Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, achieved classical recognition for its depiction of humanity’s struggle to reconcile good and evil. From the very opening pages of the Bible man has wrestled with choice, opportunity, propensity and instinct.
The knowledge of good and evil has surely caused us to die to simplicity and burdened us
with the curse of self-awareness.
At first it was a struggle for me to get from page to page because of Conrad’s intricate details. I was not accustomed to his unique writing style and I would often find myself lost in his descriptive language. I soon became frustrated with both the book and myself, which made it even more of a task to read.
The devastating transition of Kurtz was the factor that awoke my interest. Kurtz, a highly respectable man full of talent and potential was taken over by the evil that stirred from deep within his soul. I found this change of character fascinating because of my interest in the field of psychology. I find the study of human nature intriguing, which attracted me to Kurtz. Conrad had made me wonder what made someone of Kurtz’s caliber change so drastically. I found myself relating this change in character to a personal experience. A year ago someone whom I knew and trusted betrayed me. I saw a side of her that I would have never even imagined was there. Something deep from within caused this person to hurt me, an evil that even she was not aware she possessed. This event in my life made me question what separates the weak from the strong, the good from the evil, or even Kurtz from Marlow?
Kurtz’s transition from good to evil led me to the issue of nature vs. nurture. This question of whether hereditary or environment is responsible for the development of ones personality has been around for centuries, and still it remains unanswered. We have discussed this question many times in psychology. Some feel that your personality is reflective of your genetic makeup, and that personality will stay the same regardless of environment. Others are convinced that environment shapes personal characteristics. In The Heart of Darkness, Kurtz seems to have changed because of the environment. He was placed in an atmosphere where his evil instincts were able to take over.
Watts, Cedric. 'Heart of Darkness.' The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad. Ed. J.H. Stape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 45-62.
Marlow and Willard seem like two epitomes of every people in the world. They are nobodies and have not strong power. However, they still have some difference. Marlow is a bystander but Willard is soldier. So he is both a bystander and a firsthand participator in the war. For Willard, “When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle” (IMDb 1). Hence, Willard has a double identity to have a profound reflection of inhumane war and frangible human nature. Meanwhile, the film also keeps Kurtz’s name in Heart of Darkness. The novella and the film all introduce Kurtz by other people’s talking or other materials to create mystery. Kurtz has different backgrounds in the two works but they all come from the traditional civilized society. In the novella, Kurtz has European descent “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” (Conrad 4). In the film, Kurtz graduates from West Point and gains countless medals. Two Kurtz are convinced by people that they are civilized people, but the cruel realizations change them. Their behaviors are like wild animals and lose reason and morality. It is the decay of humanitarian in the realization because utterly false and hypocrisy social mores lead the evil human
Without personal access to authors, readers are left to themselves to interpret literature. This can become challenging with more difficult texts, such as Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Fortunately, literary audiences are not abandoned to flounder in pieces such as this; active readers may look through many different lenses to see possible meanings in a work. For example, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be deciphered with a post-colonial, feminist, or archetypal mindset, or analyzed with Freudian psycho-analytic theory. The latter two would effectively reveal the greater roles of Kurtz and Marlow as the id and the ego, respectively, and offer the opportunity to draw a conclusion about the work as a whole.
When reading each page, a sort of investigation begins in trying to figure out how Kurtz became insane. However, that investigation was not fully closed because in the end no one knew what had happened to him. In a way his character presented the idea that perhaps the darkness, his darkness was his own and was all along in him waiting to come out. Because there were other men living and working in the Congo who had not become insane as he did, such as the Russian trader or the ivory company’s accountant.
It is often said that when considering a work of great literature, the title of such work can be just as important as the context of the story. Authors time and again wait until they have completed the context of their work to give it a title as to make sure this chosen title is the best possible representation of their work. Stated equally as often is that the significance of some of these titles is easy to recognize while in other titles, the significance is only developed gradually. The latter is the case for Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. The author implements the literary devices of contrast, repetition and point of view to successfully convey the meaning and symbolism of his title.
Language is undoubtably one of mankind’s greatest inventions — a series of sounds and symbols that are capable of transferring thoughts from one mind to another. However, even language falters in the face of comprehensively communicating the human experience. Chronicling the journey of Charles Marlow, Heart of Darkness, authored by Joseph Conrad, explores both demonstratively and implicitly the inadequacy of language. The ambiguous nature of the novel has led many readers to try fruitlessly to bring its arguments into focus. His points really lie in the peripherals of the text, as part of the vagueness and misrepresentation of reality itself. By purposely being ambiguous, deceptive, and sometimes meaningless, Heart of Darkness ironically demonstrates language’s inability to convey truth and meaning and consequently its tendency to deceive.
In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,” the narrator has mixed emotions about the man Kurtz. The narrator spends a large portion of the story trying to find Kurtz. During this time the narrator builds a sense of respect and admiration for Kurtz; however when he finally finds Kurtz, he discovers that he is somewhat disgusted by Kurtz’s behavior. The narrators somewhat obsessive behavior regarding Kurtz is quickly changed into disappointment. The narrator sees that the man who Kurtz is, and the man he created Kurtz to be in his mind are two very different people. He finds that Kurtz is not a reasonable man of justice and reason, but an unstable man whose cruelty and deception is awful. In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,”
Marlow’s thoughts are so consumed by Kurtz, that he is built up to be much more of a man than he truly is. In turn, Marlow is setting himself up for a let down. He says at one point, “I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time...the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home...towards his empty and desolate station”(P.32). When Marlow reaches Kurtz’s station, he begins to become disillusioned. He begins to hear about, and even see, the acts that Kurtz is committing, and becomes afraid of him. He sees in Kurtz, what he could become, and wants nothing to do with it. He does not want people to know he has any type of relationship with him, and says in response to the Russian, “I suppose that it had not occurred to him that Mr. Kurtz was no idol of mine.” (P.59). It is at this point that he begins to discover the darkness in his heart.
Throughout its entirety, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness utilizes many contrasts and paradoxes in an attempt to teach readers about the complexities of both human nature and the world. Some are more easily distinguishable, such as the comparison between civilized and uncivilized people, and some are more difficult to identify, like the usage of vagueness and clarity to contrast each other. One of the most prominent inversions contradicts the typical views of light and dark. While typically light is imagined to expose the truth and darkness to conceal it, Conrad creates a paradox in which darkness displays the truth and light blinds us from it.
Kurtz was a great man who discovered a flaw in himself while working in Africa. He lacked "restraint" to control the emerging dark side which he found within himself. He plumbs the depths of man's dark side -a side which civilization and culture represses - but is swallowed up, by these forces which eventually overcome him in the isolation of darkest Africa. He falls into unspeakable acts and experiences the primitive power and ecstasy and horror of man's uninhibited darkness. Marlow holds back from "the abyss," although he humbly takes no credit for this achievement, ascribing it to grace. Nonetheless, he comes away changed, even enlightened, by this glimpse into the deeper and darker mysteries of life. William Blake (and Sartre) suggests that the road to heaven leads through hell. Blake also saw the pursuit of truth and self awareness as an effort to combine the Innocence of the Lamb with the darker Passion of the Tyger, the two poles of man's and life's existence. Wisdom and enlightenment come to the one who effectively understands and harmonizes both sides of this human nature.
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.
...ch open up the readers mind. Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", raises many questions about society and the human potential for evil.
* Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness” in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, M.H. Abrams, general editor. (London: W.W. Norton, 1962, 2000)
The "Heart of Darkness," written by Joseph Conrad in 1899 as a short story, is about two men who face their own identities as what they consider to be civilized Europeans and the struggle to not to abandon their themselves and their morality once they venture into the "darkness." The use of "darkness" is in the book's title and in throughout the story and takes on a number of meanings that are not easily understood until the story progresses. As you read the story you realize that the meaning of "darkness" is not something that is constant but changes depending on the context it used.
... identity grow to be intertwined. Interestingly, Marlow and Kurtz are very comparable and several parallels can be drawn between them, yet their fates differentiate in the end. Kurtz’s fate is due to his lack of restraint but Marlow’s restraint only saves his life for the time being. They were both exposed to the dark side of human nature and both eventually realized that the real heart of darkness is buried in the inside of every individual.