An Analysis Of heart Of Darkness :: essays research papers

An Analysis of "Heart of Darkness"Joseph Conrad, in his long-short story, "Heart of Darkness," tells the taleof two mens realization of the hidden, dark, evil side of themselves. Marlow,the " routine" narrator of the framed narrative, embarked upon a spiritualadventure on which he witnessed firsthand the wicked potential in everyone. Onhis journey into the dark, forbidden Congo, the " subject matter of darkness," so to speak,Marlow encountered Kurtz, a "remarkable man" and "universal genius," who hadmade himself a god in the eyes of the natives over whom he had an imperceptiblepower. These two men were, in a sense, images of each other Marlow was whatKurtz may have been, and Kurtz was what Marlow may have become.Like a jewel, "Heart of Darkness" has many facets. From one stance it is anexposure of Belgian methods in the Congo, which at least for a good part of theway sticks closely to Conrads own experience. Typically, however , theadventure is related to a big view of gracious affairs. Marlow told the storyone evening on a yacht in the Thames estuary as darkness fell, reminding hisaudience that exploitation of one multitude by another was not new in history. Theywere anchored in the river, where ships went out to darkest Africa. Yet, aslately as Roman times, Londons own river led, like the Congo, into a untamedhinterland where the Romans went to make their profits. Soon darkness fell overLondon, while the ships that bore "civilization" to remote parts appeared out ofthe dark, carrying darkness with them, different just in kind to the darknessthey encounter.These thoughts and feelings were merely part of the tale, for Conrad had amore personal story to tell, about a single man who went so furthest fromcivilization that its restraints no longer mattered to him. Exposed to theunfamiliar emotional and physical demands of the African wilderness, free to doexactly as he chose, Kurtz plunged into horrible orgies of which human sacrificeand cannibalism seemed to have formed a part. These excesses taught him andMarlow what human nature was actually like "The horror" Kurtz gasped beforehe died. Marlows own journey from Belgium to the Congo and thus up the riverthen took on the aspect of a mans journey into his own inner depths. Marlowwas saved from the other mans fate not by higher principles or a betterdisposition, but merely because he happened to be very busy, and the demands ofwork were themselves a discipline. The readers perceive, too, that other white