Category: Heart Of Darkness

Decoding “Heart of Darkness”: Archetypes, Myths, and Imperialism

Humanity’s Legacy in “Heart of Darkness”

Religion, myth, and stories are literature essential to the history of humankind and are passed through generations. These literary and oral pieces build humanity’s collective unconscious. From this collective unconscious, intuitive archetypes are derived, with more literature added to each generation to contribute to this generationally passed bank of knowledge. Archetypes such as the hero enduring a transformative journey and various other color archetypes have been strengthened in humanity’s memory for centuries.

Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness utilizes these derivative archetypes to relate to the reader so that they may ultimately understand Conrad’s opinion on imperialism and colonialism. Although Nofal asserts that Heart of Darkness uses archetypes that highlight the contrast between black and white, and Taghizadeh asserts that Heart of Darkness uses the embedded myth archetype of the hero enduring a journey, one can argue that Conrad uses both archetypes to convey his negative ultimate message about imperialism and colonialism.

Black & White: Moral Shades in Conrad’s Tale

All authors influence their writing with their own ideologies. Conrad began the book by separating white and black, saying white represented good and civil, whilst black represented dark and evil. This initial separation is highlighted in the scene where Marlow describes that England was one of the original dark and gloomy places on Earth prior to its civilization. He suggests that “the civilized white people who came from England are good while the black primitive natives are evil and inferior.”

Marlow foreshadows that his trip to Africa is the archetypal journey because he discusses traveling into the center of the Earth rather than the center of Africa. This would be a journey into the human spirit, mind, and self-discovery.

Nofal then discusses how the entirety of the novel presents various imagery of darkness and the dark heart of man. With the notion that Conrad believes that man is inherently evil, Conrad exploits the archetypes of black & white and dark & light in different ways. Some of these ways include dark being represented in the savages, white being represented in ivory or civilization, darkness in the lack of names, darkness in the decaying machinery of Marlow’s boat, and darkness in Kurtz’s last words. Breaking down is another indicator of darkness. Marlow’s boat keeps breaking down ‘decaying machinery,’ Kurtz has a mental breakdown, and there are breakdowns in communication: people speak different languages, Marlow tells lies about Kurtz to his fiancee, and ‘amongst the most frequent content words in the book is the lemma’ silence.’

Additionally, Kurt’s dying words, ‘The horror! The horror! are indications of his complete descent into darkness. The setting itself is full of darkness from the very beginning to the very end: The contrast between light and dark is clear in the theme of the setting, the changes in Europeans as they drive farther into the River Congo, and the white man’s collapse under the darkness of the River Congo.

The setting of the novel is very critical. All incidents throughout the book indicate darkness. Marlow, for example, tells his story on a boat in such deep darkness that he cannot see his friends, creating a sense of evil surrounding the story. The natives are described as if they were animals, not humans: ‘Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing in an intolerable and appalling manner. Others were scattered about in a very pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of massacre or pestilence.’ Ultimately, Conrad uses the archetypes of light and dark to convey civilization and savagery.

The Soul’s Journey in “Heart of Darkness”

Taghizadeh defines myth as being a collective unconscious embedded in human nature. Various archetypes derive from this myth: “Originating from our ‘collective unconscious,’ these archetypes have their abstract language there in us, which literary works reveal through images. In different times and places, these archetypes are usually interpreted in the same way because what they represent is the deepest dreams, desires, joys, aspirations, and fears of the universal man.”

Heart of Darkness is filled with archetypes that are innately embedded in mankind and myth. The hero archetype is most notably derived from the previous myths and is a main factor in Heart of Darkness. Taghizadeh says, “Archetypes are the ‘primordial images’ or the ‘psychic residue’ of repeated patterns of common human experience in the lives of our very ancient ancestors which survive in the ‘collective unconscious’ of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of literature.”

One can argue that Conrad, in Heart of Darkness, uses archetypes that are not only derived from the collective unconscious or myth but strengthen it. Heart of Darkness is a novel that tells the story of heroes who take a journey: “To achieve their goals of journey, these heroes’ overcome insurmountable obstacles.’”

Heroes with different faces appear in universal literature, religion, and folktales. But the most common archetypal hero is perhaps the ‘hero’ in literature. In the world of literature, one comes across different faces of the hero, with different modes and manners of such celebrities. However, literary heroes have many things in common, like a radical determination, a great soul that enables them to play incredible adventures, and the achievement of precious outcomes of their daring quests.

To be a true hero is to triumph over disease, want, and death. The first step in Marlow’s initiation is a separation from home. On an exotic journey, he gets separated from Europe and its civilization, and as he passes a series of obstacles, he gets prepared to gain the holy grail of his initiation. His journey to the dark of his heart reminds one of ‘Dante’s imaginative journey in The Inferno, and the allusion to ancient Rome helps to recall The Aeneid, where both heroes descend into hell and face different trials through their journeys.

Like the classical heroes, Conrad’s hero, through his quest, descends into hell to gain knowledge and bring it back to others, where hell represents the darkness of his unconscious. For Marlow, the steamer crawls to where Kurtz is on a mission. In fact, the holy grail of the former is the achievement he makes when he goes on the quest to see Kurtz, for it brings him to an ‘impenetrable darkness’ and makes it possible for him to visit a ‘hollow man’ who is also a ‘universal genius’ in charge of the most productive trade of ivory.

Colonialism’s Dark Heart in Conrad’s Novella

Colonialism is a major theme in Heart of Darkness. Since Conrad had been using white archetypes to represent good and black to represent evil, he portrays colonialism as the light in the midst of the darkness of the Congo. Throughout Marlow’s journey archetype to the Congo, he observes scenes of torture, slavery, and various other cruelties. The imagery alone that Conrad uses to describe such obscenities insinuates his disapproval to Religion, myth, and stories are literature essential to the history of humankind and are passed through generations.

These literary and oral pieces build humanity’s collective unconscious. From this collective unconscious, intuitive archetypes are derived, with more literature added to each generation to contribute to this generationally passed bank of knowledge.

Archetypes such as the hero enduring a transformative journey and various other color archetypes have been strengthened in humanity’s memory for centuries. Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness utilizes these derivative archetypes to relate to the reader so that they may ultimately understand Conrad’s opinion on imperialism and colonialism. Although Nofal asserts that Heart of Darkness uses archetypes that highlight the contrast between black and white, and Taghizadeh asserts that Heart of Darkness uses the embedded myth archetype of the hero enduring a journey, one can argue that Conrad uses both archetypes to convey his negative ultimate message about imperialism and colonialism.

References

1. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. Signet Classic: New York, 1997.
2. Nofal, Khalil Hassan. ‘Darkness in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Linguistic and Stylistic
3. Analysis. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. Literature Resource Center. Accessed 4 Dec. 2019.
4. Taghizadeh, Ali. ‘Penetrating into the Dark: an Archetypal Approach to Joseph Conrad’s

Unraveling the “Heart of Darkness”: The Racism Fueling European Colonialism

Marlow’s Glimpse: Brutality in the Congo

In Heart of Darkness, author Joseph Conrad portrays the systematic racism that drove European Colonialism of Africa, as any individual sympathizing with African humanity is discarded by the colonizers. Marlow, a retired colonizer, recounts his experience in the Belgian Congo while in the employ of the Company, a European trade group. Marlow relays the cruelty he witnessed Europeans commit as they plundered the continent, using weapons of war indiscriminately and leaving exploited African workers for dead.

During his travels, Marlow meets the General Manager of the Company, who notes that an independent trader in the area is competing with the Company and hurting profits. The General Manager elects to hang the trader should they meet. Later, Marlow meets a young Russian deserter who previously served several European colonies but had spent the last two years traveling the Congo alone.

The Russian: Empathy Amid Colonial Ambitions

During the Russian’s travels, he had developed a familiarity with the continent and a respect for the natives rare to Europeans. Unlike the other Europeans in Africa for colonialization, he was not motivated by greed or desire for conquest. The Russians continued to trade in Africa, but they refrained from abusing the natives. Marlow realizes the Russian is an independent trader.

The General Manager marked for execution. The Russian is eventually driven away by the Company as they attempt to execute him. The Russian marks a departure from the racism that characterizes the European settlers, and the Company will not allow another party to detract from its goal of maximum profit at any cost. Because the Russian does not share the Company’s racist desire to exploit Africa, he is expelled from the area at threat of death. As the Company trekked the Congo, plundering resources and abusing natives, the systematic racism of European Colonialism was signaled when the tolerant Russian was driven away for obstructing the domination of Africa.

Chief Accountant: Cold Racism Exposed

As the Chief Accountant described his hatred of Africans, the racist attitude driving Colonialism is revealed at the top levels of the Company. “When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages hate them to the death.” Here, the Chief Accountant, an individual in a leadership role at the Company, unveils his naked hatred of Africans. He pairs “correct entries” with “hate.” In his mind, hating Africans is as justified as entering correct numbers into an accounting ledger. And this same attitude of cold, certain racism empowers the Europeans to commit horrors against the native population. At one point, Marlow witnesses a French warship leashing cannon fire onto the African coast. Shocked, Marlow asked what the purpose of such an attack was.

Warships & Abandoned Camps: Exploitation’s Trace

Immediately, a Company reassured him that there was a camp of Africans hidden in the foliage of the coast. The racist Company perceived no issue with the loss of African life associated with such a bombardment, but a potential tragedy could occur if the munitions and cannonballs were wasted. Here, the Company is valuing physical objects at a much higher worth than human life. The same attitude of indifference to human life is witnessed by Marlow again when he encounters an abandoned camp of African workers in an area depleted of resources.

The colonial group had compelled the natives to harvest all the valuables from their own land to be collected for European benefit, and then once the land could be no more stripped, they left the abused Africans to die. Both events substantiated the attitude of racism that fueled the terrible injustices inflicted by colonizers and created, for Marlow, a standard model of European greed and abuse.

Russian’s Ideals Clash with Company’s Greed

The Russian’s uncorrupted spirit of adventure and empathy for the African natives made him an anomaly among Europeans in Africa. “He surely wanted nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through. His need was to exist. If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this youth. I almost envied him the possession of this modest and clear flame.” (Chapter 2) Marlow here describes the Russian’s pure soul and honest desire for adventure, not motivated by greed or personal gain. Marlow says the Russians wanted nothing from Africa but to exist in it, a complete reversal of European colonizers’ desire for the wealth associated with dominating Africa.

Indeed, while the Company sought to rip as many resources as they could from African land, the Russian was ideologically isolated by his desire to just exist and experience Africa. While the Russians did trade in Africa, his appreciation for the continent and spiritual purity prevented him from abusing or exploiting the Africans or their land. Consequently, he was at odds with the Company, which did not tolerate any competition in their goal of maximum profit. After all, there is no need to exchange value with the natives when you can just compel their labor with force. The disruption caused by the Russian’s fair dealings with Africans angered the Company and led them to seek his execution.

The Russian’s empathy and fair dealings with Africans obstructed the Company’s domination of the Congo, and the Company’s impulse to extinguish tolerance displays the racism of European Colonialism.

“‘He suspected there was an active ill-will towards him on the part of these white men. ’
‘You are right, the manager thinks you ought to be hanged…’
‘I had better get out of the way quietly,’ he said earnestly…’
‘Well, upon my word,’ said I, ‘perhaps you had better go if you have any friends amongst the savages nearby.’
‘Plenty,’ he said. ‘They are simple people, and I want nothing, you know.’”

In Marlow’s final conversation with the Russian, the Russian declared himself a friend of the Africans and reiterated his complete lack of greed or malice. The Russians acknowledged African humanity and offered a rudimentary conception of equality. These beliefs put him in direct contest with the Company’s — and, by extension, European Colonialism’s ultimate view of black inequality that justified their abuse of Africans and plundering of the continent. The Russian’s expulsion by the Company due to his knowledge of African humanity confirms that the racist conception of black inhumanity fueled European Colonialism.

References

1. Conrad, J. (1902). Heart of Darkness. Blackwood’s Magazine.

Deciphering the ‘Heart of Darkness’: Conrad’s Puzzling Tale

The prevailing certainty that has arisen from over a century of contextual analysis is that no unanimous conviction exists when interpreting Conrad’s novella. Just as language and culture have adapted with time, so too, Heart of Darkness has found no immunity against the perpetual justification for societal scrutiny and elucidation. Here, deconstruction and Marxism tackle the novella’s idolatry and imperialism to form the fundamentals of a comprehensive study.

Idolatry and Imperialism: A Dance of Power

In Heart of Darkness, ideals nurse a dangerous tendency to transform into idols. While these obsessions take various forms, their roots are the same: The desire for power, money, or reputation. Through Kurtz’s thirst for supremacy, he immersed himself into native culture, into the unspecified darkness of Africa, and soon became privy to unspeakable rights that worshiped his own wanton lust for dominance.

Likewise, Kurtz’s fiancée harbored an intensely idolized view of him, shielded in her own protective delusion, the continuation of which was made possible by Marlow’s lie. Marlow, too, assumed the role of “idol” on the ship deck, analogous to the Buddha with folded legs and upward palms. A deconstructionist might argue a failing in these inversions: Where ideals become idols, Conrad’s portrayal of European involvement is painted no more proper than the natives’ darkness, cannibalism, and savagery. Furthermore, these traits seem to denote a transcendence back to primordial times and parallel the white/black dichotomy of racism.

From Darkness to Dichotomies: Unmasking Conrad

While the novella’s darkness emotes African savagery and degradation, it asserts European corruption and imperialism. The idolatry that resulted was a direct correlate of these self-propagated binaries: European/African, light/dark. A Marxist might argue that the hegemony of the European versus African peoples caused this progression of idolization. During “the scramble for Africa” from 1880-1914, these purported “dark” nations found themselves under constant appropriation and colonization by self-deemed superior parties who had no qualms accepting and extending their political, militant, and economic leadership roles to include idolatry, thus sealing their omnipotence over the subjugated.

While many critics of Heart of Darkness seem to have replaced imperialistic discourse with a more metaphysical analysis of the human soul and conceptual, elusive grasp of “evil,” the effects of colonization remain, as ever, ubiquitous and open for interpretation. The novella initially paints Marlow, and by extension Conrad, as anti-imperialist; However, upon deeper examination, this is not entirely accurate. Offhand terminology and pervasive dichotomies that either highlighted or subverted racism seemed consciously constructed to instigate incongruous ethical and political views.

A deconstructionist might argue that the absence of historical data aids in the novella’s transparent portrayal of racist dichotomies. During its time of publication, Arabs and African tribes were fighting one another in the Boer War. The writing’s exclusion of this creates a singularly white/black narrative with no other vying parties involved. Furthermore, it is not clear whether this omission is meant to be a result of the speaker’s, scribe’s, or author’s doing. A Marxist might argue that this evil, this darkness, now only parceled out to two sides, created a more compelling oppressor/oppressed, painting the evil in Europe as ironic and the evil in Africa as expected.

References

1. Brantlinger, Patrick. “‘Heart of Darkness’: ‘Anti-Imperialism, Racism, or Impressionism?’.” Criticism, vol. 27, no. 4. JSTOR.
2. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Signet Classic, 1997.
3. Raskin, Jonah. “Imperialism: Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 2, no. 2. JSTOR.
4. Wallenstein, Jimmy. “‘HEART OF DARKNESS’: THE SMOKE-AND-MIRRORS DEFENSE.” Conradiana, vol. 29, no. 3. JSTOR.

Exploring the “Heart of Darkness” in Literature

Oftentimes, when comparing writing, whether it be from the 1800s or newer writing from the 21st century, we can see a few common and shared themes. Love, Luck, Heroism, Heartbreak, and Struggle, just to name a few, are themes that can be found in almost all pieces of literature. One of the many themes found in both classic and modern literature is that of Madness. The descent or ascent to Madness in both protagonists and their plot-driving counterparts can be found in many different pieces of writing.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness are both writings that explore the rise of Madness in their protagonists. Shakespeare’s Hamlet speaks broadly about the Madness solely created by one person, while Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness focuses on the Madness produced by unstable conditions. Between these two novels, both authors create masterpieces depicting the actions and results of Madness.

Hamlet & Madness: A Shakespearean Descent

Although both novels take place in dramatically different places and time periods, they are both places in which evil exists, and things created by man have the ability to bring on that evil. The endless need for power that drove Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, to kill Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet, is one of many types of evil presented in the novel. In Heart of Darkness, the Madness stems from the desire for power and the need for ivory. The power in Heart of Darkness is not only apparent because it causes logical and powerful men like Kurtz to commit his mad acts but also because of how fast Marlow is able to discover how quickly power and the hunger for it can change things.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, readers can find a fall to Madness driven by heartbreak, loss, trouble, and betrayal. These are all things in which the protagonist, Hamlet, must learn to live. However, in the process of learning to live in these unstable conditions, Hamlet not only loses himself but his remaining stable state of mind, as well. Characters like Hamlet, whose flaws we may see at the beginning of writing, are often susceptible to their troubles, tearing their state of mind apart. By the end of this belles-lettres, the delirium seen in these characters is comparable to that of one who, when introduced to them, is already mad. Hamlet’s Madness is driven by his life struggles and heightened by the deception of not only his childhood friends but his mother and uncle as well. The causes of Hamlet’s Madness are much different from that of Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Conrad’s Gaze: Power’s Role in Insanity

Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness is about the human psyche. It considers man’s ability to descend into Madness as well as his ability to break from it and triumph over his dark, haunting thoughts and impulses that threaten to consume one’s heart and mind. This struggle between Madness and one’s ability to break away from it is presented perfectly in Conrad’s narrative of the main character, Marlow. Although Marlow is the driver of the theme of Madness in this novel, another character who perfectly resembles this is Kurtz. The perception of Madness within this work allows the reader to perceive the god-like mentality and extreme sense of self-importance that Kurtz develops. Kurtz, in developing this

References

1. Conrad, J. (1899). Heart of Darkness. Blackwood’s Magazine.
2. Shakespeare, W. (1603). Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Globe.

Understanding the “Heart of Darkness”: Atmospheric Mastery by Joseph Conrad

The objective of this extended essay is to demonstrate the effect Joseph Conrad achieves by creating a dark atmosphere in Heart of Darkness through his use of language, characterization, description, and decisions to make the setting.

This topic is relevant because it shows the importance of implementing detailed descriptions and thought-provoking language to grab the attention of the reader and keep their concentration on point. This is a technique all writers use to keep their audience interested and make their plot more interconnected.

For this investigation to take place, it was imperative to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad because of the big role it plays in this paper. I had also read Norton Critical Editions of the fifth edition of Heart of Darkness, which explains and criticizes Conrad’s use of language and punctuation, as well as other editors techniques when they were polishing up Conrad’s work; this was extremely valuable because it helped validate my opinions on the vocabulary, grammar, and rhetorical decisions that were made by the author.

Additionally, it helped me to realize how the meaning of certain phrases could have been changed. I also read books like The Secret Sharer, “To Build a Fire,” and Great Expectations that shared similar themes, language, descriptions, and styles to the main book I was reading. These sources assisted me when I had to argue and support my claims when answering my question: How was the dark atmosphere created by Joseph Conrad? E-books and articles that explained literary terminology, background on the author, or comments on the novel also assisted me when developing my answer.

From Seaman to Storyteller: Joseph Conrad’s Maritime Muse

Joseph Conrad’s writings are influenced by his life. During his childhood, he dreamt of traveling all over the seas away from the hunger, discrimination, and poverty that surrounded him in his country. At age seventeen, he finally followed his vocation at sea life and left for Marsiglia to become a seaman. After a decade and a half of working on the sea, he started to work for the French Merchant Navy and, in 1878, for the English Merchant Navy, where he became captain. This is evident in his novels due to the fact that he uses statements such as “One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings, the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance, for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it is the sea itself.”

In his novels, he discusses issues that revolve around the morality of the protagonists, fate, and luck that can change the destiny of the central characters and controversial topics such as imperialism and racism. One of his principal novels, where we can find these characteristics, is Heart of Darkness, which Joseph Conrad experienced on his own when he worked for the ‘Societe Anonyme Belge for the Commerce of Congo’ and where he got most of his inspiration.

His writing is greatly criticized and edited because many critics believe that his “odd expressions,” “haphazard punctuation,” and “repetition” are undated or due to Conrad’s late coming to the English language writing mistakes. According to Norton Critical Editions, many editors, such as Knowles and Heinemann, edit Conrad’s work to make the text more decipherable, which, in Norton’s opinion, takes away from the text. I agree, even though the language and references might be complicated at times. It is what gives Conrad’s writing its authentic and, at times, dark essence, which he combines with his vast international life experience, which contributes to the atmosphere. According to “The Book of Literary Terms,” the atmosphere is the mood of the narrative, which is created by means of setting, altitude, descriptions, and language, which, in Conrad’s case, for the most part, is darkness.

“Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very edge of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very gateway of Erebus, yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent glimpse of my white hat left behind to mark the spot where the secret sharer of my cabin and of my thoughts.”

In the following sections, the means by which Conrad created the atmosphere in Heart of Darkness will be evaluated through his use of the setting, language, and character description.

The first element used by Conrad to contribute to a disturbing and wicked feeling in the atmosphere is the setting. Through detailed descriptions of the land and environment that Marlow recounts during his time in the Congo, the reader can picture and emerge themselves in what the author has experienced or intended the reader to experience. While reading Heart of Darkness, one can clearly notice how the overwhelming growth of nature, urban lifestyle, and the low sea level where the novel takes place influences the dark atmosphere. According to Thomas Foster, when a setting is described as being low, it has the following connotations:

“swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death.”

“…the very end of the world, a sea the color of lead, a sky the color of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina — and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sandbanks, marshes, forests, savages — precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and there, a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay — cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death — death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush. They must have been dying like flies here.”

Here, the narrator gives the reader an image of what he experienced or expected during Marlow’s process to enter the Congo, which is later referred to as the “Heart of Darkness.” This sensorial image is told by the narrator as if it would go down in history as one of the most disastrous periods like the Roman’s exploits did. By describing the hardships and uncomfortable situations the protagonist will be put into before they begin, Conrad creates the atmosphere for the plot to develop. With Marlow recounting the setting as if he were about to enter an apocalyptic dimension where everything around him is either dying or hostile, it makes the reader empathize with the protagonist.

The use of wilderness, heat, and harsh nature also help to induce the reader into relating to the sensations described in the novel since these are images that for the most part, are relatable to humans, whether it be by personal experience or imagination. Wilderness, heat, and harsh nature can also be related to the decomposition process, which is evident in the novel through the decomposing human bodies that are repeatedly mentioned.

“Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world when vegetation rioted on the earth, and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sandbanks, hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side.”

Conrad’s use of urban settings, personification of nature, and description of human’s immoral instincts promote the idea that he is a naturalist like Jack London in his book “To Build a Fire” when he uses temperature to characterize his character’s fragile and uptight personality. Conrad uses humidity to demonstrate once again the gloomy and miserable atmosphere in his settings despite the sunshine that surrounds his characters. The effect this has on the reader is that it creates a sense that the novel is realistic because with all the death, torment, and cruelty that is seen in the novel, at this point, not even sunshine can fix the rest of the overwhelming abundance of nature and darkness that never seems far.

Contrasts in Nature: From Static Wilderness to Human Havoc

The setting in this novel, like the seasons in The Great Gatsby, describes the flow of the story. The novel in this scene, like the primordial trees and the animals, is static. Nothing dramatic is happening; there is no death, and all they are doing is waiting. Nature contributes greatly to setting the atmosphere. However, the rare appearance of buildings also plays a role when it comes to constructing the atmosphere.

“A long decaying building on the summit was half buried in the high grass; the large holes in the peaked roof gaped black from afar; the jungle and the woods made a background. There was no enclosure or fence of any kind, but there had been one apparently, for near the house, half-a-dozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented with round carved balls.”

Even though there are some descriptions of the buildings and rooms, for the most part, they have a superficial description. They serve to characterize a secondary character, or there is a specific intention the author finds to be meaningful. Despite their sporadic appearance in the text, they are important for contrast and to emphasize the human nature that contributes to the mood. In the last example, the description of the Central Station shows the grotesqueness and savagery that people turn to when they are put in situations of uncontrolled power.

Atmosphere through Setting & Syntax: Conrad’s Crafted Unease

I make this claim because the office, which is being described as Kurtz’s, and the heads that are situated around the building evoke a sensation of fear, which is a main trait in the personality he shows off. Another example of a room was the doctor’s office where Marlow went to get his check-up, which, like him, was cold and gave an uneasy feeling. Hence, the setting in The Heart of Darkness provokes the reader to relate to and imagine the awful darkness of the surroundings described in the novel through the altitude, temperature, description, and personification of nature.

The following element used by Conrad to create a sensation of darkness (dark mystery) in the reader is his use of language, which entitles his preference in wording to the grammatical structure he applies. According to Rogers, everything contributes to the atmosphere, whether it be a description involving our senses or “a song, word, phrase, or memory that evokes the atmosphere you want to create.” At times, how a phrase is presented can be more impactful than a description. We can see this in the following extract:

“Odd thing that I, who used to clear out for any part of the world at twenty-four hours’ notice, with less thought than most men give to the crossing of a street, had a moment — I won’t say of hesitation, but of startled pause, before this commonplace affair. I felt as though, instead of going to the center of a continent, I was about to set off for the center of the earth.”

Here, one can clearly see how Conrad’s disjointed and clumsy use of punctuation and sentence structure creates a notion of hesitation and confusion as he enters deep into the Congo’s jungle. Making this sentence complicated to read prompts the reader to relate to the confusion Marlow felt towards this expedition.

Conrad’s Mastery: Evoking Darkness Through Words & Rhetoric

Conrad induces the reader to perceive Marlow’s doubtfulness as he feels skeptical despite having been in this situation many times before. It serves as a glimpse of the savagery that will later be encountered. The use of the phrase “center of the earth” also helps promote the dark and unsettling feeling of the unknown. What’s more, it serves to warn the reader that, like the center of the earth, the closer you get to it, the hotter it becomes, like the Inferno, which Marlow references later on in the novel while he is driving the steamboat to get to Kurtz. The author promotes the feeling of darkness through his terminology:

“The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. It was impossible — it was not good for one either — trying to imagine. He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land.”

In this quote, once again, the atmosphere of darkness is palpable. This is attributed to the fact that words like darkness, creepy, and devil appear in this single phrase. Throughout the novel, words that have evil and bad connotations, like death, black, dark, and devil, are constantly used. This use of these terms, as well as the rhetoric that Conrad employs, increases the feeling of evil and darkness by making them stand out.

“Marlow ceased and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. “We have lost the first of the ebb,” said the Director suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky — seemed to lead into the Heart of an immense darkness.”

There are many misconceptions about rhetoric, which make it seem like a bad thing; however, when it is used correctly, it helps transmit your ideas in a more efficient way and appeals to the reader’s emotions. Conrad, like many successful writers, uses a lot of rhetorical devices. Just in the last example, one can observe an epithet, a personification, an allusion, a hyperbole, and an anastrophe. Other rhetorical elements found are: Even though these devices create beauty in a text, it does not mean they can not evoke fear, desperation, or madness. What is more, due to their corresponding purposes, they can emphasize, augment, and manipulate the emotions the writer is trying to express. In the example above, one can tell the purpose Conrad had in mind was to create an atmosphere of pensiveness as the characters looked for a solution in the now-clam water. Conrad’s use of specific terms, grammatical structure, and rhetoric all played a great role in creating an unsettling atmosphere.

Characterization: Amplifying Darkness & Exploitation

The third element that will be analyzed is the role of characterization in order to construct an atmosphere of exploitation and cruelty. In many literary pieces, the atmosphere is the device used to influence another element. In Heart of Darkness, the contrary happens. The characters emphasize the dark atmosphere in the novel, whether it be through their actions or how they are described.

“I let him run on this papier-mache Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried, I could poke my forefinger through him and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe.”

Using the reference of “papier-mache Mephistopheles,” which translates as a fake servant of the devil in English, to describe the “right hand” of the Director and lazy brickmaker demonstrates the fake humanity and purpose that Marlow noticed in him after getting to know him better. The comparison to the devil has been made before but not to a specific person, but the deception that Marlow falls into when he first meets the brickmaker gives the sense that, like the devil, he is deceiving, greedy, and lazy.

Marlow, as one of the narrators, has certain preferences towards people, which can be inferred, judging by the last description he made. Even though Marlow doesn’t seem to like most of the white groups because “For Europeans, Africa remained this supplier of valuable raw materials bodies,” he isn’t too excited about having relationships with the blacks either. Marlow isn’t barbaric towards the black people like the rest of the whites and even goes as far as giving food to one of them, but he doesn’t see them as people.

Dehumanization & Prejudice: Unveiling the Dark Psyche

“He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind legs. A few months of training had been done for that really fine chap. He was useful because he had been instructed, and what he knew was this — that should the water in that transparent thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would get angry through the greatness of his thirst and take a terrible vengeance.”

The narrator introduces the scene by denying the humanity of recognizing that black man, and immediately after, he diminishes him to a trained animal. The wickedness of this event is only heightened by mentioning “the evil spirit,” which most likely is an invention of a white person to provoke fear or is the white person itself in the mind of the black person. Like the “improved specimen,” the sensation of darkness that comes from this event creates a disturbing mood. In the novel, women and blacks are portrayed as tertiary characters and are static, flat characters that are, if described, as superficial. They don’t go into much detail about them, not even physically, unless they serve as a transition to talking about another character or theory. Only once more in the plot, a black person was praised. He wasn’t given a name, but because of the composure he and his tribe had in comparison to the white man that was freaking out, Marlow questioned the savagery that was said these men had.

Structure & Evolution: From Setting to Character

The black people were called rebels, enemies, and savages, yet they weren’t the ones stealing, torturing, or killing. Consequently, the characters’ relationships, descriptions, and treatment have all led to the creation of a hostile atmosphere. The first chapter states the background necessary to understand the rest of the essay and introduces the reasons that validate the claim and answer the question.

The second chapter explains how the setting in The Heart of Darkness provokes the reader to relate and imagine the awful darkness of the surroundings described in the novel through the altitude, temperature, and description and personification of nature.

The third chapter evaluates how Conrad’s use of specific terms, grammar structure, and rhetoric all played a great role in setting an unsettling atmosphere. The fourth chapter talks about how the characters’ relationships, descriptions, and treatment have all led to the creation of a hostile atmosphere. Therefore, wicked settings, cruel characters, and rough language contribute to darkness.

References

1. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Penguin Classics, 1995.
2. Knowles, J. & Heinemann, L. Editing Conrad: A Textual Examination. Academic Press, 1997.
3. Norton Critical Editions. Heart of Darkness: A Critical Examination. 5th ed., W.W. Norton & Co., 1996.
4. Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Sharer. Dover Publications, 1992.
5. London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” The World of Jack London, Century Co., 1910.
6. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Chapman & Hall, 1861.
7. Rogers, Amy. Literary Atmosphere: A Study of Language and Setting. Beacon Press, 2001.
8. Norton Critical Editions. Conrad’s Language: Understanding the Prose. W.W. Norton & Co., 1998.
9. Leonard, Garry. The Book of Literary Terms: An Examination of Atmosphere. University Press, 2000.