English Finals

Prof. Barbara McGovern

Napolson Rama

Heart of Darkness
The story would start at the deck of Nellie, a British ship anchored on
the coast of Thames River. The anonymous narrator, Director of Company,
Accountant, and Marlow sit in silence, as they wait for the tide to turn.
Marlow started telling the three men about a time he journeyed in a
steamboat up the Congo River. Marlows fascination about the glories of
exploration and searching of the unknown led him to the heart of Africa.
Taking advantage of his seamanship experience and good connections from
his aunt, he was able to work for an ivory trading company. He got his
appointment really quick because one of their captains had been killed in a
scuffle with the natives. A French steamer takes Marlow along the coast of
Africa stopping periodically to land soldiers and custom house officers. As he
passed by these stations, he witnessed widespread brutality and chaos. The
native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Companys
service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands
of the Companys agents.

By these events he reexamined the European

notion of colonialism and the African people that it is affected by it.

Marlows physical journey represents the setting for the metaphorical
symbols that he will undergo; each stage of the journey is correlated to an
emotional insight that would lead him to a greater sense of self awareness.
He had learned the darkness that lies in each one of us and the things

darkness are capable of. I will discuss the following symbols that contribute
to Marlows emotional awakening.

First is Congo River it is the main route of steamships to get in and

outside of Africa where they transport the ivory back to Europe. Congo River
is really significant because most part of the story happened, while theyre
on the river going to the inner station. We could describe the river just like a
coiled snake stretching a hundred of miles. Conrad uses animal imagery to
describe the symbol of danger waiting, ready to strike. It also describes the
river as the main pathway going from exterior to the interior of Africa which
is related to our main character Marlow. Hes experiencing rebirth of ideas in
which things doesnt look what they supposed to be from the outside, but
theres real horror on the inside.
Second is Decapitated Heads, are one of the most powerful symbols
that we can find in Conrads novel. Kurtz's most disturbing act, the
placement of human heads atop poles surrounding his station house, is a
testament of a savage and brutal nature that lies within each one of us; for
the sake of wealth and power. Marlows behavior in the face of this
increasingly insane situation demonstrates his refusal to give in to the forces
of madness. These scenes made Marlow to reevaluate the true meaning of
between savagery and civilized society. In his mind the main question is
Who is more savage is it the Europeans or the Natives?

Gradually he

learned that its his own race whose backstabbing and greediness makes
them more savage compared to the natives of Africa.
Last one is Darkness, perhaps the strongest theme in the novel, going
back at the opening of the novel Marlow's tale begins and ends in literal
darkness; the setting of the novel is often dark, such as when the steamboat
is socked in by fog or dark-skinned individuals inhabit the entire region, but
within the tale darkness operates in several ways. As we know, darkness
symbolizes the unknown; it gains its power from its ability to conceal things
we are too frightened to face. Several times in the novel we see characters
afraid, not of the darkness itself, but of that which potentially lies within it.
One of the most alarming scenes occurs when the men aboard the fog-bound
steamer hear a shrill cry from somewhere around them.

It is particularly

frightening because this men know some potential threat is near, but they
cannot see it; it is simply out there in the darkness, waiting. Darkness also
effectively conceals certain savage acts.

It is possible to operate in the

cover of region's darkness in ways that would not be possible in the more
civilized Europe.

For example, when the Manager suggests that the

"scoundrel," who is suspected of helping Kurtz procure his ivory, should be

hanged as an example, his uncle agrees, noting that such actions are
possible in the Congo, a region far from the light of civilized action.
Despite the fear it induces, there are plenty of men who are willing to
brave it for its potential rewards. For the company, the incentive is material
wealth in the form of ivory.

The character who most fully embraces the

darkness is, of course, Kurtz. He has been completely transformed by his

experience in Congo. He has looked deeply within himself and has seen his
own potential for savagery, and totally embraced it.
In conclusion Congo River, Decapitated heads and Darkness are key
metaphorical symbol that plays a major role in Marlows journey to Africa not
just physically but emotionally as well. Cloaking under the promise of
innovation and civilization, Europeans hide their insatiable appetite for
wealth and power even to the point of acquiring it in less humane ways.
Marlow look upon to himself and comprehend all the things happened right
before his very eyes. He had found a new sense of knowledge about himself
and the darkness that lies in each one of us.
http://www.asdk12.org/Middlelink/LA/writing/StepUp/Reference_Sheet.p
df
(The Europeans try to push back the darkness, if only temporarily,
through their white clothes, adherence to European customs and morals, and
technological advances, like the steamboat and the railroad. But the novel
argues that the darkness is too enveloping. In the preface to his tale, Marlow
remarks that London was once "one of the dark places of the earth." Later he
sees how quickly the jungle reclaims its territory.

When he locates the

remains of his predecessor, Captain Fresleven, who died in an argument with

a native chief, he notes that "the grass growing through his ribs was tall
enough to hide his bones." These remarks suggest that in time Europe too

will be reclaimed by wild. The light of civilization with someday return to

darkness.)

(Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent

abstract ideas or concepts.)
Fog
Fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures but
distorts: it gives one just enough information to begin making decisions but
no way to judge the accuracy of that information, which often ends up being
wrong. Marlows steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has no idea
where hes going and no idea whether peril or open water lies ahead.

The Whited Sepulchre

The whited sepulchre is probably Brussels, where the Companys

headquarters are located. A sepulchre implies death and confinement, and
indeed Europe is the origin of the colonial enterprises that bring death to
white men and to their colonial subjects; it is also governed by a set of reified
social principles that both enable cruelty, dehumanization, and evil and
prohibit change. The phrase whited sepulchre comes from the biblical Book
of Matthew. In the passage, Matthew describes whited sepulchres as
something beautiful on the outside but containing horrors within (the bodies
of the dead); thus, the image is appropriate for Brussels, given the

hypocritical Belgian rhetoric about imperialisms civilizing mission. (Belgian

colonies, particularly the Congo, were notorious for the violence perpetuated
against the natives.)

Women

Both Kurtzs Intended and his African mistress function as blank slates
upon which the values and the wealth of their respective societies can be
displayed. Marlow frequently claims that women are the keepers of nave
illusions; although this sounds condemnatory, such a role is in fact crucial, as
these nave illusions are at the root of the social fictions that justify economic
enterprise and colonial expansion. In return, the women are the beneficiaries
of much of the resulting wealth, and they become objects upon which men
can display their own success and status.

The River

The Congo River is the key to Africa for Europeans. It allows them
access to the center of the continent without having to physically cross it; in
other words, it allows the white man to remain always separate or outside.
Africa is thus reduced to a series of two-dimensional scenes that flash by
Marlows steamer as he travels upriver. The river also seems to want to expel
Europeans from Africa altogether: its current makes travel upriver slow and

difficult, but the flow of water makes travel downriver, back toward
civilization, rapid and seemingly inevitable. Marlows struggles with the
river as he travels upstream toward Kurtz reflect his struggles to understand
the situation in which he has found himself. The ease with which he journeys
back downstream, on the other hand, mirrors his acquiescence to Kurtz and
his choice of nightmares
http://www.novelguide.com/heartofdarkness/themeanalysis.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/heart/section1.rhtml
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/conrad/pva52.html

Marlow arrives at the Central Station, run by the general manager, the
chief agent of the Company. Marlow felt uneasy on him right away because
of his lack of emotion and mediocrity
(He finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months
waiting for parts to repair it. His interest in Kurtz grows during this period.
The manager and his favorite, the brick maker, seem to fear Kurtz as a threat
to their position. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays in repairing the
ship all the more costly. Marlow eventually gets the parts he needs to repair
his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents (whom Marlow
calls pilgrims because of their strange habit of carrying long, wooden staves
wherever they go) and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the
river. The dense jungle and the oppressive silence make everyone aboard a

little jumpy, and the occasional glimpse of a native village or the sound of
drums works the pilgrims into a frenzy.

(He reconsidered his impression about Africans. He acknowledges that

they are indeed very much human, contrary to what most Europeans
assert. /("But what thrilled you," Marlow says, "was just the thought of their
humanity - like yours - the thought of your remote kinship with" those who
were considered to be savage and uncivilized (Conrad 32)).
Marlows physical journey represents the setting for the emotional
journey that he will undergo, each stage of the journey is correlated to an
emotional insight that would led him to a greater sense of self awareness.
http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/JSW/number21/brooks.html
http://www.shmoop.com/heart-of-darkness/charlie-marlowtimeline.html