The Heart of Darkness In the Heart of Darkness I got lost, and no not in the reading. I got lost in general until I really started to read between the lines. The theme of this is story was one of the main things that didn’t make any sense to me until I got to the end and realized that it is a twisted mess of madness that comes from the imperialism in the story. This story is also made up of symbolism which is shown when the author writes about the rivers, frogs, and the woman. To me Joseph Conrad uses a lot of imagery in this story, which is always dark and gloomy. When reading the fist part of this story I was beyond lost. Not knowing what was going on at all. Coming to this quote I had to stop and think about it for a minute to understand what was being said and going on:
“The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.”
To me this quote offers Marlow’s initial impression of the Central Station. The word “ivory” has taken on a life of its own for the men who work for the Company. To them, it is far more than the tusk of an elephant; it represents economic freedom, social advancement, an escape from a life of being an employee. The word has lost all connection to any physical reality and has itself become an object of worship. Marlow’s reference to a decaying corpse is both literal and figurative: elephants and native Africans both die as a result of the white man’s pursuit of ivory, and the entire enterprise is rotten at the core. The cruelties and the greed are both part of a greater, timeless evil, yet they are petty in the scheme of the greater order of the natural world. As I kept reading it started to make a little more sense to me as to what was going on. There were a few twisted parts where I was shocked as to what was going on then I realized that there were many parts like that I just didn’t notice then at the time. This next quote really caught my attention right from the start.
“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’’
This quote, which comes as the steamer begins its voyage back from the Inner Station in the third section of Part 3, with Kurtz and his ivory aboard, brings together the images of the river and the “heart of darkness” which it penetrates. The river is something that separates Marlow from the African interior: while on the river he is exterior to, even if completely surrounded by, the jungle. Furthermore, despite its “brown current,” the river inexorably brings him back to white civilization. The first sentence of this quote suggests that Marlow and Kurtz have been able to leave the “heart of darkness” behind, but Kurtz’s life seems to be receding along with the “darkness,” and Marlow, too, has been permanently scarred by it, since he is now ineradicably marked as being of Kurtz’s party. Thus, it seems that the “darkness” is in fact internalized, that it is part of some fundamental if ironic “unsoundness.” My last quote is by far the longest but has really in-depth meaning; it really stood out to me when I was reading so I
107376 Mrs. Ingersoll English 12 AP 1 May 2013 Option Three The physical journey Joseph Conrad takes the reader in the Heart of Darkness contributes to the plot, but also parallels to a journey through Man’s inner self. The points in the physical journey in which Conrad uses to emphasize the plot are the small sailing craft, the steamboat, and the jungle. Conrad begins the journey with the narrator describing the setting of a small sailing craft. This point in the journey foreshadows…
Guilt, disappointment and the fear behind Kurtz’s death Jordan Davis Mr. Allin ENG 4U March 3rd, 2012 Verbal statements may have multiple interpretations depending on one's perspective. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad makes the reader use his/her own knowledge to generate themes and emotions. Consistently, the theme of the horrific reality is mentioned throughout the novel. Joseph’s character, Kurtz, cries out, “The horror! The horror” (Conrad 86) during his last moments; however…
Heart of Darkness-ISP By: Robert Pittelli You can argue that nearly everyone on this planet has at least one desire within that is so dark and evil that they would do anything to achieve that goal. However, most individuals are capable of controlling and taming their greedy desires for personal gain such as wealth, power, and fame, to the point where they are concealed, leaving their sanity untouched by the extreme darkness of their sinful wishes. Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, provides…
of the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, it appears much easier to be lost rather than found. Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a wondering seaman who embarks on a journey to Africa under a fake identity which he established through his politically connected Aunt. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be interpreted in various ways, as it tells many different stories which relate to stories of its time, and also stories that still appear to resonate at the present time. On one level, Heart of Darkness…
Savannah Hurley Mrs. Wright World Literature 9 May 2014 Soul of Darkness Some of the traits of well-adjusted humans are that they empathize and identify with people around them. At the point when people lose this ability, they start to lessen their relations to humanity and increase their degree of savagery. In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Conrad demonstrates that humans enclose some form of bitterness within his or her heart. This bitterness becomes evident when people strip themselves of…
“Heart of Darkness” written by Joseph Conrad is a tale of a man named Marlow who ventures into Africa. Having always had a yearning to explore this dark country, he takes us on his journey along the Congo River and through the trials and tribulations of imperialism in the late 19th century. Not only does Marlow get an insight to his own self but he learns how imperialism affects other people as well. From the beginning the work Darkness doesn’t just appear in the title but also in much of Marlow’s…
The Visions of Light Vs Darkness When Joseph Conrad composed Heart of Darkness he created a literary masterpiece which embodied the essence of light contrasting with darkness. Throughout the novel Conrad constantly utilizes the images of light and dark and uses them to mold a vision, which the reader is then able to use to decipher the literal and metaphorical meanings of the novel. As Conrad said, " my task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to…
desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable. Kurtz is one of many men sent into the jungle to rid the land and its people of its natural resources. Many men have journeyed into the jungle also refereed as the heart of darkness never to return. Kurtz goes into the jungle and becomes obsessed with the people and the land. Though Kurtz has…
Women in The Heart of Darkness To write a book when one has only learned english at the age of twenty is difficult for many to do; however, author Joseph Conrad contradicted this idea by writing a timeless, thought provoking piece of literature. Using his experience as a sailor during the time of imperialism, Conrad wrote a novel that goes beyond a normal adventure story. It became a novel that countless critics debated over on subjects such as women and the misogynistic culture that Conrad portrayed…
Who Had the Heart of Darkness? Thousands of scholars all throughout the twentieth century have weighed in on Joseph Conrad's infamous 1902 publication, Heart of Darkness. Confronting the devastating effects of the colonization of Africa, Conrad's novel takes it's European narrator, Marlow, through unspeakable darkness as the African jungles come alive and the colonization of the Continent's states unfolds. It's needless to say that Conrad's work remains legendary, but a great deal of its legend…