Heart of Darkness has been reviewed by many different critics. There are many issues in Joseph Conrad’s book such as imperialism, cruelty, and how isolation can change a person. A noticeable topic in the book is the ending with Marlow. The book has an outer and inner story. Marlow tells the inner story because it is of his previous experience in Africa. In the beginning of the book, Marlow says that he hates lying yet he lies to Kurtz’s Intended. In order to figure out why Marlow lied and how it affects the story, evidence from different sources must be viewed.
Birgit and Daniel Maier-Katkin focus on the broad topic of how humanity is affected and the banality of evil. They address the “problem of evil in an environment dominated by crimes against humanity: the Congo during the reign of the Belgian King Leopold” (Maier-Katkin 584). They also address the ending of which Marlow lies to the Intended of Kurtz. They describe Heart of Darkness as a tale that “arouses suspense, turns on elements of surprise, and concludes unexpectedly, all the time focusing awareness on aspects of reality that are seemingly inexplicable and inaccessible to reason” (Maier-Katkin 585). The Maier-Katkins also say that the “language hints of earlier creation and the primitive power of less domesticated nature, themes that later dominate the inner narrative” (Maier-Katkin 586). In other words, themes that did not seem quite as important in the beginning hold a greater impact later on in the story. They then give a short summary of the outer frame of the book. After the summary, they dive into the main idea of their work which is the “three brilliant depictions of the origins and nature of evil: the base, primitive, perverse allure of evil in the human heart;...
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.... Both Lewis and Meckier make interesting points in their arguments. Lewis looks at how liberalism affected Marlow’s decisions while Meckier just looked at Marlow lying. Lewis tries to provide an explanation for Marlow’s actions.
Works Cited
Bruffee, Kenneth A. “The Lesser Nightmare: Marlow’s Lie in the Heart of Darkness.” Modern Language Quarterly 25.3 (1964): 322-329. Web.
Lewis, Pericles. “His Sympathies were in the Right Place.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 53.2 (1998): 211-244. Web.
Maier-Katkin, Birgit and Daniel Maier-Katkin. “At the Heart of Darkness: Crimes against Humanity and Banality of Evil.” Human Rights Quarterly 26.3 (2004): 584-604. Web.
Meckier, Jerome. “The Truth About Marlow.” Studies in Short Fiction 19.4 (1982): 373-379. Web.
Stewart, Garrett. “Lying as Dying in Heart of Darkness.” Modern Language Association 95.3 (1980): 319-331. Web.
Heart Of Darkness: Running from the Truth. In the novel Heart Of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, the main character is a narr character makes a decision to go against his convictions by telling a lie about Kurtz1s death to the intended. After careful analysis of the situation, one can see that Marlow is justified in lying to the intended because the lie enables Marlow to live the rest of his life.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Bausch, Richard, and R. V. Cassill. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 126-86. Print.
...o, while the novella’s archetypal structure glorifies Marlow’s domination of Kurtz. These two analyses taken together provide a much fuller and more comprehensive interpretation of the work. Conrad presents the idea that there is some darkness within each person. The darkness is is inherited and instinctual, but because it is natural does not make it right. He celebrates – and thereby almost advises – the turn from instinct. By telling Marlow’s tale, Joseph Conrad stresses to his audience the importance of self-knowledge and the unnecessity of instinct in civilization.
Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's tale of one man's journey, both mental and physical, into the depths of the wild African jungle and the human soul. The seaman, Marlow, tells his crew a startling tale of a man named Kurtz and his expedition that culminates in his encounter with the "voice" of Kurtz and ultimately, Kurtz's demise. The passage from Part I of the novel consists of Marlow's initial encounter with the natives of this place of immense darkness, directly relating to Conrad's use of imagery and metaphor to illustrate to the reader the contrast between light and dark. The passage, although occurring earlier on in the novel, is interspersed with Marlow's two opposing points of view: one of naïveté, which comes before Marlow's eventual epiphany after having met Kurtz, and the matured perspective he takes on after all of the events leading up to his and Kurtz's encounter.
Tucker, B. D. "The Tell-Tale Heart and the Evil Eye." Southern-Literary-Journal 13:2 (1981 Spring): 92-8
The novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is literally about Marlow’s journey into the Belgian Congo, but symbolically about the discovery of his heart and soul during his journey, only to find that it is consumed by darkness. He realizes that the man he admired and respected most, is really demonic and that he may be just like him. He is able to come to this realization however, before it takes the best of him.
As Marlow assists the reader in understanding the story he tells, many inversions and contrasts are utilized in order to increase apperception of the true meaning it holds. One of the most commonly occurring divergences is the un orthodox implications that light and dark embody. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness brims with paradoxes and symbolism throughout its entirety, with the intent of assisting the reader in comprehending the truth of not only human nature, but of the world.
Conrad, J. (2006). Heart of darkness. In P. B. Armstrong (Ed.), Heart of darkness (4th ed., p. 5). New York London: Norton Critical Editions.
Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 6th ed. vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993. 1759-1817.
Levenson, Michael. "The Value of Facts in the Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40 (1985):351-80.
Abrams, M.H., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition, Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1993
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
Stewart, Garrett. Lying as Dying in The Heart of Darkness. New York: Facts on File, 2009. Print.
* McClure, John A. “The Rhetoric of Restraint in Heart of Darkness” in Nineteenth Century Fiction, Volume 32, Issue 3 (Dec. 1977), pp. 310-26 – available through www.jstor.org