Characterization

In “Heart of Darkness,” only two characters have names: Marlow and Kurtz.  While competing theories exist as to why this is, such as the notion that it illustrates the dehumanization of mankind in the Congo, it cannot be refuted that this indeed highlights these two characters and immediately suggests their importance to the novel. In Conrad’s classic, speech and physical description are scarce and tainted by the austerity of the Belgian Congo.  Therefore, action is the truest medium to characterize Conrad’s cast.  Although we have a vast stream of thought to pull from Marlow, his ideas are complex and fragmented, thus analyzing his character through his own thoughts holds a high risk of misinterpretation.  Furthermore, Kurtz is insane and as a result, many of the depictions we receive of him are skewed and do not depict the character that is enshrouded by the Congo’s severe ability to warp the mind.  

            In order to learn about Marlow, we also must look at several events throughout the text and the characteristics that they reveal.  Shortly after being introduced to Marlow, we discover that he is adventurous through his desire to travel to the center of Africa because it’s simply uncharted on both the map and in his mind.  This adventurous spirit is complemented by Marlow’s daring nature, which he demonstrates when he ventures back into the deep grass to retrieve Kurtz after he has escaped from his initial capture. Later in “Heart of Darkness,” the reader concludes that Marlow is compassionate because when he enters the Outer Central and witnesses the ruthless emaciation of the African population, he kindly offers a cookie to one of the afflicted.  Also, Marlow’s reaction to said emaciation, his astonishment, is a testament to his innocence.  During the lull in Marlow’s trip, at the Central Station, the reader learns a lot about Marlow.  First, the reader learns that Marlow is patient yet resilient when he must endure several stagnant months in Congo in order to fix his boat.  Additionally, at this time of extended solitude, the most intriguing characteristic is revealed about Marlow.  We learn that Marlow is curious and susceptible to the ills of the Congo. During this time, Marlow’s increasing fixation with Kurtz depicts his pliability.  At the end of the novella, Marlow lies to Kurtz’s wife to portray his protective qualities, which is demonstrated when he throws the helmsman overboard in order to prevent cannibalism.  These characteristics, notably Marlow’s compassion, malleability, and innocence, establish Marlow as the protagonist and allow the reader to easily identify and sympathize with him. 

            Because Kurtz only actively participates in a small segment of the story, his actions are limited, but we can still develop a full character with that which we do witness.  Before Kurtz is actively seized in the literature, the impressions he has imparted paint him as a divine creature whose immense ivory output has made him an idol within the Belgian company; even Marlow becomes mesmerized by the man’s allure through these commentaries.   While most of the actions, such as the heads on the polls, which surround Kurtz tent, clearly illustrate that he is insane.  The insanity is simply a consequence of the exposure to the Congo.  However several actions give us a clue into the true identity of Kurtz.  For instance, the way in which Kurtz address his fiancé, my intended, indicates that Kurtz was a possessive individual when acclimated to society.  Furthermore, Kurtz’s last words, “The Horror!  The Horror,” give further insight into Kurtz as a member of society.  These words suggest that Kurtz, at one point, thought, like Marlow and the reader, that the Congo was mortifying.  It can be elicited that Kurtz was an ambitious, but innocent member of society who was ensnared in the torment of Congo and hideously transformed into a model of greed and evil.  

Style

In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” both a modernist style of writing and the impressionistic style for which Conrad is known are utilized to convey Marlow’s epic narrative.

Conrad’s work employs the modernist style in two ways; Marlow’s story is extremely cerebral, relying on the chaotic stream of his own consciousness to tell much of his story and the two complementary monologues present throughout “Heart of Darkness.”  These complementary monologues are clearly disproportionate, but nonetheless still compete for the reader’s attention throughout the book and serve a greater purpose. While Conrad could have easily chosen to tell Marlow’s story with himself as the narrator, he doesn’t.  Instead, Conrad experiments with the modernist style, which invites the reader to be lost in the story, just as those on The Nellie will be entranced simultaneously; Marlow’s story is an experience, which you share with those to whom he is currently telling the story.  However this illusion is only possible if Conrad uses a narrator who is known to also be listening to the story.  Conrad’s other use of the modernist style is that much of the story happens within the mind of Marlow.  Many literary authorities have attributed the cognitive nature of Marlow’s story as the reason that “Heart of Darkness,” while short in length, reads very slowly.  Marlow’s rational is intended to cause the reader to think; much of the novella is choppy and disjoint, which requires the reader to interpret then novel for themselves.  Furthermore, as the reader sifts through the thoughts of Marlow, these thoughts catalyze the reader’s own reflection on similar subjects because while many things are introduced, such as the phrase “Heart of Darkness,’ very few are explicitly described. 

The impressionistic style, of which Conrad is a quintessential writer, exhibits several common characteristics, however one literary work does not always exploit the use of all of them. The text is intentionally ambiguous, placing much of the responsibility to form conclusion on the reader. Actions are described as they happen through the eyes of the character or characters. Also, concerned with how the setting affects the characters emotionally, the text requires you to look at the work holistically to gain a clear understanding, and events are not often told chronologically, but rather events are explained how or why they happened. “Heart of Darkness” certainly satisfies several of these staples of impressionistic style. For example, as previously stated, the cerebral nature of the text is vague, but with a purpose. In Conrad’s retelling many details seem disconnected from the rest of the story and, in fact extraneous, but at the end of the novella you realize that such details are necessary to the complete understanding of the story. For instance, the knitting women at the Belgian company are described in great detail, although the reader is unsure as to exactly why. However, by reading the novella and reflecting on its entirety, it is revealed that the women and their eeriness contributed to the general tone of the book as it related to the Congo and foreshadowed the turbulence of Marlow’s upcoming journey. Finally, the following passage demonstrates how Conrad described the action as it occurred: “I saw a face amongst the leaves on the level with my own, looking at me very fierce and steady; and then suddenly, as though a veil had been removed from my eyes, I made out, deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes – the bush was swarming with human limbs in movement, glistening, of bronze colour. The twigs shook, swayed, and rustled, the arrows flew out of them, and then the shutter came to” (Conrad 61). Conrad reports the arrack, through the eyes of Marlow, as it is happening. In fact, Conrad waits for a few lines to even inform the reader that an attack is occurring, his realization mimicking our own, thereby creating a concurrent experience.

Structure

       Conrad’s novella is sometimes described as being written with the structure of a Russian Doll. Marlow’s tale is told inside of the unnamed narrator’s time on the Thames. Further, as Marlow journeys deeper into the heart of Africa and towards the twisted Kurtz, so too does the reader travel farther into the story’s plot and theme. However, the nameless narrator’s early declaration that to Marlow “the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze” suggests that some of Conrad’s meaning is derived from outer layers and peripheral events rather than only from the direct journey into the literal and figurative heart of darkness (Conrad 9).

       The most notable example(s) of this structural element are Marlow’s experiences in Brussels, both before and after his time in Africa. His comparison of the city to a whited sepulchre implies light and civilization that most Europeans believed they possessed. When Marlow returns to this city after his encounter with Kurtz, he is appalled by the machinelike capitalistic workings of the society in which he had previously placed the utmost confidence. Africa clearly changed him, and the results are most clear when he is in Europe. Other notable events in Brussels are Marlow’s meeting with the doctor, who measures his head even though he admits that “the changes [caused in Africa] take place inside” (Conrad 15). Here, Europeans’ lack of knowledge and blind adherence to their powerless methods are satirized. Later, Marlow’s meetings with various acquaintances of the late Kurtz will reveal just how little was known about the man. Each person seems to have a different conception of Kurtz and his talents, which range from journalist to politician to humanitarian to musician. The man is a legend to many, yet none can seem to agree on why this is so.
       In spite of the importance of these exterior events, the structure of the story as a journey into the center still plays an essential role, specifically in Conrad’s development of theme. The madness wrought by imperialism is embodied by Kurtz, who Marlow can only reach by pushing forward into the interior of both Africa and the human psyche. Without his journey, Marlow would have never interacted with his crew of cannibals who make him think so much about the connections inherent in the human race. The thin veneer of self-restraint which governs Europeans at home would not be put on display if Marlow had stayed at the Central Station and been content to listen to endless tales of Kurtz’s exploits and “unsound methods.”

Theme

       While Conrad expounds a number of themes in this short tale, none are more important than the institution of colonialism and the negative effects that come from it. The Company’s control of the Congo (which in real life was a ruthlessly-administered Belgian colony during the reign of Belgium’s King Leopold II) is downright disgusting in its treatment of the continent. Both natives and the resources of the land are shamelessly exploited for the enrichment of the “civilized” Europeans who are supposed to be bringing society and “light” to this continent of darkness. But the Africans are not the only people shattered by imperialism. So too are many of the Europeans, who lose their ways and minds in the wilderness of the savage land.

       European imperialism always carried with it the hypocritical goal of civilizing the native populations as a sort of political cover for the shameless money grabs the colonies really were. In this system, the natives were routinely exploited and abused instead of civilized and taught. In Heart of Darkness, this abuse is symbolized in a grove of trees that Marlow stumbles upon where “‘Black shapes crouched, lay...clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair” (Conrad 20). These “creatures,” as Marlow describes them, had been dragged out of the darkness of the continent’s vast interior to work the land for the greedy white capitalists. When their bodies withered, they were allowed to crawl away and die in this grove, as they could be easily replaced by further raids into the jungle. The land itself was treated little better. It was defaced by the existence of what Marlow describes as “a vast, artificial hole somebody had been digging...the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine” (Conrad 20). Furthermore, the natural resources of the continent were ruthlessly pursued. The stations, which one Company Manager asserts “should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course but also for humanising, improving, instructing” (Conrad 34). In reality, the trade was always remembered, but the other things were tossed by the wayside. Marlow alleges that, as he journeyed upriver past various stations, “The word ‘ivory’ would ring in the air for a while” (Conrad 36). The stuff had made Kurtz famous among men of the Company, but also driven him mad.

       Kurtz’s descent into madness is the other dark side effect of the imperial system. Some Europeans, so used to the rigid social constructs of their own continent, were unprepared for the wilderness and freedom afforded by Africa or other exotic locales. Without checks on their behavior, many colonials saw themselves spiraling out of control and letting the inherent savagery that lives inside each human consume them. In Kurtz’s case especially, the lack of other Europeans to temper his ambitions and tactics leads to his “going rogue” and resorting to such measures as putting the heads of slain natives on stakes as a warning. The man goes so far as to install himself as a sort of demi-god among the Africans, all in the pursuit of ivory and the profits and prestige that come with it.

       Marlow feels this same force tugging at him, but is able to navigate the treacherous waters of Africa (both literally and figuratively) and keep his sanity and humanity.

Plot Summation

        Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” opens to a scene of five men relaxing on a “cruising yawl” named The Nellie, which is anchored at the mouth of the Thames River. Among these five men is the Director of Companies, who is also the captain and host, the Lawyer, the Accountant, Marlow, and the unnamed narrator. While much about these men is enshrouded in mystery and never delved into by the narrator, it is revealed that all of these men share the bond of the sea. The approaching of night prompts Marlow to comment that England was once considered savage. This train of thought leads Marlow to recount his time as a steamship captain on the Congo River. After acquiring a job with a Belgian “company” that trades on the Congo River, Marlow spends the next month traveling down the western coast of Africa to the company’s Outer Station. Up to this point in the journey, Marlow has ominous indicators of the Belgian Congo: the Swedish captain tells him about a man who went inland to kill himself, the boat fires blankly into the jungles of Africa, the doctor who works for the company has informed Marlow that he rarely ever sees people return from the Congo. Upon arriving at the Outer Station, Marlow encounters the stark contrast between the severe despair and emaciation of the exploited African people and an accountant he meets there who is dressed lavishly and doesn’t sympathize with the Africans. In addition to this contrast, the accountant also introduces Kurtz, the manager of the Inner Station, who is revered by all in the Belgian company for his immense outputs of ivory. Marlow remains at the Outer Station for ten days before he continues his journey to the Central Station. Here, the Manager of Central Station informs Marlow that his steamship has been wrecked and is in need of repair before the men can proceed to the Inner Station. The Manager strikes Marlow as peculiar: it seems that the only reason the Manager has risen in the company is his uncanny ability to remain healthy while other men perish. Furthermore, during his stay at the Central Station, Marlow learns that Kurtz has ceased communicating with the station and has stopped shipping ivory. Moreover, he hears that Kurtz may be sick. After repairing his boat, Marlow sets out for the Inner Station with the manager of the Outer Station and a crew that includes cannibals as well as white men. The journey to the Inner Station incessantly challenges Marlow’s navigational capacity and the world he finds full of vegetation and glimpses of elusive natives seems endless. Eventually, Marlow stops for wood and finds a sailor’s guide and a warning to proceed with caution. Echoing the warning, later, the boat is caught in an abyss of fog, hits a snag, and takes fire from hostile natives. In the crossfire, Marlow’s helmsman dies. The whistle of the steamship eventually drives the hostiles away. When the steamer arrives at the Inner Station, a talkative Russian trader dressed in motley, like a clown or a jester, greets Marlow. The Russian has scoured the jungle for nearly two years before he ended up at the Inner Station, where he doctored Kurtz through sickness. Soon after arriving, the crew finds out that Kurtz is insane, has taken an African suitor, and planned or inspired the attack against the steamship. Marlow decides that they must capture Kurtz and bring him back to civilization. The crew captures Kurtz, but he escapes. Marlow finds him hiding in the deep grass and safely returns him to the boat. On the boat, Kurtz becomes ill and dies. His last words are “The Horror! The Horror!” A year after his return, Marlow meets with Kurt’s fiancé and gives her papers that Kurtz intended for her. He lies to her and tells her that Kurtz’s last words were “your name.” While Conrad’s motif of darkness makes it overwhelmingly that the Belgian Congo is the “Heart of Darkness,” when the book ends, the unnamed narrator parallels the two settings of the novella by observing that at that moment the Thames, as it leads out to sea, “seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”

Point of View

       Conrad begins his novella not in Africa but on the Thames, where an unnamed narrator sits aboard a pleasure ship, the Nellie, with four other men. This nameless persona begins a sort of collective first person (first person plural) account of man’s relationship with the sea. He speaks generally of sea-going men and bonds forged on the water before moving on to discuss the Thames in particular as a waterway of historical import that has made men famous. “Knights all,” he calls them, “titled and untitled---the great knights-errant of the sea” (Conrad 8). This first person narration, though brief, becomes a harbinger of themes the reader will further view only after Marlow begins to describe his time in Africa. The “bond of the sea” discussed in the very opening of the novel will be seen again when Marlow begins to equate himself with his crew of African “cannibals” as he floats up the Congo River into the continent’s interior (Conrad 7). Further parallels include the Congo’s role as a carrier of “the dreams of men [like Kurtz and, to a certain extent, Marlow], the seed of commonwealths, the germ of empires,” all phrases used by the unidentified speaker to describe the role of the Thames throughout history (Conrad 8).

       As the unnamed man continues to speak, he eventually comes to describe Marlow, the only man on board the Nellie who still “‘followed the sea’” (Conrad 9). He observes that Marlow does not fall victim to the common seaman’s folly of characterizing a land after a brief walk on its shores. Instead, he found the “meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside,” suggesting a deeper understanding of the world and events than the average sailor and thereby establishing Marlow as a man of experience and education whose later narration can be trusted and judged insightful (Conrad 9). Following this brief descriptive interlude, Marlow begins to tell his own story and thoughts, thereby demoting the unnamed speaker to a listener and infrequent interjector. In literary terms, Marlow’s usurping of the narration makes the original speaker into a “frame narrator.”

       Marlow’s own story is told in the first person singular. It is simply the tale of his journey from Europe to Africa, and then into the interior to locate Kurtz. His observations are often aimed at the world around him (“The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there---there you could look at a thing monstrous and free”) (Conrad 37). However, he is also capable of self-reflection and awareness of his connection with even those savage cannibals who crew his riverboat. “What thrilled you,” he explained, “was just the thought of their humanity---like yours---the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar” (Conrad 37-38). From comments like these, the reader sees Marlow’s centrist position; he is not so arrogant as many of the Company’s men to think that Europeans like himself are without any savagery, but neither is he willing, like Kurtz, to forgo all signs of civilized life to quench his own ambitions and desires. This moderate stance establishes Marlow as a trustworthy and appropriate narrator.