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Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness follows a man named Marlow as he recounts his journey into the Congo Free State in Africa while working for an ivory trading company. He witnesses the brutality and exploitation of the native people by colonial rulers. Deeper in the interior, he discovers Kurtz, a rogue trader who has taken absolute power. Kurtz represents the darkness that lurks in all humanity. Though seemingly civilized on the surface, colonial interests were driven by the same primal instincts for power that Kurtz succumbed to. Marlow's unsettling experience leaves him disillusioned about the thin veneer of civilization.

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393 views3 pages

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness follows a man named Marlow as he recounts his journey into the Congo Free State in Africa while working for an ivory trading company. He witnesses the brutality and exploitation of the native people by colonial rulers. Deeper in the interior, he discovers Kurtz, a rogue trader who has taken absolute power. Kurtz represents the darkness that lurks in all humanity. Though seemingly civilized on the surface, colonial interests were driven by the same primal instincts for power that Kurtz succumbed to. Marlow's unsettling experience leaves him disillusioned about the thin veneer of civilization.

Uploaded by

andraduk19
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad Published in 1902, Heart of Darkness has become one of the most celebrated and effective

novels to combine a psychological journey with a horrifyingly stark account of imperialism, or specifically of European colonies in Africa. Based on Joseph Conrads own experience traveling up the Congo River into the African interior, Heart of Darkness follows the disturbing journey of English ivory-trading agent Marlow who, working for a Belgian company, travels into the jungles of Africa in search of a mysterious man named Kurtz. Summary Heart of Darkness follows one mans nightmarish journey into the interior of Africa. Aboard a British ship called the Nellie, three men listen to a man named Marlow recount his journey into Africa as an agent for the Company, a Belgian ivory trading firm. Along the way, he witnesses brutality and hate between colonizers and the native African people, becomes entangled in a power struggle within the Company, and finally learns the truth about the mysterious Kurtz, a mad agent who has become both a god and a prisoner of the "native Africans." After "rescuing" Kurtz from the native African people, Marlow watches in horror as Kurtz succumbs to madness, disease, and finally death. Marlows decision to support Kurtz over his company leaves readers wondering about his moral integrity, and possibly asking the question: "He did WHAT?!" The novel closes with Marlows guilt-ridden visit to Kurtzs fiance to return the mans personal letters

Character Analysis Marlow


Marlow is a thirty-two-year-old sailor who has always lived at sea. The novel's narrator presents Marlow as "a meditating Buddha" because his experiences in the Congo have made him introspective and to a certain degree philosophic and wise. As a young man, Marlow wished to explore the "blank places" on the map because he longed for adventure; his journey up the Congo, however, proves to be much more than a thrilling episode. Instead, his experiences there teach Marlow about the "heart of darkness" found in all men: Many (like himself) suppress these evil urges, while others (like Kurtz) succumb to them. Marlow's chief qualities are his curiosity and skepticism. Never easily satisfied with others' seemingly innocent remarks such as those made by the Manager and Brickmaker, Marlow constantly attempts to sift through the obscurities of what others tell him (such as when his aunt speaks to him of "weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways"). However, Marlow is no crusader for Truth. He lies

to Kurtz's Intended to save her from a broken heart and ultimately returns to Europe and his home, despite his having been convinced by the Company and Kurtz that civilization is, ultimately, a lie and an institution humans have created to channel their desires for power. As Heart of Darkness progresses, Marlow becomes increasingly sensitive to his surroundings and the "darkness" that they may embody or hide. When he visits the Company's headquarters, for example, he is slightly alarmed by the doctor's comments and puzzled by the two women knitting black wool. When he arrives at the Outer Station, however, he is shocked at the amount of waste and disregard for life he sees there. By the end of the novel, Marlow is almost unable to reintegrate himself into European society, having become convinced of the lies and "surfacetruths" that sustain it. He tells his story to the men aboard the Nellie to share with them what he has learned about the darkness of the human heart and the things of which that darkness is capable.

Kurtz
One of the most enigmatic characters in twentieth-century literature, Kurtz is a petty tyrant, a dying god, an embodiment of Europe, and an assault on European values. These contradictory elements combine to make Kurtz so fascinating to Marlow and so threatening to the Company. Like Marlow, Kurtz also wished to travel to Africa in search of adventure specifically, to complete great acts of "humanizing, improving, instructing" (as he explains in his initial report to the Company). Once he tasted the power that could be his in the jungle, however, Kurtz abandoned his philanthropic ideals and set himself up as a god to the natives at the Inner Station. While he used to worry about the best ways to bring (as his painting demonstrates) the "light" of civilization to the Congo, he dies as a man believing that the Company should simply "Exterminate all the brutes!" Kurtz is a dangerous man because he gives the lie to the Company's "humanistic" intentions in the Congo. He returns more ivory than all the other stations put together, and does so through the use of absolute force. This frightens men like the Manager, who complains of Kurtz's "unsound method" although Kurtz is only doing what the Company as a whole is doing without hiding his actions behind a faade of good intentions. Marlow remarks that "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz," and Kurtz's very existence proves this to be true: Like the Europeans involved in enterprises such as the Company, he epitomizes the greed and lust running wild that Marlow observes in the Congo. However, unlike the Company, Kurtz is not interested in his image or how he is perceived by "noxious fools" such as the Manager. While Brussels is a "whited sepulcher" of hypocrisy, Kurtz is completely open about his lusts. He tells the Manager he is "Not so sick as you'd like to believe."

But this statement is applicable to all Europeans involved in imperialistic empirebuilding: While labeling Kurtz a morally "sick" man might seem comforting, he is actually an exaggeration of the impulses harbored in the hearts of men everywhere.

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