Heart Of Darkness Essay, Research Paper

Title: Heart of Darkness

Writer: Joseph Conrad

Puting: The narrator, Charlie Marlow, sits on the deck of the Nellie abjuring his journey to the Congo and his perceptual experience and brush with Kurtz and Kurtz & # 8217 ; s intended.

Plot: The relation of a singular horror narrative to the interior darkness of adult male, Kurtz/Marlow, and the centre of the Earth, the Congo. Charlie Marlow gives the histories of the dual journey to the riders on the deck of the Nellie as she is held still by the tides.

Cardinal Fictional characters

Charlie Marlow

& # 8220 ; Deviant & # 8221 ; [ storyteller ( Conrad ) to the reader 1 ] We are given a ocular image of a ship, the Nellie, traveling out to sea on the Thames. The storyteller describes the Director of Companies, like a pilot ; the attorney, by his ownerships ; an comptroller, by his action of conveying out dominoes. But when the storyteller describes Marlow he distinguishes him with a name and a physical description.

The storyteller seems to idolise this adult male, Marlow. Just the same manner Marlow idolizes Kurtz. Marlow is physical position symbolizes Buddha. Marlow is different from the remainder of the riders. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He had sunken cheeks, a xanthous skin color, a consecutive back, an ascetic facet, and, with his weaponries dropped, the thenar of custodies outwards, resembled an idol. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Architect & # 8221 ; [ storyteller ( Conrad ) to the reader 3 ] The reader has been told of the Nellie traveling down the Thames to the centre of the Earth, but the ship has stalled or held back by the tides. This makes the riders captives of the narrative that is about to blossom from Marlow & # 8217 ; s lips. This compares with Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in that the seaman mesmerized the nuptials invitee with his interior journey on the outer seas. Charlie Marlow is inspired by the darkness of the environing ships of war to abjure his journey to the Congo. The storyteller says that most mariners have merely narratives, but non Marlow. Marlow & # 8217 ; s narratives are like the manner a Russian nesting doll works, open the doll and there is another doll indoors. The significance and the characters are in the environing beds of the intended finish, Kurtz and the Congo. This gives us the construction of Marlow & # 8217 ; s narrative telling-his bequest. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; But Marlow was non typical ( if his leaning to whirl yarns be expected ) , and to him the significance of an episode was non inside like a meat but outside, enfolding the narrative? & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Visionary & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders of the Nellie 3 ] The storyteller is stating of the past travellers of the Thames & # 8216 ; the dark & # 8220 ; intruders & # 8221 ; of Eastern trade, and the commissioned & # 8220 ; generals & # 8221 ; of East India fleets & # 8217 ; . Fortune searchers and vanquishers of times before are related to the tusk trading and powering over the indigens of the Congo. The Sun is puting the mention of the coming of a dark tainted journey. Speaking of the Thames, Marlow calls it merely one of the dark topographic points. He is giving an debut to his narrative of the Congo. The vision of the Thames as one of the dark topographic points is that in the terminal the dark shadow of Kurtz still follows him even to Kurtz & # 8217 ; s intended & # 8217 ; s topographic point through the prevarication of Kurtz & # 8217 ; s last words, her name. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; & # 8221 ; And this besides, & # 8221 ; said Marlow all of a sudden, & # 8220 ; has been one of the dark topographic points of the earth. & # 8221 ; & # 8216 ;

& # 8220 ; Loner & # 8221 ; [ storyteller to reader 3 ] Marlow has merely spoken about the Thames-one of the topographic points of darkness. Merely as the antediluvian seaman was destined to take his fatal journey entirely so is Marlow. Marlow journeys into himself and wanders the sea unlike the other mariners who have land bound places. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He was the lone adult male of us who still & # 8220 ; followed the sea. & # 8221 ; & # 8216 ;

& # 8220 ; Rebel & # 8221 ; [ storyteller to the reader 4 ] Marlow is stating the riders to grok the journey of a immature Rome conquer garbed in merely a toga forcing inland to the savageness of the centre. Parallel to Marlow & # 8217 ; s journey to the Congo armed with merely his good moral purposes of breaking the indigens. Marlow is prophesying to the riders, but is in a brooding place. His English frock and Buddha demeanor struggle in a rebellious province of contrast with their position norms. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; he had the airs of a Buddha sermon in European apparels and without a Nelumbo nucifera flower & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Avant-garde & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to the riders of the Nellie 6 ] Marlow since his young person wanted to research the chartless land of the Congo. When younger the map had nil on it, but now there was the serpent of the river that had charmed him. Conrad is paralleled with Marlow in his dream to be a mariner. Marlow had at first tried to procure a occupation on a ship to the Congo on his ain but was unsuccessful. He had ever done things on his ain power and virtue. Now, for the first clip in his life he had to enroll the adult females to act upon a certain trading society to acquire the occupation he so urgently wanted. He calls upon his aunt who does his command. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; I, Charlie Marlow, set the adult females to work-to acquire a job. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Conformist & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to the riders of the Nellie 23 ] Marlow is at the cardinal station. The brickmaker is giving him some penetration into Kurtz. The brickmaker, who doesn & # 8217 ; Ts make bricks, is unwittingly stating Marlow that the director is seeking to free himself of Kurtz by pretermiting him. The director fears that Kurtz & # 8217 ; s would steal his occupation, because of Kurtz & # 8217 ; s gifted endowment of geting tusk. Marlow merely has an ideal of Kurtz, like a kind of faith set around the image. Marlow has been engulfed by the worship of Kurtz that he would lie for him. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; I would non hold gone so far as to contend for Kurtz, but I went for him nigh plenty to a lie. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Judge & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders on the Nellie 23 ] Marlow doesn & # 8217 ; t really lie to the brickmaker he merely lets him believe what he wants in respects to the influence that brought Marlow at that place to salvage Kurtz. Marlow Judgess a prevarication to be shocking. Ironically, at the terminal of the fresh Marlow lies to Kurtz & # 8217 ; s intended to save her feelings and he believes Kurtz to hold wanted it that manner. Marlow is judging the prevarication and his future actions. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; you know I hate, detest, and can & # 8217 ; t bear a prevarication, non because I am straighter than the remainder of us, but merely because it appalls me. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Critic & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to the riders of the Nellie 46 ] Marlow & # 8217 ; s steersman has died in the onslaught on the soft-shell clam. Marlow feels that if the steersman hadn & # 8217 ; t opened the shutter and panicked by hiting out at the shrub he would still be alive. Marlow compares the steersman with Kurtz in the manner he was unable to contend off the steeping darkness of greed. The steersman showed none of the restraint in the state of affairs that he had shown in his control of cannibal hungry. Quote: & # 8216 ; He had no restraint, no restraint-just like Kurtz. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Caregiver & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to the riders of the Nellie 46 ] Marlow is depicting Kurtz after the decease of the steersman. Marlow can & # 8217 ; t show that Kurtz is worth the blood spilled on his places. Marlow humanizes the steersman, who is a native, when he says that they had a bond. He took attention of the steersman by guarding his dorsum while the steersman steered for him. Marlow gives the steersman an English self-respect with a seaman type entombment to forestall the devastation of his organic structure for nutrient. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He steered for me-I had to look after him. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Director & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders of the Nellie 47 ] The steersman & # 8217 ; s decease has sparked talk among the man-eaters of eating his remains. Marlow feels that by maintaining the organic structure it will merely take down the restraint of the crew. He takes control of the state of affairs by throwing the organic structure over the side of the boat. He is thought to be heartless in this act, but genuinely he is continuing the self-respect of the steersman and the control of the ship & # 8217 ; s crew. The volatile state of affairs of contending for the remains is neutralized as it is enveloped in the river. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He had been a really mediocre steersman while alive, but now he was dead he might hold become a excellent enticement, and perchance do galvanizing trouble. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Jester & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to red-haired pilgrim 47 ] The red-haired pilgrim said that they must hold made a slaughter in the shrub. Basically all the adult male did was shoot aimlessly at the tops of the trees. The adult male is hiking and Marlow makes a gag of the adult male & # 8217 ; s nescient pride. The lone thing they accomplished was to do a fume screen over the river. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; You made a glorious batch of fume, anyhow. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Dreamer & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to the riders of the Nellie 51 ] Marlow has made if to Kurtz & # 8217 ; s cantonment, and has met the Russian who & # 8217 ; s campsite he found before. At the campground Marlow believes the adult male to be English because he mistakes the Russian alphabet for cypher. There was besides a warning write to be careful from this point on. Marlow is listening to the Russian describing Kurtz, when the jungle draws him off from the current world, the narrative and that minute in the narrative. The jungle is sucking him into the solitariness and darkness. Marlow is experiencing a minute of failing, which is why he is spiritually lifted out of that minute in clip to the dark deferrals of the jungle bosom. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; I looked about, and I don & # 8217 ; Ts know why, but I assure you that ne’er, ne’er earlier did this land, this river, this jungle, the really arch of this blaze sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human idea, so remorseless to human weakness. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Fanatic & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders of the Nellie 53 ] Marlow has discovered that the fencing he thought encircled Kurtz & # 8217 ; s cantonment is non a fencing at all, but caputs on bets. This realisation makes Marlow entranced with them. He is fixated on there visual aspect and goes into sedate item. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; I returned intentionally to the first I had seen- & # 8217 ;

Kurtz

& # 8220 ; Deviant & # 8221 ; [ Brickmaker to Marlow 22 ] Marlow is talking with the brickmaker of the cardinal station. The brick shaper has a picture of a adult female draped and blindfolded transporting a lighted torch. Marlow inquires about the picture and is told Kurtz painted the drab image. Marlow wants to cognize who Kurtz is. & # 8216 ; Chief of the interior station & # 8217 ; replies the brickmaker. Marlow wants more so e is sarcastic with the adult male & # 8216 ; you are the brickmaker & # 8217 ; . The

brickmaker must profess that Kurtz is and extraordinary adult male, non merely a simple rubric, but a alone person. Quotation mark: ‘He is a prodigy.’

& # 8220 ; Loner & # 8221 ; [ Kurtz writes 28 ] Marlow is puting on the deck of the soft-shell clam at the cardinal station when he over hears spots and pieces of a conversation between the uncle and the director. From what Marlow can decode they are talking of Kurtz. The uncle feels that if Kurtz is without company possibly the clime will kill him. The director says he is entirely, because he sent back his and helper and a note. The note stated he would instead be without anyone so the incompetent people the cardinal station seemed to be able to save. Quote: & # 8216 ; I had instead be entirely than have the sort of work forces you can dispose of with me. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Architect & # 8221 ; [ Manager to uncle 29 ] Marlow is listen ining on the uncle and director & # 8217 ; s conniving and fallacious disregard of Kurtz. Kurtz & # 8217 ; s ideals and ends for the Congo bothered the director. The director quotes Kurtz. Kurtz wanted to convey civilisation to the uncivilized through the usage of the Stationss. He didn & # 8217 ; Ts have but a 2nd idea of the economic net income when he foremost arrived in the Congo. This parallels with Marlow & # 8217 ; s moral purpose for the indigens to hold a better life with engineering. The Stationss should be enlightenment for the indigens to do them existent people and better their life conditions. The Stationss were more like oppressors of the indigens than health professionals. Kurtz wanted a bequest of good purposes personified through the Stationss. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; Each station should be like a beacon on the route towards better things, a centre for trade of class, but besides for humanising, bettering, instructing. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Avant-garde & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders 43 ] After the soft-shell clam is attacked and the steersman is dead, an epiphany comes to Marlow. He may ne’er talk to Kurtz for certainly he must be dead. Through all the descriptions of Kurtz an image is non what comes to Marlow, it is Kurtz voice. Marlow & # 8217 ; s first feeling of Kurtz is his voice. Kurtz voice is stalking and dominant in Marlow & # 8217 ; s head. The presentation of a voice by Kurtz gives him the first control over Marlow & # 8217 ; s inner ego. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; The adult male presented himself as a voice. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Fanatic & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders 44 ] Marlow thinks Kurtz is dead. He tells the riders he would subsequently happen out he was incorrect. Marlow though he has non yet met the adult male, Kurtz, has his ideas over powered by Kurtz & # 8217 ; s voice declaring his greed and ownership of everything. Kurtz & # 8217 ; s is so captive on holding tusk that he steals, swaps, and connives to acquire the cherished xanthous white gold. Kurtz & # 8217 ; s voice in Marlow & # 8217 ; s caput gives him the feeling of the two-year-old mine syndrome. You have it, it & # 8217 ; s mine. I see it, it & # 8217 ; s mine. It & # 8217 ; s mine, mine, and mine. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; My Intended, my tusk, my station, my river, my- & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Visionary & # 8221 ; [ Russian to Marlow 50 ] Marlow has reached the inner station where he finds the Russian, who is highly devoted to Kurtz. It is no accident that Marlow meets this adult male here because Kurtz had planned it in order to hold an audience for his concluding drape. The Russian is speaking about when he and Kurtz are bivouacing in the wood and Kurtz negotiations about everything to him. Kurtz acquaints the Russian with his wisdom of life. Kurtz invokes visions of illustriousness in everyone including himself. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He made me see things-things. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Survivor & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders 51 ] Marlow assumes that the Russian had been with Kurtz since their first brush in the campsite if the wood. This was non so Kurtz it seems that their relationship had been interrupted by events and Kurtz & # 8217 ; s crazing head. Kurtz had been in the bosom of this jungle for many months without necessary supplies and commissariats. We learned this in the beginning. Kurtz had suffered though two unwellnesss and was helped by the Russian during these times. Through all the dangers that occurred to acquire to this land of ivory wealth Kurtz had managed to go on traveling nil seemed to halt him. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He had, as he informed me proudly, managed to nurse Kurtz through two illnesses. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Conniver & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders 51 ] Marlow is talking of the Russian and the profound influence that Kurtz has had on this adult male. This was funny to Marlow because this adult male had the pleasance of speaking to Kurtz and Marlow had non, yet Marlow was deeply effected internally by the voice image of Kurtz. Quote: & # 8216 ; The adult male filled his life, occupied his ideas, swayed his emotions. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Oppressor & # 8221 ; [ Russian to Marlow 51 ] The Russian is stating Marlow of the clip Kurtz had wanted to hit him for his tusk. Kurtz had an compulsion with tusk and he wanted the Russian to fear him so he threatened him with bodily injury. Early in the novel we hear the brickmaker make the remark he feared nil non any adult male either. He was mentioning to Kurtz besides. The indigens feared Kurtz because they say him as a God coming in with his boom and lighting. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; He declared he would hit me unless I gave him the tusk and so cleared out of the state, & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Conformist & # 8221 ; [ Russian to Marlow 52 ] The Russian said that Kurtz had suffered excessively much and he would implore him to go forth. Kurtz would hold to travel but so would take off on another tusk foray. Kurtz had conformed to the greed of the country and his ain overzealous pursuit for all the tusk and ownerships to be had from this state. Kurtz had forgot his initial ground for coming to the Congo to better the indigens. Kurtz had conformed to the native manner of life by leting them to idolize him as a God. He had given in to the darkness of hedonism. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; And he would state yes, and so would stay ; travel off on another tusk Hunt ; vanish for hebdomads ; bury himself amongst these people- & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Director & # 8221 ; [ Russian to Marlow 54 ] There are work forces transporting Kurtz out on a stretcher toward the soft-shell clam and the indigens become incited to do a disturbance. Something bad is traveling to go on if Kurtz doesn & # 8217 ; Ts take control of the state of affairs. The indigens feel Kurtz doesn & # 8217 ; t want to go forth with Marlow and his crew because Kurtz had ordered the onslaught on the soft-shell clam. Kurtz & # 8217 ; s words will convey order back to the emanation. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; now, if he does non state the right thing to them we are all done for. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Rebel & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders 61 ] Marlow has woken up to happen Kurtz has left the boat. Marlow knows he can catch him because Kurtz is on all 4s. The rub-a-dubs and chants of captivation have drawn Kurtz to the environing campsites ; they are taking control of his darkened psyche. It is rebellious of a ill adult male to go forth the safety of hope and crawl to evil. Kurtz & # 8217 ; s psyche is a Rebel besides because it has become by far and off out of the norms of morality. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; this alone had beguiled his improper psyche beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations. & # 8217 ;

& # 8220 ; Martyr & # 8221 ; [ Marlow to riders 64 ] Marlow is stating of Kurtz & # 8217 ; s concluding words. Upon Kurtz & # 8217 ; s face Marlow sees every aspect of his character. The pride of the cause, the civilizing of the indigens, Kurtz came to the Congo to carry through. The huge control he reeled over the indigens. The subjugation of world as related with the & # 8216 ; caputs on bets & # 8217 ; , and the entire loss of his psyche to the barbarian universe of greed and domination. Kurtz made the ultimate forfeit for the cause his inner most light and now he shall everlastingly populate in the bosom of darkness. Quotation mark: & # 8216 ; The horror! The horror! & # 8217 ;

Subject

The Heart of Darkness is more than a retraction of a journey to the interior jungle of the Congo ; it is an intrinsic journey of the ego and immorality that lies dormant within all human psyches. Unfortunately the immorality can be expelled and used until it envelops the whole of our being. The immorality of greed for the ownership of tusk and power engulf Kurtz. He shows this with the quotation mark & # 8216 ; My Intended, my tusk, my station, my river, my- & # 8217 ; . When Marlow & # 8217 ; s steersman dies he compares the steersman with Kurtz in the manner he was unable to contend off the steeping darkness of greed. The steersman dies in an onslaught on the soft-shell clam merely stat mis off from Kurtz & # 8217 ; s cantonment. The steersman showed no restraint merely panic by opening the shutter of the wheelhouse to aimlessly hiting at the darkness of the shrub. This singular horror narrative to the interior darkness of adult male is engrossed and exploited by the physical journey to the Congo. The storyteller says that most mariners have merely narratives, but non Marlow. Marlow & # 8217 ; s narratives are like the manner a Russian nesting doll works, open the doll and there is another doll indoors. The significance and the characters are in the environing beds of the intended finish, Kurtz and the Congo. The quotation mark & # 8216 ; to him the significance of an episode was non inside like a meat but outside, enfolding the narrative? & # 8217 ; shows the point of the environing beds of the journey. The symbol of Marlow as Buddha gives penetration to an interior journey through speculation. The journey has the & # 8216 ; impression of being captured by the unbelievable & # 8217 ; the extreme epiphany of the & # 8216 ; kernel of dreams & # 8217 ; . The deeper we travel into the novel and the Congo with Marlow the closer we come to our interior immorality. When Marlow looks upon Kurtz & # 8217 ; s deceasing face he sees every aspect of the interior journey. The pride of the cause, the civilizing of the indigens, Kurtz came to the Congo to carry through. The huge control Kurtz reeled over the indigens. The subjugation of world as related with the & # 8216 ; caputs on bets & # 8217 ; , and the entire loss of Kurtz & # 8217 ; s psyche to the barbarian universe of greed and domination. Kurtz made the ultimate forfeit for the cause his inner most light and now he shall everlastingly populate in the bosom of darkness. Kurtz horror is the ultimate evil the vision of the Satan within his really life force. In the terminal of the novel the dark shadow of Kurtz and the Congo follow Marlow to Kurtz & # 8217 ; s Intended, where Marlow goes against his ethical motives and lies to her about Kurtz & # 8217 ; s last words. Kurtz uttered & # 8216 ; the horror the horror & # 8217 ; , but Marlow tells the Intended it was her name that escaped in his concluding breath. The quotation mark that incites this subject is & # 8216 ; The vision seemed to come in the house with me? like the whipping of a heart-the bosom of suppressing darkness. & # 8217 ; [ 68 ]