The Power of Will in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now
The story of Heart of Darkness was adapted to film after many failed attempts. (Hearts of Darkness, Coppala E.). Finally, director Francis Coppala collaborated with his friend John Milius on writing a screen play for Conrad's masterpiece. The two came up with Apocalypse Now, utilizing a more modern setting than the original story which was based in imperialistic Europe. The modern setting was that of the Vietnam war. Apocalypse Now focuses on the insanity of a decorated military colonial. "Kurtz intended to enlighten the natives, but instead he circums to the primal temptations of the jungle and goes insane." (Hearts of Darkness, Coppala E.)
The fiction of Joseph Conrad, as seen in Heart of Darkness, represents the teachings of the German philosopher and idealist Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer thought of the world as having two distinct entities, both of which are parts of the whole [world]. First, there is the world of representation or appearance. This is the phenomenal world which is made of tangible objects. For Schopenhauer the second entity being the thing-in-itself is will, and is the cause of everything. {Frost}. "The phenomenal world [world of representation] is merely an image; it mirrors the will, the real world." (Sahakian). Schopenhauer, being of pessimistic views, argued will to be a force that both "creates all and destroys all in its insatiable demand for " 'More!' [More of what it does not know it only knows that it wants more.]" (Palmer). All human actions are a result of will. As seen through the character of Kurtz, the world of will manifestates suffering, evil, and insanity into the world of perception.
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..., Francis Copala, and John
Milius. Paramount, 1989.
Palmer, Donald. Looking at Philosophy; The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy
Made Lighter. 1988. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1994.
Sahakian William S. History of Philosophy. New York, Barnes and Noble Books,
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Schopenhauer, Arthur. Essays and Aphorisms. Trans. R. J. Hollingdale. New York, Penguin Books, 1970.
Works Consulted:
Boyle, Ted E. Symbolism and Meaning in the Fiction of Joseph Conrad. 1965. ` Folcroft, PA; The Folcroft Press, 1969.
Johnson, Bruce. Conrad?s Models of Mind. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1971.
Murfin, Ross C. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. New York: St. Martin?s Press, 1989.
Wollaeger, Mark A. Joseph Conrad and the Fictions of Skepticism. Stanford, CA; Stanford UP, 1990.
Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and "Apocalypse Now" a movie directed by Francis Coppola are two works that parallel one another but at the same time reflect their own era in time and their creator's own personal feelings and prejudices. "Apocalypse Now" was released in 1979 after two years in the making, as Coppola's modern interpretation to Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness (Harris). Conrad's book is an excellent example of the advances writers and philosophers made in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This advance deals with civilized humanity's ability to be prepared for and know the unknown. (Johnson) Comparatively, Copolla's movie does the same in the late 1970's. "Apocalypse Now" dares to breach the edges of soldier sanity in a stressful and protested Vietnam War.
person, although Pip is too afraid to look down on him due to this at
Cox, C. B. Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under Western Eyes. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1987.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of darkness and other tales. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Hay, Eloise Knapp. The Political Novels of Joseph Conrad: a Critical Study. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1972. 120. Print.
Dahl, James C. "Kurtz, Marlow, Conrad and the Human Heart of Darkness". Studies in the Literary Imagination 1(2) (1968): 33-40.
I sat on a broken down tree log, thinking of the good years, the swing
Wright, Walter F. Romance and Tragedy in Joseph Conrad. New York: Russell & Russell, 1966.
Francis Coppola’s movie Apocalypse Now was inspired by the world famous Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness. A comparison and contrast can be made between the two. Both have similar themes but entirely different settings. Heart of Darkness takes place on the Congo River in the Heart of Africa, while Apocalypse Now is set in Vietnam.
Critical Review of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness The understanding of evil and its genesis could not be achieved
Baxter, Gisèle. "Notes on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness." The G.M. Baxter Page. 28 October, 1999. http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/gmb/conrad.html. (20 May 2002).
In the novel, Pip is the main character of the story which begins when he’s under the age of ten, his parents died and therefore lives with his cruel sister and her husband, the local blacksmith. While visiting the grave on day, he meets an escaped convict and gives him food.
living with a blacksmith he demands Pip to get him a file so he can
Joseph Conrad played a major role in the development of the twentieth-century novel. Many devices that Conrad applied for the first time to his novels gained wide usage in the literary period he helped to create. Perhaps the most effective of his pioneering techniques was his application of symbolism in his novels. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad's symbolism plays a dominant role in the advancement of themes in the novel. These themes are revealed not through plot, but instead through the symbolic characters and elements present in the narrative. Joseph Conrad's use of symbolism in his portrayal of the Africans, the Company, and Kurtz in Heart of Darkness illustrates the value of had work and self-restraint.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton Critical, 1988.