Universidad Pedagógica Nacional

Facultad de humanidades
Licenciatura en español y lenguas extranjeras: inglés y francés
Literatura anglófona 2
Profesor: Ernesto Hoyos
Nataly Garavito
Wilmer Julio

ANALYSIS HEART OF DARKNESS

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer who was born in Berdichev,

Ukraine on December 3rd, 1857. His writings were inspired in Poland's national

experiences and his own experiences as merchant marine in the British and

French coast. Although, Conrad loved to navigate, he was always a writer who

sailed, rather than a sailor who wrote. Thereby, he used those experiences as

inspiration for many of his works, which were characterized by the use of right

details to make the story come alive instead of using excessive details that

overload the narrative. At the same time in the early XIX century, Great

Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, and other European countries began to rule

parts of Africa continent. This was the Modern European Imperialism, a period

of colonial conquest that reached its height during this time. But, focusing

specifically on Belgium, in the 1870s, the King Leopold II led a group of

investors to form a trading company to control trade along the Congo River.

There, he established tough practices towards people and the environment,

for example, slavery and torture, mutilation, the murder of the indigenous

people of the Congo and the stripping of resources, especially ivory and

rubber, from the land and wildlife. Consequently, The Ivory Trade in Central

Africa appeared, and this could be seen as a tragic event, where there was

not only a massive destruction of the environment, but also the death and

disappearance of more than half the inhabitants of the Congo. At this time,

Conrad traveled through the Congo as a steamboat officer for six months, and

there he could make evident this brutality which was captured in his novel

Heart of Darkness. The novel centers on Marlow, who is a sailor, and his

journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of

great abilities. This book touches on topics like, since imperialism, slavery and

greed, Conrad also displays an idea of the others through the point of view of

the European imperialism. For this reason, Heart of Darkness is the most

famous work of Joseph Conrad and is a fundamental text. In this way it is valid

to ask ourselves what does darkness represent in the novel?

First of all, there are multiple themes covered by this novel, among

which is found the otherness. There are multiple authors who have talked

about it, such as Todorov and Sartre, among others. Todorov by his side says

that “We can discover the other in ourselves, realize we are not a
homogeneous substance, radically alien to whatever is not us”. Here, Todorov

explains how each individual is part of a totality and how we can find our self

in the other, but it implicates some relations of reciprocal agreement; in this

way, when a person feels superiority over other, the other may be subjugated

by this person. This idea may complement the words of Sartre when he says:

“EVERYTHING which may be said of me in my relations with the Other

applies to him as well. While I attempt to free myself from the hold of the

Other, the Other is trying to free himself from mine; while I seek to

enslave the Other, the Other seeks to enslave me.”

Having said the above, it is possible to see that idea of the otherness in

Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, specifically in the relationships between

conquerors and natives, and how they perceived each other. For example, “…

for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher

intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.’ ‘Who says that?’ I

asked ‘Lots of them,’ he replied” (p.39). Here, the natives express an idea of

what means being European, according with what they can see and heard.

Sartre develops this concept in the following extract “I am possessed by the

Other; the Other's look fashions my body in its nakedness, causes it to be

born, sculptures it, produces it as it is, sees it as I shall never see it.” On the

other side, the perceptions of the natives by the conquerors are more like an

object than a subject, the natives are seen as non-European, which ends in a

dehumanization, because if the others are not seen as an equal then I can

use them as I want. There is a part in the novel, when Marlow realizes a

“Restraint” in the natives, he sees a particularly English quality which, he did

see in the Europeans he has met on the river. But in the end, he reduces them

to animal “Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a

hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield” (p.68). He shows us that

his astonishment settles down on his view of them as animals. Generally

speaking, we can see how Conrad develops a vision of world through the

European imperialism perspective at the turn of the XIX century, in relation

with their colonies in Africa and how these were seen by them.

Secondly, we can realize that this concept of otherness is related to the

idea of civilization and barbarism. There is a contrast between these two

concepts, which finally converge with each other in the novel. In Heart of

Darkness, it is exposed the idea that Europeans come from a more civilized

culture than Africans; for that reason, the Company's agents believe that they

are more civilized than the natives who are seen as savages, also they are
found in the jungle, because the Agents, unlike the natives, live in cities, travel

on trains and steamships, wear western clothing, and have proper manners.

However, during the novel these "supposedly civilized" Europeans fall into the

savagery of uncivilized Africa, behaving in a barbaric way. This can be seen

when Marlow visits the company doctor and he tells him:

"I always ask leave, in the interests of science, to measure the crania of

those going out there,’ he said. ‘And when they come back, too?’ I

asked. ‘Oh, I never see them,’ he remarked; ‘and, moreover, the

changes take place inside, you know’... ‘Ever any madness in your

family?’ ... ‘Is that question in the interests of science, too?’ ‘It would be,

...interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on

the spot" (p.16).

With this extract, it is shown that Europeans, who go to Africa,

experience changes that take place within their mind. Throughout the novel,

brutality, violence and greed appear in each of the European characters,

managing to show that darkness that lives in each one of them. However, in

Marlow's case it is different, because when he sees the natives behaving in an

"uncivilized" way, he does not criticize them and instead, he puts himself in
their position. For example, when the steamer's crew say they want to eat the

body of the dead helmsman, Marlow called them cannibals, but in fact, he

does not criticize them for that, since he recognizes that they are starving. In

short, the idea of civilization and barbarism is just another way of seeing the

other, which in the case of Heart of Darkness, may be influenced by power,

superiority and greed.

In the same fashion, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness explores other themes

like greed, imperialism and racism. These three themes are present all along

the novel. In the first place, it is possible to see how greed is the base of the

novel, actually it is the look for power what leads the people of this book to do

several thing in order to reach this aim, most compelling evidence in the

following extract “Strings of dusty n*****s with splay feet arrived and departed;

a stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads, and brass-wire set

into the depths of darkness, and in return came a precious trickle of ivory”

(p.27). Here, it beholds how the only important thing is the ivory and how this

could be exchange for anything even human beings. In second place, it is

found the imperialism. This imperialism could be represented by the image of

a colonial enterprise, considering that the company not only does rule the

country but also their people. Also, people suffer this impact through torture,
cruelty and even near slavery. For example, “A n*****r was being beaten near

by. They said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was

screeching most horribly” (p.36). In this extract, it is evident that colonizers

see the natives, as if they were their property by implementing punishments

that border on cruelty but arguing that those practices are part of a benevolent

project of civilization. In third place, it is found the racism. Linked with the

previous point, it is likely see that native people are seen like uncultured, not

intelligent people and almost equal to animals. “Land in a swamp, march

through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter

savagery, had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that

stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men” (p.7). It is evident

that not only the environment but also the people are scorned, also they give

them characteristics according with the places where natives live. In

conclusion, racism, imperialism and greed, are used by Conrad to denounce

the inequality in this part of the word.

On the other hand, we can realize that the thoughts and experiences of

the main characters are a reflection of the darkness shown in the novel.

Firstly, with Marlow as the protagonist of this novel, we can see that even if he

is a British steamboat pilot and his only interest is to explore the empty and
unexplored places of the African continent; he decides to work with a Belgian

company whose business is to extract ivory from the center of Africa.

Therefore, the fact of working for this company causes him to be affected by

that darkness, due to the exposure to the brutality and hypocrisy of

imperialism at that time. In this way, being involved in these types of situations

makes the darkness be within him, thus he starts to think things like "Well ...

that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman" (p.58). In

this extract, we can see that Marlow reflects the European view that the

uncivilized Africans are somehow inhuman, as it was mentioned before.

Secondly, this darkness is reflected in Kurtz too, the other main character in

the story, who has been driven mad by the darkness and loneliness of the

jungle. At first, this character seems to be a talented man, revered by the

natives, whose objectives are focused on educating and enhancing the lives

of indigenous peoples. However, Kurtz has become as barbaric as any

Company agent. In this way, we see how greed affects men, and how the

jungle corrupts Kurtz and comes close to corrupting Marlow; that can be seen

when Marlow says, "as if Nature herself had tried to ward off intruders” (p. 21).

As a result, darkness can be reflected in Conrad's work through the characters

and their development in the novel, which arises mainly due to greed.
 Finally, we can realize that ivory is one of the symbols of the novel that

represents both greed and darkness. This material mainly represents the

greed of Europeans, because is the only thing of value that they find in dark

Africa. In the same way, we can notice that the whole novel is impregnated

with this concept of darkness. The first time this concept is presented is when

Marlow is on the yacht on the Thames: "And this has been one of the dark

places on earth" (p.5). With these lines, Marlow means that England and its

people were primitive before the Roman conquest, which is a parallel to

European colonial control of Africa. Then, when Marlow is already on his

journey he says, "We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of

darkness" (p.57), he refers not only to the literal darkness that exists in the

jungle, but also to the suffering of indigenous peoples and the evil in the

hearts of the agents of the Company. Also, related to the symbol of darkness

there is the image of “white patch” on the map said by Marlow in the beginning

of the text, it represents an abstract representation of the country. This

concept is related with the untouched, the virginal, the unrepresented, but “It

had become a place of darkness” (p.10); a possible interpretation of this is

that the place becomes dark after the European imperialism, thus, the purity of

the environment has gone with the arrival of them. Lastly, the most important
metaphorical darkness is that revealed in the heart of Kurtz, which is

symbolized by the decapitated heads of some native men. These act as

enduring symbols of Kurtz's depravity, who also represents the darkness of

the colonizers' lost morality. In conclusion, the novel is plenty of different

symbols such as ivory and the white patch that make darkness materialize

and become evident in Heart of Darkness.

All the things considered before, help us to see how the darkness is

present all along the novel. On one hand, it may take a literal representation

given by the continent and people’s skin, being them recognized like that. On

the other hand, it may see as an abstract representation in the behaviors of

the characters, since this darkness is represented not only in their

personalities but also in their transformations. This can be seen in the way

that greed corrupts people, making this darkness fills their minds, as well as

power, especially power over other human beings, which inevitably corrupts

and damages them. Finally, there is one last interpretation, which suggests

that darkness is the representation of European imperialism and its

consequences across the time, not only the environmental impact but also the

cultural and psychological impact made it to Africans, due to the idea of

conceiving the other, especially the natives, as uncivilized people who need to

be saved by a superior society.

Bibliography

➢ Conrad, Joseph. (1902). Heart of Darkness. United Kingdom:

Blackwood's Magazine. Taken from: Planet eBook.com

https://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/heart-of-darkness.pdf

➢ Sartre, Jean-Paul. (1943). Being and Nothingness.

➢ Todorov, Tzvetan. (1982). The Conquest of America: The Question of

the Other.