FREE ESSAY ON HEART OF DARKNESS

HEART OF DARKNESS

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, tells a story about a journey experienced by
Marlow, the main character, and how the different symbolizations of light and darkness
change his viewpoints on the true nature of mankind. Joseph Conrad grew up in Polish
Ukraine. Conrad's father, Apollo, was arrested on suspicions of involvement with
revolutionary activities. From then on, the family was thrown into exile. Conrad's mother
died of tuberculosis in 1865. At age eleven Joseph Conrad was left an orphan.
There is a group of men aboard an English ship that is sitting on the Thames. The group
includes a Lawyer, an Accountant, a Captain, and the main character Marlow. Marlow is a
stationary man, very unusual for a seaman. He is not understood because he does not fit
into a neat category in the same manner the others do. Marlow mentions colonization, and
says that the taking of the earth is not something to examine too closely because it is
horrible. Marlow then moves into a narration of a life experience in Africa, which forced
him to become a fresh water sailor and gave him a glimpse of colonization. Marlow has
always had a passion for travel and exploration. Marlow decides he wants to be the
skipper of a steamship that travels up and down the river in Africa. His aunt has a
connection in the administration department of a seafaring/exploration company and
manages to get Marlow and appointment, because one of the steamboat captains was killed
in a skirmish with the natives. When Marlow arrives at the office, the atmosphere is
extremely dim. The doctor who performs his physical asks if there is a history of
insanity in Marlow's family, and tells him that nothing could persuade him to attend the
company down the Congo. The next day Marlow embarks on his journey into the heart of
darkness. The African shores he observes look welcoming. " The Voice of the serf heard
now and then was a positive pleasure, like the speech of a brother. It was something
natural, that had its reason, that had a meaning...for a time I would feel I belonged to
a world of straightforward facts..."(Heart of Darkness, 78) When he arrives he comes
across a very well-dressed man who is known as the Accountant. After ten days Marlow
departs on his journey into the Congo, where he will work for a man named Kurtz. Marlow
come across many villages, and black men who are working. They are never described as
humans. " Now and then a boat from shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. It
was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar their eyeballs glistening. They
shouted, sang; thier bodies streamed with perspiration, they had faces like grotesque
masks - these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, and a wild vitality, an intense energy of
movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along the shore."(Heart of Darkenss,
78) Marlow finally arrives at the station, where he meets the manager. The ship that
Marlow is supposed to sail is broken. When his ship has been repaired he sets out for
Kurtz's station with the Pilgrims, the cannibals, and the manager. Marlow finally gets to
meet Kurtz but finds he is ill. Kurtz can be described as a murderer and a thief. Kurtz
also allows himself to be worshipped as a god. There is no trace of Kurtz' former good
looks or health. Marlow says that Kurtz' head is as bald as an ivory ball and that he
resembles "... an animated image of death carved out of old ivory." Kurtz dies a few days
later, with Marlow having attended him to the end.
Throughout the narrative Marlow characterizes events in terms of light and darkness. In
the beginning Marlow compares the light with civility and reality. Marlow uses darkness
to depict savagery. These two aspects are major themes in the Heart of Darkness.As Marlow
proceeds deeper into the heart of the African jungle he begins to thing that savagery is
just an early form of civilization, and that Thames seemed to "lead into the heart of
immense darkness." (book) Marlow associates light with knowledge and truth; darkness with
mystery and seductive evil. When Marlow realizes that his aunt's acquaintances had
misrepresented him to the Chief of the Inner Station, Marlow says, " light dawned upon
me", as to point out that light represents knowledge and truth. Another way light is
associated with this story is when Marlow describes the knights who went out from the
Thames to bring light into the darkness of the world. He states they were " bearers of a
spark from the sacred fire." (book) As he walks deeper in the jungle he observes the
natives and relates the African jungle savagery to his own reality. Marlow has different
contrasting experiences in the sunshine and in the shade. Contemplating this he remarks :
"I've seen the devil violence, the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by
all the stars! These were strong lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men - men,
I tell you. But as I stood on the hillside, I foresaw in the blinding sunshine of that
land I would become aquatinted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious
and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months
later." ( Heart of Darkness, 81)
Marlow walks over to the shade and watches the natives in their "natural" habitat: the
darkness. Marlow describes," Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between trees, leaning
against trunks, clinging to the earth, half-coming out, half effaced with the dim light,
in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair." (Heart of Darkness, 82) The
dimness is symbolic of his half-awareness. When Marlow leaves the shade he runs into one
of the colonialist: " I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket,
snowy trousers, a clear silk neck tie, and varnished boots." (Heart of Darkness,83) Again
light and darkness is contrasted as Marlow runs into the man dressed in light colors. As
Marlow learns of Krurtz's activities his perception of civilization changes. What he
thinks is rational and good, he decides is irrational and evil. At first Marlow blames
Kurtz's cannibalistic brutality on the dark mysterious forces of the jungle: " onever,
never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of the blazing sky,
appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to
human weakness." (book) Marlow slowly becomes aware that Kurtz's actions reflect the true
human nature. He comes to understand that Kurtz's society is just a less civilized
version of his civilization, and Kurtz's actions a reflection of the evil in the hearts
of all men, " When you have to attend to the menial tasks, to the mere incidents of the
surface, the reality - the reality, I tell you - fades. The inner truth is hidden -
luckily, luckily. But I felt it all the same." (book) Another type of symbolism is the
comparison of Marlow and Kurtz. Marlow and Kurtz are the light and the dark selves of the
same individual. Marlow is what Kurtz might have been, and Kurtz is what Marlow could
have become.
Marlow comes up with some conclusions about the nature of man the in the Heart of
Darkness. He believes that men are evil and inhuman. Marlow describes humans as being
dark, inhuman shapes. " Dark human shapes could be made out in the distance. flitting
indistinctly against the gloomy boarder of the forrest." (pg. 141) Marlow has a specific
person in mind when he thinks of the evil nature of humans: Kurtz. He says Kurtz has a
dark nature to him. " He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would
an ordinary man." (pg. 135) In the book it gives details of how Kurtz is a thief and a
murderer. This is known by the skulls Kurtz has on stakes. There is also another person
from which Marlow can base his beliefs on. This man is more evil than Kurtz. The manager
thought that Marlow should have been hanged. " You ought to be hanged." (pg. 135) The
manager wanted Marlow killed after the death of Kurtz. The only thing the manager cared
about was the ivory. Overall Marlow believes that white men are cruel. They are inhuman
and have no respect for others. What led Marlow to believe this were Kurtz and the
manager. Through out the book Kurtz and the manager show how inhuman and evil they are by
torturing and murdering other human beings. Marlow and Kurtz are two opposite examples of
human nature. Kurtz represents what every man will become if left to his own evil desires
without a civilized environment. Marlow represents the civilized soul that has not been
drawn back into savagery. The book implies that every man has a heart of darkness that is
usually drowned out by the light of civilization. However, when removed from civilized
society, the true human nature will be unleashed. The purpose of Heart of Darkness is to
point out that civilization is superficial and that it is much less stable than society
may think.
Bibliography
Gale Research Group. Alabama Virtual Library
Conrad, Joseph. (1910). Heart of Darkness. New York:The New American Library, Inc.
Classic Notes Joseph Conrad. Classic Notes.com. online