Heart of Darkness Research Paper

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Conrad explores the vileness of imperialism in a cloak of goodwill with various approaches to the way in which Europeans and Africans are viewed in this novel.

Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad which has a strong autobiographical tone and discusses the dark side of imperialism with an underlying irony. Heart of Darkness was based on Conrad's journey to the Belgian Congo in 1890 where the Africans were being exploited by the rich and powerful; it rummages into complex themes of how darkness and evil are so closely intertwined with imperialism (Arslanoglu). However, we cannot consider this novel an autobiographical account; rather, it raises and discusses the issue of good and evil in mankind.

Along other various themes in the novel, the underlying and strong theme is that of colonialism. How humans can so mercilessly make other people their slaves just because they have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves (Conrad 10).

. The idea of the novella, Conrad told his publisher in I899, was the 'criminality of inefficiency and pure selfishness when tackling the civilizing work in Africa' (qtd. In Raskin 113). Where many critics have taken this novella to be generally portraying the dark side of human nature, Bertrand Russell analyzed Conrad's tale as 'a rather weak idealist ... driven mad by horror of the tropical forest and loneliness among savages' (qtd. In Raskin 114).

Seeing is believing and so people, who must have witnessed cruel sights at Congo, support Conrad's tale as being true and not any exaggerated form of a tale told by a downright depressed and pessimistic person.

Imperialism claims to work for uplifting people, but in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it turns out to show the plunder and bloodshed done by English operations in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century (Postcolonial Criticism of Heart of Darkness).

It portrays the wild nature of so called civilized people who go to civilize rogues and slum dogs. The meaning is that civilization is a delusion that allows the privileged people to rule upon the less privileged people and shape them in ways where they gain nothing of value and instead lose their original identity. They live under rulers, not realizing they are being exploited because they put all their trust in them.

Heart of Darkness, with its beautiful imagery and symbols, manifests how inanimate objects mould along the animate beings, punishing them for their vile conduct in ways humans cannot know. They take in all the human's enterprises and let them indulge in their way while secretly taking revenge upon them and mocking at them.

Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant, but more profound (Conrad 6).

In the Heart of Darkness, nature seems to take revenge upon the people who bear the torch of colonialism and also upon the people who have lit out their intellect and blindly follow whatever they have been dictated to. People are warned, harmed and frightened by nature for their impassivity and stoicism but, humans do not seem to understand the meaning whispered to them through inanimate beings.

Heart of Darkness was considered as an attack on the horrors inflicted in the Belgian Congo by King Leopold, whose primary interest was in capitalizing on the profitable ivory market in Central Africa. Imperialists want to overpower poor countries, especially the third world countries and the African countries. So, they try to use their tricks of deception just like Marlow tries to cheat the black man by one biscuit (Hojjat and Daronkolae).

Marlow's tale being narrated to the unknown listener in the novel has symbolic nature, which reveals the unthinkable darkness residing in the heart of a human which compels him to commit abominable and abhorrent acts of evil.

The narration of Marlow is orated with the darkness in the set which adds intensity to the narrative. The darkness of the night shows the darkness of the human within; inhuman lives in the hearts of many humans.

The greed of man for hoarding more and more lead him into the darkness. Just as in the dark, one cannot see the true nature of things, figure out what is in front and around one and cannot decide where to take a seat and where actually one should have been seated, greed brings a curtain of darkness over the rationale of the human mind. It obscures the loving side of human and vile wins in competition with virtue.

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"Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth!... The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires." (Conrad 7)

The character, Kurtz, is a representation of exertion of imperialism and believing its concepts to be justified. Furthermore, if we analyze the novel in Freud's concept of the human psyche, we will find that Marlow and Kurtz represent the different aspects of man's personality. Marlow reflects the "ego" (man's more rational side) while Kurtz represents the "id" (man's primitive force within). This difference explains why Marlow recoils at Kurtz barbaric behavior (Heart of Darkness).

The sub-theme of light to dark manifests how imperialism, behind the veil of goodness, has abducted and plundered the uncivilized race of the so-called humans. The characters of the Heart of Darkness are powerful, and they leave an impression on you. Specifically, the character of Kurtz seizes your mind forever; he has no sentiments and feels justified to exploit Africans in the worst possible manner while appearing to be benefitting them.

"We whites...must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings....By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded." (Conrad 41)

The delusion of colonialism leads white men to think they have the right to decide who is human, who is savage, who is civilized, who needs to be civilized, who can live, and who must die. They believe that they have the right to decide for other people, for another race, what they should be doing for they believe the torch of truth is in their hands.

The passivity of people gives the greedy mass to lead and rule them. They give their reins over to favored, more privileged people, not realizing they have been given mind, the rationale and the ability to think, choose, act and retaliate. They get more comfortable in leaving things as they are and they rest in their own bloodshed nestling in their foolishness and inability to stand up.

"Fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs. No doubt he was; but he had been a couple of years already out there engaged in the noble cause, you know, and he probably felt the need at last of asserting his self-respect in some way. Therefore, he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him thunderstruck…" (Conrad 13)

Societies of such inhabitants lose their identity and grace by not saving other's, by not speaking for another of his kind. They watch their own people die at the hands of outsiders, and they stand there in astonishment, not taking any charge of their own people.

"…Instead of going to the centre of a continent, I were about to set off for the centre of the earth…" (Conrad 18)

The narrator here explains how all his notions gradually crush down into a million pieces when he realizes where he is actually heading to; he is heading to the core of the earth, the hot lava, the hell inside the earth. This lava is like the burning desires for bigoted pursuits.

"I have seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but…these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devil, that swayed and drove men…" (Conrad 23)

The quotation above reveals the devil living inside the Europeans; it shows how greed can get a man to act in any merciless and unfair way he can. His greed covers the insight within, the wisdom within, and he gets consumed by gluttony so much, so he loses himself in the course of it.

Avarice molds a man into a devastating machine, which drives on people like bulldozers. They are made slaves through hunger and starvation. Their hunger cannot give them liberty to think of a higher purpose; where the sole pursuit becomes that of finding food to live just one another day, there you accept becoming a slave, there you cannot stand up for yourself, let alone others. Africans had accepted slavery.

They were dying slowly -- it was clear…nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation…he had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck -- Why? Where did he get it?...this bit of.....

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Heart of Darkness Essay (Example Completed in 2019)

[toc]   Joseph Conrads novella Heart of Darkness is a fictionalized account of real-life historical events that took place during the colonial era in Africa. The novel centers on the protagonist Charles Marlow, known throughout the book as Marlow. As Marlow travels deeper and deeper down the river on a mission for the Company, he becomes increasingly horrified and shocked by what he sees. Having witnessed first hand the insane cruelty of colonial oppression, Marlow completely reconsiders his own role in the world. Through Heart of Darkness, Conrad conveys anti-colonial sentiments, showing how racism and… Continue Reading...

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