Isolation Leads to Dehumanization

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Recommended: Critical analysis heart of darkness

Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish writer, once said, “isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.” When comparing this statement to Heart of Darkness it is completely true. In the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad the protagonist, Charlie Marlow, leaves his familiar society for his new job. In order to maintain sanity while isolated from society he dehumanizes the strange people he encounters while there. Heart of Darkness is about the affect of isolation on a person and this novella is best described by the word dehumanizing. Marlow, the Russian, and the natives dehumanize the people around them in order to give themselves hope and to shield themselves from the horror around them.

Charlie Marlow dehumanizes the natives in order to create an emotional barrier between his job and what he witnesses. He has a set of solid beliefs, one of them being that whites are superior to Africans. When Marlow is first at the station, he spies a big shade tree in the distance and decides to investigate. Marlow goes under the tree and finds many African people moaning and waiting to die. Marlow explains, “’They were not enemies, they were not criminals, there were nothing earthly now-nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom’” (Conrad 85). Marlow is struck with horror by this awful sight, but by referring to the natives as only shadows he attempts to detach himself from what he is really seeing. These people symbolize nothing more than shadows to Marlow. By believing this it makes the sight of watching these men die a little less painful and disturbing. Marlow’s natural instinct is to classify a person as a friend or foe and the fact that he cannot label these people as either proves...

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... to keep hope.

Thomas Carlyle was correct because Charlie Marlow tries to hold onto his set beliefs in order to avoid the “wretchedness” associated with isolationism. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Charlie Marlow is faced with new isolating events in Africa, but he dehumanizes the strange people he encounters while there to remain sane. Heart of Darkness is about a person’s tendency to dehumanize others in isolating situations. Charlie Marlow, the Russian, and the natives give themselves hope and shield themselves from what is going on around them by dehumanizing the people around them.

Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. New York: Simon and Schuster

Paperbacks, 2004. Print.

"Isolation Quotes." Famous Quotes and Quotations at BrainyQuote. Web. 01 Feb. 2010.

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