Heart Of Darkness Context Essay

Conrad represents phenomena being filtered through the consciousness of his characters, such that subject alters object, object alters subject, and both are influenced by the context in which they appear. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a rich, vivid, layered, paradoxical, and problematic novella or long tale; a mixture of oblique autobiography, traveller’s yarn, adventure story, psychological odyssey, political satire, symbolic prosepoem, black comedy, spiritual melodrama, and sceptical meditation. It has proved to be ‘ahead of its times’: an exceptionally proleptic text. First published in 1899 as a serial in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, it became extensively influential during subsequent decades, and reached a zenith of critical acclaim in the period 1950–75. During the final quarter

Kurtz, who had been ill for some time, dies during the return voyage, his last words being “The horror! The horror!” , Marlow also falls ill and barely escapes with his life, after which he is sent back to Europe. Before Kurtz died, a subtle bond had developed between Marlow and Kurtz, and Kurtz entrusted Marlow with some letters and papers. After recovering from his illness, Marlow decides to return a thin packet of letters from Kurtz’s fiancé’s (his Intended). While visiting her, it becomes clear that she knows only the idealistic Kurtz who set out for Africa, not the one who was worshiped like a god. At one point, Marlow lets slip that he had heard Kurtz’s last words. Upon learning this, the still grieving woman demands that Marlow tell them to her. After some hesitation, he tells her that Kurtz’s last words were her name and then leaves. Marlow concludes by telling his listeners that he could not bring himself to tell her the