Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Polish-born author who wrote in English. He became famous for the novels and short stories that he wrote about the sea.
Conrad left Poland at the age of 16 and arrived in England at the age of 20, unable to speak English. During the next 16 years he worked his way up from deckhand to captain in the British Merchant Navy and so mastered his adopted language and was able to write some of its greatest novels.
Conrad used experiences of his life in many of his works. From his voyages in the Indian Ocean and Malay Archipelago came some of his best-known novels. He began with his novel Almayer’s Folly (1895) set in Borneo. Heart of Darkness is based on his voyage up the Congo River, and he uses memories of his early voyages in the Caribbean.
The people of Conrad’s day infuriated him by thinking of him as merely a writer of sea stories. But Conrad knew his work really dealt with universal problems. He used the concentrated little world of a ship to treat the general problems that obsessed him: How can society endure against all the destructive forces of the individual ego and the modern world and mostly, the clash between capitalism and revolution in colonized areas of the world. Conrad also wrote two absorbing novels about revolutionaries in Europe.
Conrad was not particularly interested in character for its own sake. He was most interested in men who were actively pursuing their aims in life like the captain of the Narcissus novel, who triumphs over weakness and evil. More often, Conrad’s heroes yield to the powers of weakness and evil in them than in others. But Conrad was not exactly a pessimist. He affirmed the value of the old-fashioned virtues such as courage, fidelity, and discipline. Conrad was modern in realizing how enormously difficult it is for people to practice such virtues.
Born and raised in an era of world revolution, Conrad certainly knew the effects any change could leave on a society or nation. He was influenced socially simply because he lived during this time. His influences were probably the strongest as a child when he moved to another country and suffered much from the lack of language, knowledge of societal and cultural norms, and class differences. Nevertheless, Conrad’s live in general played a tremendous role on influencing him in the writing of this novel.
There are many important themes and subjects addressed in the book. Most importantly is how Conrad deals with his emotions and comes to accept and forgive what has happened to him. And the author shows us that this can only be done by love, support, and trust. Conrad thinks by not expressing his emotions he is less vulnerable but instead he drifts farther apart from his family. The ordeal of attempted suicide and treatment has left him feeling insecure and vulnerable and he instinctively puts up shields. Trying to appear calm and determined on the outside, he is still very confused, angry and is afraid he slip away again only to kill himself. He still feels responsible for his brother's death due to the fact his mom doesn't want to forgive him and the only way to punish himself is to deny, suppress, and control his feelings lest they give him away. It is not until the very end when Conrad?s father, Calvin finally stops skirting around the subject but tells him that he loves him and that they finally develop a sense of trust and security in one another: -
Conrad's psychological problems generated from the facts that he repressed his feelings and that he looked to others for approval. He hid all his feeling and emotions and judged himself based on what others saw and thought. When Miss Melon, Conrad's English teacher, asked him, "Do you want an extension?" Conrad's immediate response was "NO"(18). He rejected her offer of assistance because he felt that help took away from his dignity and self pride. Conrad internalized what everyone else said and did and judged himself based on this. Conrad thought about himself: "All his fault. All connections with him result in failure. Loss. Evil… Everywhere he looks, there is competence and good health… He does not want to contaminate, does not wish to find further evidence of his lack of worth"(116). Conrad looked at everyone else and concluded that everyone else was "ordinary" and that he was a problem. He was afraid that since he was not "normal," ...
Hay, Eloise Knapp. The Political Novels of Joseph Conrad: a Critical Study. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1972. 120. Print.
Joseph Conrad’s own experiences during his trip through the Congo helped him provide a foundation for the writing of Heart of Darkness. In 1890, Conrad took a job as a captain on the river steamer Kinshasa. Before Conrad took this job, he had worked for the French merchant navy as a way to escape Russian military service and also to escape the emotional troubles that had plagued him. Conrad had been in a financial crisis that was resolved with help from his uncle. After this series of events, Conrad joined the British merchant navy at the beckoning of his uncle and took the job as the captain of a steamboat in the Congo River. An important fact to remember is that Conrad was a young and inexperienced man when he was exposed to the harsh and dangerous life of a sailor. His experiences in the West Indies and especially in the Belgium Congo were eye opening and facilitated his strong outlooks that are reflected in the book Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s journey through the Belgian Congo gave him the experiences and knowledge to write about a place that most Europeans would never see in their lives.
Joseph Conrad uses the literary device of foreshadowing in his work, Heart of Darkness, to set the mood and set the stage for his ironic plot to unfold. The foretelling begins when Marlow, the novel’s main character, narrates a brief reflection “… of very old times, when Romans first came here” to carry out their conquest of England, suggesting that this Roman conquest was similar to the Belgian efforts to colonize Africa (p. 1635). Conrad, a sailor at the young age of seventeen, tells his story through the character of Marlow who recounts the adventures during his quest to retrieve the bones of a murdered sailor. Marlow’s experiences are much like the Roman’s conquest as they both faced the darkness of a treacherous path, overrun terrain, untamed natives, and personal self-doubt.
A dark, unfamiliar setting and a suspenseful plot give Heart of Darkness the characteristics of a good novel, but what really stands out is Conrad's writing. The story is full of vague imagery and descriptions that the reader must contemplate in order to fully understand. Writing so vividly was an impressive feat for Conrad, who was actually not a native English speaker. (Dintenfass) His style includes a great deal of subtlety and complexity. Although it may seem as if Conrad was trying to confuse the reader, his actual goal was to create a work of art, rather that just a novel.
Joseph Conrad is one of the most recognized writers of literary impressionism, who once wrote that the main reason of a writer was “to make you see” (Domestico). Under the name of Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, Joseph was born on the third day of December 1857 in the Russian-controlled city of Berdychiv, Ukraine. However, he was orphaned at the age of eleven when his father was prisoned by the Russians for his nationalist political activities in 1861. Conrad along with his mother followed him to Vologda where he was kept, but the harsh weather caused his mother to die form tuberculosis in 1865. Later on in 1869, his father died from tuberculosis as well (Higgins 2006). In 1874, Conrad traveled to Marseilles, where he worked on numerous French vessels over the next four years. In 1878, Conrad had attempted suicide, but failed and later joined a British ship in April 1878. It was on that vessel where Conrad was brought to Constantinople, and for the first time, London. Consequently, Conrad would serve in the British merchant navy for the next 16 years. At 21, Conrad started learning how to speak English, even though he had been reading the language since he was young. In 1895, Conrad married Jessie George, and later had two sons with her. He continued living in the southeast corner of England, where his life as a writer was encompassed by sickness, and being almost poor. He died from a heart attack on August 3, 1924 in Canterbury, Kent.
Ryf, Robert. "Joseph Conrad." Columbia Essays on Modern Writers. New York: Columbia UP, 1970. 17-21.
Civilization is not as advanced as first assumed. Joseph Conrad asserts this disheartening message in his novel, Heart of Darkness. The novel follows a European man reliving his journey to the Congo through story telling to his shipmates. Through Marlow’s journey, Conrad reveals the stark contrasts between European civilization and African savagery. Heart of Darkness explores the struggles of different societies with an intention to expose the weaknesses of a complicated imperialistic ideal.
Heart of Darkness describes a voyage to Africa, common for the British still, despite the horrific treatment which was apparent of colonization. The chaotic, stream-of-consciousness style Conrad took on helped to display the confusion, and made the reader have to interpret for themselves what they thought the writer meant. Conrad experiments with this style, leaving some sentences without ending: "not a sentimental pretense but an idea;…something you can set up…and offer a sacrifice to…." (Conrad, Longman p. 2195), a very choppy form of literature and causes the reader to fill in the holes and interpret themselves, alone. Conrad skips about from talking of the "two women knitted black wool feverishly" at the gate of the city (of hell), to his aunt which he feels women are "out of touch with truth," to how the British are as "weak-eyed devil(s) of a rapacious and pitiless folly" (Conrad, Longman pp. 2198, 2199, & 2202). Conrad's mind moves about as ours do along a large duration of literary monologue to convey to the reader the author's ideas, as interpreted by the reader.
Heart of Darkness was a huge milestone in the history of literature do to the impeccable way Conrad used ambiguity to describe his story. He does this by using symbols, themes, and archetypal images. These include light and dark, the Congo river, colors, and by not explaining everything to the reader. While reading the novel, the reader is actually required to interpret the text and really think about what certain details mean. The way Conrad wrote the novel is for the reader is to look for clues and develop ideas. It is completely subjective and trying to find exact answers is not an option. This writing style opened the eyes of many writers and changed the way literature was understood.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad may be a narrative about colonisation, revealing its drawbacks and corruption, but it may also be understood as a journey into the depths of one’s psyche, if taken at a symbolic level.
Anyone can read Heart Of Darkness and easily sense the attitude of Conrad toward English politics. Many times throughout Heart Of Darkness Conrad points out the pointlessness and savagery of English colonization. Conrad also comments a bit on society as a whole. With these two ideas added to the book, there is no wonder of why Heart of Darkness is such a touching novel.
Achebe stated that Conrad’s work was “an offensive and deplorable book.” I believe this view of Heart of Darkness to be true through his inhumane depiction of blacks throughout his novel. Conrad followed in the footsteps of infamous racist in figures, King Leopold II in particular for his barbaric treatment of Africans in the Congo. Achebe also accused Conrad of being “a thoroughgoing racist,” which I do not agree with. While I do think that Conrad certainly was a racist, he did not take that racism to the extremity that others, such as King Leopold II, did. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad made it clear that he was a racist, but did not carry that racism out to the fullest extent possible.
Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, was written in the year 1902, a time of modernist literature. Heart of Darkness talks about the problems with alienation and confusion as much as it does about imperialism. In the early 1900’s, the lifestyle in England veered towards the Victorian values. Conrad’s novella makes a bridge to connect the Victorian values with the ideas of modernism. Thus “it belongs to a period of change.”(Sardar) For example, the natives are following in the footsteps of their predecessors, following a life of tradition, and their ideas of life are constantly being attacked by people like Mr. Kurtz who think they are doing what is best, when in reality they are creating more confusion