Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

The Heart of Darkness

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Background
He is simultaneously a
nineteenth- and a twentiethcentury writer and thinker
He is also cosmopolitan in
outlook, not British
NOTE: English was actually
Conrads third language (after
Polish and French)
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Preoccupations
Deep ambivalence about Victorian
values, conventions, and practices
Ability to articulate a new kind of
subjectivity
A tendency to speak from a deracinated
perspective.
Always aloof from narrow nationalistic
concerns
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Conrad was a religious agnostic

A Polish Youth

Jzef Teodore Konrad Nalcez Korzeniowski was born in Berdichev,

Poland (then ruled by Russia and now part of Ukraine) in 1857.

His parents were minor Polish aristocracy, and were opposed to the
Russians. After involvement in uprisings against the Tsar, their lands
were confiscated and they moved to Warsaw, Poland in 1861.

His parents became editors for a political magazine that protested the
Tsar's rule, and they were imprisoned for seven months. Because of
their political actions, they were deported to live in Northern Russia in
1862.

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His Education

In 1865, Jozef and his mother became ill with

tuberculosis, and his mother died. His father, who had
been a poet and playwright, began Jozef's education.

He read the works of Dickens, Fenimoore Cooper and

Captain Marryat.

Jozef and his father returned to Poland in 1869, and

shortly after his father also died of tuberculosis.

He was put under the care of his uncle, and was enrolled
into a Gymnasium (Grammar School).

His teachers said that he was disobedient and rather

uninterested.
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Early life

Shortly afterward, he joined the

French merchant navy to avoid
conscription into the Russian army.

He became involved in gun-running

to Spain, and had numerous
adventures.

He became depressed and gambled

away all of his money.

His depression deepened to the

point where he shot himself in the
chest in a failed suicide attempt.

NOTE:
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some claim that this was the

byproduct of a duel

His Life in England

In 1896 he married Jessie

George. Although they were
Catholic, the marriage took
place in a courthouse in
accordance with his agnostic
beliefs.
She was a typist by trade, and
many accused Joe of marrying
simply for the ease of
publishing.
Jessie supported her husband
through his tantrums and
depressed periods.
In 1924, Conrad died of a
heart attack after declining 5
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knighthood

Heart of Darkness (1902)

Conrad starting writing the novella in

1898 and finished it in 1899. It was
published along with two other works in
1902.

The novel is fundamentally concerned

with the excesses of European
colonialism.

NOTE: Conrad has more recently been

criticized by post-colonial critics
concerned with the way in which his
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criticism has unfolded

Colonialism

The late-19th century

represents the high water
mark in European colonialism
Great competition among
European nations for power
and wealth
Often went hand in hand with
Christianity
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Not until the 1960s and 70s
that colonialism was effectively
done away with in Africa

Colonialism

The drive by European nations to

accumulate overseas possessions and
thus demonstrate:

their superiority (moral, social, and

military) over the local populations;

Thet used their advantages to trade in

monopolized raw materials (tea, ivory).

These could be manufactured,

processed or refined in Europe and
then sold in Europe.

Also
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re-exported to the colonies (at

vast profit)

The Belgian Congo

It is generally agreed that the

most exploitative of the
colonial regimes in Africa
belonged to the Belgians.

They did little except exploit

local tensions and natural
resources (human, plant, and
animal) in the name of King
Leopolds International
Association for the Civilization
of Central Africa.

See Kurtzs report for the

International Society for the
Suppression of Savage
Customs

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The Cost of Colonialism

The colonies cost more to maintain than they
were worth,
Europeans believed Africa existed solely to
provide them with raw materials for their
industries
Massive abuses of human rights occurred,
Christian education exacerbated local ethnic and
cultural tensions
Africa was never allowed to develop
economically
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Conrad and
Colonialism
Conrad foregrounds colonialism in the early parts of the
novel
He suggests that those leaving down the Thames are on
a civilizing mission.
Note Marlows emphasis on the redemptive idea that it
is possible to bring civilization to a society.
This may be ironic. Is Conrad a colonialist or critic?
We as readers must make up our minds as to the
political content of the novel.
Traditionally this has been the source of much
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disagreement

Narrative Structure
In Heart of Darkness, we have
an outside narrator telling us a
story he has heard from
Marlow.
The story Marlow tells centers
around Kurtz.
However, most of what Marlow
knows about Kurtz, he has
learned from others.
They have good reason for not
being truthful to Marlow.
Therefore Marlow has to piece
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together much of Kurtzs story.

Narrative Voice

What we learn is only through

interpreting Marlows actions
and words.

Part of the meaning in Heart of

Darkness is that we learn
about "reality" through other
people's narratives much of
which is already twice-told.

Part of the meaning of the

novel is the unreliable nature
of narrative.

Marlow is the source of our

story but he too is also a
flawed character within the
story we read.

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"To [Marlow] the

meaning of an
episode was not
inside like a kernel,
but outside,
enveloping the tale
which brought it out
as a glow brings out a
haze."

The Russian Doll

Effect
The structure of Heart of Darkness
is like that of Russian dolls
You open each doll up, and there
is another doll inside
Much of the meaning in Heart of
Darkness is found not in the center
of the book, the heart of Africa, but
on the periphery of the book.
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Notice how Marlowe looks into the
obscurity- to find nothing.

Patterns in
Heart of Darkness- Three

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Three chapters
Three times Marlow
breaks the story
Three stations
Three women (Aunt,
Mistress, Intended)
Three central characters
(Kurtz, Marlow, Narrator)
Three views of Africa
(adventure, religious,
economic)

Three European
Views of Africa
Some, like Marlows Aunt, see Africa as full of savages
that need to be saved. This view is demonstrated in the
famous poem White Mans Burden.

http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/kipling/kipling.html

To others, like the Belgians in the Outer Station, Africa

represents economic prospects such as free slave labor
and ivory. This is the underlying reasoning of
colonialism.
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To those such as Marlow, Africa
represents a chance for
adventure and self exploration

Contrast in
Heart of Darkness
Much of the imagery in
Heart of Darkness is
arranged in patterns of
opposition and contrast
Examples:
Light / dark
Black / white
Civilized / savage
Outer / inner
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Black and White

Black / dark

death, evil, ignorance, mystery,

savagery, uncivilized
Symbolism is not new
Present in European society
for centuries.
Middle Ages, when science
and knowledge was
suppressed, as the Dark Ages.
According to Christianity, in the
beginning of time all was dark
and God created light.

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According to Heart of
Darkness, before the Romans
came, England was dark. In
the same way, Africa was
considered to be in the "dark
stage".

Black and White

White / light
= life, goodness,

enlightenment, civilized,
religion.
Yet, in Conrad, the usual
pattern is reverse and
darkness means truth,
whiteness means falsehood.
This contrast tells a political
truth about colonialism in the
Congo.

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The contrast also suggests a

psychological truth about
Marlow and the Europeans
mind.
The truth within, therefore dark
and obscure.
White also suggests any
number of unpleasant moral
truths.
The trade in ivory is white and
dirty.
Kurtz the white man is totally
corrupt

Civilization
and Savagery

The book implies that civilizations are created by the laws and
codes that encourage men to achieve higher standards.
The law acts as a buffer to prevent men from reverting back to their
darker tendencies.
Civilization, however, must be learned.
London itself, in the book a symbol of enlightenment, was once
"one of the darker places of the earth" before the Romans forced
civilization upon the Britons.
But civilized society does not get rid of primeval savage tendencies
which lurk in the background.
This savagery is seen in Kurtz.
Marlow meets Kurtz and he finds a man that has totally thrown off
the restraint of civilization and has de-evolved into a primitive state

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Marlow and Kurtz

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Marlow and Kurtz are two

opposite examples of the
human condition.
Kurtz represents what every
man will become if left to his
own intrinsic desires without a
protective, civilized
environment.
Marlow represents the civilized
soul that has not been drawn
back into savagery by a dark,
alienating jungle.

Marlow and Kurtz

Thirty-two years old, has

always "followed the sea",
His voyage up the Congo river,
however, is his first experience
in freshwater travel.
When Marlow arrives at the
station he is disgusted by the
sight of wasted human life and
ruined supplies .
The manager's senseless
cruelty overwhelms him with

anger and disgust.

He longs to see Kurtz- a

fabulously successful ivory
agent and hated by the
company manager.

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More and more, Marlow turns

away from the white people
and towards the dark jungle ( a
symbol of reality and truth.)
He begins to identify with
Kurtz- long before he sees or
talks to him.
The affinity between the two
men becomes a symbolic
unity.
Marlow and Kurtz are the light
and dark selves of a single
person.
Marlow is what Kurtz might
have been, and Kurtz is what
Marlow might have become.

The Hollow Men

The pilgrims and Kurtz share a

hollowness.

"Perhaps there was nothing within [the

manager of the Central Station].

Such a suspicion made one pause -for out there there were no external
checks."

And there was nothing inside the

Brickmaker, "but a little loose dirt,
maybe."

As for Kurtz, the wilderness "It echoed

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loudly within him because he was
hollow at the core."

(Self) Deception

Conrad recognized that

deception is most sinister
when it becomes selfdeception.
The individual takes seriously
his own fictions. Kurtz "could
get himself to believe anythinganything."
His benevolent words of his
report for the International
Society for the Suppression of
Savage customs was meant
sincerely enough.
But a deeper voice spoke
through his scrawled postscript
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"Exterminate all the brutes!"

Self-discovery

Marlow remarks that he did not know himself before setting out, and
that he liked work to "find yourself in what no other man can know.

The Inner Station "was the farthest point of navigation and the
culminating point of my experience."

Marlow says "The mind of man is capable of anything- because

everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future."

Marlows temptation comes through his exposure to Kurtz, a white

man and would-be idealist who had fully returned to the wilderness;

Marlow returns to Europe a changed man.

People are "intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating

pretense, because I felt so sureKMorley
they could not possibly know the
things I knew."

Redemption

According to Conrad we are

protected from ourselves by society
with its laws and watchful neighbors.

We are also protected by work

"You wonder I didnt go ashore for a

howl and a dance? Well, no- I didnt.
Fine sentiments you say? Fine
sentiments be hanged! I had no
time, I had to mess about with whitelead and strips of woolen blanket
helping to put bandages on those
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leaky steampipes"

A Voyage to the
End of the Night

Heart of Darkness explores something truer, more fundamental, and

distinctly less material than just a personal narrative.

It is a night journey into the unconscious, and confrontation of an

entity within the self.

Marlow insists on the dreamlike quality of his narrative. "It seems to

me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because
no relation of a dream can convey the dream - sensation."

Even before leaving Brussels, Marlow felt as though he "was about

to set off for center of the earth," not the center of a continent.
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A Voyage to the
End of the Night

The introspective voyager leaves his familiar rational world, is "cut

off from the comprehension" of his surroundings,

His steamer toils "along slowly on the edge of a black and

incomprehensible frenzy."

As the crisis approaches, the dreamer and his ship moves through a
silence that "seemed unnatural, like a state of trance; then enter a
deep fog."

The approach to this Kurtz grubbing for ivory in the wretched bush
was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an
enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle."

Later, Marlows task is to try "to break the spell" of the wilderness
that holds Kurtz entranced.

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Acknowledgements

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~csicseri/

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