HEART OF DARKNESS; A SYMBOLIC SEA QUEST
THIS ESSAY MAINLY DISCUSSES THE SYMBOLIC VALUE AND CONTENT OF CONRAD'S MAJOR NOVEL
[b]Heart of Darkness; a Symbolic Sea Quest?
By: Mahmood Azizi-Instructor of English Language and Literature at the Department of English, University of Mazandaran[/b]
A Short Introduction to the Life of Joseph Conrad
While Joseph Conrad's work is often included in
the canon of great English literary texts, he was not
a native speaker. He was born Joseph Teodor
Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, the son of minor
Polish nobility, in a part of Poland then under
Russian rule. After taking part in a failed nationalist
revolution, his father and mother were exiled to
Vologda, a small town in northeast Russia. The
hostile conditions soon affected Conrad's parents'
health, and they both died by the time Conrad was
eleven. He was placed in the care of his maternal
uncle, Thaddeus Bobrowski.
As a child, Conrad was fascinated by travel and
adventure. In one of his final essays, Geography
and Some Explorers, he describes his obsession
with maps and the "blank spaces," yet to be
explored. Conrad begged to be allowed to go to
sea, which his family considered a rejection of his
social and cultural background. At seventeen, he
joined the French merchant navy.
During twenty years at sea, Conrad visited much of
the world. He was a gun-runner, had a disastrous
love affair, and attempted suicide. His escapades
formed the basis of many of his subsequent novels.
He eventually transferred to the British merchant
navy and in 1886 became a British citizen.
Conrad traveled to the Belgian Congo in 1890. He
had already begun to write, and spent much of the
journey writing his first novel, Almayer's Folly.
Soon after the Congo journey, he decided to leave
the sea and concentrate on his writing. He died of
a heart attack in 1924.
Like Eliot, Joyce, and other modernist authors,
Conrad is nihilistic in that he disrupts the idea of
any final meaning or truth. Heart of Darkness,
written in 1899, seems to herald the pessimism of
the first years of the new century and appears to
prophesy the sense of emptiness, dislocation, and
desolation felt by the generation of writers who
survived the First World War.
"Heart of Darkness: a Symbolic Sea Quest"
The journey in Heart of Darkness traverses not only the capricious waters spanning our
physical world, but also the paradoxical ocean which exists in the heart of man and all of
mankind. Through Marlow's somewhat fanatical eyes we view the enigma that is humanity, and
the blurred line between light and dark. It is a voyage into the deepest recesses of the human
heart and mind, leading to epiphany, enlightenment, and finally spiraling downwards into the
crevices of a hell existing within each and every one of us. Although through Marlow Conrad
depicts a journey into the Congo, his use of symbolism and wordplay divulge that it is
something much more profound.
The Heart of Darkness as an entirety is one immense metaphor, whose numerous annexes can be
either convoluted or self-evident. Almost every action, object, and character in Conrad's book
has a deeper, more relevant meaning behind it, serving to bring the reader ever closer to the
conclusion that the voyage is indeed an inward one. The first major indication of this is the
posture of Marlow as he recounts his journey into the Congo. According to the narrator, "he had
the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower." This lotus
position is one typically used for meditation, which is in fact defined as a spiritual journey
promoted by a lucidity of thought. Successful meditation leads to a more discerning
understanding of human nature and allows one to contemplate the innermost workings of the
mind. Therefore Marlow's stance capitalizes on his true destination, insinuating from the very
first pages that his journey is actually within himself.
From the start of Marlow's tale there are a myriad of symbols relating to the unchartered places
of the subconscious, and the journey intended to discover them. For instance, Marlow is lead to
a room by two silent women spinning black wool (The women represent the Fates of Greek
mythology, who spin a skein of wool which symbolizes a person's life. The fact that these
women's thread is black creates an ominous sense of foreboding.). There his attention is drawn
to a map and he finds himself enthralled by a large river coursing through the heart of Africa.
He notices that the river resembled a snake, and that it was "fascinating." For some odd reason,
this long, sinuous river tempted him, despite its reptilian connotations, which already alerts the
reader to danger ahead. The river is akin to the serpent in the biblical story of Adam and Eve,
offering the unwitting pair a forbidden fruit - wisdom, and a dark knowledge of oneself.
Also, throughout the journey, there are repeated references to both life and death. Uncannily,
these two are always intertwined. For example, there is a theme of bones which is constantly
recurring in Marlow's story. The Swede mentions a man who died, and whose skeleton was left
sprawled on the ground until the grasses began to grow up through his ribcage. The grass
represents life, and of course, the skeleton represents death. These two are woven together.
Also, there is Kurtz's obsession with ivory (dental bone), and according to Marlow he has the
appearance of the object of his fixation. From Marlow's description, Kurtz bears a skeletal
resemblance even when he is alive. Conrad's frequent symbolic combinations of life and death
is probably one of his numerous parallels to light and dark, echoing the fact that the two must
exist stimultaneously - there cannot be without the other.
Conrad's book is based on the presence of light and dark within everyone, and in Marlow's
journey the question is often posed of which is predominant. There are times when darkness
usurps the light, others when it is the opposite. However, the darkness (evil) usually tends to
prevail. Conrad is implying that a sense of evil resides in the core of every human, and
therefore reigns at the centre of humanity, however veiled by morals, civilization and
refinement. This is one of the main facts Marlow ascertains on his journey, for he sees darkness
everywhere, even when there is light.
Just as the line between light and dark is indistinct, the barrier segregating civilization from
savagery is equally obscure. In Africa, Marlow repeatedly encounters natives, and his crew is
comprised of twenty cannibals. As they progress deeper into the heart of the forest, we can take
note that black people are dehumanized. They are perpetually referred to in animalistic terms,
and are treated as such. However, it is these "savages" who survive and thrive in the heart of
darkness, and whose ways eventually engulf Kurtz. There is also the indication here that
technology, civilization, and refinement have been rendered useless. For instance, Marlow
encounters a graveyard of "dead" machinery, rusted over and obsolete. Also, his vessel sinks to
the bottom of the river, forcing him to remain at one of the stations for a long period of time.
Every character thought to be at the pinnacle of cultivation and etiquette either dies or becomes
corrupted by his surroundings (Kurtz, Fresleven). It is apparent that civilization is utterly futile
in such surroundings.
Kurtz serves as a prime example of a civilized gentleman who capitulates to his barbaric side
due to his environment. Regardless of the respect and admiration showered upon him by his
peers, not to mention the jealousy, he was at heart a hollow man, consumed by his greed for
ivory. This is probably why he gave in so readily to his primitive instincts, partaking in the
horrendous rituals of the natives, and letting his dark essence become the hub of his actions.
Kurtz is also symbolic of the evil within our society, for people saw him as the "emissary of
science and progress." He represents the person found deep within the recesses of our
subconscious, the core of darkness ever-present beneath the gauzy layers of refinement and
civility. "One evening coming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little
tremulously, 'I am lying here in the dark waiting for death.' The light was within a foot of his
eyes." In this quote we can see that, symbolically, Kurtz is so overcome by darkness that he is
blind to light. This is also embodied in an oil painting done by Kurtz, depicting a blindfolded
woman surrounded by darkness but carrying a torch which casts a sinister light over her face.
The blindfolded woman can be taken as a common Western symbol of justice and liberty, things
that man has created to differentiate himself from the beasts and savages. The fact that the
woman is enshrouded in darkness with only insufficient torchlight to guide her says a lot about
the nature of our society.
The culmination of Marlow's journey leads into the heart of darkness, or in a more worldly
sense, Hell. Heart of Darkness fosters the allusion that hell is within us, that it is the evil
existing deep inside our souls. Marlow visits this place when he finally encounters Kurtz, and
his innocent morals are challenged. He views firsthand the inhumanity man is capable of, and
the journey begins to take on all the properties of a nightmare. When Kurtz himself is lying on
his deathbed, he sees into his own heart, looks his personal hell in full view, and utters things
which give Marlow a grim revelation as to what lies within that black abyss. Kurtz's final
words, as he ends his voyage into his bitter core, are "The horror, the horror!" referring to what
he sees inside himself.
The journey Marlow undertakes is seemingly in our own world, something which we reside in
yet know so little about. We delude ourselves into believing that we can tame and subdue it,
and that it will readily succumb and be molded to our good intentions. However, just as trying
to harness the dark and primal nature within ourselves is impossible, this is an equally
unattainable fantasy. Conrad's world is an embodiment of humanity, its ocean is its heart, and
its impenetrable forest is its mind. Through Marlow's epiphany it is revealed that at the mouth
of every river, at the core of every grove, subsists a perpetual darkness encased in light.
Below is a list of the most noteworthy symbols found throughout Heart of Darkness, as well as their meanings and implications in the novel.
? Congo River - Marlow's journey on the Congo
River can be said to represent a journey into
one's inner spirit. As Marlow progresses further up
the river in his search for Kurtz, he begins to
learn more and more about himself. He comes to
realize that he probably has more in common with
the natives than the smug Europeans who have
come to civilize them. At the end of his journey,
Marlow learns that everyone has a dark side to
them, but that some people can conceal it better
than others.
? ivory - The ivory symbolizes greed and the
destructive nature of man. The managers and
agents of the Company are so obsessed with
obtaining ivory that they forget about their
morals and so-called civilized ways.
? white worsted - Marlow discovers the white
worsted wrapped around a negro's neck at the
Outer Station. The fabric can be said to represent
the attempt of the Europeans to colonize the
natives, and the strangling effect it has on them.
? Kurtz's painting - The painting at the Central
Station is perhaps the most extensive symbol in
the novel. The painting is of a blindfolded woman
carrying a lighted torch, which distorts her face.
The woman likely symbolizes the Europeans who
have come to civilize the natives. The torch she
carries represents the European customs and
values that they try to force upon the native
Africans. The woman is blindfolded because the
Europeans cannot "see" the negative effects that
their customs have on the natives. Her face has
become distorted because, to the natives, the
European customs seem rather repulsive.
? Eldorado Exploring Expedition - This group is
symbolic of the Whites' search for something that
cannot be attained. Eldorado is historically known
as a city of gold that never actually existed.
However, the prosperity that could possibly be
gained was so overwhelming for this group that
they felt compelled to risk their lives for it.
? candle on the steamship - Marlow brings a
candle into Kurtz's quarters as Kurtz is dying on
the ship. The candle is symbolic of Kurtz's losing
struggle for life. When Kurtz finally submits to
death, Marlow blows out the candle.
? General Manager - The manager symbolizes all
the immorality of European colonization. It is no
coincidence that he ran the most disorganized
and deplorable station in the region. The manager
led his station not through intelligence and
acumen, but rather, through his ability to stay
healthy and invoke uneasiness. He was not
interested in actually colonizing the region. His
only concern was to attain as much ivory as
possible.
? Kurtz - Kurtz represents man's dark side and
what can happen when it envelops you
completely. Kurtz's prolonged exposure to the
untamed regions of the Congo has removed all
his ties to civilization. He no longer feels
satisfied with just being a mere mortal, so
instead transforms himself into an omnipotent
being. Kurtz's descent into madness is firmly
established with his disturbing final words, "The
horror! The horror!"
Joseph Conrad, the Art of Writing In Prose
Joseph Conrad, born Dec. 3 1857 Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, is an English novelist and short-story writer
of Polish descent. His works are admired for the richness of his prose and the insightful depiction of human
character in extraordinary situations. The basis of many of the characters, locations and events depicted in his
novels stem from his own experience. Although most of his works are considered fiction, they have an underlying,
autobiographical nature. This autobiographical nature of his work provides his characters, locations and events
with a degree of accuracy that imparts additional reality to the stories. And with his masterful use of the English
language, he is thus able to reflect his own life in the power of his prose.
Conrad is renowned for his powerful, and often romanticized depiction of a life at sea. It is a life with which he is
very familiar. His life at sea began in 1875 firs as a passenger, then as an apprentice on a French merchant ship.
A subsequent voyage as a steward on the Saint-Antoine to the West Indies, along the coast of Venezuela provided
the setting for Nostromo (1904). The first mate aboard the Saint-Antoine, Dominic Cervoni, is the model for the
hero of the novel.
1878 saw Conrad arrive in England for the first time, speaking only a few words in English. After passing
examinations for second mate, he joined the Palestine on a voyage to Bangkok. Repairs caused by a storm and a
collision with a boat in the North Sea interrupted the voyage. After these delays, the vessel attempted to reach its
destination once more, making it as far as the coast of Indonesia before catching fire and sinking.
The events of this voyage are depicted in Youth (1898). Conrad changed the Palestine to Judea, but kept the
original names of the captain and the first mate. The voyage took Conrad to the Far East for the first time. This
setting provided him with material for later works, which in turn gave Conrad a reputation for portraying exotic
places.
In 1884 Conrad sailed on the Narcissus from Bombay to Dunkirk. The voyage provided the material for The Nigger
of Narcissus (1897). As mate on the Highland Forrest bound for the Far East again, Conrad's capitain was John
McWhirr. Capitain McWhirr was later depicted as the central, heroic character of the same name in Typhoon
(1901).
During the voyage on the Highland Forrest, Conrad was injured by a falling spar. This incident was later recalled in
Lord Jim (1900). Following his recovery in Singapore, he signed on as first mate aboard the Vidar, a steam ship
trading amongst the native settlements of Malaysia. The interior river journeys on the Vidar formed the basis of The
End Of The Tether (1902). This setting was also used for his first novels; Almayer's Folly (1895), An Outcast Of The
Islands (1896) and Lord Jim.
Conrad unexpectedly obtained his first command in 1888 of the baroque Otago, sailing from Bangkok to Port
Adelaide, after the previous captain died at sea. The events surrounding his first command appointment and the
subsequent voyage are closely recalled in The Shadow Line (1916) and Falk (1903).
Pursuing his fascination with the African Continent, Conrad signed on as second in command, then in command of
the S.S. Roi de Belges, a steam boat on the Congo in 1890. The impressions of this and subsequent trips on the
Congo form the basis of Heart Of Darkness (1902). This is one of Conrad's best known works owing to Francis
Ford Coppola's Aplocaplypse Now, which closely follows the novel's original plot and characters, in a different time
setting.
Conrad's career and life on the sea ended in 1894. He settled in the southeast corner of England and commenced
his literary career.
The Recurring Symbols of Light and Darkness
Throughout his narrative in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow characterizes
events, ideas, and locations that he encounters in terms of light or darkness. Embedded in
Marlow's parlance is an ongoing metaphor equating light with knowledge and civility and
darkness with mystery and savagery. When he begins his narrative, Marlow equates light and,
therefore, civility, with reality, believing it to be a tangible expression of man's natural state.
Similarly, Marlow uses darkness to depict savagery as a vice having absconded with nature.
But as he proceeds deeper into the heart of the African jungle and begins to understand
savagery as a primitive form of civilization and, therefore, a reflection on his own reality, the
metaphor shifts, until the narrator raises his head at the end of the novel to discover that the
Thames seemed to 'lead into the heart of an immense darkness.'' The alteration of the light-dark
metaphor corresponds with Marlow's cognizance that the only 'reality', 'truth', or 'light' about
civilization is that it is, regardless of appearances, unreal, absurd, and shrouded in 'darkness'.
Marlow uses the contrast between darkness and light to underscore the schism between the
seemingly disparate realms of civility and savagery, repeatedly associating light with
knowledge and truth; darkness with mystery and deceptive evil. When Marlow realizes that his
aunt's acquaintances had misrepresented him to the Chief of the Inner Station, Marlow states,
'Light dawned upon me', as if to explicitly associate light with knowledge or cognizance. It is
significant then, that Marlow later associates light with civilization. He describes the
knights-errant who went out from the Thames to conquer the vast reaches of the world as having
brought light into the darkness, flanked with figurative torches alongside their swords, 'bearers
of a spark from the sacred fire." That Marlow directly correlates knowledge and light, and light
and civilization, necessarily implies that Marlow seeks to correlate knowledge and
civilization. In a word, Marlow's delineation of the British imperialists implies that he
understands civilization to be logical and rational, while he understands primitive social
organizations to be backward and crude.
As Marlow proceeds deeper into the heart of the African jungle and begins to understand
savagery as a primitive form of civilization and, therefore, a reflection on his own reality, the
light-dark metaphor shifts. For example, when Marlow goes wandering in the jungle, he has
contrasting experiences in the sunshine and in the shade that are ironic in light of the established
metaphor. Contemplating the colonialists in the jungle, he remarks:
'I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire;
but, by all the stars! These were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove
men - men, I tell you. But as I stood on the hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding
sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending,
weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I
was only to find out several months later.'
That the 'blazing sunlight' would proffer to Marlow the realization that the civilized colonialists
were little more than 'flabby, pretending? devils' is ironic. In keeping with the established
metaphor, it would be logical for him to glimpse the intelligence and inherent goodness of the
colonialists in the sunlight. The pun on the metaphor continues when Marlow departs the
sunshine for the shade and is aloud to partake of the natives in their 'natural' habitat: the
darkness. We would expect to see the natives in all their wanton savagery, but instead the
darkness is 'gloomy' and filled with a 'mournful stillness' . As Marlow describes, 'Black shapes
crouched, lay, sat between trees, leaning against trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out,
half effaced with dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.' Note that
Marlow describes the emaciated natives as being 'half effaced with dim light'. He is just
beginning to see the realities of civilization and progress, and the reality that the natives are not
'the enemy' or madly insane, but are sick, starving, dying, helpless, and weak; the partiality and
dimness of the light reflects his half-awareness. As if to ensure the reader's cognizance of the
pun, fate would have it that as Marlow departs for the station from the shade, he runs into one of
the colonialists: 'I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers,
a clear silk necktie, and varnished boots.' The contrast between the starving, deprived,
wretched natives and this overfed, overdressed man parodies the man, while his dress ('white',
'snowy', 'light', 'clear', 'varnished') again makes a pun of Marlow's understanding of light (the
man's tie also stands in august contrast to the absurd white worsted the black man had wrapped
around his neck in the shade ). These pun provides a context for Marlow's use of the metaphor
later to critique the colonialists treatment of the savages: noticing a painting of Lady Justice in
the manager's station, Marlow observes: 'The background was somber, almost black. The
movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister.'
With this, the metaphor has come full circle, and Marlow's understanding of civilization has
been fundamentally altered.
We've now established that Marlow's perception of reality in regards to civilization changes:
what he initially thinks of as rational and good, he concludes is irrational and evil. It remains to
be shown that Marlow believes Kurtz to have been anything short of fundamentally evil. When
Marlow first learns of Kurtz's activities in the jungle, he attributes Kurtz's moral downfall to his
disconnect with civilization and reality, blaming the 'dark', 'mysterious' forces of the jungle for
Kurtz's actions: '?never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this
blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so
pitiless to human weakness.' Marlow gradually becomes aware that perhaps Kurtz's actions
were quite natural, however, and reflect not a madman's sick abortion of human nature, but
rather reflect human nature itself. Take, for example, Marlow's reaction to Kurtz's cannibalistic
brutality: '?I seemed at one bound to have been transported into some lightless region of subtle
horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that has a
right to exist - obviously - in the sunshine.' Savagery itself is not shocking to Marlow, but he is
unable to reconcile its uninhibited, unapologetic treatment (manifested here by its existence in
the light of day). This implies that Marlow understands savagery as something that exists in
society, just not in a tangible, explicit form. Kurtz's government, less removed from its original
formulation, is therefore a truer reflection on 'reality' than the trappings of civilization. When
the harlequin warns Marlow not to judge Kurtz's brutality because Marlow can't understand the
'conditions' that led Kurtz to impale heads upon stakes outside his house, Marlow reflects: 'I
shocked him excessively by laughing. Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear?
There had been enemies, criminals, workers - and these were rebels.' But the harlequin's
justification for Kurtz's actions is not unlike the justification individuals from all walks of life
posit to justify the brutality of the sovereigns under which they are socialized. To further the
irony, Marlow stops just short of mocking the savages in their militaristic procession: 'Some of
the pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms - two shot-guns, a heavy rifle, and a light
revolver-carbine - the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter.' And yet such displays are common in
civil societies: carrying arms in the name of gods: flags, leaders; against individuals who might
otherwise be brothers, but who happen to live on the wrong side of a collectively imagined
border or believe in a different deity at the head of their collectively understood religion. In
these ways, the natives
become a reflection of how absurdly we give up our bodies and our thoughts to the
Durkheimian group, and shed light on the reality that is human nature.
This realization terrifies Marlow, as indicated by his pronouncement: "I don't want to know
anything of the ceremonies used when approaching Mr. Kurtz,...Curious, this feeling came over
me that such details would be more intolerable than those heads drying on the stakes under Mr.
Kurtz's windows." Marlow is forced to conclude, however, that any partition between the
reality of civilization and the seeming unreality of primitive savagery is diaphanous at best.
As Marlow comes to understand Kurtz's 'society' as a reflection on all civilizations, and Kurtz's
actions as a reflection of the evil that resides in the hearts of all men, he must necessarily
conclude that all civilizations are, in some small way, shrouded in darkness. His ultimate
conclusion about societies is that they are a form of escapism from the darkness of human
nature,: 'When you have to attend to [menial tasks], to the mere incidents of the surface, the
reality - the reality, I tell you - fades. The inner truth is hidden - luckily, luckily. But I feel it all
the same [?]" That the surface realities of social man's life are little but absurd trappings of
civilization is evidenced by the socialization of the savages to the colonialist 'white'
government. Marlow describes and parodies three savages who have, in Rousseau's tradition,
accepted the yoke of the colonialist on the condition that they have power enough to enslave
their fellow Africans. The most explicit instance of this mocking comes from his description of
one of his shipmates: 'He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler?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.' Marlow's parody of this man parallels his ironical lauding of civilization,
describing a large, seemingly meaningless hole in the slope of a hill as perhaps being
'?connected with the philanthropic desire of giving criminals something to do.' Civilization,
then, can be said to be a form of iridescent escapism that protects us from the reality buried
under its surface.
In the end, Marlow is fatalistic about his findings, gazing around London and realizing that
perhaps it is better that individuals should be filled with petty delusions than for Marlow to
preach to them like some deluded, living Thomas Marley. In the end, however, Marlow's
message is heard by his listeners, as the narrator raises his head at the end of the novel to
discover that the Thames seemed to 'lead into the heart of an immense darkness,'' thus
accepting, like Marlow, that the moral to be gained from Kurtz's experience is that the only
'reality', 'truth', or 'light' about civilization is that it is, regardless of appearances, unreal,
absurd, and shrouded in 'darkness'.
