University of Ouargla No d'ordre:

No de série:
Faculty of Literatures and Human Sciences

Departement of English

Thesis presented for obtaining the diploma of:

MAGISTER
SPECIALITY: ENGLISH

OPTION: COMPARATIVE STYLISTICS

PREPARED BY: Mme. MEGA AFAF

Theme:

Nature In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness:

A Comparative Study

Discussed publically on: 31/ 01/ 2007

In front of the following members of the jury:

- Dr. Lakhdar Barka Sidi Mohamed MC. University of Oran President

- Dr. Bedjaoui F MC. University of Sidi Belabès Examiner

- Pr. Miliani Mohamed PR. University of Oran Superviser

 Dedication

I would like to dedicate this modest work to the memory of my father

‘ Ahmed Rachik’ may Allah have mercy upon his soul.

A special dedication to the tender heart, to the candle of my life, to my

dearest mother ‘ Habita Mebarka’.

A particular dedication to all my lovely sisters and brothers: Ahlem,

Houda, Mohamed, Karima, Nabil, Haidar and Hibatou Allah.

In addition, to my small family; my husband Ibrahim and my son

Abdou Allah.

Finally, as a sign of gratitude, to all the people who loved and helped
me.

i
 Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge all the bearers of the letter of knowledge at

the head of them my supervisor Professor Miliani Mohamed, I would like to
thank him very much for his efforts and his genuine guidance.

In addition, I never forget to thank my honourable teachers DR.

Lakhdar Barka Sidi Mohamed who kept enriching us with his enormous
knowledge, and Professor Bouhadiba Farouk who did his best to help us
understand his lessons adequately.

I sincerely thank the University of Ouargla, and the department of

Foreign Languages especially Mm. Doghmane for her efforts to provide
the appropriate conditions for both teachers and students.

ii
 Summary

In this research we tried to define both literary criticism and linguistic

criticism and clarify their scopes of interest.
We depicted Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in which the theme of
nature is analysed from the two points of view, i.e, the literary interpretation
and the linguistic function of simile through which nature is expressed.
After comparing between the results obtained from the two analyses we
come up with the relationship which holds between linguistic and literary
criticism.

Some keywords:
Literary criticism, linguistic criticism, stylistics, nature, simile, imagery,
isolation, darkness.

iii
 Résumé

Cette recherche traite la relation de deux courants d’analyses littéraire :

la critique littéraire et la critique linguistique.

La critique linguistique en tant que nouveau courant sur la scène littéraire

suscite notre recherche sur son rôle sur la scène littéraire et sa relation avec
la critique littéraire :
Est ce une littéraire ou bien une simple complémentarité ?.

Pour une meilleur compréhension nous proposons cette analyse du thème

« Nature » dans l’œuvre de Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness.

Dans ce cas d’étude :

- La critique littéraire démontre que l’auteur instrumentalise la

« Nature »pour construire son œuvre, là ou à travers la « Nature » on
peut distinguer et comprendre la diversité et la variété des
principales personnalité.

- De son côté, la critique linguistique s’intéresse pluis sur la langue et

son instrumentalisation par l’auteur pour s’exprimer et transmettre
des messages ; là ou on a trouvé que l’utilisation répétée de ‘simili’
dans la description de la « Nature » crée et suscite différentes images
mentales chez le lecteur et aide à faire découvrir des sujets
principaux dans l’édification de l’œuvre .

Ainsi, la recherche valorise la complémentarité entre la critique

littéraire et la critique linguistique.
Mots clés: la critique littéraire, la critique linguistique, stylistique, nature,
simili, isolation, images.

iv
 ‫الملخص‬
‫تن اول ھ ذا البح ث التعري ف بتي ارين م ن تي ارات التحلي ل األدب ي ؛‬
‫أحدھما قديم وھو النقد األدبي ‪ ،‬والثاني حديث وھو النقد اللساني ‪.‬‬
‫إن ظھور النقد اللساني جعلنا نتساءل عن دوره في الس احة األدبي ة ‪،‬‬
‫ومدى عالقته بالنقد األدبي ‪ :‬ھل ھو بديل له أو مجرد مكمل ؟ ‪.‬‬
‫من أجل فھم ھذه العالقة قمنا بدراسة موض وع الطبيع ة ف ي رواي ة ‪:‬‬
‫» قلب السواد « للكاتب ‪ » :‬جوزي ف ك ونراد « ؛ فوج دنا النق د األدب ي‬
‫يُظھ ر أن اس تعمال الكات ب للطبيع ة ك ان م ن أج ل بن اء روايت ه وتكمل ة‬
‫لألح داث فيھ ا ؛ مم ا يس اعد عل ى فھ م شخص ية البطل ين » م ارلو ‪،‬‬
‫وكورتز « ‪ ،‬وكذا التغيرات التي طرأت عليھما ‪.‬‬
‫أم ا النق د اللس اني فق د ك ان تركي زه عل ى اللغ ة ‪ ،‬وكي ف أن الكات ب‬
‫وظفھا ألجل إيصال معانيه ؛ فوجدنا أن االستعمال المتكرر للتش بيه ف ي‬
‫وصف الطبيعة خلق صورا متع ددة ومختلف ة ف ي ذھ ن الق ارئ ‪ ،‬كش فت‬
‫عن مواضيع مھمة كانت أساسية في بناء الرواية ‪ ،‬والتي منھا ‪ :‬صورة‬
‫السواد الت ي تعك س وج ود الش ر داخ ل قل ب اإلنس ان ‪ ،‬وص ورة الوح دة‬
‫والت ي ك ان لھ ا الث ر الكبي ر عل ى إظھ ار الش ر وترجمت ه إل ى س لوكات‬
‫مدمرة ‪ ،‬وصورة الق وة الت ي عكس ت ق وة الطبيع ة أم ام ض عف اإلنس ان‬
‫وأثرھا على سلوكاته ‪ ،‬إلى غير ذلك من الصور ‪.‬‬
‫وبالت الي خل ص البح ث إل ى ال دور المتكام ل ب ين النق د األدب ي والنق د‬
‫اللساني ‪.‬‬
‫الكلمات المفتاحية‬
‫النقد االدبي‪ -‬النقد اللساني‪ -‬االسلوبية‪ -‬الطبيعة‪ -‬التشبيه‪ -‬الصور‪ -‬العزلة‪ -‬السواد‬

‫‪Table of contents‬‬
‫‪Contents……………………………………………………….……….Page‬‬
‫‪Dedication…………………...………………………………………………i‬‬

‫‪v‬‬
Acknowledgement………………………………….………………………ii
Avant- propos………………………………………..…………………….iii
Table of contents…………………………………………………..………iv

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Topic ……………………………………………………02
Motivation…………………………………………………..03
Problematics…………………………………………….…..04
Research questions…………………………………...……..06
Hypotheses……………………………………….…………06
Methodology………………………………….…………….06

CHAPTER ONE The Theoretical Background

1.1. Introduction……………………………...……………..09
1.2.Literary criticism and linguistic criticism
1.2.1. Literary criticism………………………………….09
1.2.2. Linguistic criticism……………………...………..20
1.3. Halliday's theory of linguistic analysis……...…………26
1.4. Simile…………………………………………………28
1.5. Conclusion………………………………..……………38
Notes of chapter one………………………………………..40

CHAPTER TWO The role of nature in the narrative

2.1. Introduction……………………………..……………..44
2.2 . The role of nature……………………………...………44
2.2.1.Nature as a symbol………………………..……..49
2.2.2.The biographical approach and nature……..…….53
2.2.3. New Criticism and nature…………………….….55
2.2.4.Nature and Marlow……………………….………55
2.2.5.Nature and Kurtz………………………………...66
2.3. Conclusion…………………………………………..…77

CHAPTER THREE Simile and nature

3.1.Introduction…………………………………………..80

vi
 3.2. Simile as a linguistic feature………………………..80
3.3 . Simile and nature…………………………………....81
3.4. Conclusion………………………………………….100
Notes of chapter three…………………………………..101

GENERAL CONCLUSION……………………………………103

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………….110

Index of authors…………………………………………………116
Index of linguistic terms………………………………………...117
Index of literary terms…………………………………………..118

vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The appearance of modern linguistics in the twentieth century, has created a

new awareness towards language in general and literature in particular due to
its new theories and techniques. Stylistics, a branch of linguistics, uses
linguistic approaches and techniques for the analysis of texts.

The roots of modern stylistics can be uncovered in the works of Charles

Bally (1865-1947) and Leo Spitzer (1887-1960). As a discipline, stylistics
emerged thanks to Chomsky’s (1957) transformational-generative grammar.

Interest in linguistic approaches to literature has grown rapidly over the last
fifteen years. As for Bally (1905), literary texts are “particular examples of
language use”. Thus, In this field, many papers were written by a great
number of linguists such as: Chatman(1971), Chatman and Levin (1967),
Fowler (1966), Freeman(1970), Kchru and Stahlke(1972) among others. The
Prague School of linguistics with the stylistics of Neo-Firthian or the London
school of linguistics enriched this field of research with their new insights and
theories to language study. Crystal and Davy (1969) contributed with their
notion of ‘dimensions of situational constraints’, and Halliday (1976, 1985)
with his systemic functional model of language. Indeed, Halliday (1971)
established a landmark paper on William Golding’s The Inheritors, in which
he described and contrasted two languages used as narrative voices.

With its contribution to explanations of literary texts, modern linguistics

attracted the interest of many critics such as Roland Barthes or the
anthropologist Lévi-Strauss whom began to look at the constructs issued by De
Saussure, the Prague School and other linguists. For, before the appearance of
stylistics, literary criticism with its various approaches was the only means for
approaching literary texts which focused more on meaning than on the way
that meaning was conveyed.

Joseph Conrad’s short novel Heart of Darkness (henceforth HD), employs

the theme of nature among other themes. In fact nature has been dealt with by
many literary critics such as: Maes-Jelinek. H (1996), Albert. J. Guerard
(1958), Lionel Trilling (1965), James Guetti (1965) and K. K. Ruthven (1968)
among others.

In the present research, we are going to try to analyse the theme of nature
from both literary criticism and linguistic criticism.

Topic

Modernism is an international movement which pertains to all types

of creative arts such as poetry, fiction, drama, painting, music, architecture. It
spread in many parts in Europe and America. It started in England from early
the twentieth century and lasted to the end of the Second World War. In
literature, modernism made a revolution against the previous and established
ways of writing (eg: one narrative voice, close ended plots, no flashbacks or
anticipations…. ) which were prevailing during the nineteenth century. It
brought with it multiple narrators technique, stream of consciousness,
difference in the treatment of time, ending with no resolution, variety of
language styles in one text, psychological symbolism and the interest in the
inner side of characters as opposed to the physical,…etc. These new techniques
reflect the willingness of the writers to mirror the new changes in life due to
the destructive effects of the war on people. Joseph Conrad is among the most
striking literary figures like James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway,
William Faulkner, Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence, and many others who
represent “Modernism” .
 In HD, Conrad’s style has shown a frequent use of the linguistic or stylistic
category ‘simile’. This feature was used by the author when he refered to
people or nature the fact which makes one realize that it has a literary
significance.

Motivation

Many reasons are behind our choice of Conrad’s HD:

- First, the novel was written at the end of the 19.th.century, but it carries
some modernist traits. Conrad’s experiment in style and technique of writing
exerted a major influence on the development of the modern novel. For
example, a story within a story. Thus, this novel marks a turning point in
British literature from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century
modernist novel where all the previous conventions of writing were broken.
In addition, Conrad has influenced many writers.

- Second, the different themes attributed to this novel make it attractive and
worth studying. It might be open to a variety of themes: colonialist experience,
human greed for wealth and power, psychological matters among others.

-Third, the language in HD is full of some linguistic features like simile and
allusion which make it a good material to be used as a case study for applying
linguistic methods on it.

Problematics

Literature has shown to reflect many social, religious, cultural and economic
aspects in life. In parallel, many types of criticism have been developed to
interpret and evaluate works of art among them literary criticism.
To illustrate, Conrad’s HD, most of the literary critics have tried to interpret it
into different themes that are related to some aspects in man’s life. For
instance, it is said to be about colonialism, man’s self control or man’s ability
to choose between good and evil and the theme of nature. Indeed, nature takes
a considerable part in HD where the writer devotes many paragraphs
describing it. This led many critics to try to find out the implicit message
meant by the writer behind this theme. They discovered that it can have
various interpretations: it can be related to man’s weakness in front of his evil
instincts when put in isolation, or it can give some further insights into the
feelings and the personality of some characters.

However, with the appearance and development of new disciplines such as

linguistics and later stylistics, another method of analysis is added. It is
concerned with how messages are expressed through language. Moreover, it
works on unifying objectively the different interpretations attributed to one
text.

In this context, one is between two opposing views as far as approaching

literary texts is concerned. On the one hand, many linguists such as Halliday
(1985) and Short (1996) see in the analysis of the language of literary texts an
apportunity to enhance their understanding and unify the different
interpretations. Whereas on the other hand, there are opponents who see in the
detailed study of language in works of arts a way to destroy the gift of delight
and appreciation. For them, literature is regarded as aesthetics. They advocate
the statement of ‘art for art’s sake’. Thus, if we take language in HD, one
remarks the frequent occurence of similes used intensively when the writer
describes nature.
 Research Questions

By tradition, literary criticism appeals to intuitive awareness which the

reader may not share with the critic. Though much light has been put on
literary works, the absence of explicitness is still crucial. With the appearance
of linguistic criticism, many questions arise:

-Is literary criticism still reliable nowadays?.

-Does the linguistic analysis of simile provide an objective interpretation

and a better understanding for the theme of “nature”?.

Hypotheses

Each linguistic feature used frequently by the author cannot be dissociated

from its literary significance. Thus, the results obtained from literary criticism (
which provide us with the literary significance) may be complementary to the
linguistic analysis which means that literary criticism is still reliable.
Moreover, the linguistic analysis of similes may show how they function in the
text to embody the message of the writer, and therefore, the theme of nature
may be better understood objectively.

Methodology

On the one hand, we are going to gather information concerning the use of
nature in HD and organize it.

On the other hand, on the linguistic side, the research will be carried on
through descriptive quantitative study. Through the direct observation of the
data, which is here Conrad’s HD, we notice the frequent use of the linguistic
feature simile which will be considered our unit of analysis. It is going to be
counted and described according to Halliday’s approach in order to find out its
function in the narrative more precisely its use in describing nature.

Therefore, the research paper will be divided as follows:

Chapter one: It will be concerned with the theoretical background in which

there will be a brief definition for both literary criticism and linguistic
criticism, then there will be a short account of Halliday’s theory of linguistic
analysis ingeneral, and finally, a description of simile from a linguistic point of
view according to Halliday’s approach.

Chapter two: It will be devoted to the analysis of the role of the theme of
nature in the narrative applying some literary approaches.

Chapter three: We shall attempt to apply the linguistic theory about simile
mentioned in chapter one for the analysis of this linguistic feature as far as
nature is concerned in the literary work chosen in order to find out its function
in understanding the theme of nature as meant by the writer.

General Conclusion: A synthesis about the results obtained from both the
linguistic and literary views is then made.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1.Introduction

Literature has been of great interest to many philosophers, critics,

teachers, and later on, linguists. Its value persuades all of them to approach it
according to their norms and criteria. Thus, one may see the appearance of
many trends of analysis among them: literary criticism and linguistic criticism.

The objective of this chapter is to try to define both of these previous

schools of analyses in order to find out in what way they differ, and their
relationship to each other.

1.2. Literary and Linguistic criticism

1.2.1 literary criticism:

(1)
What is meant by literary criticism ? . Burris summarizes three
purposes of literary criticism:

- to help us resolve a difficulty in meaning.

- To help us choose the better of two conflicting readings.
- To enable us to form judgments about literature.

It is worth mentioning some important figures which represent literary

criticism at the head of them there was I. A. Richards ( 1893- 1979) with his
two famous books Principles of Literary Criticism ( 1924) and Practical
Criticism ( 1929) in which he tried to provide some methods for the literary
study. Other critics dealing with literary study appeared such as Robert Graves
and Laura Riding who both published A Survey of Modernist Poetry ( 1927)
in which they made a reading of Shakespeare’s sonnet ‘ The Expense of Spirit
in a Waste of Shame’. Moreover, the critic William Empson ( 1906- 1984)
made insights into the layers of possible interpretation in a poem in his book
Seven Types of Ambiguity ( 1930). In Culture and Environment ( 1933), F.
R. Leavis ( 1895- 1978) stated that the literary study is based on concrete
judgments and particular analyses.

The practice of criticism has given rise to numerous theories, methods

and schools which sometimes produced conflicting interpretations of
individual works.

Theories in general can be defined as sets of elaborate, ordered and

consistent categories which facilitate the systematic exploration and
explanation of phenomena in a given study area.

Therefore, many approaches fall under the heading of literary

criticism. All of them to some extent or another, have the text as the starting
point for study. The majority of them focus on further aspects such as: the
author’s world, his life, the historical background of the text, its relation to
other texts.

The following is a brief overview of some approaches within literary

criticism:

The historical approach

It sees the literary work as the reflection of an author’s life and time. To
try to understand the work and the writer’s intent, it is necessary to know about
the author and the political, economic and sociological context of his time.
This is because the work of art is viewed as an expression of the ideas and
world view of the author’s culture and era.

The intertextual approach

 An approach coined by Julia Kristeva in 1966 to denote the
interdependence of literary texts, the interdependence of any literary text with
all those that have gone before it. Kristeva is pointing not only to the way texts
echo each other but to the way that discourses or sign systems are transposed
into one another so that meanings in one kind of discourse are overlaid with
meanings from another kind of discourse. Thus the text under scrutiny will be
seen with a broader picture.

The moral philosophical approach

It believes that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and solve
philosophical issues. Thus, it recognizes that literature can affect readers
whether subtly or directly, as well as the message of a work- not just the
decorous vehicle for that message- is important.

The reader response approach

It is concerned with how the work is viewed by the audience. In this

approach, it is the reader who is an active maker of meaning. So the reader’s
response is relevant to the meaning of a literary work because the advocators
of this approach see that the reader is no longer a passive recipient of those
ideas that an author planted in the text. They see that a poem is cooperatively
produced by a reader and a text. That is they focus mainly on the relationship
between text and reader. Reception theorists investigate how readers react
emotionally to texts and in what ways the reception of literary texts is
influenced by socio-demographic factors such as age, gender, social class,
education…etc.

The mimetic approach

It seeks to see how well a work accords with the real world.
The psychoanalytic approach

It originated in the work of the Austrian Sigmund Freud who pioneered the
technique of psychoanalysis. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned
with the nature of the unconscious mind. The psychoanalytic approach went
through different stages. At first, it focused on the artist’s mind who is urged
by instincts. Then, after the 1950’s, the focus shifted toward the psychology of
the reader. As concerns the literary text, it looks at the psychological
motivations of the characters.

The feminist approach

In this type of approach, some critics are interested in the subject of

feminine language and writing, others examine how women characters are
portrayed and another group study writings by women and examining the
female literary tradition to find out how women writers across the ages have
perceived themselves and imagined reality. Feminist approaches highlight the
differences between ‘male’ and ‘female’ writing in terms of style, topics, and
structure.

The New criticism approach (Formalism)

It is an American approach to literature which adopted the formalist

concepts. It is the most famous type of formalism. It involves a close reading
of the text. It believes that all information essential to the interpretation of a
work must be found within the work itself; there is no need to bring in outside
information about the history, or society of the time, or about the author’s life.
In other words, a work of literature is a freestanding self-contained object
whose meaning can be found in the complex network of relations between its
parts, i.e, the setting, characters, the plot, timing, style and point of view. It
spends much time analysing irony, paradox, imagery, allusions, sounds,
rhythms and metaphors.

The symbolic/ mythological/ archetypal approach

They assume that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters,

themes and motifs in literature ( i.e., archetypes) that evoke basically the same
response in all people and in this way it unites all people and universalizes
literature . Myth critics identify and study these archetypal patterns and discuss
how they function in the works and help to discern their meanings.

The structuralist approach

It was heavily influenced and based on De Saussure’s linguistics. It views

literature as a special kind of language use that has its own rules and
conventions. In addition, literature is regarded as part of the system of signs. It
tries to make plain the organizational codes and rules that they think regulate
any type of literary genres.

The deconstructionist approach

A method of literary criticism developed by Jack Derrida who rejected the

structuralist belief that texts have identifiable “centers” of meaning; that is they
view that a work of literary art is demonstrably unified from beginning to end,
in one certain way, or that it is organized around a single center that ultimately
can be identified. So they demonstrate its multiple conflicting interpretations
rather than being a unified, logical whole through a close reading of the text.
Deconstructionists consider the impact of the language of a work and suggest
that the true meaning of the work is not necessarily the meaning that the author
intended.
The Rhetorical approach

It sees literature as having strategies and techniques to govern the reader’s

response it considers it as a means to an end. So this approach, looks at the
author’s purpose and intention. It makes research on how rhetoric is taught at
the time to find out what rhetorical conventions the audience would recognize.

The Sociological approach

It considers literature as a document of social phenomena. It reads from

society to the text or vice versa. It links individual to the collective behaviour,
social groups, institutions, and forces.

The Marxist approach:

A type of criticism whose practitioners emphasize the role of class and

ideology as they reflect, propagate, and even challenge the prevailing social
order. Rather than viewing texts as repositories for hidden meanings, Marxist
critics view texts as material products to be understood in broadly historical
terms. For them, literature either reveals or mystifies the truth about class
structure, class ideology, political economy, and ideology.

The Biographical criticism:

It sees the meaning of a work of art as being a reflective of experiences of

the author. Knowledge of the author’s life such as his own writings, official
archives, memories of contemporaries, the memories of living witnesses,
photographs, paintings and books on the subject can give insights into the
work’s meaning and purpose. It is based on research about the author’s life for
connections and parallels in the work.
The Post colonial criticism:

A type of cultural criticism, usually involves the analysis of literary texts

produced in countries and cultures that have come under the control of
European colonial power at some point in their history. Alternatively, it can
refer to the analysis of texts written about colonized places by writers hailing
from the colonizing culture.

The New Historicism

Developed during the 1980s. It acknowledges the importance of the literary

text, but it also analyses the text in relation with history. It differs from the
historical criticism ( which focused its interpretations on the interplay between
the text and historical contexts such as the author’s life or intentions in writing
the work) of the 1930s and 1940s. It is informed by poststructuralist and
reader-response theory of the 1970s, as well as by the thinking of feminist,
cultural and Marxist critics which are less fact-and event- oriented than
historical critics. They are less likely to see history in terms of specific eras.
Hence they are unlikely to suggest that a literary text has a single or easily
identifiable historical context. It views history broadly as a social science like
anthropology and sociology whereas historicists tended to view history as
literature’s background and social sciences as being properly historical. The
new historicist critics have erased the line dividing historical and literary
materials.

With the diversity of the literary approaches under literary criticism, one
can obtain diverse explanations and interpretations for one text. What unifies
these approaches is only one thing: they do not give prominence to the way the
message of the writer is produced through language:
 “ The most widespread and flourishing methods of
studying literature concern themselves with its setting, its
environment, its external causes…Though the ‘extrinsic’
study may merely attempt to interpret literature in the
light of its social context and its antecedents, in most
cases it becomes a ‘causal’ explanation professing to
account for literature to explain it , and finally to reduce
it to its origins.( the ‘fallacy of origins’)”.

(Welleck.R. and Warren.A , 1973:73)

From this quotation, we understand how the study of literature was undergone
through the focus on the external factors such as its setting, its environment,
and its social context.

For Short (1996) the essential core of criticism is divided into three main
parts: description, interpretation and evaluation. Each part is dependent on the
previous one. He states that in dealing with literary texts some critics focus on
the socio-cultural background that is behind the publication of such works,
while others concern themselves with the lives of the authors and how their
experiences affect their writings.

By tradition, the study of literature has been regarded as a branch of

aesthetics(2). As such, it has been concerned with the total effect of literary
texts as artistic wholes.

Thus, the main concern of literary criticism is: what does a work of art
mean on the light of external factors rather how such meaning is produced
through language. It has the assumption that the detailed study of the language
of literary texts would destroy its aesthetic value. Nevertheless, it is admitted
that too much light has been put on literary works through knowing the
conditions under which they have been produced because the literary text
transcends its origins.

Furthermore, according to Derrida, interpreting a text is not a matter of a

true or a false interpretation, but it is to say a matter of some interpretations
having more force and power than the others. Therefore, a literary text can
conceivably be interpreted in relation to anything the interpreter chooses
according to his perception. Thus, one text can have diverse interpretations. In
this context, the total comprehensiveness in literary interpretation can never be
achieved. It is also difficult in practice to demonstrate that some interpretations
are more comprehensive than others. Critics themselves cannot identify the
strongest interpretations of a text with one particular interpretative mode. The
absence of explicitness is very crucial.

The literary critic assumes that the artistic value of a work is available to
intuitive awareness, and he makes use of an impressionistic terminology to
communicate this awareness to others. The difficulty of this procedure is that it
makes appeal to intuitions, which the reader may not share with the critic.

The variety of interpretations leads Batson to oppose any liberty on

interpretation that would adapt the poem to one’s expectations and preferences.
He wants to avoid intuitive and random interpretations and unify them through
logic.

On the whole, literary criticism takes artistic values as primary and refers
to language in so far as it serves as evidence for aesthetic assessments:

“Ellis writes in his book The Theory of Literary

criticism: ‘The object of literary criticism, then, is an
interpretative hypothesis as to the most general principle
of structure which can be abstracted from the
 combination of linguistic elements in a literary text. The
term ‘structure’ is often used in literary criticism in a
more superficial sense, to refer to one particular aspect
of a text, for example, its natural breaks, its plot outline,
and so on…”

(Newton, 1988: 207)

Finally, this quotation states that literary criticism is based on hypotheses

which interpret any aspect of the literary work such as the plot.

Therefore, the use of the word ‘hypotheses’ sums up the value of literary
criticism in general. In addition, according to what we have said before, we
can represent the general concept of literary criticism in the following
diagram:
 Literary criticism

Literary
criticism

Interpretat
-ion

language context

We have used this type of diagram to show that interpretation is at the

central part of literary criticism, furthermore, context and language are closely
related to interpretation.

Concerning HD, we are going to make use of the historical approach in

order to locate all the novel in its appropriate context so that we can get better
insights into its various themes and techniques of writing. For the historical
approach seems important at the beginning of any literary analysis

Then as far as nature is concerned, we are going to use the biographical

approach in order to find out some hints that may lead to understanding the
writer’s intentions behind the use of this theme:
 “ The most obvious cause of a work of art is its
creator, the author; and hence an explanation in terms of
the personality and the life of the writer has been one of
the oldest and best established methods of literary study”

(Welleck and Warren), 1973: 75)

In addition, the New Criticism approach will be employed during the

analysis of the extracts dealing with nature. That is, we are going to stick to the
text and analyse the extracts in their context of appearance and see their
relation with the events of the narrative.

1.2.2. The linguistic criticism:

The 1960s witnessed a move of focus towards a greater awareness of

texts and the pragmatic, social and ideological dimensions of literary
production and reception due to the impact of the advances within linguistics
especially with generative grammar(3), pragmatics(4), discourse analysis(5)
and sociolinguistics(6).

In recent years, there has been a greater awareness of the language of

literary texts by many linguists such as Halliday (1971), Leech (1985) and
Robins(1980). They state that literature is better understood and appreciated
only through the analysis of its language:

“…I have found in practice that I tend to notice what I can

describe, and many people I have worked with have told me

the same thing, finding (sometimes with surprise) that their

response to the text deepened as they deepened their

 understanding of its language.”

(Cluysenaar, 1976: 20)

In this quotation, the writer refers to the importance of understanding how

the language in literary works functions in order to get a deeper understanding
of the text in focus.

By this change in focus, i.e., the close analysis of the language of literary
texts, there is a reference to a new branch within linguistics, it is stylistics.
What is stylistics then?:

“…an approach to the analysis of (literary) texts using

linguistic description.”

( Short, 1996: 01)

Here, Short ( 1996) has introduced the concept of linguistic description for the
analysis of literary texts.

Making a linguistic description means introducing linguistic theories and

techniques to the language of literature which may create a greater awareness
of it. Scholars agree on the fact that making a relation between a linguistic
description and interpretation helps in attributing the most objective
interpretation to the text. In stylistic analysis we try to find out what use is
made of language to produce actual messages. Thus, by investigating the way
language is used in a text, this provides also a basis for aesthetic appreciation.
In brief, stylistics takes the language as primary and artistic values are regarded
as incidental to linguistic description:

“ I want to suggest that stylistic analysis which attempts

 to relate linguistic description to interpretation, is part of

the essential core of good criticism, as it constitutes a large

part of what is involved, say in supporting a particular view

of a poem of arguing for one interpretation as against

another.”

( Short, 1996:05)

For Short ( 1996), a good criticism is a combination of linguistic

description and interpretation.

Therefore, language in literary texts is acquiring more and more attention

on the part of the linguists due to their belief that this attention may reveal the
implicit ideas meant by the writer:

“We respond first in literature to form, but initially at

least we may be entirely unable to perceive that form
explicitly. Part of the process of understanding a work of
literature is making its implicit form explicit. The first
cause of the form resides in its language, the stuff of
which it is made, and the interaction of that form with the
words of creator and experience in which it must exist. In
poetry, at least, as we interpret the designed syntax of a
poem we reenact the life of that design.”

(Freeman 1976: 244)

For Freeman, to understand a work of literature, we must make its implicit

language explicit, and when we interpret the syntax of a literary text we will
have its hidden meaning, and thus, we give another life to the design chosen by
the writer.

Following Leech’s approach (1985), stylistics can be divided to two further

sub-branches, i.e., literary stylistics and general stylistics.

From its name, literary stylistics is geared towards the study of literary
texts through the application of linguistic theories and methods in order to find
out how effects are achieved and interpretations constructed, and thus, provide
further insights into the meaning of the literary work.

Leech’s approach to stylistic analysis aims at relating the linguistic

description to critical interpretation, and at showing how the latter can benefit
from the former.

In literary stylistics, the focus is text contained. Everything is to be found

and discovered within the text without a need for or reference to wider context
to decode the implicit message of the writer.

General stylistics is distinguished from literary stylistics in three aspects:

- It involves the analysis of non-literary texts.

- It is geared towards the characterization of different styles within
a framework of general linguistic variation.
- It pays much attention to the role of the context in giving birth to
a particular style.
 Crystal and Davy (1969) and Enkvist (1964, 1973) were instrumental in
establishing general stylistics in the 1960’s. They have seen style as varieties
of language that correlate with particular contexts.

According to Crystal and Davy, stylistics describes formal linguistic

features that are restricted by certain social contexts, the explanation why those
features are used instead of alternatives and the classification of those features
according to their contextual function. And the more frequently the linguistic
feature occurs, the more stylistically significant it is.

How can the stylistic analysis of a text be dealt with ?

According to Crystal and Davy, approaching a text stylistically can be dealt

with at different interrelated levels as far as the linguistic features are
concerned.

At the phonological level, the isolated sounds and shapes may be

interpreted as reflecting aspects of reality (as in onomatopoeia) or conveying a
meaning residing wholly in the intrinsic properties of the spoken or written
physical event, and in spoken language the voice quality can also be
distinguished as a feature.

At the phonological level which studies the sound system of a given

language, stylistics studies features such as: repetition of segmental sounds in a
specific distribution, patterns of rhythm, intonation. At the graphological level
(orthography), it focuses on punctuation, capitalization or spacing.

At the level of vocabulary, stylisticians give information about the choice

of specific lexical items in a text, their distribution to one another and their
meaning. In addition, Crystal and Davy added that morphology and syntax
both can have some relevance for stylistics. The semantic level is also of
interest to stylisticians because it studies the linguistic meaning of a text.
Therefore, for Crystal and Davy, approaching a text would be with various
levels of language in mind allocating those features which one feels they are of
stylistic significance.

After dealing with the different levels, the stylistician is in a position to

make his statement about the stylistic picture of the text. The step that follows
then (the interpretation and evaluation steps) will be the concern of the literary
man.

Whereas for Leech, it is impossible to list all the linguistic features of one
text because this requires a completely exhaustive description of the language.
That is its lexicon, its syntax, its semantics and other characteristics. In
addition, it is preferable to detect the linguistic feature that has the following
characteristics:

-When is it more frequent in text A than in text B.

- Compare the corpus under scrutiny with one or more comparable

corpuses.

- In addition to the linguistic criterion, it must carry a literary significance.

 Linguistic criticism

Linguistic
criticism

Linguistic
feature

Linguistic interpretati
descriptio on
n

In this diagram, we see that linguistic criticism is based on detecting the

frequent linguistic feature, providing a linguistic description and then an
interpretation to it.

1. 3. Halliday’s theory of linguistic analysis

Since the 1970s, Halliday’s systemic functional model of language is said

to be the most influential contribution of linguistic theory to literary stylistics.
His model enables stylisticians to approach literature within a functional view
of language. He agrees with Crystal and Davy the idea that the methods and
theories of linguistics applied in the analysis of literary or non-literary texts
may reveal and present a precise description of language features without
dealing with the interpretation or providing the aesthetic evaluation of the text.

According to Halliday, language is used to satisfy human needs. It is used

to serve certain functions. Grammar for him is concerned with describing the
function of each element in the language system. Thus, it gives priority to
meaning rather than form(7) through which meaning is realized. His aim was
to construct an adequate grammar for text analysis:

“The aim has been to construct a grammar for text

analysis”.

( Halliday,1985: introduction)

Analysing texts in grammatical terms would make explicit and objective

one’s interpretations of the meaning of the texts. It will contribute to a better
understanding and evaluation:

“The linguistic analysis enables one to show how and why

the text means what it does. In the process, there are likely

to be revealed multiple meanings, alternatives, ambiguities,

metaphors and so on”

(.Halliday, 1985:introduction)

For Halliday (1985), the linguistic analysis would answer some important
questions on how and why does the author express himself in such a way to
convey a certain meaning, and in this process, we will identify multiple
meanings, alternatives and ambiguities.
 In Halliday’s grammar, namely functional grammar, the relationship
between form and meaning is not arbitrary. The job of functional grammar is
to find out this relationship.

Since the focus of our study is about the linguistic feature ‘simile’ in HD,
through linguistic criticism, in the following, we are going present Halliday’s
theory about this feature.

1. 4 Simile:

Simile is defined as:

“A figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another,

in such a way as to clarify and enhance an image. It is an

explicit comparison recognized by the use of ‘like’or’as’ .”.

(J.A.Cuddon,1990:830)

So simile is a comparison that shows how two things that are not alike in most
ways are similar in one important way. It is a way to describe something.

‘like’ and ‘as’ differ in the way they are used:

*like: It is a preposition which means ‘similar to’. It is mostly followed by

a noun, a pronoun, or a gerund.

Example: This house is like a palace.

(
Raymond, 1994: 232)

*as: It introduces different kinds of subordinate clauses(8): clauses of

comparison, of time, of reason,…etc. It is mostly followed by a subject + a
verb. Moreover, it can come before a noun phrase( the police described him as
a dangerous animal), or before a participle ( the police described him as having
an ugly face), or before an adjective ( the police described him as badly hurt).
In general, it expresses comparison:

Example: I didn’t move anything, I left everything as I found it.

(Raymond, 1994: 232)

*as if/ as though: are also used for comparison to say how somebody does
something. They are used in the same way to express a comparison with
something that may be true or imaginary. (Leech’s p: 53)

Example: He ran as if he was running for his life.

( Raymond, 1994: 234)

Simile from a linguistic point of view: ( following Halliday and R.

Hassan’s approach):

Halliday states that there are three classes of groups: nominal

groups(9), verbal groups(10), and adverbial groups(11). In the adverbial group,
there is adverb as head that may not be accompanied by modifying elements.
Comparison is considered as a type of post modification. The post modifiers
are embedded; they may be:

a- embedded clauses(12) :

Example: as grimly (as if his life depended on it)

b- Embedded prepositional phrases:

Example: as early (as two o’clock)

 Types of relationship between clauses:

Because there is a type of modification among the parts of a clause ,

Halliday classifies this modification into two types; the type of
interdependency or ’taxi’, and the logico-semantic relation.

1- The type of interdependency: Halliday says that the relation of

modification is not the only relation that may be obtained between the
members of a complex clause. Where one element modifies another, the status
of the two is unequal; the modifying element is dependent on the modified. But
two elements may be joined together on an equal footing, neither being
dependent on the other. Thus, there are two sub-types that can be distinguished
within the interdependency type:

Hypotaxis: is a relation between a dependent element and its dominant. They

are elements of unequal status. The dominant element is free, but the
dependent element is not. For example, ‘ I would if I could, but I can’t’, the
hypotactic relation is between ‘ I would’ and ‘ if I could’. We see that the
second clause is dependent on the first one. ( M. A. K. Halliday, 1985: 195)

Parataxis: is the relation between two like elements of equal status, one
initiating and the other continuing ( both are free and each could stand as a
functioning whole): for example, in taking the previous example, we see a
paratactic relationship between ‘I would if I could’ and ‘but I can’t’. Both
clauses can stand independently of each other. ( M. A. K. Halliday, 1985: 195)

Primary Secondary
Parataxis (1.)initiating. (2.)continuing
Hypotaxis (Α)dominant. (b.)dependent
 “ Parataxis and hypotaxis are general relationships which

are not restricted to the rank of the clause. They define

complexes at any rank: clause complex, group or phrase

complex, word complex”.

(.Halliday,1985 : 198)

2-The logico- semantic relation: There are different logico-semantic

relations any of which may hold between a primary and a secondary member
of a clause complex. Halliday classifies these relations into two major
relationships: expansion and projection.

Expansion: The secondary clause expands the primary clause by elaborating

it, extending it or enhancing it.

Projection: The secondary clause is projected through the primary clause,

which initiates it as a locution or an idea.

These concepts are mentioned because they will be used in describing the
function of simile in the text.

Enhancement: In enhancement one clause enhances the meaning of another

by qualifying it in one of a number of possible ways: by reference to time,
place, manner, cause or condition.

To sum up, from the above definitions, we can characterize simile as a

kind of comparison used as a post modification. In addition, in using simile,
there is a hypotactic relationship between the parts of the complex clause; for
example: “Portugal has sunny beaches like Spain”. ‘like Spain’ is a post
modifier which is dependent on the main clause ‘Portugal has sunny beaches’.
On the other hand, there is a logico-semantic relation between the primary and
the secondary clause characterized as expansion. In simile, the expansion of
the second clause enhances the meaning of the primary clause; for example, “
What a beautiful house, it is like a palace”.

Halliday (1985) elaborates this idea of enhancement in the following table(p:

211).

Category Meaning
1-Temporal:

-same time. -A meanwhile B.

-different time: later -A subsequently B.

-different time: earlier. - A previously B.

2-Spacial:

-same place. -C there D.

3- Manner:

- means. -N is via / by means of M.

-comparison. -N is like M.

4-Causal- conditional:

- cause: reason. -because P so result Q.

-cause: purpose. -because intention Q so action P.

-condition: positive. -if P then Q

-condition: negative. - if not P then Q.

-condition: concessive. -If P then contrary to expectation Q

From the table, we see that comparison belongs to manner clauses.

The combination of enhancement with hypotaxis gives what are known in

traditional formal grammar as: ‘adverbial clauses’. These are clauses of time,
place, manner, cause, condition and concession. They may be finite(13) or non
finite(14). Thus, simile is found in adverbial clauses.

Since the focus of the study is about comparison, we shall take from the
table provided by Halliday ( 1985: 214) about the principle markers of
hypotactic enhancing clauses the relevant part in our research, i.e, the part of
manner where comparison is included in which he classified the different
markers of comparison:

Finite Non-finite.
Manner: Conjuncti conjuncti Prepositi
on on on
- means.
/ /
- comparison
-as, as if -like.
like, the way.

Example of a hypotactic clause which is finite:

- He talks about it as if it was a game.

( Halliday, 1985: 215)

 With a finite clause, the conjunction serves to express both the dependency
( the hypotactic status) and the circumstantial(15) relationship. As well as
simple conjunctions such as: because, ‘when’, ‘if’ and conjunction groups like:
as if, even if, soon after, so that. A non-finite clause frequently presupposes its
subject from the dominant clause. But instead it has an explicit subject of its
own, this subject appears in oblique (eg: him) or possessive (eg: his) form. (
Halliday, 1985: 215)

If the dependent clause is non- finite, the circumstantial relationship is

made explicit by the conjunction or conjunctive proposition.

Comparison and cohesion:

What is cohesion?

“ Cohesion is a semantic relation between an element in

the text and some other element that is crucial to the

interpretation of it. This other element is also to be found

in the text”

(.Halliday and R. Hasan, 1976: 08)

In cohesion, one element in the text is interpreted by reference to another.

Cohesive relations can be found within a sentence as well as between

sentences. They are the semantic resources that link a sentence with what has
gone before.
 The distinct types of cohesive relations are: reference, substitution, ellipsis,
conjunction and lexical cohesion.

Conjunction: is one of the cohesive relations:

“ Conjunctive elements are cohesive not in themselves

but indirectly by virtue of their specific meanings; they
are not primarily devices for reaching out into the
preceding (or following) text, but they express certain
meanings which presuppose the presence of other
components in the discourse.”

( Halliday and R. Hasan, 1976, 226)

Cohesion can also be created through the types of enhancement: spatio-

temporal, manner, causal-conditional and matter.

The manner conjunctives create cohesion by comparison and by reference

to means.

Comparison may be positive (is like) or negative( is unlike).

Listing these concepts is done on purpose; it is to provide a clear position

and picture of the comparison of similarity among the different linguistic
features of the language.

Types of conjunction: Four categories are grouped and classified under the
heading of conjunction(16): additive, adversative, causal and temporal. Each of
them contains other sub-classifications.

Additive: Under the heading of additive, a related pattern is included, that of

semantic similarity, in which the source of cohesion is the comparison of what
is being said with what has gone before. Forms such as, similarly, likewise, in
the same way, are used by the speaker to assert that a point is being reinforced
or a new one added to the same effect; the relevance of the presupposing
sentence is its similarity of import to the presupposed one. ( Halliday and
Hassan, 1976: 247)

As a summary, one can say about the comparison of similarity

( simile) that:

1- It is a type of post modification.

2-It creates a hypotactic relationship.

3-It has the function of enhancement.

4-It creates cohesion .

5-It is to used to reinforce a point.

Choosing to analyse simile in HD was done on purpose; it recurs

persistently in the text and it seems that it has a literary significance. Thus, we
shall try to make a link between this linguistic feature and its effect :

“ The establishment of a specific relation between

stylistic traits and effects is not impossible.”

( Wellek and Warren, 1973:179)

On the light of the previous theory of simile mentioned earlier, the most
important sentences in the novel (of course those which deal with the
description of nature), will be described in order to find out what effect is
meant, and how we can build our interpretations. Therefore, we can say that
Halliday’s functional model has equipped us with some tools that may help us
analyse the function of simile in describing nature, and thus, we may
understand it better.
1. 5 .Conclusion:

In this chapter, we have tied to bring a broad image about the nature of
both literary and linguistic criticisms, thus, we have come up with the
following results:

- The main function of literary criticism is to provide an evaluation

to the literary work.
- The application of literary criticism have brought much light to
the literary works.
- Literary criticism gives priority to the meaning of the text than
the way how this meaning is conveyed. It tries to give
explanation to it.
- In literary criticism, one text can have various interpretations.
- Sometimes the reader does not agree with the interpretations
provided by the critic.
- Within literary criticism, there are various approaches and most
of them rely on context in their analyses.
- The need for objective and unified interpretations have become
crucial.
- With the development of linguistics, there was a greater
awareness of the language in literary works.
- In linguistic criticism, the main focus is on the language of the
text itself. It tries to answer the questions why and how does the
author express himself in such a way to convey a certain kind of
meaning, thus it looks at the literary work from a different angle
than literary criticism.
- Applying linguistic theories to the analysis of the language of
literary works can provide an objective interpretation to the
literary work, and in this way the interpretations can be unified.
 In the following chapters two and three, we are going to deal with the
practical part in order to find out whether these two orientations of analyses
can be said to be alternatives or complementary.
 Notes of chapter one

(1) -Criticism: “ The art or science of literary criticism is devoted to the

comparison and analysis, to the interpretation and evaluation of works of

literature”

(J. A. Cuddon, 1999:73).

(2)- Aesthetic: signifies something which pertains to the criticism of the

beautiful or to the theory of taste. Aestheticism believes that art is self

sufficient and serves no other purpose than its own ends. In other words, art is

an end in itself and need not be didactic. It believes in art for art’s sake.

(3)- generative grammar: first introduced by the American linguist Noam

Chomsky in the 1950’s. It is a grammar of a particular language which is

capable of defining all and only the grammatical sentences of that language. It

is a set of rules which can be used to build up infinite complete grammatical

sentences.

(4)- pragmatics: a branch of linguistics which studies how utterances

communicate meaning in context.

(5)-discourse analysis: An approach to the study of discourse which is based

upon traditional grammatical concepts and terms, and attempts to see how
these concepts are involved in structuring discourse. It is also an attempt to
extend our highly successful analysis of sentence structure to units larger than
the sentence. ( R.L. Trask, 1999: 79)
(6)- sociolinguistics: a branch of linguistics which studies the relation between

language and society.

(7)- form: refers to the linguistic item.

(8)- Subordinate clause: The subordination is any type of sentence structure in

which one clause forms part of a larger clause. Subordinate clauses are of

several types; for example, the adverbial clause.

(9)- Nominal group: it is part of the noun phrase other than the determiner

among the other possible structures of the noun phrase.

(10)- Verbal group: It has the verb as head. It can contain one verb; peter came

yesterday. Or more than one verb; Guy is coming to day.

(11)- Adverbial group: It is a part of a clause which acts as an adverb. It gives

extra information about the time, place and manner of the event described by

the rest of the clause.

(12)- Clause: “The largest grammatical unit smaller than a sentence. The

clause is a traditional and fundamental unit of sentence structure. Traditionally,

a clause is a grammatical unit consisting of a subject and a predicate, and every

sentence must consist of one or more clauses…Recently, some grammarians

have been extending the term clause to every unit containing a verb, including

many units traditionally regarded only as phrases. Examples:

- (Susie’s heavy smoking ) is affecting her health.

- Susie wants to ( buy a new car).

 - (Having finished her dinner), Susie reaches for her cigarettes.

This extended usage is not standard, but it is now very widespread.”.

(R. L. Trask, 1999: 35-36.)

(13)- finite clause: it is a clause with a finite verb.

(14)-non-finite clause: is a clause without a finite verb, so the first verb form

can be either an infinitive( the best thing is to leave your family at home), or a

gerund ( entering the room, I fell over the cat) or a past participle ( the man lay

on the ground, ignored by the people around him) .

(15)- Circumstantial: “ The principle types of circumstantial elements in

English are as follows: Extent and Location in time and space including

abstract space; Manner ( means, quality and comparison); cause ( reason,

purpose and behalf); Accompaniment; Matter, Role.”

(M. A.K. Halliday, 1985: 137)

(16)- Conjunction: is a joining word, its main function is to link together two

parts of a sentence.
CHAPTER TWO

- 42 -
 2.1. Introduction

Conrad’s HD has received and continues to receive much of critical

attention for its individual, social and political implications. The literary
critics see that it embodies various themes such as: colonialism, appearance
and reality, good and evil and a voyage of self- discovery.

When reading HD, one notices how the writer devotes many
paragraphs describing nature through out the narrative within the events of
the story. Critics agree that it is used not only for artistic and aesthetic ends
but also for its role it plays on the characters and the events of the narrative.
It is a very significant symbol. Aspects of nature such as: the river, the
landscape, the wilderness, the trees, the woods were depicted by the writer.
In the following, we try to reveal some of their implications under the light
of literary criticism approaches. In other word, we try to answer what is the
role of nature in the narrative?.

2.2.The role of nature

In the context of literary criticism, it is important to situate the

novel in its appropriate context of appearance: the historical background,
the ideological background, the personal background and the
pshychological background. As a summary about this context, it will be
presented in the following diagram:

- 43 -
Historical background Psychological
-18/ 19th. Centuries : background
European political, economic, -Sigmund Freud( 1856-
scientific interests fuel search 1939) : feeling, the
for new markets and – unconscious, inward journey
‘exploration’ of Africa. into the self, back to the
- 1870’s: European scramble past/childhood( keys to
for Africa. understanding human nature/
- 1876-1884: King Leopold II behaviour.
( of Belguim 1865-1909) used - Psychoanalytical method:
Stanly to explore, acquire, healing through story telling,
colonize “ Congo Free State” often involves journey into
as his personal possession the dream

Heart Of Darkness

Ideological background
Personal background - Social breakdown,
-In 1889-1890, Conrad went fragmentation : lose
to Congo and captained faith in progress,
river steamboat to retrieve science, religion,
Klein. morality and
-Conrad’s interest in the bourgeois.
human personality under -Alienation from urban
different conditions. bureaucratic society, a sterile
materialism

- 44 -
 The context wherein HD appeared

The context of HD provides us with more insights into the understanding of

the novel and the techniques applied by the writer like the psychological
background which shows Conrad’s interest in nature and the behaviour of
the human kind which face variations according to the circumstances in
which they are found.

In trying to analyse HD, Jocelyne Baines (1960) expressed her grave

reservations concerning the possibility of elucidating Conrad’s intentions:

“…the power and fascination of Heart Of Darkness

rests upon the tale’s elusiveness and ambiguity…one
wonders whether Conrad was always clear as to his
intention and whether one is justified in trying to
unravel the story to the extent of imparting a coherent
meaning to it”

This is due to the writer’s thematic and stylistic complexities which lead the
critic Baines to be reserving as far as the writer’s message is concerned.

According to some critics, HD is apparently an account of one’s

moral and psychological degeneration embodied in the character of Kurtz,
and of another’s spatial and intellectual journey to understand matters in life
presented in the character of Marlow. Conrad’s genuine appears in his
ability to employ nature as one of the techniques to embody both ideas.
That is to understand Marlow’s personal thoughts in one way and to show
its relation with the degeneration of the soul of Kurtz.

In his voyage toward the inner station, Marlow presented a realistic

description of the African landscape:

- 45 -
 “ Going up that river was like traveling back to the
earliest beginnings of the world when vegetation
rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An
empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest.
The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was
no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches
of the waterway ran on, deserted into the gloom of
overshadowed distances. On the silvery sandbanks
hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side
the broadening waters flowed through a mob of
wooded island” (HD: 92- 93).

The use of features such as simile, personification of nature and the

oxymoron( empty stream, great silence, joyless sunshine) serve to convey
the extremities of an African experience that tests the senses. Moreover,
despite the great distances and the absence of people, the landscape seemed
crowded through the writer’s use of words such as: (war, thick, heavy
sluggish). Thus the use of such features directs the reader to the writer’s
poetic rhetoric. Moreover, according to A..J. Guerard (1958: 60) in his
article ‘ The Journey Within’, saw in the previous extract that Conrad
insisted on darkness. It was a darkness of passivity, paralysis,
immobilization:

“ But the passage (referring to the above one)

reminds us again of the story’s reflexive references,
and its images of deathly immobilization is grass.
Most striking are the black shadows dying in the
greenish gloom of the grove of the first station. But
grass sprouts between the stones of the European city,
a ‘whited sepulchre’, and on the same page Marlow
anticipates coming upon the remains of his
predecessor:’ the grass growing through his ribs was

- 46 -
 tall enough to hide his bones’. The critical meeting
with Kurtz occurs on a trial through the grass”.

( A. J. Guerard in C.B. Cox (ed) (1989: 60)

In the following, the use of contrasts ( river with desert, past with present,
dream with reality, stillness with unrest) was also present in Marlow’s
description of the physical setting combined with psychological
speculations:

“ You lost your way on that river as you would in

desert, and butted all day long against shoals trying
to find the channel till you thought yourself bewitched
and cut off from every thing you had once known-
somewhere- far away- in another existence perhaps.
There were moments when one’s past came back to
one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment
to spare to yourself; but came in the shape of an
unrestful and noisy dream remembered with wonder
amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange
world of plants and water and silence. And this
stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It
was the stillness of implacable force brooding over an
inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful
aspect”(HD: 93)

At the end of this passage, we see Marlow’s abstract depiction of Africa(

implacable, inscrutable intention) to suggest that nature is no longer a
source of peace but of distress. Indeed, when Marlow described the forest “
looked at you with a vengeful aspect” it seems as if the forest accused its
observer of some horrible infractions, the “ fantastic invasion” of Africa by

- 47 -
greedy and callous explorers in search of raw material and new markets.
Therefore, the forest may serve as a figure for suggestiveness.

According to Richard Adams ( 1991), the coastline along which the

ship makes its tedious way presents a far from attractive face. Bordered by
an unending line of white surf that gives the impression of nature herself of
“monotonous grimness”. Nevertheless, like other coastlines the world over,
it fascinates the traveler, seeming to whisper an invitation and Marlow said
“ Come and find out”. In addition, a closer inspection, however, confirms
the distant impression: the river estuaries being “streams of death in life”
into which they sail have banks “rotting into mud’ and the waters
“thickened into slime”. The deathly atmosphere was prevailing in Marlow’s
depiction of nature when he said that elsewhere, there is the “still and
earthly atmosphere as an overheated catacomb”, a fit setting for the “merry
dance of death and trade” as Marlow described. Moreover, in his upstream
journey to the Inner Station, Marlow experienced the “high stillness of
primeval forest”. The words he employed to characterize the setting were
alien and uninviting; it was indeed an ‘empty’, ‘silent’, ‘impenetrable’,
‘joyless’, ‘deserted’, ‘gloomy’, and ‘vengeful’ place.

2.2.1Nature as a symbol

Indeed, Conrad’s use of nature is among the different techniques he

employed to transmit his message. Since the function of literature is to
express the universal through the particular, nature is considered as this
particular symbol implying universal meanings, the fact that makes HD to
be considered among the serious literary works:

“ …It (symbolism) is present in every work of fiction

worthy of serious consideration, and indeed is the thing
which makes fictional literature ‘serious’ ”.

( Leech and Short, 1981: 156)

- 48 -
In fact, Conrad infused his prose with the methods of French symbolist
poetry in order to counter what was perceived as the increasingly
burdensome demands of narrative realism and to add notes of mystery ,
symbolism and musical form to fictional prose. For modern fiction writers,
the techniques of symbolist verse suggested ways of representing the mind
and emotions that transcended the rationalist analytical methods typically
employed by discursive prose forms, including the realistic novel of the
nineteenth century. (John Parras, 2006)

Concerning the title Heart of Darkness, the critics view it as being

symbolical and covers a pshycological reality. It refers to the ambivalent
force at the heart of the wilderness; it also stands for the central darkness
Kurtz discovered within himself and possibly at the heart of all civilized
consciousness:

“The title Heart of darkness is, then, crammed with

complex and shifting associations. For Ian Watt, it
consists of more than the mere yoking together of two
stock metaphors as a means of designation, on the
one hand, the centre of the be knighted Africa, and on
the other hand, a quintessentially evil ( one whose
heart is literally made of darkness)”

(R. Adams, 1991: 02)

Generally, the description of the landscape in literature, among

other uses, is employed to create a certain mood or to underscore a certain
emotion on the part of the reader. In addition to this, Conrad in HD, has
given also an entirely new significance to nature. In some way, Conrad
supported his story through the description of nature and in another way,
nature as a setting, came to participate in the events of the story through its

- 49 -
effects on the character of Kurtz, for example, or through the different
interpretations it can suggest. In a letter, Conrad wrote:

“ A work of art is very seldom limited to one exclusive

meaning and not necessarily tending to a definite
conclusion. And this for the reason that the nearer it
approaches art, the more it acquires a symbolic
character. All the great creations of literature have
been symbolic, and in that way have gained in
complexity, in power, in depth and in beauty” (John
Parras, 2006)

To illustrate, in HD, the image of a haze plays a crucial symbolic

role in at least one key episode, when the steamer went through a fog,
Marlow reported:

“ What we could see was just the steamer we were on,

her outlines blurred as though she had been on the
point of dissolving, and a misty strip of water,
perhaps two feet broad, always around her and that
was all. The rest of the world was nowhere” (HD:
102).

The uneasiness to imperial mastery expressed in this extract is best reflected

in one pilgrim’s fearful comment: “ we will all be butchered in this fog”
(HD: 102) as a result of their blindness.

Most impressive was the symbolism of the landscape descriptions. In the

following, we see how Marlow described the effect of the jungle on him
one night at the Central station:

“ The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and

entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves boughs,
- 50 -
 festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a
rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of
plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the
creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little
existence” (HD: 43)

In this passage, Marlow used a sea image ( a rolling wave… crested…ready

to topple) in order to convey to the reader a sense of threatening engulfment
Marlow experienced, and foreshadow the impact of the jungle on Kurtz.:

“Taken together, however, Conrad’s poetic

descriptions of the African interior create a dense and
populated inner landscape at the heart of every man’s
consciousness” ( H. M. Jelinek, 1982: 58)

This is why in trying to depict the role of nature it seems

indispensable to mention the context in which the extracts mentioned and
also the factors of their appearance. In the following two subtitles, we will
see what are the main factors that contributed to the meaning of the theme
of nature.

2.2.2.The biographical approach and nature

We know that Conrad himself had similar experiences to the narrator of

his story. So getting advantage of the biographical approach may help us
understand the theme of nature. For it seems important to mention that after
the death of the father of Conrad, he left school and went to Marseille to
become a sailor. Four years later, he went to England where he joined the
merchant navy. He made a series of voyages through which he became
immersed in the landscape and the people of isolated trading stations. He
spent most of his life sailing all over the sea. He visited Australia, various
Islands, the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific and South America.
According to critics, these experiences in the sea were to form most of his
- 51 -
stories. For example, his description of nature in HD was based on true
facts because when he became a captain, he obtained a command of a
steamboat in the upper Congo. Moreover, Conrad himself had similar
experiences to the narrator of his story:

“ To what extent it also expresses Joseph Conrad a

biographer might conceivably recover, who in 1898,
still paid a dept must be paid for his Congo journey
and who paid it by the writing of this story”

(A.J. Guerard, 1958: 52)

From his experiences in the sea, Conrad managed to acquire and form
some kind of knowledge about human nature which he tried to transmit in
his writings as he said in his preface to The Nigger Of The Narcissus
( 1897):

“ My task which I am trying to achieve is by the power

of the written word , to make you hear, to make you feel-
it is above all, to make you see. That – and no more, and
it is every thing”.

Conrad wanted to say that through his writings, he wanted to make the
reader share with him his knowledge of the world. Thus, we can say that in
HD, the writer’s memories had been fictionalized, and for that he used
various techniques among them nature. Albert J. Guerard (1958) in his
article ‘The Journey Within’ said that heart of darkness is a record of things
seen and done, so he saw that the autobiograghical basis of the narrative
was well known:

“The Congo was much in the public mind in 1889

when Henry Stanley’s relief expedition found Emin
Pacha ( who like Kurtz did not want to be rescued),
- 52 -
 and it interesting to note that Conrad wax in Brussels
during or immediately after Stanley’s triumphant
welcome there in April 1890”

(A. J. Guerard, 1958: 49)

According to critics, Conrad was a writer of value, he did not write just for
fun, but he was concerned with the human personality in all its states:

“On the one hand, he admires the human being who has
learned while young to hope, to love and to put its trust
in life; on the other, he records the incalculable damage
that occurs to the individual and to the fabric of human
relationships through unrealistic idealism and self
deceit” ( A. Pollard, 1973: 149)

Conrad’s employment of nature to carry his values in HD,

persuades the reader about the high level of its author’s literary
and intellectual sophistication.

2.2.3. The new criticism and nature

In addition to the Biographical approach, the New Criticism

approach could help us in the analysis of nature. This type of criticism
involves a close reading of the text, concentrating on the meanings within
the text. As a result, some of the extracts concerning nature will be analysed
through their context of appearance within the narrative.

- 53 -
2.2.4 Nature and Marlow

Through the description of nature, Conrad had the power to project the
convergence between inner and physical landscape. This was illustrated
through the character of Marlow who when he was describing the natural
surrounding he was actually referring to his inner thoughts:

“Nature itself can become a symbol of evil; or rather

nature and the human being appear to exist almost as
manifestations of each other”

(Allen, 1954: 303)

This extract means that the use of nature can imply various meanings; it
can suggest evil or it can suggest the state of the human being, that is when
we describe it we are referring to the condition of the human being:

“ Every appearance in nature corresponds to some

state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only
be described by presenting that natural appearance
as its picture” ( R. W. Emerson)

When we try to analyse nature in relation to the character of

Marlow, we can see that there were two aspects from romanticism that have
been taken up in HD whether consciously or unconsciously, that is , the
stress on emotions and the interest in nature. Indeed, the most representative
figures of romanticism like William Blake ( 1757/ 1827)), Samuel Taylor
Coleridge ( 1772 /1834), Lord Byron ( 1788/ 1824) and Percy Shelly
(1792/1822) made the connection between the world of nature and the
world of the spirit. In HD, These two aspects are interrelated: the moods of
Marlow are associated with the moods evoked from the description of
nature and thus, one can deduce his feelings and state of mind. In this way,
Marlow is leaving for his audience the apportunity to speculate about how
- 54 -
he felt as far as his experience is concerned; when alluding to his own
feelings, he usually managed to shift the focus of his speech towards the
description of his natural surrounding. In the extracts which will come later,
we shall see some examples about this idea.

Along his journey on the Congo river, Charlie Marlow went

through three stations; the Outer station, the Central station and the Inner
station in order to rescue a very important agent in the Belgian trade
company called Kurtz.

All the stations he went through were in a complete chaos, Marlow

met with some people like the accountant and the manager, the brick maker
and the harlequin. All of them did not do exactly what they were supposed
to do in these stations. There was no sign of real work. The pilgrims were
backbiting and intriguing against each other, they also hated each other
because of one thing; that of ivory. Marlow’s confusion and bewilderment
started especially when he met with the brick maker who had been in the
station for more than a year without making bricks. For Marlow, the
manager inspired “uneasiness”, and the pilgrims were “faithless”. Thus,
Marlow denounced the white man’s colonialism indirectly; instead of
bringing civilization, they invaded the country. Thus, we can say that the
following description of nature enhances one of the very important themes
in the novel; that of appearance and reality:

“They wondered here and there with their

upsurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of
faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten
fence. The word ivory rang in the air, was
whispered, was sighed. You would think they
were paying for it. A taint of imbecile rapacity
blew through it all, like a whiff from some
corpse. By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so

- 55 -
 unreal in my life. And outside, the silent
wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the
earth struck me as something great and
invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for
the passing away of this fantastic invasion”

( HD: 33 )

In short, the white men were corrupt, they imprisoned the natives, stole
from them, and murdered any one they wanted to. Their activities
throughout all the book were viewed by Marlow as insane and pointless.
They spent their existence grubbing for ivory or plotting against each other
for position and status. In the above extract (HD:33), we see how the
narrator shifted from describing the white men to the description of nature
to imply his personal feelings and thoughts because every thing seemed to
him as unreal, that’s why most of his descriptions of nature were somewhat
a sort of enigma that needs to be answered. According to Clay Lee Daniel(
1980: 11), the last lines of the quotation that deal with the description of
the wilderness express the question Marlow must answer. Is this “great and
invincible” an evil or truth? Marlow must decide what it will be to him. He
wanted to find the relation between the wilderness and the pilgrims’ deeds.
If he rejects this savage land as a truth, it will become an evil- Marlow’s
evil. If on the other hand Marlow accepts the primitive savagery of the
jungle as an echo of his own soul, he will escape the merciless wratch of the
primordial’s asserting its dominion over him.

This theme of appearance and reality is demonstrated through

Marlow’s unreliable and distorted knowledge. For example, he was not able
to decipher the message he found before arriving to the inner station, and
why did the firing of the continent happened or why did the incident of the
fire happened and a negro was beaten for that.

- 56 -
 Thus, Marlow was surprised because of the contradictions he saw. The
fact that he presented the wilderness as something mysterious, or as an
enigma, this reflected his bewilderment and uncertainty to understand why
the white men behaved in such a way:

“ Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the

moonlight, and through the dim stir, through the faint
sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the
land went home to one’s very heart- its mystery , its
greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life”

( HD: 37)

Due to the use of such words as: spectrally, dim, faint, lamentable, this
extract expresses a negative tone which reflects not only the sad feeling of
Marlow but also his fear as if he was traveling to the unknown.

Nature which, according to Foster ( 2000), attracts every spirit eager

for beauty, movement and freedom was described by Marlow with a
gloomy and sad manner. In fact we see nature through Marlow’s eyes, so
every thing said about nature may be a clue to his own thoughts and
feelings the fact which reflected Marlow’s love of truth and his desire to
communicate it for his audience:

“a man’s power to connect his thought with its (

nature) proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on
the simplicity of his character, that is upon his love of
truth, and his desire to communicate it without a
loss” (R. W. Emerson).

To illustrate, when Marlow had a long conversation with the brick

maker, he went directly to the description of nature to imply two main
ideas:
- 57 -
 “ The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove!
was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval
forest was before my eyes; there were shiny
patches on the black creek. The moon had
spread over everything a thin layer of silver-
over the rank, grass over the mud, upon the wall
of matted vegetation standing higher than the
wall of a temple, over the great river I could see
through a somber gap glittering, glittering, as it
flowed broadly by without a murmur. All this
was great, expectant, mute, while the man
jabbered about himself. I wondered whether the
stillness on the face of the immensity looking at
us two were meant as an appeal or as a
menace.”

(HD:38)

First, through the use of such words as: shiny, moon, silver and
glittering, there is a connotation that Marlow was going to come up with a
new type of knowledge because it is always agreed on the association of
light with knowledge. Indeed, at the beginning of his narrative, he has
anticipated that this experience had made him a changed man. He was
getting a new knowledge about himself and about the human nature.
Therefore, Marlow’s voyage along the Congo river becomes ‘a figure of
man’s apprehensive return to his primeval origins, a voyage in which the
self is frightened bewitched, stripped of the ideological conventions it once
relied on to understand the world, and confronted by a malevolent reality
which shares back at the disoriented traveler with an unsettling gaze. The
voyage becomes a figure for the search for truth as Marlow said: “ a truth
stripped of its cloak of time” ( HD: 97), Edward Garnett ( 1902) in his

- 58 -
article ‘On Heart of Darkness’ emphasized this idea, that this superficial
journey had deeper meanings:

“ For the art of ‘ Heart of Darkness’ as in

every psychological masterpiece, lies in the relation
of the things of the spirit to the things of the flesh, of
the invisible life to the visible, of the subconscious life
within us, our obscure motives and instincts, to our
conscious actions, feelings and outlook”

( E. Garnett, 1902: 26)

It has become clear to the reader that Marlow as well as confronting the
immediate difficulties of his physical journey, was also engaged in an
extended spiritual pilgrimage or quest. ( R. Adams, 1991: 42).

Moreover we see in Jameson’s words what supports this idea: “a

new myth about the ‘meaning’ of life and the absurdity of existence in the
face of a malevolent nature” (John Parras, 2006) Marlow even said it :

“It was the farthest point of navigation and the

culminating point of my experience. It seemed
somehow to throw a kind of light on everything
about me- and into my thoughts”

( HD:11)

Second, the fact that Marlow, when describing the stillness, could
not decide whether it was “an appeal or a menace” ( HD: 38 ), this reflected
his fear and his inability to understand what was happening in the Outer
station because of the many contradictions he saw. For Marlow, nature was
corrupted by the white men’s deeds, that is why it may be asking for an aid,
or it may be as a menace to refer to its power and danger on the human soul

- 59 -
who corrupted it. And here, we see the use of the technique of
foreshadowing by the writer to refer later to its impact on Kurtz.

Marlow’s description of nature may be considered as a relief for him

because it was the only thing that was real even though he showed how the
wilderness appeared solid, vital, horrific, evoking complex responses in the
Europeans:

In the Inner station, the final station, Marlow met with the harlequin
who talked to him too much about Kurtz. For the harlequin, Kurtz made
many things; he enlarged his mind, he invaded the country, he killed the
natives, he collected a lot of ivory and also made the natives adore him. At
this moment, Marlow was getting knowledge out of this tale “ending in
deep sights”( HD: 81). It was a knowledge about the existence of evil
within himself , and within all the human kind:

“There was no sign on the face of nature of this

amazing tale that was not so much told as
suggested to me in desolate exclamations,
completed by shrugs in interpreted phrases, in
hints ending in deep sights”

(HD:81)

Moreover, the above idea is reinforced through the following

description where for Marlow nature was hiding some kind of truth, that
truth which he found later about himself and about the human nature in
general:

“The woods were unmoved, like a mask-heavy like the

closed door of a prison- they looked with their air of
hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of
unapproachable silence”
- 60 -
 (HD: 81)

According to James Guetti (1965: 76) in his article ‘The Failure of The
Imagination’, saw that Marlow discovered a new sort of reality . It was a
reality which existed in the realization that ‘surface’ and ‘heart’ are
inevitably separate matters, and that mind can have ordered awareness only
of the former. In addition, Marlow’s final reality is a state of suspension
between the disciplined world of mind and language and the world of
essences at the center of experience.

That’s why Marlow’s journey along the Congo river is interpreted

by some critics as a journey into his self, and how it recreates a voyage of
self discovery. It was through the character of Kurtz, that Marlow learnt
about the ability of man for evil deeds and thus, he discovered himself:

“ But Marlow reiterates often enough that he is

recounting a spiritual voyage of self discovery”,
(Albert J. Guerard,1958: 52).

In addition, in his article “ The Journey Within”, Guerard (1958) saw

that the story was not primarily about Kurtz or about the brutality of
Belgian officials but about Marlow its narrator. Furthermore, his journey
was an apportunity for him to test his capacity in discriminating between
good and evil. He returned to Europe a changed and a more knowing man:

“Marlow’s trip from Europe to the Outer, then, to the

Central station tests his capacity to discriminate
between good and evil since he witnessed actions that
elicit a moral judgement from him, such as the futile
firing of a man of war into the African continent”

( Hena Maes-Jelinek, 1996:38-39)

- 61 -
 For some critics, the fact that Marlow sailed along the Congo river
around the jungle and not actually into the jungle is also a symbol. Marlow
never walked the path that Kurtz did to self destruction. Thus, he avoided
getting captured by evil. In fact, Baines( 1960) posed as the theme of the
story the relationship of Kurtz, Marlow, and Africa and the presence of evil:

“The somber theme of the story, in part at

least, is the conflict between the power of the
wilderness to release ‘ forgotten and brutal instincts’
and the capacity of the human being to withstand this
pressure. Thus Marlow, like Kurtz, is subjected to the
test of the wilderness” ( J. Baines, 1960: 226).

In addition, Baines (1960) emphasized Marlow’s assertions that the

“powers of darkness” could be dispersed with one’s “capacity for
faithfulness”, “own true stuff” and “inborn strength”, or to what one is
supposed to be faithful. This “inborn strength” according to Guerard (1958)
appeared to include restraint, a value that Kurtz lacked and the cannibal
crew surprisingly possessed.

Indeed Marlow’s structured desires where what protected him from

being overwhelmed by the forest’s horrible meanings. Marlow invoked
such structured desires by a series of ‘excuses’ for his not understanding the
forest; he even declared it when he avoided returning to the forest’s gaze:

“ I had no time. I had to keep guessing at the channel;

I had to discern …the signs of hidden banks…I had to
keep a look-out for some signs of dead wood we could
cut up in the night for next day’s steaming” (HD:

Therefore, forced to keep himself with surface matters as the demands of

seamanship and steam, Marlow protected himself from the peripheral
seductions of nature:
- 62 -
 “Thus Marlow was proof against the direct challenge
of the wilderness straightforwardly expressing the
primitive, but he was also confronted with the
challenge of Kurtz, or rather of the wilderness
expressing itself through Kurtz” ( Baines, 1960: 227)

Therefore, Marlow confronted the wilderness as a test, and C. L. Daniel

(1980: 11) pointed to the different phrases (referring to nature) Marlow said
when he proceeded toward the culmination of the first portion of the story:

“ Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us? I felt how big;
how confoundedly big, was that thing…” (HD: 43)

As they inch farther into the jungle, Marlow described the land’s:

“…lurking death…the hidden evil… the profound darkness of its heart…”

(HD: 54)

By exploring the jungle, Marlow was discovering himself, and thus,

Conrad was trying to convey an impression about the heart of man. This
means that the jungle may be compared to evil that exists inside man and
waits only for adequate circumstances to be revealed. Hence, the title of the
novel can be symbolic. The ‘Darkness’ is symbolically the evil part in
man’s heart, and Marlow’s journey enabled him to discover this dark part
that it is existent in every human being through Kurtz:

“ In his meeting with Kurtz, Marlow is finally

confronted by the heart of darkness; the earlier
manifestations of evil, like his touches of fever, are no
more than ‘playful paw strokes of the wilderness, the

- 63 -
 preliminary trifling before the more serious
onslaught” (D. Hewitt, 1952: 22)

According to Hewitt ( 1952), this confrontation is very important because it

produces a bond between the two men. This bond is formed out of two
reasons: one Marlow flees the repugnant morality of the “pilgrims”, and the
other as Hewitt ( 1952: 24-25) mentioned it “ He accepts the bond
established between them, just as he has accepted the bond between himself
and the savage clamor from the riverbank on the journey upstream”.

In Hewitt’s view, Marlow’s acceptance of Kurtz signifies Marlow’s

acceptance of his own evil, and also his realization that evil is an inherent
trait of mankind:

“…the darkness which exists in the breast of

Kurtz…seems to cover the whole world…His is a
darkness which every man may be forced to meet
within himself”( Ibid: 26).

2.2.5.Nature and Kurtz

Most of the critics agree on Conrad’s interest in the moral conflict of

most of his characters. By placing them in certain circumstances, all the
conventional values are broken. As a result,, they are drawn by their
insidious forces of evil that may lead them to destruction. Hence nature,
though it was silent, was behind the moral dilemma and the degeneration of
Kurtz who had unlimited lusts for power and money. His dilemma aroused
because of his struggle between what he once was and what he became with
his life in the jungle. The feeling of superiority Kurtz was practicing was
enhanced by the environment:

- 64 -
 “ It is one of the greatest points of Conrad’s
story that Marlow speaks of the primitive life of
the jungle not as being noble or charming or
even free but as being base and sordid and for
that reason compelling: he himself feels quiet
overtly its dreadful attraction. It is to this
devilish baseness that Kurtz has yielded
himself,…”

(Lionel Trilling,1965: 64)

In addition, the jungle imposes no restraints upon the behaviour of

the individual. The importance Conrad gave to the character of Kurtz is
due to his belief in fidelity. The lack of this virtue may result in despair:

“ In Some Reminisences (1912), he wrote: ‘

Those who read me know my conviction that the
world, the temporal world, rests on a few very
simple ideas: so simple that they must be as old
as the hills. It rests notably among others, on the
idea of fidelity’. “

( S. Coote, 1993: 585)

Thus, knowing more about Conrad’s beliefs such as the idea of fidelity, one
can better understand the character of Kurtz in the novel.

For Marlow, what kept the white men away from the influence of the
jungle was due to the fact that they kept themselves with surface activities,
thus, they can not hear the whisperings of the silent jungle and the darkness
in their hearts becomes buried. For example, the Chief Accountant of the

- 65 -
government station occupied himself by keeping an excellent appearance
among the chaos of the station. However, Kurtz was the exception.

Kurtz, the second main character, was a decent Englishman, and a

practitioner of several arts; a painter, a writer, a musician and a political
orator. He was the chief of the company in the Inner station. Many noble
qualities were ascribed to him “ a prodigy”, “ an emissary of pity and
science” which all Europe contributed to produce and as C. L. Daniel
( 1980) described, Kurtz was the product of countless years of progress. In
addition, he was highly esteemed by the International Society for the
Suppression of Savage Customs, that “ they intrusted him with the making
of a report, for its future guidance”(HD)

However, In the Congo then, around the house of Kurtz, the

ornamental beauty was replaced by signs of a violent system of authority
and dominance. There were the heads of the natives. At this moment
Marlow told his judgment to his listeners about Kurtz “ they ( referring to
the heads) only showed that Mr Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification
of his various lusts” ( HD: 57).

On explaining Kurtz moral annihilation, Baines (1960) reproduces

Marlow’s assessment of Kurtz:

“Kurtz is doomed to become “a victim of the

wilderness, of his unconscious, when he is released
from the social restrictions of organized society;
freedom from outer restraint expresses the absence of
inner restraint”( Baines, 1960: 227)

Kurtz found himself in a world away from the restraints of law,

social morality and public opinion. Therefore, he has given himself to his
uncontrolled lusts because he lacked restraint, and as Marlow described
him, he was “hollow at the core” ( HD:83). In the following, Marlow
- 66 -
described the effect of the wilderness upon him because he has changed
into a brutal creature:

“The wilderness seemed to draw him to its pitiless

breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal
instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous
passions. This alone had beguiled his unlawful soul
beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations.”
( HD: 112)

So Marlow spoke of the primitive life of the jungle not as being noble or
charming but as being base and sordid and for that reason compelling.

Indeed, Through out the narrative, nature was not passive, Conrad has
dealt with it, in some moments, in a way to demonstrate its power and role
in the events of the story and more precisely on Kurtz’s soul. In many
extracts, Marlow showed the effect of the wilderness upon Kurtz:

“ But the wilderness had found him out early,

and had taken on him a terrible vengeance…I think it
whispered to him things about himself which he did
not know, things of which he had no conception till he
took counsel with this great solitude- and the whisper
had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly
within him because he was hollow at the core…”
(HD: 98)

Moreover, we find another extract which emphasized the influence of the

wilderness on Kurtz, when Marlow said:

“ The wilderness… embraced him, got into his veins,

consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by

- 67 -
 the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish
initiation” (HD: 81)

Even though nature’s description looked as something great,

beautiful, vivid, and pulsing but at the same time it suggested a powerful
and a fearful atmosphere:

“ Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive,

immense, running up high; and at their foot,
hugging the bank against the stream, crept the
little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle
crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made
you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not
altogether depressing that feeling…The reaches
opened before us and closed behind, as if the
forest had stepped leisurely across the water to
bar the way for out return”

( HD: 50)

The personification of the forest in this description, Marlow shows

how man feels very weak and small and lost when compared with it. This
extract shows how Conrad was ironical in the opposition between the
littleness of man and the powerful greatness of the landscape. Man is
helpless in front of nature. It had the capacity of influencing those who
come into it. Thus, they may loose themselves in it and may get rid of their
social and moral conventions like what happened to Kurtz.

According to C. L. Daniel (1980), Kurtz dismissed the natives as inhumans,

and thus unworthy of human treatment, pursued them with a lusty ferocity
in an effort to satiate his various lusts. By denying their humanity, Kurtz
denied his own humanity, and so became less human.

- 68 -
From an emissary of pity and science, Kurtz changed as Marlow described
him:

“ His was an impenetrable darkness… a man who is

lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never
shines” (HD: 117). (a description which suggested
evil.)

Marlow continued:

“ I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber

pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror- of an
intense and hopeless despair…he cried at some vision
‘the horror! The horror!” (HD: 100)

In spite of all Kurtz’s deed’s, and in spite of all Marlow’s thoughts, the
narrator seemed to sympathize with Kurtz and consequently, give an
explanation to what happened to him by describing his life in the jungle:

“He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of

the land,…how can you imagine what particular
region of the first ages a man’s untrammeled
feet may take him into by the way of solitude-
utter solitude- utter silence, where no warning
voice of a kind neighbour can be heard
whispering of public opinion? These little things
make all the great difference. When they are
gone you must fall back upon your own innate
strength, upon your own capacity for
faithfulness. Of course you must be too much of
a fool to go wrong- too dull even to know you
are being assaulted by the powers of darkness”

- 69 -
 (HD: 70)

Kurtz was alone in the silent jungle, isolated, without a neighbour or a

warning voice to hinder the voice of evil inside him from whispering. Thus,
in the story, the wilderness is more than a backdrop for the plot. It is a
relentless force that continually beckons the characters to shed the restraints
of civilization and to gratify the abominable desires of their hearts.
According to J. Guetti in his article ‘The Failure of the Imagination’( 1965:
70), Marlow suggested at certain moments that in struggling with death or
perhaps with a wilderness, it is most difficult for a man to see any reality in
a connection between moral rights and his experience. This interpretation
suggests as if Kurtz was in struggle with the relentless wilderness which
ended with his failure.

In fact, there was foreshadowing in the narrative which can be

related to the degradation of Kurtz when Marlow said:

“…The mind of man is capable of anything-

because everything is in it…, all the past as well
all the future”

(HD: 52)

As a result to what have been said, Kurtz who came from Europe to
civilize the natives, succumbed to the savagery of the wilderness. He gave
up his high aspirations and principles. As an alternative, he brought out the
dark side in his heart and all the evil desires were revealed. Therefore, the
full significance of the wilderness can be embodied in some way in the
character of Kurtz. Thus, Kurtz’s last words “The horror, the horror”
( HD:100) to Marlow were to form not only his judgment about himself but
also for all mankind about the existence of evil inside each man. At the
moment of his death, Kurtz was able to recognize the cruelty of his deeds;
so the wilderness had the power to show him the truth about himself.
- 70 -
Ruthven (1968) sees that either in Europe or in Africa evil exists
everywhere, the only difference is that in Europe it is veiled with the
prevailing ideas that they are civilized and that they can bring light to the
African continent; however, deeply Europe was characterized by Marlow as
a place of dead values “ whited sepulcher” ( HD:55) due to the evil deeds of
the white man in the African Congo. In other words, darkness exists even in
Europe, that is inside the pretending civilization:

“ …for the choice Kurtz is required to make is not

between a good Europe and a bad Africa but between
two different kinds of badness: Kurtz must choose
between the mausoleum of Europe and the Wilderness
of Africa. Europe is presented persistently as a place
of death ‘ whited sepulchre’(HD: 55) which is by
implication a museum of dead values. Africa on the
other hand, is an alien world, Europe’s antitype, a
place at once horrific and vital, evoking complex
responses in the European”

( K. K. Ruthven,1968: 78)

Thus, when Marlow met Kurtz, he became aware of the radical

disconjunction between words and things.

Among the elements of the setting, there is the weather which

everything that applies to the setting applies also to the weather. The fog
can be used for a decorative purpose as it can be used as an adjunct to the
action, or it can be used to illustrate a character.

The fog can also be used as a symbol: before arriving to the inner
station, when there was only eight miles left, Marlow talked about a fog that
settled over the river which made them deaf and blind, and this was,
according to critics, symbolical to anticipate the moral situation in which
- 71 -
Kurtz has placed himself in the Inner station. Thus, the fog was both used
as an adjunct to the action and to foreshadow the moral situation in which
Kurtz found himself: he was morally blind:

“ When the sun rose, there was a white fog, very

warm and clammy, and more blinding than the
night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there,
standing all around you like something solid”

(HD: 56)

When Marlow arrived to the Inner station, where Kurtz was laying ill
and needed to be rescued, he first met with the harlequin who talked too
much about Kurtz who killed many of the natives, and put their heads on
the stakes around his house without any mercy. Within his conversation
with the harlequin, Marlow has shifted to talk about nature, and therefore he
expressed the nature’s toughness through such words as hopeless, dark,
impenetrable, pitiless in order to refer to evil, as far as Kurtz is concerned:

“ I looked around, and I don’t know why but I

assure you that 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”

( HD: 79)

Through Kurtz, Conrad presented man not in society but in nature to

show man’s limitless ability for evil when he lacks fidelity and restraint.
Marlow stated that what keeps the white man on the right path is the

- 72 -
presence of many institutions such as the butcher and the policeman which
a civilized society sets up to ensure order. In the absence of these
institutions, man’s brutal instincts are released and turned into harsh
actions. That’s why it was important, for Marlow, that man must keep
himself with matters of the surface to defend himself against the danger of
nature.

Through the influence of the wilderness, the basic human nature is

revealed. Having none of the barriers created by society, man’s pretensions
are destroyed. That was the truth which Marlow found out of his journey.
Edward Garnett ( 1981) commented on HD saying that:

“…so the art of Heart of Darkness implies the

catching of infinite shades of the white man’s
uneasy, disconcerted, and fantastic relations
with the exploited barbarism of Africa; it
implies the acutest analysis of the deterioration
of the white man’s moral when he is let loose
from European restraint, and planted down in
the tropics as an ‘emissary of light’ armed to the
teeth, to make trade profits out of the ‘subject
races’

( Edward Garnett, 1902:26)

Therefore, the dark heart of Africa forces both of Marlow and Kurtz to
look at the darkness within themselves and generalize it for all human kind.

If one follows the extracts depicted for the description of nature

through out the novel, which dealt with Kurtz’s degeneration, there was a
tactful depiction of the extracts throughout the narrative in order to
convince the reader about its power and also support the events the story.

- 73 -
 2.3. Conclusion

In trying to find out the role of nature as a symbol in the narrative,

it is important to mention that there may be other implications meant by the
writer. However, in this chapter, the scope is limited into its relation with
the two important characters in the novel, i.e, Marlow and Kurtz.

Thanks to the theories of literary criticism, which rely on the

context, either within the text or outside it, we can get deep insights into
both Marlow and Kurtz. Any critic can analyse nature from any angle or
position he takes provided that he gives his own arguments. Thus, nature as
a theme in the novel can have many functions.

From this short study of nature, we come up with the following

results:

- The biographical approach provided us with some hints about

Conrad’s themes and beliefs, and thus, we were able to project it
in the data under scrutiny.

- The New Criticism approach allowed us to concentrate on the

context of appearance of the extracts dealing with nature to find
out their relation in the narrative. It has shown how Conrad told
his story through nature.

- Within the narrative, the context has helped us in understanding

the use of nature. Thus, the context is indispensable in literary
criticism.

- Conrad used nature as a symbol in HD.

- Nature played two roles in the narrative: it was as a setting and

also an agent in the actions of the story.

- 74 -
- Through describing nature we get hints about Marlow’s
thoughts and feelings.

- Nature, in contrast to society can have dangerous effects on the

human soul when it lacks fidelity and restraint like what
happened to kurtz.

- Nature allowed both Marlow and Kurtz to see the truth about
themselves and about man in general. This truth which they
would not arrive at if they stayed in the European societies.

- 75 -
CHAPTER THREE

- 75 -
 CHAPTER THREE

Simile and nature

3.1. Introduction

In the previous chapter, we tried to find the role of nature in the

narrative from a literary criticism point of view where most of the
interpretations were thematic. Concerning the study of HD from a linguistic
viewpoint, there were only very little works. One can mention; Stampfl
(1991), who gave a psychological interpretation of frequent linguistic
features, Erickson ( 2002) identified stylistic features which appear to
represent interference from French; Conrad’s second language after his
native Polish, and Greamy (2002) about language as a theme in Conrad’s
books.

In this chapter, we try to analyse nature through the linguistic feature

simile.

3.2. Simile as a linguistic feature

In HD, we notice that simile was a recurrent feature. Conrad used the
following conjunctions: ‘as, like, as though and as if’ in order to express it.
There was an unusual use of simile; it occurred 288 times through out the
novel, among them there were 33 used for the description of nature. These
statistics attract our attention to consider it as a characteristic use of
language and consider it a linguistic feature worth of studying. For in
overusing it, the writer has shown a linguistic choice. Thus, in order to find
out what did similes add to the theme of nature, we shall try to describe it
from a linguistic point of view and relate this description to the literary
interpretation and then, we shall try to find out its effect on the reader.

- 76 -
3.3. Simile and nature

In literature, writers use many techniques to make their writings

interesting whether consciously or unconsciously. Among these techniques
is the figurative language such as the use of metaphors, similes,
personification, irony. In the figurative language we connect the literal
meaning of language ( that of the dictionary) with the imagined one created
by the writer. So in HD, simile helped the writer to create a new image
about nature in the mind of the reader. As we know, simile is mostly used to
compare two things that have similar qualities, in HD, it had a different use.
It was made to explain something unfamiliar through its similarities to
something familiar. In addition, Conrad used similes in order to paint
images in our mind. As an example, we see the following extract from
Conrad’s HD:

“…the very mist on the Essex marches was like a

gauzy and radiant fabric” (HD: 06)

The main clause ‘the very mist on the Essex’ was modified by the
dependent clause ‘a gauzy and radiant fabric’. In this comparison of
similarity, the writer tries to bring out a nearer picture about the unknown
nature of the mist in the mind of the reader through attributing it to
something familiar. Thus, it enables the reader imagine the scene as if he
was in Essex and witnessing it with his own eyes.

Aristotle said that the aim of art is to present not the outward
appearance of things, but their inward significance. If that be the case, then
Conrad is a true artist regarding the pictures he paints with his work HD.
Conrad’s most effective literary tool for plot development and expressing
the theme is his use of imagery(1).

- 77 -
 Conrad’s choice of words craft an exceptional experience. He
effectively evoked a dreamlike image of the jungle by using language. In
addition, we come to understand the setting from Marlow’s point of view as
he experienced things.

Many critics have commented on Conrad’s evocative powers in HD,

paying particular attention to the use of imagery to evoke a sinister
atmosphere through the accretion of objectively described details of the
African jungle. Indeed, the description of nature contains a rich imagery
which compels the reader to take an active part in understanding the novel.
There was an artistic cohesion of themes and images. H. M. Jelinek ( 1996)
claimed that Conrad himself saw the ‘image’ as the fittest instrument of
imagination to render what was most essential in human beings:

“ He also revealed that in writing his novel he did not

start with an abstract notion: ‘I start with definite
images’. ”. H.M. Jelinek ( 1996, 65)

The professor J. Hillis Miller ( 1998), claimed that we should read HD

as a literary work due to its elaborate tissue of figures and other rhetorical
devices that make up the texture of the text. The simplest and most obvious
of these devices is the use of similes, signalled by ‘like’ or ‘as’. These
similes displace things that are named and asserts that they are like
something else.

When reading HD, it is impossible not to notice the writer’s recurrent

use of simile in the description of nature. As a figurative language, simile
was employed by the writer in order to help the reader visualize (or see)
what is happening in the story through Marlow’s eyes. In addition, the
writer’s use of simile helped in conveying many images. In fact, through
simile, the writer used imagery as a narratological tool in order to present us
with some important themes in the novel.

- 78 -
 Images in HD suggest further meanings and associations in ways that
go beyond the fairly simple identifications of simile.

There are several types of imagery employed by the writer in order to

describe nature. The most noticeable one was the use of animal imagery.
According to the online dictionary of symbolism “ animal imagery seeks to
depict generally negative qualities and instincts relevant to human nature”:

“But there was in it one river especially a mighty big

river, that you could see on the map, resembling an
immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its
body at rest curving a far over a vast country, and its
tail lost in the depths of the land” (HD: 12)

The clause “ an immense snake uncoiled with its head in the sea, its body at
rest curving over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land”
modified the main clause “ But there was in it one river especially a mighty
big river that you could see on the map”. This modification through the
conjunction of comparison ‘like’ evokes in the mind of the reader a picture
of nature as being a deceiver and a cheater. Through this modification of
the river, the writer wants to obscure the interpretation of the coming events
in the mind of the reader.

Marlow compared the Congo river to a snake. Depending on social and

cultural contexts, the snake can represent negative aspects of existence such
as destruction, evil, death, and poisonous behaviour, as well as temptation
and deceit. Consequently, it comes as no surprise to us that Conrad chose to
use the serpent imagery in a story that revolves around a main character’s
moral dilemmas. ( Antonenn 2001)

In this modification, we are given more than one important clue of

information in this passage. First of all, the image of a serpent is used to

- 79 -
signify a river that runs from the sea through the dark jungles into the heart
of the Congo. This is the very river that Marlow and his crew travel on in
search of Kurtz. Secondly, the snake itself can be interpreted as being an
evil creation. Thus, by combining these two, we may presume that the river
in the shape of a snake glides through the jungle into the open ocean,
leaving death, destruction and evil along its way. This interpretation is
confirmed by Marlow right at the beginning before he goes to the Congo ,
when he commented that “ the river was there, fascinating, deadly like a
snake” ( HD: 15). Therefore, the reader can predict that through Marlow’s
journey, he is going to witness various demonstrations and exhibitions of
destruction, death and deceit, that it will not be an enjoyable journey.
Indeed, the first critical incident in the story occurred when Marlow had to
wait several months in the station in order to repair his ship to continue his
quest, in addition to his encounter with the death of the black natives whom
many of them have walked into the shadows to die peacefully, and most
important the death of Kurtz. Thus, the connection between the serpent
imagery and the moral difficulties of Marlow is obvious.

Furthermore, according to Hillis ( 1998), another interpretation of

Conrad’s way of expressing himself in this way may show that objects
have soul and if that be the case, it would help to explain the extended
imagery of Marlow’s boat as a crawling beetle:

“ Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense,

running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank
against the stream, crept the little begrimed
steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor
of a lofty portico” ( HD: 50)

For Short and Leech ( 1981) a simile serves to animate what is inanimate.
They give the following example:

- 80 -
“Flames like red sores licking its ashy sides”(P:95)

Indeed, similes gave liveliness and vivacity to nature through

personification and using some verbs of motion to emphasize the idea that it
has a role in the narrative:

“The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as

if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to
bar the way for out return” (HD:50).

In modifying the main clause ‘The reaches opened before us and closed
behind’ by the dependent clause ‘the forest had stepped leisurely across
the water to bar the way for out return’, we are in front of nature that has
the action of embracing the comers. This image contributes as a tool to
suggest to the reader an impression about the effect of nature like its power
in revealing the evil instincts of the pilgrims.

Therefore, in using similes for the description of nature, Conrad

conveyed images that went behind entertaining the reader because he
added unusual qualities and significance to it that transcend its conventional
functions. According to E. M. Foster (2000), nature which as a natural
space attracts every spirit eager for beauty, movement and freedom, was
given negative connotations in most of the extracts dealing with its
description . The frequent negatives represent a world which is alien,
strange, foreign, contrary to cultural expectations and impenetrable to
human thought. We notice this gloomy image about nature to show to the
reader that Marlow’s journey was not delightful, and to interfere to the
general mood of the story.

Therefore, Conrad’s imagery has shown to be of a higher denotative as well

as a higher connotative quality. It had the power to make the reader
visualize the scene described and then deduce from it the writer’s theme:

- 81 -
“ …in his novel, Conrad is content to imply rather than to
define”(Allinghamm, 2000)

We notice in the use of simile for the description of nature another type of
imagery, i.e, the conceptual imagery. It is related to the way Marlow
conceived what he perceived. According to J. A. Cuddon (1998), a
perceptual imagery is the thing that can be visualized, whereas the
conceptual image is that which one has an idea of it. In the redescription of
a perceptual experience onto a conceptual structure, Marlow had an image
schema(2) about his journey experience reflected some times through the
description of nature. Marlow was generating mental images all the time.
Therefore, according to D. Guadagnino, his story could not be real
memories but perceptions of the memories, mutated with time, flourished
by the total experience.

Furthermore, we see the power of the conceptual imagery in knowing

the thoughts and opinions of Marlow which were not expressed explicitly,
everything was implicit. It becomes the task of the reader to find them out
through the analysis of the tools and techniques employed by the writer via
language. So, in order to communicate his meanings, simile was one of his
tools.

Through the image schema, we get hints about Marlow’s anti imperialist
views:

“The visual image is a sensation or a perception, but

it also ‘stands for’, refers to , something invisible. It
can be both presentation and representation”

( Welleck and Austin, 1985: 188)

- 82 -
 In fact, when a writer describes the physical surrounding of a character
such as his house, his clothes or the way he speaks, he is actually equipping
the reader with more clues about the personality and the state of that
character. Indeed, the setting played a critical role in describing how
Marlow felt about the entire adventure he endured. In the following extract,
we see how Marlow after his conversation with the ‘uneasy’ manager, who
reflected the nature of the white colonialism in Congo, he moved to the
description of nature:

“And outside the silent wilderness surrounding this

cleared speck on the earth struck me as something
great and invincible, like evil or truth waiting
patiently for the passing away of this fantastic
invasion”(HD: 33).

Both the subordinate clauses ‘something great and invincible’ and ‘evil or
truth’ modify the main clause ‘And outside the silent wilderness
surrounding this cleared this cleared speck on the earth’. This modification
reinforces to the reader Marlow’s fear and shock and because the writer
employed the verb ‘struck’ and also his use of the subordinate clauses
which may mirror Marlow’s implicit opinions about the white man due to
the many contradictions he witnessed in the station that led to the
emergence of such feelings and judgements. In using the clause ‘waiting
patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion’ the reader infers
that Marlow was giving his judgement about the nature of the existence of
the white man in the African Congo as he witnessed the corruption of the
system and realized how easy it is to loose sight of reality and be taken by
the environment. In trying to interpret Marlow’s feelings as far as his
experience is concerned, D. Guadagnino, sees that the geographically
transplanted white men were so far removed from imposed structural laws,
that they were ill equipped to survive in nature, to respond to the innate

- 83 -
laws of nature. Civilized man no longer saw himself as part of nature, he
was not just separate but superior and impious. In other words, Marlow was
implicitly attacking imperialism.

In fact, according to F. Galvan ( 2005), the interpretation of HD would

never be complete, however, if we did not consider the political issues
raised in the text. For him, there has been a common belief that HD was
one of the most emblematic anti-colonial literary works because at one time
the Poland’s occupation by Russia and the personal suffering inflicted on
Conrad by this circumstance ( his parents who were patriot nationalists
were sent into exile where they promptly died) is considered as the main
reason for the publication of a work with an obvious anti- colonial slant.

Moreover, via this comparison of similarity, Marlow wanted to create a

gloomy image in the mind of the reader which reflect his thoughts and
attitudes in order to attract his attention for the importance of his journey
and the discoveries he made about the reality of the white colonist. For,
Marlow made personal discoveries out of his journey about the human
nature and he wanted to convey them to the reader in an indirect way.
Indeed, we see that mysterious atmosphere right from the beginning of the
novel where Marlow compared the coast to an ‘enigma’:

“I watched the coast watching a coast as it slips by

the ships is like thinking about an enigma”
( HD: 19).

Comparing nature to an enigma may refer to Marlow’s unreliable and

distorted knowledge because at some moments he could not understand
many things he saw like the firing of the continent, or the faded message he
could not decipher or the heads of the natives around the house of Kurtz.
Right from the beginning, we can see the effect of Marlow’s words on his
audience. Thus, in this way the writer engaged the reader to try to follow

- 84 -
Marlow’s tale in order to understand why did he describe the coast in such a
way to come up at the end of the story with Marlow’s findings about good
and evil in every man’s heart.

In another hand, for H. M. Jelinek ( 1996), presenting Africa as a an

‘enigma’ may stand for an inner reality to be explored, an impression
emphasized by the complete muteness of the land. This reality refers to the
existence of evil inside each man or each civilization.

In the analysis of nature, each time the writer described nature, he

gave it negative qualities and simile helped him to convey this impression
to the reader. This impression contributed to the building up of the meaning
of the narration. The reader can deduce the meanings of destruction,
blindness, death, hate, deception, slavery, exploitation. In other words,
nature was given the qualities of evil, which Marlow discovered inside the
heart of Kurtz which led him to self destruction. Most literate people know
that by probing into the heart of the jungle Conrad was trying to convey an
impression about the heart of man. In other words, when Marlow described
the jungle he was referring to the heart of man. Hence, the title of the novel
was symbolic. In HD, there are many extracts which guide the reader to this
type of impression:

“This one (referring to the coast) was almost

featureless, as if still in the making with an aspect of
monotonous grimness”(HD:19).

The subordinate clause ‘still in the making with an aspect of monotonous

grimness’ which modifies the main clause ‘This one was almost featureless’
presents nature as something hateful which reflects evil in the heart of man.
The adjectives ‘featureless’, ‘monotonous’ and the noun ‘ grimness’ add to
the negative qualities of nature, and thus, relate to the characteristics of evil.

- 85 -
 The darkness imagery was intensely employed through out the
narrative. Everything in the book was cloaked with darkness. Africa,
England and Brussels were all described as gloomy and somehow dark.
Thus, darkness seemed to operate metaphorically. For the idea of darkness
was present right from the title of the novel and continued to play an
important role throughout the story. In the following, simile demonstrates
the theme of darkness:

“And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the

sun sank low, and from glowing white changed to a
dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to
go out suddenly, striken to death by the touch of that
gloom brooding over a crowd of man”(HD: 06).

Conrad felt that using ‘darkness’ as a reccuring theme through out the
story would be an effective tool because of the many connotations of
darkness. Darkness can, for example, represent evil, the unknown, mystery,
sadness or fear.

According to L Berezowski, Conrad sheds a bright light onto the

inherent darkness of our human inclinations, stripped of pretense, in the
middle of the jungle where those savage tendencies are provided with a
fertile ground. In addition, the combination of greed, climate and the
demoralizing effect of frontier life brought out the worst in people.

Thus, the reader may appreciate the deep darkness of the African jungle and
at the same time discovers the darkness inside the heart of man in general
through Marlow’s implicit wonders about his own darkness when he said:

- 86 -
 “ I assure you that never before did this land, this
river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky
appear to me so hopeless and so dark” ( HD: 79)

We can see the emphasis on the darkness imagery when we read

the following example:

“The very end of the world, a sea the colour of lead, a

sky the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid
as a concertina…” ( HD: 09)

Notice the use of adjectives which connote darkness, ‘lead’, smoke’, rigid’
which contribute in evoking in the mind of the reader a sinister atmosphere.
Out of this dark imagery, the reader is in a dark and lifeless environment
which predicts the death and failure of the Belgian mission in the Congo
portrayed through the death of Kurtz.

In mentioning the darkness imagery in HD, it important to include its

opposite that is the light imagery. Indeed, Throughout his narrative, Marlow
characterized events, ideas and locations that he encountered in terms of
light and dark. Equating light with Knowledge and civility, and darkness
with mystery and savagery. According to U. Kubra, when Marlow began
his narrative, He equated light with civility and therefore with reality,
believing it to be a tangible expression of man’s natural state. Similarly, he
used darkness to depict savagery as a vice having absconded with nature.
But he proceeded deeper into the heart of the African jungle and began to
understand savagery as a primitive form of civilization and, thus, a
reflection on his own reality, the metaphor shifted until the narrator raised
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 light and dark
metaphor corresponds with Marlow’s cognition that the only reality, truth

- 87 -
or light about civilization is that it is, regardless of appearances, unreal,
absurd, and shrouded in darkness.

Throughout Marlow’s journey, and as he penetrated deeper into the

African jungle, the feeling of isolation inside him was growing more and
more:

“Going up that river was like travelling back to the

earliest beginnings of the world” (HD: 48)

Marlow felt cut from his past and from civilization as he piolated the ship
upriver. The following extract, conveys this isolation image:

“ You lost your way on that river as you would in a

desert, and butted all day long against shoals trying
to find the channel, till you thought yourself
bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you
had once known, somewhere, far away, in another
existence perhaps” ( HD: 48)

Being an important theme within the narration, the isolation which Marlow
felt was also behind Kurtz’s corruption. In the ‘great solitude’ and away
from the distractions of society, Kurtz was able to be completely alone with
his own mind and it was in this isolation that he lost his principles.
According to critics, Conrad proved that it is the Africans who are the fittest
to survive in their native land and that Darwin’s theory was in fact never
intended to be applied to races or nations.

Various images contribute in the building of the of the themes in HD.

In the contrast between man, with his technological achievements, and the
forest, for example, when referring to the smallness of man in relation to
nature, we deduce an image of power. This imagery presents nature as a

- 88 -
vivid element in the narrative which has its impact upon the events and the
lives of the characters:

“Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense,

running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank
against the stream, crept the little begrimed
steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor
of a lofty portico. It made you very small; very lost,
…” (HD: 50)

In this extract, the main clause ‘ Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive,
immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the
stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat’ is modified by the dependent
clause ‘ a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico’. This
modification which describes the way the trees creep the steamboat
illustrates this animation of nature as opposed to man as if he left it for
nature to decide about his destiny.

In fact, throughout the novel, Conrad continually stressed the immensity

and power of the forest “ and the big trees were kings” ( HD:48), giving the
reader a sense that Conrad’s character is an awe of the natural wonder that
surrounds him. The power of nature is again emphasized when Conrad used
personification to supplement his point “it looked at you with a vengeful
aspect” ( HD:48),as if man is at war with the forest. Furthermore, according
to J. Paez, nature in HD is a primeval mysterious enigma that swallows
light and sound, rationality and language, taking them silently to its bosom
and then imprisoning them deeply within its folds. Its call is but a
“deceitful flow” that beckons the “bearers of the spark from the sacred
fire” and leaves them blind, mute, impotent and stranded in a desolate
landscape.

- 89 -
Furthermore, if we consider the following extract where Marlow wanted to
convey an impression about man’s ignorance and unconsciousness about
his deeds in front of the effect of nature ( like Kurtz), we notice how he
used simile in the following image:

“The living tress, lashed together by the creepers and

every living bush of the undergrowth, might have
been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig,
to the lightest leaf. It was not sleep, it seemed
unnatural, like a state of trance” (HD: 56).

‘a state of trance’ is a subordinate clause which was used by the writer to

describe the state of the trees and enhance in the mind of the reader the
state of the white man who was half conscious of his deeds. Therefore,
among its effects was that image of death that we see in many extracts
dealing with the description of nature. Indeed, Conrad wanted to show that
death was the result of the white colonialism in the African Congo. Congo
is splendid like its people it has a wild vitality, an immense energy of
movement; but in HD was marked with death, streams of death in life in the
extremity of an important atmosphere. There was the death of the natives,
the destruction of nature, the death of goodness and civility, and the death
of Kurtz. Thus, death prevailed in the narration and touched also the
writer’s description of nature.

In order to illustrate this blindness, the writer introduced the fog, as an

element of nature. It was also mentioned to add to that hateful image about
the white man who brought death with him instead of civilization:

“It (the fog) did not shift or drive; it was just there,
standing all round you like something solid. At eight
or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts… and then

- 90 -
 the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if
sliding in greased grooves” ( HD: 56).

Simile was introduced three times in this example. It is employed by the

writer to reinforce the image of blindness in the mind of the reader because
it is logically known that the main characteristic of the fog is to hinder the
sight, however, in describing it as ‘something solid’ or ‘a shutter lifts’, the
writer enhanced its thickness in order to refer to the moral situation of the
white man. This extract appeared when there was only a short distance far
from the inner station where Kurtz was found. For, Kurtz was known by
evil deeds and thus, he represented moral blindness. In this way, the writer
is making a simile between the world of language and the fictional world.

So, being a corollary of darkness, the fog not only obscures the sight but
also distorts.

We should not forget that behind all these functions of simile

mentioned above, there is the aesthetic effect of HD as a work of art. In
addition to HD’s moral and philosophical dimensions there was that
aesthetic perspective which Conrad tried to achieve through the use of
similes.

According to E. M. Foster (2000), we see in every text the

communicative intent of the writer and the perception of the reader which is
called force. For him each type of discourse, it can be narrative, descriptive
or expository may have four forces: informational, entertaining, persuasive
and literary aesthetics.

Aestheticism is considered as being the science of beauty. It accepts the

artistic beauty as a fundamental standard. This focus on beauty in literature

- 91 -
comes as a reaction against the materialism and capitalism of later Victorian
period which was described as an age of ugliness, brutality and dreadful
inequalities. Thus, aestheticism came to have a relation with the criticism of
the beautiful.

In HD, similes helped the writer to convey the aesthetic image in the
description of nature. The beauty in Conrad’s HD comes in the way he
depicted nature which though it bore negative connotations, it was unique
in the way it was presented. The writer introduced an entirely new
significance of the landscape. While the writers of his time used the
landscape as a background to their narrative, Conrad told his story through
his description of the landscape. Nature becomes not only an omnipresent
force, but an alive and controlling one as well. The writer created in the
mind of the reader a different type of nature, it was an imaginary and
literary one. In the following example, though Conrad used a beautiful
contrast of colours in the description of the colossal jungle, he modified it
as ‘a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist’ to refer to the
reader about that contrast between white and darkness and consequently to
good and evil in man’s heart:

“The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark green as to be

almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight like
a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose
glitter was blurred by a creeping mist” (HD: 19).

Therefore, we can say that simile helped the writer in the description
of evil in man’s heart, to convey death and to reveal Marlow’s attitudes. So
the first function of simile was to describe. Jill Fitzerald on his paper
‘Research On Stories’ defines the term description as follows:

- 92 -
 “discourse that attempts to embody in linguistic form
a stationary perceptual scene” (HD: 06).

It means that when confronted with any type of thing or situation, it can be
a person, an object, an animal, or an abstract notion or feeling, one attempts
to recreate it and transmit it through a linguistic medium out of his own
perception. So in HD, we see nature through Marlow’s point of view and
perception. Throughout the narrative, we see in Marlow’s description his
active and imaginary capacity in transferring his perceptions to the audience

Within the context of description, Short and Leech (1981) made a

contrast between two types of description; physical and abstract. A physical
description describes what has space and time extension, and has physical
properties such as: size, shape, colour, movement, speed… which can be
registered by the senses. They gave the following example:

“A man in gilded headdress walked foreward,

smiling, and raised his hand to them”

(Short and Leech, 1981:

181).

For them this type of description makes the readers feel as if they are
strangers observing from a different culture, and sometimes the physical
description can invite an empathetic response from the reader. And when
the readers sympathize with the writer due to the images he conveys
through language , that may guide the reader’s opinion, we can say that he
achieved his aim in conveying the meanings of his narration.

We read in HD that most of the descriptions of nature were physical, and it

is important to note that we are given not simply a description of a scene,

- 93 -
but an account of the relation between the visual world and its observer,
who strives to comprehend and interpret it:

“The woods were unmoved, like a mask- heavy like a

closed door of a prison- they looked with their air of
hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of
unapproachable silence”( HD: 81).

In the modification of the dependent clauses ‘ a mask’ and ‘ a closed door

of a prison’ to the main clause ‘ The woods were unmoved’, the writer
conveyed the fears of Marlow, for the mask is always used for hiding the
reality and usually the person who hides his real nature can deceive people,
the fact that may lead Marlow to feel that he was travelling to the unknown.
In this way, the reader’s empathy is raised towards Marlow. This extract
comes at the end of the narration toward the end of Marlow’s tale, it
reminds the reader with the beginning of the novel where the writer
compared the river to ‘a snake’ which has the characteristic of deceiving.
So here, he was reinforcing this deceiving image about nature in relation to
its negative impact and condemning nature as the cause behind the
corruption and the greed of the white man in the Congo. As a result, the
reader’s empathy can also be raised toward the white colonizer.

Furthermore, although the physical description of the natural surrounding

seemed alive and direct it had shown how the narrator was detached and
powerless in the face of its immensity.

Another related tendency is in the occurrence of adjectives which

express strangeness and fear like: heavy, hidden, patient and
unapproachable. These adjectives contribute in the reader’s empathy. Out of
this physical description, we notice that each time the writer describes
nature he concentrated on some aspects in nature and neglected others. For
example, in the previous extract we see that he concentrated on the

- 94 -
description of the woods without mentioning its surroundings. In this way
we can say that Conrad used a technique related more to fiction called ‘The
Descriptive Focus’.

- 95 -
3.4. Conclusion

In this chapter, we have tried to depict the different functions of simile, and,
as a result, we have come up with a higher level of significance to nature.
Thus, the stylistic analysis of simile have brought the following results:

-The analysis of simile conveyed various important images which

underline important themes.

- Simile presented nature alive and as an actor in the events of the story.

- Through simile, nature was given negative traits in order to refer to evil,
hate and mystery that may exist in the human heart.

- Using simile in the description of nature, has shown the way how the
writer constructed his messages.

- The analysis of simile provided us with evidence to the different

interpretations that were attributed to the novel.

- Simile deepened the understanding of the theme on nature in HD.

Finally, we can say that the use of simile in the description of nature evoked
images that suggest important underlying themes necessary for supporting
the meanings of the novel. The analysis of simile helped us to get an
objective interpretation of nature and revealed many ambiguities that were
attributed to it. It deepened the meaning of nature to come up with the
conclusion that Conrad used nature as a narrative tool among other
techniques to create his literary work.

- 96 -
Notes of chapter three:

(1)- Imagery: It covers the use of language to represent objects, actions,

feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory or extra-sensory
experience.

Many images ( but by no means all) arte conveyed by figurative language,

as in metaphore, simile, synecdoche, onomatopoeia and metonymy.

( J. A. Cuddon, 1998: 413)

(2)- Image schema:It is a condensed redescription of a perceptual

experience for the purpose of mapping spatial structure on conceptual
structure.

Image schemas behave as ‘distillers’ of spatial and temporal experiences.

These distilled experiences, in turn, are what cognitive linguistics regards as
the basis for organizing knowledge and reasoning about the world. For
Immanuel Kant, Schema is a way relating percepts to concepts.

- 97 -
GENERAL CONCLUSION

- 97 -
 GENERAL CONCLUSION

In this research paper, we have tried to define briefly two major trends
of analysis in order to oppose them and find out what relations may hold
them. They are literary criticism and linguistic criticism.

Literary criticism has been dealt with for a long time ago; moreover, it
has been of a tremendous importance in literary studies. Thanks to it one
can understand works of art better. It can be used by many people like the
researchers, the teachers of literature, the students or even ordinary people.
Literary criticism relies on context as a primary method to get hints about
the meaning of the literary work. In other words, it looks for outside
information and refers to the text. It can look for the historical time in
which the work was produced, or for the author’s life and his fields of
interest, or for the relation of the work with other works written by the same
author or any other criteria. Thus, various approaches appeared under the
heading of literary criticism. This is why, it is noted that in interpreting one
text or a piece of writing one may come up with different interpretations
depending on the position or the theory taken by the specialist. In addition,
it seems unfair to read one work of art in the same way when reading
another one because each literary work can be considered as a unique
experience. This may lead to defects in criticism because according to the
theory of literary criticism, each work of art should be viewed as being
different from other works. Therefore, literary criticism can not provide a
fixed framework to be dealt with in all the literary texts.

Meanwhile, with the appearance of linguistics with its sub-branches,

approaches and methods, there was a greater awareness of language in
general and the language of literary texts specifically. Many advocators of
linguistic approach emphasis the importance of using linguistic approaches
and methods for the analysis of literary works. They believe that applying
linguistics in literary texts would characterize the source of our response to

- 98 -
them. In addition to that, using linguistic criticism would unify the
interpretations that are attributed to one text. Stylistics which is one of the
branches of linguistics focuses on the analysis of the most recurrent
linguistic features which seem to have a stylistic significance and tries to
find out what use is made of them , because it has the assumption that
stylistic choices reflect cognitive preferences. Therefore, with this new
trend of analysis, it leads one to question its position as regards literary
criticism whether it comes as an alternative or as a complementary.

On the practical side, in our research, Conrad’s HD is depicted as a

case study or an example for trying to prove and find out the relation that
holds the two trends of analysis.

In HD, Conrad has shown a great art in the use of language. It is a rich
language where one can easily remark the frequent occurrence of simile
through out the narration. What attracts one’s attention, is the writer’ use of
simile when describing nature. Nature comes to be considered as one of the
important themes in the novel.

Applying literary criticism in trying to interpret this theme has led to

two important ideas; one about Marlow’s feelings and attitudes; nature as a
setting has helped in conveying information about character. And the other
about Kurtz degeneration because he lacked restraint when found isolated
in nature. Through the character of Kurtz, we come to the conclusion about
man’s ability for evil when put in specific circumstances. Conrad has
omitted these ideas explicitly in order to leave to the reader the task of
guessing, inferring or imagining what actually this theme means. According
to the literary critics, Conrad has relied on the natural environment to
express the ideas he wanted to transmit.

- 99 -
 In analyzing similes from a literary angle, we saw that we get meanings
only without relying on evidence. This meaning can be more subjective
than objective.

From the linguistic angle, we have seen how similes as a linguistic

features are used by writers to reinforce an idea and enhance it. In addition,
simile is considered as a type of a post modifier.

At the same time, in trying to analyse simile using the linguistic theory
one sees its focus on the structure of the language rather than meaning.
Thus, we come up with the idea how Conrad made use of this linguistic
feature to reinforce his ideas in order to transmit his message. The linguistic
analysis of simile has only explained and provided evidence about the
writer’s implicit message through the use of language.

Indeed, analyzing similes in the description of nature evoked images in

the mind of the reader which demonstrates the power and youthfulness of
nature, its immensity and its contrast with mankind in an atmosphere which
suggests darkness throughout the narration giving the reader a sense as if
Conrad’s character is in an awe of the natural world that surrounds him.
Each description adds effects to the novel and gives motion to the reader’s
interest. Thus Conrad’s style has shown to include the usage of heavy
descriptions which enable the reader to get a mental image of the area, and
begin to feel the sensation that Marlow has been feeling.

Therefore, many images were conveyed such as the animal imagery,

the darkness imagery, the isolation imagery and power imagery. All of them
demonstrate Conrad’s elegant language to communicate his theme to the
reader. They unveiled underlying themes necessary to support the writer’s
narrative.

- 100 -
 It has provided an objective evaluation to the theme of nature. In this
way it is better understood and the message becomes clearer especially if
both results from the literary and the linguistic analyses are combined. In
addition, in considering the linguistic analysis, there was more light put on
the way the writer manipulated his language to achieve his artistic effect.

Therefore, one comes up with the conclusion that the linguistic

description does not judge a work of art, but rather it has equipped us with
the necessary tools and techniques on which our evaluations and
interpretations are based.

When comparing the results obtained from these two ways of analysis,
we come up with an important remark; when applying both of them in one
text, the image of the literary work will be in away more satisfactory. This
is due to the fact that one relies more on theme and the other relies more on
language structure. Although they do not operate on the same field, they are
complementary in certain respects. Adding linguistic criticism would enrich
the literary field and provide objective interpretations. We may represent
the relation between literary criticism and linguistic criticism as far as the
literary work is concerned in the following diagram:

- 101 -
 The relation between literary criticism and linguistic criticism

Linguistic criticism Literary work

Literary criticism

This diagram shows the circular relationship between its three components.

It means that in order to interpret a literary work, we should start with

literary criticism as it provides many general insights that put light on the
work, then we move to another step of analysis, it is the linguistic analysis
which most of the times comes to validate these interpretations objectively .
After that one comes to go back to the literary work and read it with new
eyes.

These results lead one to think about opportunities for profitable

cooperation between the linguist and the literary critics. It seems to be part
of the linguist’s task to contribute with his competence, by the application
of linguistic methods to help the literary critic in analyzing the patterns of
language in order to reveal the features in it which the writer uses to express
his ideas to the audience. Thus, the appreciation of the literary style is
deepened. Indeed, many linguists have become aware of the possibility in
contribution in the analysis of literary texts.

- 102 -
 The use of nature in HD, has shown how Conrad is a great and a
successful writer. This means that every element the writer mentioned in
the novel is of an important value. Furthermore, the frequency of simile in
describing this theme has reflected the writer’s power in manipulating his
language to contribute in the building up of his narration.

At the end of this research, many questions come to one’s mind as far as
stylistics is concerned:

- How and where can the literary critic and the linguist meet to
cooperate in dealing with one literary text, especially when they are from
different parts in the world?.

- Can the application of stylistics in other fields such as advertising or

the political discourse bring out satisfactory results.?

- As far as the academic field is concerned, do our students need to

improve their knowledge of language to contribute to their
understanding of literary works?

- Do our students need to learn the methods of stylistics to be applied?

How and when would they do it?

- Is it time to teach stylistics as a subject in our universities for our

graduate students?

With these questions, we come to conclude this comparative study,

hoping it will be useful for our graduate students in the future especially
when we consider that there are very few works that dealt with HD
stylistically.

- 103 -
 Bibliography

1. A. Cluysenaar. (1976) Introduction to Literary Stylistics: a

discussion of the dominant structures in verse and prose.
2. A. Pollard. (1973) Webster’s New Companion To English and
American Literature. Compton Russel LTD.
3. ALLEN. Walter. ( 1954) The English Novel . Penguin books.
4. BOX C. B. (ed), (1981) Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo
and Under Western Eyes. A case book. Macmillan EducationLtd.
Hong Kong.
5. CLAY. L. D, ( 1980), A Jungian Analysis of Heart of Darkness.
BA disseration. University of Texas.
6. COOT. S, (1993) The Penguin Short History of English
Literature.
7. CUDDON. J. (1999) , The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms
and Literary Theory. 4 th. Edition.
8. D. Crystal. and Derek .D. (1969) Investigating English style.
Longman group.
9. DOROTHY U. Seyler and Richard A. Wilan ( 1981) Introduction
To Literature: Reading, Analysing and Writing. Alfred
Publishing Co. Inc.
10. DOUGLAS H, (1952) Conrad: A Reassessment. Cambridge:
England. Bowes.
11. E. GARNETT( 1902) “On Heart of Darkness” in C. B. Cox (ed)
(1981), Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under
western Eyes. Macmillan Education Ltd. Hong Kong.
12. F. Northrope. (1983) The Critical Path: an essay on the social
context of literary criticism. Harvester Press.
13. FOSTER E. M. (2000) Aspects of the Novel. Penguin Books.
14. GUERARD Albert. J. ( 1958) “ The Journey Within” in C. B. Cox
(ed) (1981), Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under
western Eyes. Macmillan Education Ltd. Hong Kong.
15. H. Maes- Jelinek. (19996), York notes: Joseph Conrad: Heart
of Darkness. York Press.
16. HALLIDAY. M. A. K and R. Hassan (1976) Cohesion In
English.. Longman.
17. HALLIDAY. M. A. K. (1985), An Introduction to Functional
Grammar. Edward Arnold.
18. James Guetti (1965) “ The Failure of The Imagination” in C. B.
COX (ed) (1981), Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and
Under western Eyes. Macmillan Education Ltd. Hong Kong.
19. JEF. Verschueren, Ostman J.O and Blommaert J ( 1998) Handbook
Pragmatics Manual. Amesterdam./ Philadelphia. John Publishing
Company.
20. LEECH. G, Benita. C, R. Ivanic, ( 2003) English Grammar and
Usage. Longman . New edition.
21. LEECH. G. and Short. M (1998) Style in fiction: a linguistic
introduction to English fictional prose. Longman.
22. LONGMAN Dictionary Of Contemporary English: The complete
guide to written and spoken English. New Edition. Longman. (
1995).
23. M. SHORT. ( 1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and
Prose. Addison Wesley Longman Limited.
24. NEWTON K. M “ Validity in interpretation and The Literary
Institution” in The British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol 25. N03.
Oxford University Press.
25. R, CHAPMAN. (1973) Linguistics and literature: an introduction
to stylistics. London- Melbourn- Auckland. Edward Arnold.
26. R. Wardhough. and Douglas Brown H ( 1976) A survey of Applied
Linguistics. The University of Michigan.
27. RAYMOND Murphy ( 1994), English Grammar in Use: 2nd.
Edition. Cambridge University Press.
28. RICHARD Adams ( 1991), Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness.
Penguin Critical Studies.
29. RICHARDS, I. A. (1960) Principles of Literary Criticism.
Routledge and Kegan Paul. London and Henbey.
30. ROBINS. R. H. (1980) General Linguistics: an introductory
survey. 3rd. edition. Longman.
31. RUTHVEN K. K. ( 1968) “ The Savage God” in C. B. Cox (ed)
(1981), Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under
Western Eyes. Macmillan Education Ltd. Hong Kong.
32. TOOLAN. M (1996) Language in Literature: an introduction to
stylistics. London. Arnold.
33. TRASK. R. L ( 1996) Key Concepts in Language and
Linguistics. Routledge.
34. TRILLING Lionel ( 1965) “ Kurtz, Hero of the Spirit” in C. B.
Cox (ed) (1981), Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and
Under western Eyes. Macmillan Education Ltd. Hong Kong.
35. WELLECK. R and Warren A ( 1973) Theory of Literature.
Penguin Books.

36-Websites:

- http://www. etextlibrary. adelaid.edu.au . Last updated : august,

2006. Visited on: July, 2006.
- www.nobleworld.biz (John Parras, 2006 “Poetic Prose and
Imperialism: The Ideology of Form in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness”) Visited on 05/09/2006. Last modified: NM
- www.anlistic.un.freiburg.de ( Basics of English Studies).
Visited on 10/09/2006. Last modified: NM
- www.enotes.com ( 2006). Visited on 10/09/2006. Last
modified: NM
 - www. Sparknotes.com. Visited on 10/09/2006. Last modified:
NM
- www.case.ed. Visited on 09/09/2006. Last modified: NM.
- www.literatureclassics.com. Visited on 11/09/2006.
- www.coursework.info. Visited on 12/09/2006. Last modified:
NM
- http://www.oxfordjournals.org ( Ramona Anttonen, 2001
“Animal Imagery and Religious Symbolism in Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness”). Visited on 09/09/ 2006. Last modified:
NM

- http://www.victorianweb.org (Philip V. Allingham “Comparing

Imagery in Conrad and Hardy”). Visited on 10/09/2006.Last
modified on: december6th, 2000.

- www.stockton.edu ( last update: Monday, May5th, 2003.

Visisted on 10/09/2006). Last modified: NM

-www.megaessays.com (visited on: 10/09/2006. Last modified:

NM)

Bibliography in Arabic

‫ المرشد في كتابة‬، (1983 ) ‫ ﺣلمى محمد فودة وعبد الرﺣمان صالح عبد ﷲ‬.1
. ‫ دار الشروق‬: ‫األبحاث الطبعة الرا بعة ؛ جدة‬
، ‫ المدخل الى البحث فى العلوم السلوكية‬، ( 1989 ) ‫ صا لح بن ﺣمد العسا ف‬.2
. ‫ مكتبة العبيكان‬: ‫الرياض‬
Index of authors:

Albert. J. G, 03, 48, 53, 54, 63, 64.

Bateson. F. W, 17.

Clysenaar, 21.

Crystal and Davy, 24, 25.

Derrida, 17.

Donald.C. Freeman, 22, 23.

Edward G, 49, 75.

Enkvist, 24.

Foster E. M , 85, 95,

James G, 03, 62, 72.

D. Hewitt, 65,66.

Leech Geoffrey , 20, 23, 25.

Maes H J, 05, 20, 26, 27, 28, 30.

Michael Halliday, 05, 20, 26, 27, 28,30.

Michael Halliday and R. Hassan, 34, 35.

Mick Short, 05, 16, 21, 22.

Newton, 18.

René Welleck and Austin Warren, 16, 20, 36, 86.

R. H. Robins, 20.

Ruthven K.K., 03,73.

Stephen Coote, 67.

Trilling Lionel, 03, 67.

René Welleck and Austin Warren, 16, 20, 36, 86.

Index of linguistic terms

Additive, 35

Cohesion, 34.

Conjunction, 35

Enhancement, 31.

General stylistics, 23

Hypotaxis, 30

Linguistic criticism, 20.

Parataxis, 30

Simile, 28
Index of literary terms

Biographical approach, 14.

Deconstructionist approach, 13.

Feminist approach, 12

Historical approach, 10

Intertextual approach, 11

Literary criticism, 06

Marxist approach, 14.

Modernism, 03.

Moral philosophical approach, 11

New criticism, 12

New historicism, 15

Post colonial approach,15.

Psychological approach, 12

Reader response approach,

Rhetorical approach, 14

Sociological approach, 14.

Structuralist approach, 13

Symbolic/ Mythological/ Archetypal approach, 13