Conrad- Heart of Darkness- PREMODERN

COLONIALISM- the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another
country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

The “Darkness” that the title references relates directly to colonialism and its hypocrisy:
even though colonialists claimed to serve as beacons of light and civilization, sharing their
intelligence with the less fortunate, primitive people around the globe, they failed to see the
darkness festering inside of them, corrupting their souls and controlling their actions. This
hypocrisy becomes further apparent when the true goal of colonization is revealed: the
exploitation of Africa’s ivory resources. Marlow describes the shocking scene of “six black
men [advancing] in a file” with “iron collars [on their neck], connected together with a
chain”, being characterized as “prisoners” that have committed crimes, rather than victims
of enslavement. In order to further drive home the point that colonialism was detrimental,
Conrad depicts a stark contrast between Marlow (a critic of colonialism- the light) and Kurts
(a man who conquered and abused the African people instead of sharing the goods of the
civilized world with the natives- the darkness). At first, Kurts was no different from Marlow,
but as his morals decayed, he became a tyrant, going so far as to display the skulls of the
natives who did not obey him outside of his residence. Marlow compares the colonialists to
an oil painting made by Kurts “representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a
lighted torch. “ with the torch symbolizing the supposed good intentions and the blindfold
hinting at the unhinged behavior the Europeans displayed towards the natives
(Edubirdie.com). The “light” and “dark” duality that is ever-present during the short story
might also refer to skin color: darkness is typically associated with evil, but those with dark
skin were the defenseless victims of the bloodshed that took place, whereas those with light
skin were the executioners, the perpetrators.

“THE HORROR!”

In order to further analyze Kurts as a character and as a symbol, his last words need to be
taken into account. As he lay dying, he cried:” The horror! The horror!”. This quote is much
more than a depiction of a delirious man at death’s door, as the moment he uttered those
words was when he realized his mistakes and became regretful, even scared of the atrocities
he himself carried out. His last words serve as an overview of his own being, as well as
society as a whole. Not only did Kurts act brutish throughout his stay in Africa, but he also
reverted to a savage: from the respectable man he was at the beginning, he spiraled out of
control and became less “civilized” than those whom he vowed to help through colonization.
Not only that, but he went on to intimidate the natives by wielding modern weapons, such
as firearms, confusing them and forcing them into doing his bidding, using the tools of the
“civilized” in order to reign over the African people. His demise and last words serve as a
warning, and so does the parallel between Kurts and Marlow: while Kurts allowed himself to
fall prey to greed and insanity, Marlow had enough strength to stay true to himself and his
morals until the very end. Simply, it conveys what the West did during colonization in the
name of progress, and under the guise of civilizing the natives. Darkness prevails when he
dies, symbolizing that his actions were evil. Thus, it is Kurtz’s realization of the bitter and
absolute truth of his life.

SYMBOLISM:

Fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures but distorts: it gives one just
enough information to begin making decisions but no way to judge the accuracy of that
information, which often ends up being wrong. Marlow’s steamer is caught in the fog,
meaning that he has no idea where he’s going and no idea whether peril or open water lies
ahead. The Congo River is the key to Africa for Europeans. It allows them access to the
center of the continent without having to physically cross it; in other words, it allows the
white man to remain always separate or outside. Africa is thus reduced to a series of two-
dimensional scenes that flash by Marlow’s steamer as he travels upriver. The river also
seems to want to expel Europeans from Africa altogether: its current makes travel upriver
slow and difficult, but the flow of water makes travel downriver, back toward “civilization,”
rapid and seemingly inevitable.

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR:

Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness as a first-person narrative. Marlow, the protagonist, tells his
own story from his own perspective. Thus, the reader experiences the story from Marlow’s
point of view. Owing to the subjective nature of first-person narration, a certain degree of
unreliability is unavoidable, and Marlow’s narration is no different. That said, what makes
Marlow’s narrative unreliable is not solely that he speaks from his own subjective point of
view, thus making it easy for the reader to be suspicious of what he says or what his
motivations for speaking are. Indeed, Marlow does not populate his story with exaggerated
tales or highly improbable occurrences, nor does he skimp on details. For this reason,
Marlow is not unreliable due to a suspicion that he is misreporting or underreporting.
Instead, he is unreliable due to his inability to make sense of his experience. Marlow
frequently emphasizes the difficulty he has interpreting his own story, and his doubt causes
the reader to be skeptical about Marlow’s capacity as a narrator in the first place. If he is not
fully in control of his story and the meaning it contains, why, the reader wonders, is he
telling it at all?
Because Heart of Darkness makes use of a frame narrative, there is a second narrator. This
second narrator also speaks in the first person, and in his narrative, the reader sees Marlow
from an outside perspective. This narrator is skeptical of Marlow, and he uses irony to
indicate this. For example, when Marlow begins his story with the dramatic claim that
England is “one of the dark places of the earth,” the frame narrator explains that this sense
of drama is characteristic of the man and that his comment is “accepted in silence,”
suggesting that the other passengers are also familiar with Marlow’s storytelling. Although
the vast majority of the novella is told from Marlow’s perspective, the frame narrator
interrupts the story at several points, usually at moments when Marlow falls silent.

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/heart-of-darkness/quotes/