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Journey into darkness… Published in 1902, Conrad’s novella traces Charlie Marlow’s literal journey into the heart of Africa to find an ivory trader named Kurtz. However, the literal journey (based on Conrad’s real-life expedition into the African Congo) is merely a vehicle for the story’s true journey into mankind’s inner darkness…
The “Shadow” Archetype While Marlow literally journeys to find Kurtz, he figuratively journeys to find his archetypal “shadow,” or his dark side. The novella’s three-chapter structure mirrors the three-stage cycle of the hero’s journey (separation-initiation-return), moving from the seemingly civilized world of London into the seemingly savage world of Africa and then back again.
Marlow: Hero… …or Antihero?
First Modern Novel? Antiheroes are hallmarks of modern literature, and many regard Heart of Darkness as the first modern novel. Here are a few reasons why…
A Reexamination of Ancient Values Heart of Darkness requires that readers examine the values of the Anglo-Saxon warrior ideal from the perspective of a modern writer whose focus is the irony of heroic idealism.
A Reexamination of Ancient Values • The novel’s opening compares the experiences of the European explorers of Africa to the Roman explorers of England who, Conrad suggests, must have found ancient England a dark wilderness far removed from the comforts of civilized Rome: “I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago…” • Thus Conrad introduces the ambiguity of that state we call civilization…
Frame Narrative • Conrad connects form to meaning through a FRAME STRUCTURE that mirrors the ambiguity of ideas about the heroic ideal: • Outer frame narrator (unnamed character) • presents perspective of heroic idealism • Inner frame narrator (Marlow) • presents perspective of irony of heroic idealism
Impressionistic Style Conrad also connects form to meaning through a writing STYLE that mirrors the ambiguity of painters of the Impressionism movement in art…
Impressionistic Style One characteristic of Impressionist paintings is that the artist's subject is colored by his representation of the atmospheric conditions through which it is observed…
Impressionistic Style Impressionist painter Claude Monet referred to critics who mocked his paintings as follows: "Poor blind idiots. They want to see everything clearly through the fog."
Impressionistic Style In Heart of Darkness, the most obvious and immediate image of Impressionism is the mist or haze. The novel begins with the description of the Thames River having an "opaline haze." The haze warns the reader that Marlow's tale will not be centered on but rather surrounded by its meaning.
Tone & Symbolism Conrad also connects form to meaning through a TONE of ambivalence. While Marlow is both disgusted by the brutality of the ivory trading company and horrified by the degeneration of Kurtz, he understands how any man could be tempted into such darkness. (Note how ivory becomes an ironic SYMBOL of darkness and savagery.)
Language, Imagery, & Motifs • Conrad further connects form to meaning through LANGUAGE, IMAGERY, and MOTIFS: • Darkness (very seldom opposed by light) • Interiors vs. surfaces (kernel/shell, coast/inland, station/forest, etc.) • Ironic understatement • Hyperbolic language • Inability to find words to describe situations adequately • Images of ridiculous waste • Upriver versus downriver / toward and away from Kurtz / away from and back toward civilization (quest or journey structure)
Conrad’s View • For Conrad, the world as we experience it is not a sort of place that can be reduced to a set of clear, explicit truths. • Its truths—the truths of the psyche, of the human mind and soul—are messy, vague, irrational, suggestive, and dark. • Conrad’s intention? To lead his readers to an experience of the “heart of darkness.” Not to shed the light of reason on it but rather to recreate his experience of darkness in our feelings, our sensibilities, and our own dark and mysterious hearts.
Historical Context In 1890, Joseph Conrad secured employment in the Congo as the captain of a river steamboat; this was also the approximate year in which the main action of Heart of Darkness takes place. Illness forced Conrad's return home after only six months in Africa, but that was long enough for intense impressions to have been formed in the novelist's mind. Today, the river at the center of Heart of Darkness is called Zaire, and the country is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but at the time Conrad wrote, the country was the Belgian Congo and the river the Congo.
The Congo It was not until 1877, after the English-born American explorer Henry Morton Stanley had completed a three-year journey across central Africa, that the exact length and course of the mighty Congo River were known. Stanley discovered that the Congo extends some 1,600 miles into Africa from its eastern coast to its western edge, where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean, and that only one stretch of it is impassable. That section lies between Matadi, two hundred miles in from the mouth of the Congo, and Kinshasa, yet another two hundred miles further inland. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad calls Matadi the Company Station and Kinshasa the Central Station. Between those two places, one is forced to proceed by land, which is exactly what Marlow does on his "two hundred-mile tramp" between the two Stations, described in the book.
King Leopold II In 1878, King Leopold II of Belgium asked Stanley to to found a Belgian colony in the Congo. The King charged Stanley with setting up outposts along the Congo River, particularly at Matadi. Leopold II described his motives to the rest of Europe as springing from a desire to end slavery in the Congo and civilize the natives, but his actual desires were for material gain. In 1885, at the Congress of Berlin, an international committee agreed to the formation of a new country to be known as the Congo Free State. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad refers to this committee as the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs. Leopold II, who was to be sole ruler of this land, never set foot in the Congo Free State. Instead, he formed a company, called simply “the Company” in Heart of Darkness, that ran the country for him.
The Ivory Trade A prevalent feeling among Europeans of the 1890s was that the African people required introduction to European culture and technology in order to become more evolved. The responsibility for that introduction, known as the "white man's burden," gave rise to a fervor to bring Christianity and commerce to Africa. What the Europeans took out of Africa in return were huge quantities of ivory. During the 1890s, at the time Heart of Darkness takes place, ivory was in enormous demand in Europe, where it was used to make jewelry, piano keys, and billiard balls, among other items. From 1888 to 1892, the amount of ivory exported from the Congo Free State rose from just under 13,000 pounds to over a quarter of a million pounds. Conrad tells us that Kurtz was the best agent of his time, collecting as much ivory as all the other agents combined.
The Ivory Trade In 1892, Leopold II declared all natural resources in the Congo Free State to be his property. This meant the Belgians could stop dealing with African traders and simply take what they wanted themselves. As a consequence, Belgian traders pushed deeper into Africa in search of new sources of ivory, setting up stations all along the Congo River. One of the furthermost stations, located at Stanley Falls, was the likely inspiration for Kurtz's Inner Station.
Belgian Atrocities in the Congo The Belgian traders committed many well-documented acts of atrocity against the African natives, including the severing of hands and heads.
Legacy of Heart of Darkness It inspired T.S. Eliot’s 1925 poem “The Hollow Men”…
Legacy of Heart of Darkness It (along with “The Hollow Men”) inspired Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film Apocalypse Now, which resets the story during the Vietnam War.
Legacy of Heart of Darkness Trailer for Apocalypse Now…
Legacy of Heart of Darkness Apocalypse Now inspired the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse…
Legacy of Heart of Darkness Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse inspired the film Tropic Thunder, a parody of the documentary and a satire of the film industry itself.
Now, let’s listen to an interpretation of “The Hollow Men” to establish an important theme in Heart of Darkness….
