Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 27 views

    Heart of Darkness Essay

    Uploaded by

    Animus Photographer
    This document analyzes Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and debates to what extent it is critical of colonialism in Africa. It argues that while some have accused Conrad of racism, the novel is actually ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. It explores Marlow's journey up the river and transformation from a European businessman to someone disillusioned with imperialism. The document examines how Conrad illustrates the destructive nature of imperialism through both the oppressed Africans and oppressors like Kurtz. Overall, it asserts that through ambiguity and an invitation for readers to imagine the horrors left unsaid, Heart of Darkness condemns rather than comforts about the evil of colonial exploitation in Africa.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Heart of Darkness Essay

    Uploaded by

    Animus Photographer
    27 views3 pages
    This document analyzes Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and debates to what extent it is critical of colonialism in Africa. It argues that while some have accused Conrad of racism, the novel is actually ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. It explores Marlow's journey up the river and transformation from a European businessman to someone disillusioned with imperialism. The document examines how Conrad illustrates the destructive nature of imperialism through both the oppressed Africans and oppressors like Kurtz. Overall, it asserts that through ambiguity and an invitation for readers to imagine the horrors left unsaid, Heart of Darkness condemns rather than comforts about the evil of colonial exploitation in Africa.

    Original Title

    Heart of Darkness essay

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document analyzes Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and debates to what extent it is critical of colonialism in Africa. It argues that while some have accused Conrad of racism, the novel is actually ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. It explores Marlow's journey up the river and transformation from a European businessman to someone disillusioned with imperialism. The document examines how Conrad illustrates the destructive nature of imperialism through both the oppressed Africans and oppressors like Kurtz. Overall, it asserts that through ambiguity and an invitation for readers to imagine the horrors left unsaid, Heart of Darkness condemns rather than comforts about the evil of colonial exploitation in Africa.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    27 views3 pages

    Heart of Darkness Essay

    Uploaded by

    Animus Photographer
    This document analyzes Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and debates to what extent it is critical of colonialism in Africa. It argues that while some have accused Conrad of racism, the novel is actually ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways. It explores Marlow's journey up the river and transformation from a European businessman to someone disillusioned with imperialism. The document examines how Conrad illustrates the destructive nature of imperialism through both the oppressed Africans and oppressors like Kurtz. Overall, it asserts that through ambiguity and an invitation for readers to imagine the horrors left unsaid, Heart of Darkness condemns rather than comforts about the evil of colonial exploitation in Africa.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    INSPT – UTN

    Martín Velardez
    Literature – 3.691

    To What Extent is “Heart of Darkness” Critical of Colonialism in


    Africa?

    Heart of Darkness was first published in 1899 and was at once recognized as an
    important piece of work. The harsh criticism of the free Congo state was noticed, but that the
    novel should criticise imperialism in general was not obvious. Among the most famous
    responses to the novel is the African writer Chinua Achebe who calls Conrad a racist. At the
    time the novel was written, racism as we know it today did not exist. The superiority of the
    white man was not yet questioned. Frances B. Singh contributes to the discussion with a more
    balanced view in “The Colonialist Bias of Heart of Darkness” where she states that “a story
    that was meant to be a clear-cut attack on a vicious system [turns] into a partial apology for
    it” (Singh 280). This shows the ambiguity of the novel and that readers have interpreted
    Heart of Darkness in many different ways. This essay is aimed at arguing that Joseph Conrad
    wrote Heart of Darkness in order to reach his readers on a deeper level, and thus the novel is
    not propaganda but can be regarded as ambiguous.

    The novel deals with Marlow, who is hired by a trading company to sail up a river in
    Africa to rescue an agent by the name of Kurtz. In the beginning of the novel, Marlow sits
    with his friends on the deck of a yawl and tells the story about his experience. The members
    of his audience are not named but instead described by their present professions: the lawyer,
    the accountant and the director. This is done to illustrate what Marlow was up against, the
    institutions in society. Anyhow, these men were former seamen and they shared with Marlow
    the moral codes of life at sea and he hoped that they would both listen and understand. Thus,
    this situation illustrates the ambiguity that will emerge throughout the novel.

    When Marlow arrives in Africa he understands that the noble values so well formulated
    in Europe are only hypocrisy and the only reason for the Europeans being in Africa is to
    exploit the continent for their own benefit. Kurtz, on the other hand, had come out with the
    best intentions but was unprepared for what he encounters. He was neither a hypocrite nor
    had he the inner strength to sustain restraint towards suppressed urges unknown to him, when
    left alone in the wilderness. Marlow rescues him in the end of the story but Kurtz dies on their
    way back. In the end of the novel, Marlow visits Kurtz’s Intended to give her letters and
    personal papers. She has not met the man Kurtz had become but knew only the man he was
    before going out to Africa. Marlow, who hates lies, makes an exception and lies to her when
    she asks for Kurtz’s last words. Marlow says it was her name when, in fact, Kurtz uttered
    1
    INSPT – UTN
    Martín Velardez
    Literature – 3.691

    “The horror! The horror!” (HoD 91). This line shows that Conrad considered imperialism
    destructive not only for the people who are oppressed but also for the oppressors. Marlow
    feels ambiguous about what he experiences in Africa. In the following quotation one can
    identify a change of personality in these gentlemen, different from their European self: “To
    tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the
    back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe. Who paid the expenses of the noble
    enterprise I don’t know…” (HoD 37).

    At the end of the novel, Marlow comes back from Africa to Brussels, quite a different
    person. The following paragraph shows the transformation he has gone through and how he
    regards imperialism: “I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people
    hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous
    cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. […]
    Their bearing, […] was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of
    danger it is unable to comprehend.” (HoD 93)

    In “An Image of Africa”, China Achebe accuses Joseph Conrad of being “a


    thoroughgoing racist” (Achebe 257) and “a purveyor of comforting myths” (Achebe 253) but
    at the same time he admits, “Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation”
    (Achebe 262). These comments illustrate the ambiguity the reader may sense in Heart of
    Darkness. This ambiguity is based on contradictions such as that between “the merry dance of
    death and trade” (HoD 16) and “there was a vast amount of red – good to see at any time,
    because one knows that some real work is done there” (HoD 10). These statements are
    ambiguous to the reader as it is well documented what terrible crimes were committed in the
    colonies, no matter what country was governing the area. Achieving this knowledge is a part
    of Marlow’s inner journey and the readers are invited to join him on this journey.

    Considering the historical background, Heart of Darkness is anything but comforting.


    Throughout the novel, we sense an uneasiness, created by Conrad’s skilful narrative
    technique. He certainly gives the readers enough facts and ideas, yet he leaves readers with a
    feeling that he has left the most horrible parts to be imagined by them.

    2
    INSPT – UTN
    Martín Velardez
    Literature – 3.691

    References

    Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. 1899.

    Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. A Norton
    Critical Edition, Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness. 1963.

    Singh B, Frances. “The Colonialist Bias of Heart of Darkness”. A Norton Critical Edition,
    Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness. 1963.

    You might also like