Heart of Darkness by Josep Conrad
analytical Essay
1062 words
In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, Conrad’s uses Marlow’s experiences to reflect on man’s self-realization and create a spiritual quest, both physical and psychological as he seeks Kurtz, ivory-corrupted, individual in the wilderness. Within the Heart of Darkness, Conrad creates an allegory, an archetypal story of journeys: through hell, back in time, and to the core of the psyche—the heart of darkness.
Conrad’s depiction of the hell in nature becomes evident in the mist of civilization through the many descriptions within the book. Conrad begins the journey to Hell from Brussels and London with a metaphoric reference of the Thames River to suggest that time and the waterway flowed coexisting together, “[running] to and fro in unceasing service” for Marlow to enter the interior of the heart of darkness (Conrad 39). The river allows Marlow to continue his journey from humanity into the condemned wilderness. The visionaries, whom Marlow described that traveled along the Thames to seek wealth and fame, represents the souls of the individuals whose idea of glory, “bearer’s of a spark from the sacred fire” ultimately led to tragic endings (Conrad 39). Conrad alludes to Hell with certain references from Dante’s Divine Comedy, The Inferno, which follows Dantes’s discourse into the nine circles of Hell. Conrad’s compares Marlow to a lay apostle on a similar path of viewing the repercussions of sin and savagery firsthand so emphasize not only his purity but also his. While on the boat, Marlow contemplates about his entrance “into the [primitive] yellow, [right] in the center of the map” (Conrad). For Marlow, yellow served as the lifeless and dead center of the Congo where sickness thrived. Conrad makes it clear for the audience ...
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...arkness in our hearts.
Works Cited Page
Bowers, Terence N. "Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Dante's Inferno." The Explicator 62.2 (2004): 91+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Oct. 2011.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Amsco School Publications, 1974. Print.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. London: Hesperus Press, 2002. Print.
Gillon, Adam. "The Appalling Face of a Glimpsed Truth: 'Heart of Darkness,'." in Joseph Conrad. Twayne, 1982. 68-77. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Oct. 2011.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Heart of Darkness" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2011.
Saha, P.K., comp. "CONRAD'S HEART OF DARKNESS." Editorial. MR. Bauld's English Website. 1992. Web. 21 Oct. 2011. .
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how joseph conrad's novel heart of darkness reflects on marlow’s experiences and creates a spiritual quest as he seeks kurtz, an ivory-corrupted individual in the wilderness.
- Analyzes how conrad's depiction of the hell in nature becomes evident in the mist of civilization through the many descriptions within the book.
- Analyzes how marlow travels back in time to prehistoric ages where he realizes man shares a connection with the natives.
- Analyzes how conrad presents marlow's journey into the core of the psyche through psychological and religious connections. the theme of breaking away from madness is evident in the novel.
- Analyzes how conrad uses marlow's experiences through hell, back in time, and into the psyche to show that we must embrace our inner truth in order to overcome the darkness in our hearts.
- Explains bowers, terence n., "conrad's heart of darkness and dante’s inferno." the explicator.
- Explains gillon's "the appalling face of a glimpsed truth: 'heart of darkness,'" in joseph conrad.
Related
- analytical
- The Concept of Light in Joseph Conrad´s Heart of Darknessanalytical essayThe concepts of light and darkness have become synonymous with good and bad, especially in the realm of literature. Light is associated with Heaven, happiness and hope, while darkness symbolizes Hell, hatred and harm. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness however, these general conventions are broken in that light symbolizes a far more menacing evil than any form of darkness. While readers seek to view light in a positive way, Conrad’s progressive use of darker examples of light reflects the inner conflict and confusion of the novel’s protagonist, Marlow, and his continued search for light in the world.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how conrad's final combination of light and darkness occurs when marlow visits the intended, who is the antithesis of kurtz, but presents him in a new light.
- Analyzes how conrad's use of the frame narrative places marlow in a unique position in the story. his venture down the river and into the heart of darkness leads both himself and the reader to question the morals and ideals that are given to us by society.
- Explains conrad, joseph, heart of darkness, ed. judith boss and david widger, chapel hill, project gutenberg, 2006.
- Analyzes how joseph conrad's use of darker examples of light reflects the inner conflict and confusion of the novel’s protagonist, marlow.
1167 wordsRead More - Prejudice in Heart of Darkness: Racism is a Relative Termanalytical essayCox, C. B. Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under Western Eyes. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1987.
In this essay, the author
- Argues that conrad's novel, heart of darkness, contains the theme of racism but ignores the fact that it was written around the turn of the century. modern critics apply modern thinking to all novels, including those written in a specific time period with beliefs different from today.
- Explains that to see racist tendencies in a text we need to know the definition of racism. a racist apprehends the connection between the colour of our skin and our inherited mental and intellectual disposition.
- Explains that heart of darkness is an example of a text with many racist statements without being racist itself.
- Analyzes how marlow pronounces non-racist statements about london and how it also has been heathen at some point in our history.
- Opines that a racist would never look at someone from an inferior race with empathy and compassion, since he would not be willing to recognize any suffering or feelings. marlow sees the suffering and pain in the black people's faces and tries to ease their pain.
- Analyzes how a racist would never agree that all races in the world are equal and entitled to be treated as equals. marlow sees the native inhabitants of africa as part of the human heritage.
- Concludes that marlow is not a racist since he is the main character in heart of darkness and most of the narrative perspective is seen from his point of view.
- Cites conrad, joseph, engström, christer, höganäs, bokförlaget bra böcker, c. b. cox, james guetti, and sewanee review lxxiii.
1033 wordsRead More - lieshod White Lies in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darknessanalytical essayIn his novella Heart of Darkness (1899), Joseph Conrad through his principal narrator, Marlow, reflects upon the evils of the human condition as he has experienced it in Africa and Europe. Seen from the perspective of Conrad's nameless, objective persona, the evils that Marlow encountered on the expedition to the "heart of darkness," Kurtz's Inner Station on the banks of the snake-like Congo River, fall into two categories: the petty misdemeanors and trivial lies that are common- place, and the greater evils -- the grotesque acts society attributes to madmen. That the first class of malefaction is connected to the second is illustrated in the downfall of the story's secondary protagonist, the tragically deluded and hubristic Mr. Kurtz. The European idealist, believing the lies of his Company and of the economic imperialism that supports it, is unprepared for the test of character that the Congo imposes, and succumbs to the potential for the diabolical latent within every human consciousness.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how joseph conrad, through his principal narrator, marlow, reflects upon the evils of the human condition as he has experienced it in africa and europe.
- Analyzes how marlow's lie to the intended informs the preceding text, and how that culminating scene with the inntended is connected to his initial impression of brussels as a whited sepulchre.
- Analyzes how charlie marlow despises kurtz's visions and his guileless love for the quondam humanitarian. he acquiesces in her statements of faith and prevaricates with double meaning.
- Argues that the white man's burden lies must be accepted if the natives of the dark continent are to be improved, enlightened, and transformed into white people with black skins.
- Analyzes how the countenancing of the greater evil, the lies like rainbow colours on the company's map, veil the real motives of european imperialism in africa.
- Analyzes how kurtz's company has used corporate profits to justify its presence and activities in central africa. he espoused altruistic ideals to mitigate enslaving the natives.
- Analyzes how the manager's lofty intentions for his work at the jungle station were quickly perverted by the darwinian ethos of the unfamiliar climate and environment.
- Analyzes how conrad alludes to christ's characterization of his opponents, the pharisees, as "whited sepulchres" spiritually. what the saviour found objectionable in his sectarian adversaries is what marlow finds repulsive in the belgian company: pure hypocrisy.
- Analyzes how marlow's description of his city of departure recalls the biblical phrase for the hypocrite, the man of inner darkness whitewashed by outer manner
- Analyzes how the marble fireplace of the intended's parlour possesses a "cold and monumental whiteness," connecting this particular european interior with the general exterior of society.
- Analyzes how marlow's closing scene of "the heart of darkness" leaves the reader with ambivalent feelings about conrad’s chief narrator.
- Analyzes how kurtz and marlow have looked into that dark place in the human psyche and know what lies there.
- Opines that marlow's lie is neither wicked nor self-serving, but justifiable as odysseus'. it is insulating the intended from the darwinian reality behind the african jungle and brussels' impassive façade.
- Analyzes how marlow reinforces his chivalric image of himself by keeping kurtz's intended from the truth of his death.
- Analyzes how rosmarin points out that in heart of darkness white is the "most explicit confusion" for the reader, since it is an "off-color," the hue of ivory (upon which the whole european economic venture rests) and kurtz's complexion.
- Analyzes how marlow reverses the normal symbology of the black-white dichotomy, so that gradually darkness comes to mean truth, whiteness falsehood.
- Describes conrad's heart of darkness and the critics, ed. bruce harkness.
- Explains that dowden, wilfred s., "i start with definite images." joseph conrad: the imagined style.
- Analyzes hyland, peter, "the little woman in the heart of darkness." conradiana 20, 1 (1988): 3-12.
- Explains that joseph conrad's heart of darkness, a case study in contemporary criticism, was published by ross c. murfin.
- Explains klein, herbert g., "charting the unknown: conrad, marlow, and the world of women." conradiana 20, 2: 147-158.
- Explains lynn, david h., "heart of darkness : marlow's heroic cry." narrators in the early modern novel.
- Analyzes montag's "marlow tells the truth: the nature of evil in heart of darkness."
- Explains that moser, thomas c., "the uncongenial subject." joseph conrad: achievement and decline.
- Explains rosmarin, adena, and ross c. murfin's heart of darkness: a case study in contemporary criticism.
- Analyzes smith, johanna m. smith's book, "too beautiful altogether": patriarchal ideology in heart of darkness.
- Describes stewart, garrett's "lying as dying in heart of darkness".
- Describes trilling, lionel, and the liberal imagination: essays on literature and society.
- Explains that wright, walter f., "ingress to the heart of darkness." romance and tragedy in joseph conrad.
2842 wordsRead More - The Light and Dark Forces in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darknessanalytical essayHeart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, explores something truer and more fundamental than a mere personal narrative. It is a night journey into the unconscious and a confrontation within the self. Certain circumstances of Marlow's voyage, when looked at in these terms, have new importance. Marlow insists on the dreamlike quality of his narrative. "It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream - sensation." Even before leaving Brussels, Marlow felt as though he "was about to set off for center of the earth," not the center of a continent. The introspective voyager leaves his familiar rational world, is "cut off from the comprehension" of his surroundings, his steamer toils "along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy." As the crisis approaches, the dreamer and his ship moves through a silence that "seemed unnatural, like a state of trance; then enter a deep fog." In the end, there is a symbolic unity between the two men. Marlow and Kurtz are the light and dark selves of a single person. Marlow is what Kurtz might have been, and Kurtz is what Marlow might have become.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how heart of darkness explores something truer and more fundamental than a mere personal narrative.
- Analyzes how the meaning of heart of darkness is found on the periphery of the book. marlow is the source of our story, but he is also a character within the story.
- Describes kurtz as an orator, writer, poet, musician, artist, politician, ivory procurer, and chief agent of the ivory company's inner station at stanley falls.
- Analyzes the theme of civilization versus savagery in heart of darkness. the book implies that civilization is created by the setting of laws and codes that encourage men to achieve higher standards.
- Analyzes how the wilderness is a symbol in joseph conrad's heart of darkness. it is an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention.
- Analyzes how the natives reflect the savage but very real quality of the wilderness. they are too greedy and stupid to realize that they are under attack.
- Analyzes how kurtz stops resisting the savagery of the wilderness, and gives up his high aspirations. the wilderness brings out the darkness and brutality in his heart.
- Analyzes how marlow and kurtz are two opposite examples of the human condition. they represent the civilized soul that is not drawn back into savagery by a dark, alienated jungle.
- Explains that murfin, ross c., ed. joseph conrad, "heart of darkness": a case study in contemporary criticism.
1681 wordsRead More - Heart of Darkness - A Reform Piece or Racist Trash?analytical essay(4) Watts, Cedric. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness": A Critical and Contextual Discussion. Mursia International. 1977.
In this essay, the author
- Narrates how joseph conrad spent four months as a steamship captain in the congo and became physically ill and disturbed. he felt compelled to write about his experiences years later.
- Explains that conrad's experience in the congo was similar to that of marlow, who became ill as a result of his travels. the novella heart of darkness was published in 1902.
- Analyzes how heart of darkness paints a very dark picture of the congo. kurtz represents the force publique, which came to the region to "civilize" natives, but their methods became increasingly barbaric.
- Analyzes how conrad's "heart of darkness" is a direct assault on imperialism and the ideology that legitimized it.
- Opines that the goal of evolutionary processes is an equilibrium between the creature and its environment. marlow observes natives on the coast, who "wanted no excuse for being there" and who blend with their setting.
- Analyzes how watts' hypothesis is supported by many examples in the novel. marlow becomes sick as a result of the trip up the congo.
- Analyzes how conrad's involvement in the reform movement gives some insight into the reform message of heart of darkness.
- Analyzes how chinua achebe in a critical essay on conrad's heart of darkness claims that he was "a thoroughgoing racist."
- Analyzes how achebe argues that conrad's frequent use of racial epithets coupled with his description of the natives make him look like a racist.
- Analyzes how sarvan refutes achebe's arguments by stating that the attitudes expressed by marlow are contradictory and ironic statements that establish him as unreliable.
- Analyzes how heart of darkness can be seen as a liberal attempt to reform horrific conditions in the congo, but read today it may seem racist.
- Cites forbath, peter, widmer, kingsley, and watts, cedric. "joseph conrad".
1364 wordsRead More - Light vs. Dark in Heart of Darknessanalytical essay...Conrad removes Marlow’s bias, but through the inclusion of careful details he is able to establish his themes. The cruelty of white man to the natives, appearances being deceiving, the nobility of the Africans – all are clear messages of this text that come across not from Marlow’s opinion, but rather the careful inclusion of details and symbolism. No bigger symbol helps Conrad reinforce his theme than the continuous battle of light and dark, and his use of the two is the cornerstone from which he builds meaning from symbolism.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the realism movement of the late nineteenth century produced works in literature that were marked by reduced sentimentality and increased objectivity.
- Analyzes how conrad reverses the meanings of light and dark, white and black, and good and evil in his novella.
- Analyzes how conrad uses light as a symbol of civilization. the black jungle represents the absence of white man's civilization, marked by corruption and evil.
- Analyzes how conrad uses his inverted theme of light and dark with the actual characters of the novella.
- Analyzes how conrad emphasizes the importance of appearances being deceiving in his story. he uses the common symbols of light and dark to reinforce his theme.
- Describes conrad, joseph, and damrosch's the longman anthology of british literature.
1272 wordsRead More - Humanity of the Primitive in Heart of Darkness, Dialect of Modernism and Totem and Tabooanalytical essayWatts, Cedric. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Critical and Contextual Discussion. Milan: Mursia International, 1977.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that society cannot exist in a vacuum; it must be able to define itself in terms of the other groups around it. the african natives became the new other.
- Analyzes how the anthropology of the time espoused an evolutionary view of humanity. the colonial subject is either a part of nature, or menacingly unreadable, mysterious, and suggestive
- Analyzes how marlow's oscillation between viewpoints is startling in its rapidity. on his first meeting with the natives of the congo, he swings from one pole to the other in only a few sentences.
- Analyzes how marlow is having a great deal of trouble making up his mind over the africans, and never really comes to any conclusion.
- Analyzes how marlow looks upon the natives from an inhuman stance while staying in the down river station. they are anatomised to an absurd degree.
- Analyzes how marlow's beliefs about the savages shift as he travels up the river.
- Narrates how they were not inhuman, but what thrilled them was their remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. they would admit to themselves that there was just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of the noises.
- Analyzes how conrad has completely humanized the savages in marlow and the grief he feels for him.
- Analyzes how marlow's attitude has taken another one hundred and eighty degree turn when he is tracking kurtz through the jungle in the night.
- Explains that freud's totem and taboo is a comparison between the psychology of primitive peoples and psycho-analysis. the mind of the modern man, if thrown off kilter by some neurosis, immediately "reverts" to the primitive state.
- Analyzes how freud's totem and taboo are organised around one central idea, the acceptance of which entails his entire chain of argument leading to the "original sin" of parricide.
- Analyzes how reminds the reader of this assumption in the penultimate paragraph of the book, defending his assertion that this "original sin" did indeed take place.
- Analyzes freud's view that it was the guilt from that original crime that created all of society as we know it. the continuum of thought collapses into one inescapable fact.
- Describes the works of matthew arnold, joseph conrad, sigmund freud, and graham greene.
1600 wordsRead More - Altered Reality in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darknessanalytical essayCox, C. B. Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under Western Eyes. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1987.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how marlow's perception of the jungle as a palpable force that has the power of human gestures is indicative of ego-activity and the first bardo transcendence is lost.
- Explains that the negative, wrathful counterparts to this vision occur if the voyager reacts with fear to the powerful flow of life forms.
- Analyzes how marlow hears the sounds of the colonizers and the africans in heart of darkness. silence in the jungle is truthful, while the noise of technology is incomprehensible to the white men.
- Analyzes how marlow tried to escape into mental activity in the face of new noises and visions, but the strength of the sounds thwarted his attempts at rationalization.
- Explains that they were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet.
- Analyzes how marlow describes the terribleness of the constant thwarting of attempts at explanation with one symbolic instance of thought-change.
- Analyzes how marlow feels he can comprehend this new world and comes to a new rationalization.
- Opines that man's mind is capable of anything because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future.
- Analyzes how marlow's psychedelic experience is a means of getting in tune with the primordial, the memories that are stored in all of us, and recognizes the connection between all men that allows for the understanding of each other.
- Analyzes how marlow seems unsure whether comprehension is understanding the appearance of meaning or recognizing the underlying truth. the truth of the forest asserts itself when he puts his faith in appearances.
- Concludes that one interpretation of heart of darkness formulates the congo as an altered reality. kurtz is a character in contrast to marlow, who embraces evil by stepping over the edge of moral bounds.
- Analyzes how leary describes the psychedelic journey as a pre-mortem death and rebirth, but for kurtz it is the final journey, the real death.
- Opines that wisdom, truth, and sincerity are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.
- Explains cox, c. b. conrad's heart of darkness, nostromo, and under western eyes.
- Describes guetti, james, and c. b. cox's "heart of darkness and the failure of the imagination".
- Explains that leary, timothy, metzner, ralph, alpert, richard the psychedelic experience: a manual based on the tibetan book of the dead.
- Cites ruthven, k.k., and c.b. cox in critical quarterly, vol.
2213 wordsRead More - West, Roger. "Conrad's Heart Of Darkness." Explicator 50.4 (1992): 222. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how conrad's use of the white cloth symbolizes the power and magic that the black man has used to enslave him and other africans.
- Opines that power can do so much, but it doesn't only destroy communities and counties. it can also destroy a person.
- Analyzes how power is used to show control and to make advancements in their countries. the books heart of darkness and the gods will have blood show the ideas of power through imperialism and the revolution.
- Cites west, roger, and dennis, porter. anatole france and the liberalism of resignation.
1210 wordsRead More - Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness” Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. Boston: Bedford, 1996.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how francis ford coppola's "apocalypse now" reflects the cultural turmoil that developed in the 1960’s.
- Analyzes how coppola leaves the traditional order of a cinematic story and brings out more meaning.
- Analyzes how captain kilgore represents the struggle between american social influences bringing out shallow, and meaningless thoughts about surfing and eating beef versus acting chivalrous and noble as a soldier doing his job, serving his country for the cause.
- Analyzes how kilgore's blatant disregard for the purpose he was in vietnam shows how the american people reacted in two ways.
- Analyzes how lance loses his american boy image, his fear of bombs and bullets, and begins to decent into a tribal being.
- Analyzes how coppola brings to life the conflicts that the era of 1960'2 experienced. the anarchy of vietnam was just an outlet for these feelings, funneled through the immature emotional matrix of soldiers.
- Analyzes how coppola's portrayal of the vietnam war could be considered amplified by his artistic imagination.
- Explains brantlinger, patrick, conrad, joseph, and ross c. murfin's case studies in contemporary criticism.
- Cites grieff, louis k., miller, j. hillis, and murfin, ross c.
1639 wordsRead More