An Analysis Of "Heart Of Darkness"
Joseph Conrad, in his long-short story, "Heart of Darkness," tells the
tale of two mens' realization of the hidden, dark, evil side of themselves.
Marlow, the "second" narrator of the framed narrative, embarked upon a
spiritual adventure on which he witnessed firsthand the wicked potential in
everyone. On his journey into the dark, forbidden Congo, the "heart of
darkness," so to speak, Marlow encountered Kurtz, a "remarkable man" and
"universal genius," who had made himself a god in the eyes of the natives
over whom he had an imperceptible power. These two men were, in a sense,
images of each other: Marlow was what Kurtz may have been, and Kurtz was
what Marlow may have become.
...
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out to darkest Africa. Yet, as lately as Roman times, London's
own river led, like the Congo, into a barbarous hinterland where the Romans
went to make their profits. Soon darkness fell over London, while the
ships that bore "civilization" to remote parts appeared out of the dark,
carrying darkness with them, different only in kind to the darkness they
encounter.
These thoughts and feelings were merely part of the tale, for Conrad
had a more personal story to tell, about a single man who went so far from
civilization that its restraints no longer mattered to him. Exposed to the
unfamiliar emotional and physical demands of the African wilderness, free
to do exactly as he chose, Kurtz plunged into horrible orgies of which
human sacrifice and cannibalism seemed to have formed a part. These
excesses taught him and Marlow what human nature was actually like: "The
horror!" Kurtz gasped before he died. Marlow's own journey from Belgium to
the Congo and thence up the river ...
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numbers of natives were beaten and slaughtered brutally or casually.
This view of evil was part of Marlow's conception; a utilitarian object
like copper or iron would have had its own reason for being. Kurtz's evil
propensities (he collected natives' heads, he sought the "evil" ivory) made
him so contemptuous of individual lives; for evil and life have
traditionally clashed. Beauty for the few was gained with the blood of the
many.
Where evil ruled, it was a form of power. The evil took on magical
significance, becoming a kind of totem and treasure. Perhaps consciously
aware of this, like the evil he had become, Kurtz gained his power, indeed
his identity and being, from ...
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"An Analysis Of "Heart Of Darkness"." Essayworld.com. November 27, 2008. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/An-Analysis-Of-Heart-Of-Darkness/93753.
"An Analysis Of "Heart Of Darkness"." Essayworld.com. November 27, 2008. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/An-Analysis-Of-Heart-Of-Darkness/93753.
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