Similarities between Heart of Darkness, Hollow Men, and Apocalypse Now
In today's literary world there are many different texts that have interlocking literary meaning through their references to one another and to other works. I am going to compare and draw similarities between T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. These three sources have many different references to one another in different ways.
In T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men, he begins the poem with the title and underneath the title he uses the famous line "Mistah Kurtz- he dead" from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. This famous line is said by one of the servants about Mr. Kurtz who dies and all of the natives were shocked by his death. Eliot uses this line at the beginning of the poem because he is drawing a comparison between the hollow men and Kurtz. He does this because Kurtz's idea of the civilization that he wanted to create didnÕt turn out the way he wanted it to in the end. Kurtz's ideas lead to his downfall in the movie Apocalypse Now. He is also considered as being hollow himself because of his ideas and inability to face reality. This is similar to the hollow men because they don't know what they will turn out to be. They have an idea of what they want to be but they know that will never happen. The hollow men really have no choice what they will be; they just let it happen. These hollow men are waiting to go to "death's dream kingdom", but they donÕt know if they will ever get there. Eliot talks about these hollow men and these men can be compared to the people who are following Kurtz. They are all hollow people because they are following this radical figure and do not have i...
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...Hollow Men. They show many similarities and there is reasoning behind the scene in the movie Apocalypse Now; where Kurtz is reading Eliot's poem. It all is tied together and has specific meaning. It shows that different literary sources can be used to help out other literary texts. Conrad's Heart of Darkness lays down the foundation of the character of Mr. Kurtz and then Eliot and Coppola portray this character through their pieces of art. Their literary meanings tie all of these works together to make them all unique in their own way.
Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Norton. New York. 1963.
Eliot, T.S. The Hollow Men. 1925.
Jain, Manju. A Critical Reading of the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. Oxford University Press. New York. 1991
Southam, B.C. A StudentÕs Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. Faber and Faber. Boston. 1968.
Déjà vu, a French term that means, “Already seen” is a common societal phenomenon. Many people have described it as having an experience that they have done previously without actually doing the event prior. Déjà vu is a complex phenomenon that is highly debated among the scientific community because of its complexity and evidence to support theories. Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and the film Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola’s have a similar feeling to Déjà vu. Though the two works have a similar story line they have different characters, timelines, and locations. Even with their differences which set them apart from each other, the two works almost one in the same. There are many similarities which make them seem like they are the same work and makes it easy to compare and contrast events that take place in both works. Conrad and Coppola’s works create a Déjà vu experience by creating a similar atmosphere of events. An event that would make both of the works unique and prevent Apocalypse Now from being called Heart of Darkness would be the death of Kurtz in both works.
Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.
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.
Conrad's racism is portrayed in the actions and perceptions of Marlow along his trip up the Congo. Marlow's views of the area during the beginning of the trip are given as inhumane, and uncivilized. The Heart of Darkness for Marlow is the ignorance and brutality that he witnesses from natives as well as Whites that are met upon his trip.
The Polonius, when we know, says that “ there is trick ” in Hamlet's madness (II, ii, 205). And Hamlet says to his mother that “ essentially I am not in the madness,/, But madman in the art ” ( III, iv, 189-90). In fact, Hamlet's madness is more “ as madman ” when he left his unconscious mind. On the other hand, he can seem “ not so crazy ” “ or madman for the plan ” “ or madman in the art ” when he is controlled by his conscious mind, And even when he is faced by his Superego (his father), or other figures Hamlet truly does not show any sign of the madness when he hears to Horatio, Marcellus and the story of Bernado about ghost. In fact, he is quite prudent to say to his friends what was happened between him and the ghost , and quite discreetly to force them to swear that they will not reveal anything of what they have seen. In other scenes when Hamlet finds other figures ...
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.
According to Webster's New World Dictionary madness is defined as "mental derangement that makes a person incapable of what is regarded as rational conduct or judgement." There is much madness in Shakespeare's Hamlet; written around 1600, but Prince Hamlet is not included in the insane camp. Throughout the play Hamlet's seemingly irrational behavior served quite rational and sometimes ingenious ends. The Madness of Hamlet is certainly counterfeit and was recognized by Hamlet as being necessary to complete the revenge of the Murder of his father.
Throughout the Shakespearian play, Hamlet, the main character is given the overwhelming responsibility of avenging his father’s "foul and most unnatural murder" (I.iv.36). Such a burden can slowly drive a man off the deep end psychologically. Because of this, Hamlet’s disposition is extremely inconsistent and erratic throughout the play. At times he shows signs of uncontrollable insanity. Whenever he interacts with the characters he is wild, crazy, and plays a fool. At other times, he exemplifies intelligence and method in his madness. In instances when he is alone or with Horatio, he is civilized and sane. Hamlet goes through different stages of insanity throughout the story, but his neurotic and skeptical personality amplifies his persona of seeming insane to the other characters. Hamlet comes up with the idea to fake madness in the beginning of the play in order to confuse his enemies. However, for Hamlet to fulfill his duty of getting revenge, he must be totally sane. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance make it seem too impossible for him to actually be mad, for to be insane means that one is irrational and without any sense. When one is irrational, one is not governed by or according to reason. So, Hamlet is only acting mad in order to plan his revenge on Claudius.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now portrays the brutality of the Vietnam War and American’s perspective from therein. Coppola successfully produced this film parallel to Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness. Both portray the effects of imperialism on a native land with respect to the imperialists’ viewpoint. The scene of Apocalypse Now that mirrored Heart of Darkness with the most creative license, on the behalf of Coppola, is perhaps the final scene as Kurtz is slaughtered. Each creator successfully utilized the arts of their crafts to create a final production worthy of admiration while clearly stating their interpretation of imperialism.
Both Conrad’s, “Heart of Darkness”, and Coppola’s, “Apocalypse Now”, profoundly illustrate the journey of man into their inner self and man’s encounters with their insanity, fears and demise. The novella and film are comprised of numerous pivotal themes that facilitate the understanding of the deeper meaning of both works. Fundamentally, theme is an extensive message or idea expressed by an author and is a crucial element of literature since it sheds light on universal concepts. The most striking parallels that can be formulated when comparing themes in both the novella and the film are associated with human nature. Specifically, Conrad and Coppola incorporate theme of hypocrisy in order to portray man’s incredible potential for evil.
Looking at the book from a psychological viewpoint, there are apparent similarities to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud in its suggestion that dreams are a clue to hidden areas of the mind, and that at the heart of things--which Freud called the Id--we are all primitive brutes and savages, capable of the most appalling wishes and the most horrifying impulses. Through Freud, or other systems of thought that resemble Freud's, we can make sense of “the urge Marlow feels to leave his boat and join the natives for a savage whoop and hollar” (Tessitore, 42). We might even, in this light, notice that Marlow keeps insisting that Kurtz is a voice--a voice who seems to speak to him out of the heart of the immense darkness--and so perhaps he can be thought of, in a sense, as the voice of Marlow's own deepest, psychological self. Of course, we must remember that it is doubtful Conrad had ever heard Sigmund Freud when he set out to write the book. Although a psychological viewpoint is very useful, it does not speak to the whole of our experience of the book.
Seldom are works as brilliantly written as Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Golding's Lord of the Flies. There are effective comparisons and contrasts between the two novels. The novels deal with many similar issues and contain many of the same themes.
Upon meeting Kurtz’s wife, Marlow decides to lie to her, attempting to protect her from the darkness. As Kurtz’s fiancé begs for Marlow to repeat Kurtz’s last words, Marlow lies: “The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due…but I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark—too dark altogether…” (Conrad 72). Marlow lies to Kurtz’s fiancé in an attempt to protect her from the darkness. After witnessing the darkness of imperialism, Marlow realizes heaven does not fall for the darkness of mankind, so it will not fall for a lie. Upon this realization, Marlow becomes aware of the darkness not only in the jungle, but also back home. As Marlow completes his story, his lie to Kurtz’s fiancé causes Marlow to realize the unavoidable darkness for humanity. After completing his story, Marlow looks up, only to understand how unavoidable darkness really is: “The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness” (Conrad 72). As a result of telling his story, Marlow realizes the darkness of mankind is not only a result of imperialism, but also a result of existence. Lying to Kurtz’s fiancé completes Marlow’s realization of
The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be expected), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze…. (Miller 68)
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a great example of a Modernist novel because of its general obscurity. The language is thick and opaque. The novel is littered with words such as: inconceivable, inscrutable, gloom. Rather than defining characters in black and white terms, like good and bad, they entire novel is in different shades of gray. The unfolding of events takes the reader between many a foggy bank; the action in the book and not just the language echoes tones of gray.