JOSEPH CONRAD

(1857-1924)
 TEODOR JÓZEF KONRAD NAŁĘCZ KORZENIOWSKI

• He was born on f oreign soil – a s a f oreigner in Ru ssian Ukraine,

in a f amily of P olish fa rmers, southwest from Kiev, near
Berdy chiv. His fam ily p articip ated in orga niza tion of rebel lion
against Ru ssia n a uthorities, so since his 6th year he l ived as
refu gee in N orth Ru ssia , in a n a tmosp h ere of p ol ice su spic ion
and p ersec ution in whic h he soon lost his mother and father in
his 12th y ea r. He sp ent his boy hood in school in Kra kow, thanks
to his mother‘s f amily . O n the threshol d of y outh , in his 17th
yea r, h e f ou nd himself in Marseille. During next 4 y ears he
began his sails, he ha d a tu rbul ent l ife at va rious ports. After
a few big gambling debts, he tried to c om mit suicide that he
la ter tried to c over u p with a story abou t fight. Wh en he wa s
21 he entered in the British Merc hant N avy . His captain ca reer
wa s edned in his 37th yea r beca use of his bad hea lth.
• The ma ritime adventu re c ontinu ed throu gh literature: ‚I ha ve
never ga ve up the sea in my sou l and hea rt‘.
• On 3 Au gust 1 924, Conrad died at his house, Oswa lds, in
B ishop sbou rne, Kent, England, of a hea rt a tta ck .
• Bust of Joseph
Conrad, by
Jacob Epstein,
1924, at
National
Portrait Gallery, • his grave at Kent, England
London.
  Monument to Conrad in
Vologda, Russia

• He appears in literature at the

age of 37. Many of Conrad’s
works, beginning with the first
novel “Almayer’s Madness”
(1895), take place in exoti c
lands.
• He does not present the events
directly in the third person, nor
autobiographically in the first,
but through the narrator, who
establishes a relationship with
the main character in which he
meets him, but never penetrates
the secret of his personality.
 Caricature of Conrad
by David Low, 1923

• The most common example is the

experienced sailor Marlow, who is
sometimes just an observer, and in
some works (like “Heart of Darkness”
and “Lord Jim”) gets involved in
events that change him throughout
the plot. According to this, and by
freely mixing chronology and
narrative levels, and especially by
problematizing the motives of
behavior and actions of the
characters, Conrad, despite
emphasizing the moral principles of
responsibility and solidarity with the
community, working and professional,
is a representative of modernism in
literature.
 LIST OF HIS NOVELS

 Almayer's Folly  An Outcast of the Islands

 The Arrow of Gold  The Rescue
 Chance  Romance
 Hearth of Darkness  The Rover
 The Inheritors (Conrad  The Secret Agent
and Ford novel)  The Shadow Line
 Lord Jim  Typhoon
 The Nature of a Crime  Under Western Eyes
 The Nigger of the  Victory
'Narcissus'
 Nostromo
 HEART OF DARKNESS

• Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by

Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad about
a narrated voyage up the Congo River into
the Congo Free State in the Heart of Africa .
Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story
to friends aboard a boat anchored on the
River Thames. This setting provides the
frame for Marlow's story of his obsession
with the successful ivory trader Kurtz.
Conrad offers parallels between London
("the greatest town on Earth") and Africa as
place of darkness.
• Central to Conrad's work is the idea that
there is little difference between "civilised
people" and those described as "savages."
Heart of Darkness implicitly comments on
imperialism and racism .
• cover page illustrations
• cover book illustrations
 • In Conrad's short novel The Heart of Darkness, the writer's
exotic experiences, gained while traveling along the Congo
River, become the subject of such a penetrating psychological
treatment that real observations grow into unusually rich
metaphors of life.
• Telling his story to friends on the Thames,
Marlow recalls the times when the Romans
sailed these waterways into the heart of the
darkness of a barbaric British island. The same
Thames leads Marlow's memories to the heart
of the darkness of recent history, to his great
journey along the Congo to the heart of Africa.
• Through Marlow's memories of that journey,
we observe with his own eyes the horrors of
dying of sick and hungry black people during
the construction of a railway and the ivory-
collecting endeavor.
• It all takes place in the rainforest . There Marlow meets Kurtz - a trader
of ivory in Africa and commander of a trading post, he monopolises his
position as a demigod among native Africans. Kurtz meets with the novella's
protagonist, Charles Marlow, who returns him to the coast via steamboat.
Kurtz, whose reputation precedes him, impresses Marlow strongly, and
during the return journey, Marlow is witness to Kurtz's final moments.

• Kurtz resembles the

archetypal “evil genius”:
the highly gifted but
ultimately degenerate
individual whose fall is the
stuff of legend.
• We can compare his
character with Wuthering
Heights’s Heathcliff.
Characteristics of two main
characters
 Side characters

• Brickmaker – he is the
Manager's pet and spy.
He never actually makes
bricks; supposedly he is
waiting for the delivery
• Manag er - Ma rlo w ' s of an essential
direct s uperv is o r, he ingredient.
is a ha rd, greedy m a n
w ho va lues po w er a nd
m o ney a bo v e a ll els e .
• Russian - Kurtz's devoted
companion, he is an idealistic
explorer who has wandered to
the Congo on a Dutch ship and
has been caught in the web of
• Kurtz fiancee - An unnamed Kurtz's obsessive ivory hunt.
woman who only appears in the last
few pages of the novel, she is the
symbol of a life that Kurtz leaves
behind when he arrives in the
Congo.
 Side characters
• Helmsman - he is responsible
for steering Marlow's ship.
He is not very experienced
and seems unable to make
informed decisions under
pressure.
• Cannibals - they are the grunt
• Natives - they are a collective
presence throughout the story.
They are never described as
individuals.
• Marlow‘s aunt - she is the
connection to the Company in
which Marlow receives a
position. She appears to be
the only female contact
Marlow has in his life
crew of Marlow's ship, and they
are the only group of natives who
ever voice any kind of statement
or opinion to the whites.
• The Congo River - a metaphor for the
• "Flames glided in the river" - a
impact that the intrusion of European
countries have on the African natives. personification because flames
The Congo River is described as cannot literally glide across any
dangerous; Marlow describes the river surface
as a coiled snake readying to attack
when one least expects it.
• “The snake had charmed me.” - a
symbol of evil, created in the form of
• “I watched the fog for the signs the snake. This is also an allusion to
of lifting as a cat watches a the Christian bible, in which Satan
mouse.” – simile - the author (evil itself) appears to charm Adam
compares himself to a cat in that and Eve in the form of a snake.
he is watchful, waiting.