The Descriptiveness of Conrad's Heart of Darkness

1362 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: analyse darkness as a poewrful symbol in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness was written by Joseph Conrad in 1902. Before it was published it appeared in a 3-part series in Blackwood’s magazine. The story tells of a detailed incident when Marlow who takes over the assignment of the captain of a ferry-boat travels into the darkness. He was employed by the Belgian Trading company. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however while doing his job, he comes across a person called Kurtz to whom he has to give the ivories after he have collected them. Kurtz is a very reputed man throughout the region and is known by everyone. The novella starts as the main character Marlow at the Thames River in the evening with several other people and starts telling the story about how he entered into the Dark Continent. The novel is a critique to the manifest destiny which is a norm believed that Europeans were chosen by god to rule over the world and make colonies all over Asia and Africa. The Europeans behaved and acted like the kings of the world. They considered Africans as objects and not people. In the novel, Africans were merely used as a backdrop where Marlow—the main character can lay out his philosophical and existential struggles. The dehumanization is harder to identify then open racism or violence. Also, Conrad, through the book hypocrites his own country and blames them for dehumanization. When it comes to analyzing the novella—symbolic interpretations, character development and language are the three main topics to discuss. The novella is written in such precision and high detail that almost every paragraph has a very significant role to play in the overall plot. The story is created to illustrate ideas and themes, rather than just a simple narrative. The ideas and themes are consta...

... middle of paper ...

...ughout the Heart of Darkness. One of them starts when the unnamed reader describes the ship Nellie, himself, his fellow mates on the ship and particularly Marlow. At first, the unnamed narrator is not sure to be a character in aboard on the ship until a few paragraphs until we realise that he has been observing others—“between us there was, as I have already said”. Marlow gradually takes over the narration beginning “and this also has been one of the darkest places on earth”. Later on in the novel, Conrad has Marlow take over the entire second monologue narrative.

No matter how descriptive the book is, the basic facts still remain that Kurtz was the man who jumps off the edge of insanity and plunges into the dark of insanity. Whereas, Marlow is the man who goes to the edge of insanity, looks over the edge, and had enough strength to not go over to the other side.

Show More
Related

  • Heart of Darkness

    2215 Words  | 5 Pages

    3.     Kurtz, who is not the protagonist or antagonist is a very significant character in the book as Marlow and Kurtz essentially form a team as the novel progresses. He is the chief of the Inner Station and Marlow basically follows him. Kurtz is a man of many talents (he is a talented musician and painter). His abilities are nothing without his charisma and his ability to lead. Kurtz is a man who understands the power of words, and his writings present a complexity that obscures their horrifying message (his writings are often hard to understand, as they are complex in structure, often hiding the morbid message behind them). Although he remains a “puzzle,” e...

    Read More

  • Heart of Darkness

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marlow in the novella is on a mission to find Mr. Kurtz, who is a well-respected ivory agent in Europe, but is believed to be using “unsound methods” to find and trade ivory in Africa, and also his cruel treatment of the African laborers. Marlow becomes interested in knowing Mr. Kurtz, upon hearing such rumors. he becomes even more interested after seeing, “black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids- a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber.” The heads are perhaps an important part of this novella, and they show how much Mr. Kurtz had changed. Another similar scene is in the movie, where Captain Willard sees all the heads of those who opposed colonel Kurtz. Both of these scenes show how both Kurtzes had changed and how their surroundings had transformed them into different people. Although he is not paralyzed similar to the “hollow men” in T.S. Elliot’s poem, he was one of the “lost and violent souls.” His lack of moral or spiritual strength to sustain him caused him to turn into a barbarian. Kurtz becomes aware of this when he is close to dying, and that is why he mentions, “The horror! The horror!”

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in Heart of Darkness

    1713 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Heart Of Darkness

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    Heart of Darkness ?gHeart of Darkness?h, written by Joseph Conrad, holds thematically a wide range of references to problems of politics, morality and social order. It was written in a period when European exploitation of Africa was at a gruesome height. Conrad uses double oblique narration. A flame narrator reports the story as told by Marlow, assigned to the command of a river steamboat scheduled to transport an exploring expedition. Kurtz is a first-agent at an important trading post of ivory, located in the interior of the Congo. Both Marlow and Kertz found the reality through their work in Africa. Marlow felt great indignation with people in the sepulchral city after his journey to the Congo region because he discovered, through his work, the reality of the universe, such as the great virtue of efficiency, the darkness in society and individuals and the surface reality. When Kurtz found himself on his deathbed and he said ?gThe horror, The horror referring to his life in inner Africa, which caused him disintegration. Marlow emphasized the virtue of ?gefficiency?h throughout the story because he thought of it as the only way to survive in the wilderness. After seeing the dying natives in the forest of the outer station, Marlow described them as ?ginefficient.?h Under ?gthe devotion to efficiency,?h incompetent people were excluded from society. Only efficient people can survive. For example, since Kurtz was the most efficient agent, with regards to producing ivory, his employers respected his achievement and regarded him as an essential person.

    Read More

  • Light and Dark Imagery in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel about a man named Marlow and his journey into the depths of the African Congo. Marlow is in search of a man named Kurtz, an ivory trader. Though Marlow?s physical journey seems rather simple, it takes him further into his own heart and soul than into the Congo. The setting, symbols and characters each contain light and dark images, these images shape the central theme of the novel.

    Read More

  • The Deception Of Kurtz In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,” the narrator, Marlow language, and point of view to convey the conflicting emotions he has about Kurtz due to the image he fabricated Kurtz to be, and the reality of Kurtz. Marlow’s language throughout the piece reveals to the reader how he feels about Kurtz and how he perceives Kurtz’s actions. Marlow’s point of view also allows him to support both of his perceptions of Kurtz because he doesn’t see only bad or only good in

    Read More

  • Vague Descriptions in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vague Descriptions in Heart of Darkness. A dark, unfamiliar setting and a suspenseful plot give Heart of Darkness the characteristics of a good novel, but what really stands out is Conrad's writing. The story is full of vague imagery and descriptions that the reader must contemplate in order to fully understand. Writing so vividly was an impressive feat for Conrad, who was actually not a native English speaker.

    Read More

  • The Changing Personality of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Heart of Darkness is a novel based on European imperialism in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. During the turn of the century in 1900, the more significant countries in Europe (i.e. England, France, Germany, et al.) had gotten to a point where expansion within Europe was no longer foreseeable, so for financial, political, and egotistical reasons, these countries looked south to their neighbor Africa, the "black continent." "God-forsaken wilderness." Marlow says of Africa. (Page 73) Trade routes were established and the home countries found reliable executive willing to travel and develop relations in the country. In Conrad's novel, Kurtz was this man. He started out with a noble goal, i.e. to modernize Africa, but suffered the effects of a deadly disease, greed. "It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage." Said Marlow (of what Kurtz and the ivory company had done to Africa.) (Page 102.)

    Read More

  • The Conundrum Of Life In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Chapter II of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow goes on a long voyage to gain the guidance of the all-knowing, enlightened ivory trader named Kurtz. Marlow, in the tumultuous environment of the African jungle, challenges the human condition.

    Read More

  • The Characters, Setting, and Symbols of Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

    1790 Words  | 4 Pages

    The two main characters in Heart of Darkness, Marlow and Kurtz, are used to show the true nature of man, that is, the capacity for good and evil within humanity. The central character is a thirty two year old sailor, Charlie Marlow. Marlow is the primary narrator in the novel, therefore his thoughts, opinions, experiences and revelations, shape the entire novel’s themes and the value system put forward. Marlow illustrates how forces of light and darkness serve to weave the human soul together; thus, essentially how good and evil are reflected in an individual. This is particularly important regarding the construction of Marlow, who is essentially a biased narrator, and a product of his European upbringing.

    Read More

  • The Conquest in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    476 Words  | 1 Pages

    “ The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” (Conrad 65)  So stated Marlow as though this was his justification for ravaging the Congo in his search for ivory.  Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness shows the disparity between the European ideal of civilization and the reality of it as is evidenced by the domination, torture, exploitation and dehumanization of the African population.  Heart of Darkness is indicative of the evil and greed in humanity as personified by Kurtz and Marlow.

    Read More

  • The Metaphors of Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within the text of Heart of Darkness, the reader is presented with many metaphors. Those that recur, and are most arresting and notable, are light and dark, nature and Kurtz and Marlow. The repeated use of light and dark imagery represents civilization and primitiveness, and of course the eternal meaning of good and evil. However, the more in depth the reader goes the more complex it becomes. Complex also are the meanings behind the metaphors of nature included within the text. It represents a challenge for the colonists, often also signifying decay and degeneration. Finally Kurtz and Marlow represent imperialism and the colonists. All these metaphors come together and contribute not only to the effect for the reader, but also to the overall meaning.

    Read More

  • Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is, as Edward Said says, a story about European "acts of imperial mastery" (1503)-its methods, and the effects it has on human nature-and it is presumable that Conrad incorporates much of his own experience in the Congo and his opinions about imperialism into the story, as another recent critic also suggests: "he seems to approve of Marlow," the narrator (Achebe 1492). These revelations of the author are conveyed to the reader through Marlow's observations, descriptions, reactions, and statements. While "Heart of Darkness" is at times very critical of European imperialism, that criticism for the most part is directed at the false idealistic claims made about the enterprise and the inefficient and savage methods employed by the Belgians; the book does not question imperialism when undertaken competently, particularly by the British.

    Read More

  • The Truth In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    The choice to avoid honesty was a way for Marlow to protect both himself and the Intended from the subtle horrors. Both characters viewed Kurtz as an honorable man and

    Read More

  • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness - A Modernist Novel

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    Modernism began as a movement in that late 19th, early 20th centuries. Artists started to feel restricted by the styles and conventions of the Renaissance period. Thusly came the dawn of Modernism in many different forms, ranging from Impressionism to Cubism.

    Read More

More about The Descriptiveness of Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Open Document