A Choice of Nightmares

A Choice of Nightmares:
The nature of identity in Joseph Conrad?s ?Heart of Darkness?
An essay by Jeremy Davies.

Joseph Conrad?s Heart of Darkness is a complex and magnificently subtle narrative that is able to challenge the reader on many levels. Its commentary on the fabric of existence, in particular on human identity ? ?our authority as selves? ? is startling in its power and darkness. That to truly grasp the fullness of ourselves, our identity must be open to all forms of alteration, no matter how this deviates from our social conditioning. Anything less is to live a lie.

The illusion of guaranteed identity ? the presumption that what makes us individuals is fixed and complete with maturation ? has been dispelled by many social and psychological commentators.

?instead of thinking of identity as an already accomplished feat, which the new cultural practices represent, we should think, instead, of identity as a ?production,? which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside representation.

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow introduces his tale with a halfhearted effort to cling to a guaranteed identity. "?here is no initiation into such mysteries" he tells his cremates.

But the parallel he draws between London, which was once in darkness (implying that now it is in the light), and his monologue on Roman experience with the indigenous Celts, contrasting civilization with barbarity, is at odds with this. That identity progresses from the wild to the civilized as a natural process.

However, ?The fascination of the abomination? is also introduced here, and this is crucial in understanding Marlow?s viewpoint, which is the viewpoint that taints most of the narrative. He has an understanding, of the ?fascination? from the experiences that he is about to reveal. But yet, he takes solace in restraint, and tells the crew:

What saves us is efficiency ? the devotion to efficiency.

In childhood our identity begins its growth and Marlow makes reference to a childhood experience. The fascination with the ?blank spaces? on the map and the urge to travel there as well as the realisation, upon reaching adulthood, that the spaces are no longer blank but covered in names and in darkness, all point toward Marlow?s personal journey of self. Upon birth, our identities are one giant blank map, ready for exploration and exploitation, bus as the names are filled in and rivers mapped , light is thrown over the exterior of our personality. We consider ourselves to be formed and have a sense of self that can remain unchallenged. But yet, the centre, the heart, is still in darkness.

It is a physical and psychological journey that Marlow embarks upon, after the snake charms him , in a similar way to the biblical ?snake? that offers knowledge. The dissatisfactio he expresses with his civilized life and his charmed state at the idea of journeying into the darkness points toward a classic identity crisis ? he is assaulted by ?? a feeling of its (his identity) inadequacy or unsatisfying quality,? generating ?initial confusion followed by attempts to explore new identities.? Marlow identifies more closely with natives in a canoe, whom he compares to the surf that he has already likened to a brother, while his fellow civilized shipmates are men with whom he has ?no point of contact.?

Social circumstances, the conditions the individual becomes attached to, are equally important as psychological factors in identity formation, creating a psychosocial hybrid nature. This has importance in Heart of Darkness through Conrad?s contrast of civilized and barbarian social models, and the effect one has upon the other. In a primitive identity society man lived in a society?

?in which his human needs and human gratification ? his identity ? were his major concern.

While?

?in civilized survival societies most people have no identity and live in constant frustration because their need for involvement is not fulfilled.

It is this contrast of civilization with the primitive which Conrad uses as his backdrop for exploring the human self. The light of reason against the darkness of the primal, good versus evil, though evil is bound up with truth and thus , we can assume, that the light is a lie.

The conditions that surround the individual have a direct effect on the personal and even perceived sense of identity. Marlow?s introductory tale of Fresleven and the circumstances of his death set this scene. The gentle civilized Dan who succumbs, after two years in the ?wilds?, to a mad rampage over a minor dispute, creates the opening that Marlow needs to explore his own heart of darkness.

Marlow is constantly warned about the dangers of his journey. Though Fresleven represents the mortal dangers, it is the doctor who says:

The changes take place inside, you know.

and

Interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals.

Already the reader is prepared for madness, for lunacy, and it is the country ? the conditions ? that are blamed. The Swede that has hung himself for no apparent reason and it is either the sun or the country that is to blame.

Certainly, the most involved case study for identity shift is Kurtz, the remarkable prodigy of the Company. In the condition of civilization we are led to believe that he had every opportunity available to him. He had talent and flair and eloquence and, maybe most importantly, friends in high places: ?A first class agent.? He came to the wilderness full of grand ideas and moral purposes, despite the commercial necessity of ivory collection, but the new conditions changed him. He found within himself a new identity that he did not allow to be restrained. Instead he embraced the darkness and lived in truth.

Marlow begins to feel the touch of Darkness as early as his trip overland to Central Station. He feels he is ?becoming scientifically interesting?, referring to the doctor?s earlier comments. The wilderness ? the darkness ? grows on him as he nears the abyss, the journey already undertaken by Kurtz into the realm of personal acceptance.

Alterations and his resistance to alteration of identity become increasingly important in the narrative. To begin with, the first glimpse Marlow has of the natives identifies them with such things as ?bone, muscle, a wild vitality, and intense energy of movement?. These are the natives of the darkness, where as those that have come into the light are

Nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom

These are the natives on the fringe, not those in the protected heart. These are the ones most vulnerable. But still, the ?nigger who caused the fire? is able to return back to the ?bosom? of the ?wilderness? upon his maltreatment. He is able to resume his identity and continue its production within a different psychosocial environment.

The pilgrims at Central Station, the white men with their slaves, realise that they walk in the valley of the shadow of death. Their staves comfort them. But Marlow?s solace is of a different ilk. He doesn?t ?go ashore for a howl and a dance? despite his recognition of something inherently truthful in the darkness. He wraps himself up in work, in efficiency ? the backbone of restraint ? yet; he is not a fool, so remains in danger.

Kurtz?s fall and his shift in self is complex, and must be viewed myopically through Marlow (Kurtz may almost be read as an extension of Marlow ? a phantasm of his own ego). We are led to believe that Kurtz has assumed the role of native chief, a simple switch of identity from civilized to barbaric, but his reaction to the threat of becoming ?truly lost? reveals more. To Marlow, this has a moral meaning, but not to Kurtz. He retains his original motivations ?

My Intended, my station, my career, my ideas.

- even on his death bed.

This is at odds with Marlow?s interpretation. When Kurtz exclaims ?the horror!? his is not penitent of moral decay, he is coming to an understanding that his identity ? his self, his life ? is at an end and all of the accomplishments that he wished to achieve amount to nothing.

To understand this we can review the critical moment of decision, for Kurtz and perhaps Marlow as well. When Kurtz has become an animal ? crawling on all fours ? and Marlow takes an almost bestial delight in tracking him down like a predator, the distinction is made between a crises of identity and mental illness. This is not insanity, as has been implied throughout the entire text. This is the danger of darkness, the pull and the allure of having

No restrain, no faith, and no fear

To ?kick loose of the earth.? And Marlow himself is forced to look into this. To see that Kurtz, after peeling back the bark of civilization, amidst all the perceived negativism, he has truly lived.
Marlow?s identity is altered subtly but irrevocably. He now no longer belongs to ?a world of straightforward facts? and has been enlightened by the experience of darkness, though he is personally unsure of exactly how.

In the end, when Marlow must truly make his choice of nightmares between the Darkness of truth and the Lightness of lies, he chooses lies. To be faithful to the memory of a grounded Kurtz, the Kurtz he wants to believe died a repentant soul. He fabricates Kurtz?s last words to his Intended maybe not for her benefit and certainly not for Kurtz?s benefit, but for his own. The darkness must be kept from the light in order for civilization to proceed and to protect those that depend on the light and to comfort those that have seen the darkness and nervously choose the light.

In coming to an understanding of Heart of Darkness regarding identity, we can see that the commentary is itself shrouded in darkness. Marlow?s realisation that we, those in the light, that comfort ourselves with such things as principles and acquisitions and pretty rags in an attempt to cling to a guaranteed identity, are living a lie. That to truly become whole, to fill the void that civilization has hollowed out inside us, we must at the very least peer into the Darkness, as Marlow did, and make our choice of nightmares.

?We live, as we dream ? alone?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Breakwell, Glynis M. (Ed.), Threatened Identities, John Wiley & sons, New York, 1983.

Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Penguin, London, 1995

Glasser Inc., William, The Identity Society, Harper & Row, New York, 1972, p.16.

Glassman, Peter J., Language and Being: Joseph Conrad and the Literature of

Personality, Columbia University Press, New York, 1976.

Hall, S., Identity, Community, Cultural Difference, Cultural Identity and Diaspora, Ed. J

Rutherford, Lawrence Wishart, 1990.

The Holy Bible, Authorised King James Version, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter

Day Saints, Utah, 1979.

Stevens, Richard, Integration and the Concept of Self, The Open University Press,

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Watt, Ian, Conrad in the Nineteenth Century, Chatto & Windus, London, 1980.