HEART OF DARKNESS

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a short novella of an account given by a man named Marlow and his perilous journey into the Congo. Our analysis is split up into three main categories listed below. We explored the issues of: light vs. dark, or colonized vs. uncolonized; the superiority of the English and how that relates to other texts written; and Conrad's own racism in the book.

In 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 uncivilized. The light representing civilization or the civilized side of the world and the dark representing 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 have the usual connotations of evil and good. The setting also plays a critical role in describing how Marlow feels about the entire adventure he endured. 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 of instances in particular that elude to the difficult future Marlow will face. Further along in the novel there are many more examples of the contrast between light and dark. The ending of the novel also proves to continue to contrast between light and dark, especially when speaking of the savages Marlow encounters when attempting to save Kurtz. 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 being perhaps the ultimate description of the savagery and uncivilization of the Congo as Marlow and Kurtz try to quickly escape the savagery and death of the Congo. With their escape and these words comes the title of the book, Heart of Darkness.

PROPOSED WHITES SUPERIORITY OVER BLACKS AS SEEN IN THE HEART OF DARKNESS

Passage from Heart of Darkness

"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 And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.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"

Explanations

Along with colonialism and trade came the forced ideals of a race who thought themselves more superior than 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 above passage, 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 posess a similarity to the Whites. Even then, we see no glimpse of humanity in their characters.

The Congo

The River Congo is compared to the River Thames in the book because Marlow is telling the story while they are sitting at the bottom of the Thames, yet his story takes place on the Congo. Right off, there is a comparison between two different rivers. The Thames is suggested as a peaceful, tranquil river while the Congo, considered the antithesis of the Thames, has quite a different atmosphere. Chinua Achebe suggests that the "The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that "Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world."

 He goes on to say that Conrad worries not about the differentness of the two rivers, but about their common ancestry. "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." The Thames has conquered its darkness and now it's peaceful.

 Unfortunately, in saying this, Achebe is missing the point. Africa is the darkness, on the outside, but it is an irony in that the Englishmen who go to Africa and are colonizing there are the ones who are dark and barbarous. They are greedy and have become dark, like the appearance of the Africans. Perhaps the "darkness" of the Congo has brought out that animalistic instinct, but the pagan rites and savage dances are not only done by the Africans, but ironically and hypocritically, by the English as well. C.P. Sarvan states that, "As for pagan rites and savage dances, the Europeans with 'imbecile rapacity' were 'praying' to ivory, that is, to materialism, and one red-haired man 'positively danced,' bloodthirsty at the thought that he and the others 'must have made a glorious slaughter' of the Africans in the bush."

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."

Achebe argues that Conrad describes her in such detail because she is in her place and she is an important savage counterpart to the refined, European wife of Kurtz that we hear from only at the end of the story. Of her we are told this by Achebe...  

"She came forward all in black with a pale head, floating toward me in the dusk. She was in mourning. . . .She took both my hands in hers and murmered, 'I had heard you were coming.' . . . She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering."

After this brief "example", he goes on to talk about the language of the Africans without furthering on this idea. What Achebe neglects to mention is the rest of the descriptions of the two women.

"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. Sarvan writes, "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.

Author vs. Character

Achebe believes 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. He recognizes the many layers between Marlow and Conrad in the "story within a story" motif, but suggests that if he really wanted to separate himself from his character, he would have hinted at "an alternative frame of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters." Also, he believes that Conrad is Marlow because of the similarity between their careers.

 Achebe throws that out and expects us to accept it as fact without any substantiation. 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.
 
 

"Mind," he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower..."

Marlow also claims to be very against telling lies, and yet he does so himself in at least two situations. Sarvan writes, "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. . . ."
from "Heart of Darkness"

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. The Forest of Suffering is an example of the treacherousness of the European conquest, and the bloodthirsty remorselessness that the Europeans show towards the Africans.

 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

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Themes on Darkness

C.P. Sarvan writes, "As a critic has pointed out, 'Africa per se is not the theme of "Heart of Darkness", but is used as a locale symbol for the very core of an 'accursed inheritance'." Appearances are very important in the recognition of one of the important thematic elements of the novella, that is, the discrepancy between appearance and reality; between assumption and fact; between illusion and truth. When the Romans conquered Britain, they felt that those people they conquered were savage and they looked down on them because they believed they had achieved more than the society they conquered. The feelings were not created from a racial tension alone, and Conrad simply suggests that Europe is not as civilized as they claim to be, therefore not as superior as they would like to be. "Left to itself, Africa has a 'greatness' that went 'home to one's very heart'," writes Sarvan.

Conrad was certainly not completely free from prejudice. He lived in a time when some 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.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~benjamin/316kfall/316kunit3/studentprojects/conrad.html