Ecocriticism and The Heart of Darkness

Nature influences the world through its effects on civilization and how it is perceived by society. Ecocriticism is the theory that nature is an important aspect in a literary work that affects the interpretation of the story. Ecocritics view the story through a lens that observes the story’s representation of nature and extend the use of ecocentric concepts for aspects other than nature such as energy, balance, and imbalance. Peter Barry writes of how ecocritics see nature in Beginning Theory, “For the ecocritic, nature really exists, out there beyond ourselves, not needing to be ironized as a concept by enclosure within knowing inverted commas, but actually present as an entity which affects us, and which we can affect, perhaps fatally, if we mistreat it” (Barry 243) The Heart of Darkness contains vast amounts of situations that portray nature as a dark, mysterious, and untamed wild. The fear of the jungle, relationships between natives and the company, and Kurtz’s conversion are three aspects that are affected by the power of nature.

The mysteries of the jungle give Marlow a dark impression by saying, “The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist” (Conrad 10). The jungle’s vastness is daunting, Marlow’s description states, “Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine” (Conrad 30). He adds to this description by saying, “It...

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...t it” (Barry 243). Kurtz also harmed nature with his oppression of the native people and his hatred of the savages. He even wrote, “Exterminate all the brutes,” in a report (Conrad 46). His warped thinking is evidence of nature’s influence on him.

Conrad uses many ecocritical elements in Heart of Darkness. The mysterious wilderness envelopes the book’s characters in a fog of confusion and danger, while falling prey to its power. Nature is everywhere in this story, that lets nature affect almost every aspect of this story. Marlow, Kurtz, and all of the other characters react to nature differently. Some thrive in it, and some perish.

Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Print.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: an Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester:

Manchester University Press, 2009. Print.