Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

1
Heart of Darknessby Joseph Conrad

• Some History and Background

2
What is it about?

• Heart of Darkness illustrates the evils of
  imperialism and the savage repressions carried
  out in the Congo by the Belgians in one of the
  largest acts of genocide committed up to that
  time.

3
Congo in the 1890s
Inner Station
4
Anti-colonialism
Conrad about colonialism

• The conquest of the earth, which mostly means
  the taking it away from those who have a
  different complexion or lightly flatter noses
  than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you
  look into it too much.
• a taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it
  all like the whiff from some corpse.
• In an essay Conrad calls the colonial
  exploitation of the Congo, the vilest scramble
  for loot that ever dis-figured the history of
  human conscience

5
Style

• Frame Story story within a story
• First narrator (who is unidentified) sets the
  scene.
• Marlow takes over as the main narrator and
  central character of the story and tells the tale
  about Heart of Darkness
• Basically, the first narrator is telling the
  story about Marlow telling the story about Kurtz

6
Meaning of Heart of Darkness

• The darkness refers to the darkest side of
  human nature as seen in the brutal colonizers and
  ivory traders
• Kurtz, and his hunger for power, which leads to
  his ultimate descent into madness
• Refers to the colonialism and imperialism that
  the Europeans were practicing at the turn of the
  20th century.

7
Some Thematic Ideas in HOD

• Existentialism
• The philosophical idea that the individual is
  solely responsible for giving his or her own life
  meaning and for living that life passionately and
  sincerely. Focus is on the individual rather
  than the group.

8
What is truth?

• The focus is not on what is true, but on the
  search for that truth. Thus, the real meaning is
  in the search, not the answer.

9
What is the meaning of colonialism?

• The meaning of colonialism that one race is
  more powerful than the otheris maintained by the
  IDEA only the idealism of colonialism In
  other words, colonialism in and of itself is
  futile and does not work, what works is the idea
  of colonialism (very important as we will
  discover in Kurtz, the aunt, etc.)

10

• The conquest of the earth, which mostly means
  to take it away from those who have a different
  complexion or slightly flatter noses than
  ourselves is not a pretty thing when you look
  into it too much. What redeems it is the idea
  only. An idea at the back of it not a
  sentimental pretence but an idea and an
  unselfish belief in the idea.

11
More Ideas and Themes

• Irrationality
• Lawlessness
• Human Suffering
• Chaos
• (All produced and promoted by colonialism)

12
And of coursepsychology

• Freudian Influences
• Id
• Ego
• Superego
• (represented in the three stations)

13

• Outer Station
• Ego-mans exterior self
• external social appearance (ex. accountant kept
  up his appearance) superficial
• Central Station
• Superego-the conscience, keeps the Id under
  control
• (ex. though the people in the Central Station are
  dangerously close to the wilderness, they have
  not completely given in to it.)

14
Journey up the river traveling into the darkness
of the unconscious mindInner StationThe Id
mans irrational and chaotic unconsciousness
(ex. no superego at the Inner Station to keep
Kurtz from forgetting himself).Reflects Conrads
idea that once the superego is removed as the
dominant control over the Id, control can never
be regained. If control could be regained, man
is forever changed and can no longer live with
the illusions of the Ego.
15
Archetypal MotifsA universal symbol recognized
by all

• Journey up the Congo river in search of Kurtz
• Quest (wealth, control, power, increased
  consciousness)
• Hero (Marlow represents quiet, knowledgeable hero
  figuredescends into hell and returns with an
  expanded consciousness)
• Temptress Kurtzs mistress
• Outcast (the Russian Harlequinhis book allows
  him to maintain his sanity despite his idolatrous
  devotion towards Kurtz)

16
More Archetypes

• Devil (symbolically)
• The Congo River like the snake in the biblical
  account of Adam and Eve
• Managerno noble intentions (wrecks Marlows
  steamer, delays arrival of rivets, orders the
  beating of the native child for the burning down
  of the supply building which he probably burnt
  himself, orders steamer to turn around within two
  miles of Inner Station, wants Kurtz to die)
• Fall
• The ultimate fall of Kurtz

17
Some Literary Devices(but there are many, many
more)

• Irony created through a mix of tragedy,
  absurdity, and dark satire
• Foreshadowing (of death)

18
Main Theme(but there are many, many more)

• The difficulty in distinguishing between reality
  and what appears to be.