of every man, in other words, every man has a ‘Heart of Darkness’.

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The opening of ‘Heart of Darkness’ begins with a group of men, including Marlow and the narrator, on a ‘cruising yawl’ named the ‘Nellie’, waiting for the turn of the tide. The narrator describes his surroundings and the atmosphere as the sun sets. The first paragraph of the story conveys a calm, languid feeling, using a blend of euphonic words in order to achieve this effect. Conrad also cleverly uses words that make you think of calm surroundings, such as ‘flutter’ and ‘cruising’, etc.

However, straight away, from the second paragraph, Conrad switches from the calm, pleasant imagery, ...

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