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Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a short novel of an account given by a man named Marlow and his perilous journey into the Congo. There are many aspects of this book, and, indeed, many people have analyzed it in terms of its meaning. My attempt, here, is to take small sections of the book and look at them in closer detail. My analysis of Heart of Darkness is split up into three main categories listed below. I will explore the issues of: light vs.
dark, or colonized vs. un colonized; the superiority of the English; and Conrad's own racism within the book. In Conrad s Heart of Darkness, there is a real contrast between what is light and what is dark. These contrasts work within the reality of what is considered civilized and what is uncivilized. The light represents civilization or the civilized side of the world and the dark represents the uncivilized or savage side of the world. Throughout the book, there are several references to these two contrasts.
In Conrad s novel, black and white seem to have the usual connotations of good and evil. The setting also plays a critical role describing how Marlow feels about the experience he endured. From the very start, Marlow creates a feeling of darkness about the present and about the past. The most obvious aspect being that the story is told one evening. This time frame goes back to the idea of darkness being evil. He then starts out by telling a story of his adventures to the Congo while waiting for the tide to turn on the Thames River outside of London.
This is the first glimpse of what is considered civilized and more importantly uncivilized. Marlow begins by speaking of the occupants of the boat. He explains that the owner of the boat is an accountant and a lawyer. This fact alludes to the idea of what might be considered civilized. He talks about the lights that are reflected in the water. This also creates the idea that he considers himself and the passengers of the boat civilized.
The fact that these lights, which represent good, emanate from a great civilization, London also represents good coming from light. However, he ponders the thought that this also has been one of the dark places of the earth. By this he explains he means that the Romans, who were considered to be civilized, once came to conquer the wild, untamed British Isles some nineteen hundred years before. From the very start of the novel, there are signs of what is to come. The colors of items and objects help to foreshadow the tragedy that is to come to Marlow. There are a couple instances in particular which allude to the difficult future Marlow will face.
Some of the most interesting cases of foreshadowing occur when Marlow arrives at the Belgian companys office. The women are knitting black wool. This is perhaps a symbolic sign of what is to come. Another symbolic omen is word that his predecessor, the previous riverboat captain, had died in a quarrel over two black hens.
This again foreshadows the evil Marlow is soon to encounter. The significance of these two events is that the black represents evil. The images in the final chapter are perhaps some of the most illuminating in the area of defining light with civilization and dark with the uncivilized. When Marlow finally reaches the camp where Kurtz is to be located, he finds in reality that is not civilized. The first sign he encounters is the broken roof on Kurtz house. It has a black hole.
This is the first sign that it is uncivilized. Also, Marlow encounters black heads on Kurtz's fence. These once again represent the idea of savagery with the color black. He also describes them as black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids. This is once again a representation of dark colors being associated with all that is ugly, bad, and uncivilized. The ultimate contrast of light and dark occurs with the death of Kurtz on the boat after he is saved and being brought back down The brown current that ran swiftly out of the heart of Darkness This quote is perhaps the ultimate description of the savagery of the Congo as Marlow and Kurtz try to quickly escape the darkness and death of the Congo.
Along with colonialism and trade came the forced ideals of a race that thought themselves superior to those who occupied the land before them. This was the same situation that the Native Americans endured when the Europeans landed in America. This is also clear in the Heart of Darkness where we see the Whites completely dominate the Blacks. In the following passage: Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on.
The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die. They were dying slowly it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.
Conrad says the helpers withdrew here to die. These people were not helpers, but slaves who were forced to work till physical exhaustion. The blacks are not given any personal traits or uniqueness unless they possess a similarity to whites, as is the case with Marlow s servant who assists him in the piloting of the boat. Even then, we see no glimpse of humanity in their characters. This is all too evident in the following passage: And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was a fireman.
He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs. A few months of training had done for that really fine chap. He squinted at the steam gauge and at the water gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity- and he had filed teeth too, the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks. He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge. He was useful because he had been instructed.
Another point for discussion is the question of racism on the part of the author, Joseph Conrad. Many argue that that the attitudes and opinions of Marlow, which can sometimes be quite harsh and racist, are also the opinions of Conrad even though one could contend that Conrad, rather than endorsing Marlow's attitude, might be holding it up to irony and criticism. I believe that Marlow is drawn with a sort of mocking irony, which, though quiet, distinguishes Conrad from his character. An example of the humor put into the character is in the description of Marlow as resembling an idol who sits like a European Buddha.
Marlow also claims to be very against telling lies, and yet he does so himself in at least two situations. He condemns the Roman conquest and contrasts it with the superior European colonialism: What saves us is efficiency the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account really. They were no colonists, their administration was merely a squeeze... They were conquerors, and for that you only want brute force nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could...
It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale... The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it, not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea...
This quotation shows the obvious separation between the author and the character because the rest of the story shows that the conquest of the Europeans was actually worse than the conquest of the Romans, which goes against Marlow's claim above. Marlow is further separated from Conrad because of the view of the glorious sailors proudly talked about by Marlow who were, in reality, no better than pirates and plunderers. Racism also surfaces in the issue of Kurtz s Mistress. Toward the end of the story, Kurtz's mistress is seen along the shore and Marlow goes into some length describing her appearance.
She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent... She stood looking at us without a stir and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose. He later contrasts this with the description of Kurtz intended when he describes her by saying She came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk... I noticed she was not very young I mean not girlish... The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead.
This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. Here we see a different picture of the European woman where she is not so beautiful and magnificent, but rather pale and anemic. It is very important that it was getting dark as he talked to her. The darkness which is often mentioned refers not only to the darkness within man, to the mysterious and the unpredictable, but also to ignorance and illusions: it is significant that as Marlow talks with Kurtz's Intended, the darkness deepened. The African mistress, on the other hand, is described as gorgeous, proud, superb, magnificent, tragic, fierce, and filled with sorrow. She is an impressive figure and, importantly, her human feelings are not denied.
She faces the truth of the situation and the pain shows because she is able to endure it, while the illusions of Kurtz's wife is an illusion of the European society. So, throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad creates and develops several themes, such as the conflict between light and dark, the theme of European superiority, and some accused racism. Joseph Conrad was certainly not free from prejudice. He lived in a time when forms of racism seemed almost natural, but I believe he felt he was doing good when he wrote Heart of Darkness by giving emphasis to the bitter struggles of the Africans and the cruelty of the Europeans their utter darkness.
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