UNIVERSITY OF BIHAC

PEDAGOGICAL FACULTY
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

UNIVERZITET U BIHAĆU
PEDAGOŠKI FAKULTET
ODSJEK ZA ENGLESKI JEZIK I KNJIŽEVNOST

METAPHYSICAL EVIL, DIABOLISM AND PARADOX

IN WORKS OF JOSEPH CONRAD
Diploma Paper

METAFIZIČKO ZLO, DIJABOLIZAM I PARADOKS

U DJELIMA JOSEPHA CONRADA
Diplomski rad

Kandidat:
Edin Kadić

Mentor:
Prof. dr. Đorđe Slavnić

Bihać, septembra 2010. godine

 CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………..…… 1
2. METAPHYSICAL EVIL, DIABOLISM AND PARADOX IN
JOSEPH CONRAD'S WORKS ………………………………………………….……
2. 1. Introductory Speculations about Origin of Life; Evolutionism and
Creationism in Conrad's Ego – Paradox of His Vision ………………….…

2. 2. Types of Evil ………………………………………………………………………………….………

3. "HEART OF DARKNESS"…………………………………………………..……………..
3. 1. Sinister Vision: Visual Effects in Interplay of Ligh and Darkness –
Jungian “Shadow” and the Dualism of Man …………………………………..…

3. 2. Civilization as the “Cradle” of Darkness, (Paradox); Darkness as

Evil; Pagan Symbol ………….……………………………………………………………………

3. 3. Biblical Parallels: Introduction into the World of Metaphysical Evil

3. 4. Diabolism: Red Colour of “Progress”; Paradox -Whiteness and

Blackness Inextricably Bound (Whiteness also Stands for Evil) ……....

3. 5. Sinister Backcloth; Metaphysical Evil: Civilization’s Flaw –

Speculations about White Race ………….…………………………………………………

3. 6. Diabolism; Marlow’s Descent into Inferno; Physical and Moral

Evil; Reversed Colour Symbolism ………….…………………………………………..

3. 7. Imperfection and Finiteness as Features of Metaphysical Evil;

Man’s Choice; “Shadow” ………….……………………………………… ………………

3. 8. The Collective Unconscious as Potential for Good or Evil ………….……

3. 9. Mr. Kurtz – the “Shadow” ………….…………………………………………………………

1. INTRODUCTION

Throughout the history of a mankind, certain events took shape with striking similarity
to previous events. These events, fraught with violence, bore marks of cruelty
characteristic for the early stages of humankind. Meticulous observation of the pattern of
human relationships within every society reveals an underlying driving force behind
these events. It mirrored, at all times, the basic conflict between, what was usually
termed, the forces of good and evil. This incessant struggle, in which the whole history
of a mankind is written, is indicative of a continual process of how reality is made,
including past, present and future time. Therofore, it serves, on a grand scale, as a
constant reminder of the paradoxical juxtuposition without which the known world
would be unimaginable. This dichotomy is present in almost all artistic master-pieces
and is manifested since the beginning of time, and further supported both in evolutionist
and creationist views of a mankind. Overly simplistic view of evolutionists reduces the
world of contradictions to natural selection and random growth of cells of organisms of
species, while the creationist view emphasizes the importance of opposite forces that
come from two sources, but eventually, in some monotheistic faiths, from one source.
Hence, it is implied that there exists a seemingly unravellable connection between forces
of good and evil. Strong interplay of good and evil is overly represented in world
literature, ancient and modern, up to the present time. “Janiform“ works of Joseph
Conrad, one of the first modernist writers, provides a glimpse into the contradictory
nature of mankind and its facets, ranging in its representation from goodness to evil.

Conrad's diffuse style strongly suggests the three literary, moral and philosopical
categories as themes that run indelibly throughout his works such as evil, diabolism and
paradox. Therefore, evil or experience of evil is unavoidably omnipresent motif in art
and major driving force in the long pageant of world history. It pervades almost every
work of art ranging from painting, musical or theatrical performances, cinematography
and finally, literature. According to some definitions, evil is any force, being or activity
that increases human suffering and is negative force concerned with loss and
deprivation. Traditionally, there are three main categories of evil: physical, moral and
metaphysical. Physical need not be necessarily conscious or deliberate whereas moral
evil is deliberate, while metaphysical evil is that which exists due to the structure of the
universe. The Christian interpretation of this evil is the concept of original sin. The
imperfections of the world are result of Adam and Eve's original mistake in the Garden
of Eden. Cruelty and malevolence are examples of moral evil; earthquakes, droughts and
tornadoes are examples of physical evil; blindness, deafness and lameness are examples
of metaphysical evil. All moral evil is the direct or indirect result of moral agents' free
wills or ability to choose. Physical and metaphysical evil may or may not be the result of
moral agents' choices. Driving force for wrongdoing, according to Conrad, stems from
the double nature of humans: their capability for good and evil, i.e. great technical
achievements and civilizing influences juxtaposed with intrinsic sadistic nature and
destructive drive that is found in every man.

Metaphysical evil pervades most of the mature works of Joseph Conrad and his works
anticipate tumultuous historic events in the twenty-first century. Besides the structure of
universe, there is also an underlying force as an agent from which evil emanates, that is,
Diabolos, an evil personified in the Old and New Testaments. It implies diabolism,
which means action aided or caused by the devil, the character or condition of a devil,
doctrine concerning devil, a belief in or worship of devils or action befitting the devil.
Joseph Conrad stages the deviltry, that is, diabolism as unavoidable subject in his works,
as stage props without which his scenes would not function. Furthermore, Conradian
universe is enveloped in his works that are termed „janiform“, for the Roman deity
Janus: the two-faced god who looks in opposite direction at the same time. His works, at
its height, aspire to the condition of paradox as they exhibit apparently contradictory
nature with opinions or statements contrary to commonly accepted opinions expressing a
possible truth. In this theme of paradox, in which forces of good and evil, although
antagonistic, are inextricably entwined in eternal struggle, the truth is laid bare in
countless instances of conflicting nature of universe. Undoubtedly and unquestionably,
metaphysical evil, diabolism and paradox run constantly through much of Joseph
Conrad's works.
2. METAPHYSICAL EVIL, DIABOLISM AND PARADOX IN JOSEPH
CONRAD'S WORKS

2.1. Introductory Speculations about Origin of Life; Evolutionism and

Creationism in Conrad's Ego – Paradox of His Vision

In all-encompassing, comprehensive survey of all epoques of history, the question of

origin of life arises as a source of great perplexity. According to a number of evolution
theorists, life on planet Earth originated four to seven billion years ago in a primordial
matter, after the event described as 'Big Bang.1 The 'Big Bang' theory is based on the
mathematical equations, known as the field equations, of the general theory of relativity
set forth in 1915 by Albert Einstein and later expounded by Stephen Hawking in his
book A Brief History of Time. Furthermore, the proponents of evolution theory claim
that the complex evolution that is today, is one continual, uninterrupted chain of events
that made the proliferation of organic world possible. However, in 1998, scientists found
evidence of asterioid or comet impact 3.3 million years ago in what is now Argentina, an
event that could be connected to regional animal extinction and climate change at that
time. The findings were reported in the December 11, 1998, issue of the journal
“Science.“2 The size of the impact and the extent of the extinction that apparently
resulted pale in comparison to the event 65 million years ago when a comet or asteroid
slammed into what is now Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Many scientists believe that the
enormous impact from this event altered the earth's climate and doomed the dinosaurs to

1
Big Bang Theory, currently accepted explanation of the beginning of the universe. The big bang theory
proposes that the universe was once extremely compact, dense, and hot. Some original event, a cosmic
explosion called the big bang, occurred about 10 billion to 20 billion years ago, and the universe has
ince been expanding and cooling.
2
The research was led by geologist Peter Schultz of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Schultz and his colleagues based their conclusions on the chemical composition of a greenish glass and
red bricklike material found in a thin layer along 29 km (18 mi) of the coast of Argentina. This material,
called escoria or scoria, is created by extreme heat or pressure and is one of the essential signatures of an
impact by an asteroid or other matter, Schultz said. The scientists dated the escoria to 3.3 million years
ago, a relatively recent time by geological standards. Fossil evidence around this geologic layer indicates
that the impact occurred just before about 35 different types of animals disappeared from the region.
Among the extinctions were those of a flightless bird, different types of ground sloths, an armadillo-like
animal, and various hoofed mammals. Unlike that catastrophe, which produced an impact crater 200 km
(124 mi) wide, no crater has been found for the more recent event. Schultz theorized that the crater is
probably submerged off the coast of Argentina.
extinction. Consequently, the force of impact was too strong, and according to a number
of geologists, it is less likely that complex organisms could have survived disaster of
such devastating magnitude. Furthermore, according to a number of mathematicians,
seven billion years is not enough time for such complex evolution to occur, nor 65 or 3.3
million years, a relatively recent time by standards of biogenesis.3 Moreover, the law of
biogenesis challenges evolutionist claims that organic matter is produced from inorganic
matter; cells are produced only from living, organic matter. Fossil evidence, also,
indicates that earliest fossils, found in Cambrian rocks are far complex than evolution
theorists thought; no fossils are found in pre-cambrian rocks. At the time Joseph Conrad
was pursuing his writer’s career, evolution theory emerged and was thought to
undermine Christian creationist belief. However, due to the progress of science in the
twentieth and twenty-first century, the scientists are not unanimous about approving the
evolution theory as valid explanation of origin of life; number of scientists, among them
geologists, geneticists, paleonthologists, mathematicians, physicists, astrophysicists, etc.
strongly disapprove of evolution theory today. Scientists today, still face the enigma of
the origin of life, especially of the origin of human race. Conrad, in his atheist,
evolutionist assumption wrote to his friend Cunninghame Graham4:

“There is a – let us say – a machine. It evolved itself (I am severely scientific)

out of a chaos of scraps of iron and behold! – it knits. I am horrified at the
horrible work and stand appalled…And the most withering thought is that
the infamous thing has made itself: made itself without thought, without
conscience, without foresight, without eyes, without heart. It is a tragic
accident – and it has happened…It knits us in it knits us out. It has knitted
time, space, pain, death, corruption, despair, and all the illusions…and
nothing matters. I’ll admit however that to look at the remorseless process
is something interesting.”

3
Biogenesis, the production of living organisms from other living organisms (Webster's Encyclopedic
Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language).
4
Joseph Conrad’s Letters to Cunningham Graham. Edited by C.T.Watts. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University press, 1969.
Victorian world-view, which originated in all those developments in nineteenth-century
geology, astronomy, physics and chemistry which combined with industrialism,
suggested to Conrad that the natural world was merely the accidental result of
purposeless physical processes. However, in author’s note to “Almayer’s Folly” in 1895,
Conrad said:

“…For their land (the land of the natives) – like ours – lies under the inscrutable
eyes of the Most High…”

Unerringly, his reference to the Most High contradicts the previous statement about the
machine that evolved, and may be said that it posits the existence of some form of
greater force or divine being that is usually called God. Already here, in atheistic
assumption and supernatural implication, is the presence of paradox that envelopes
Conradian universe. Constant doubt about the nature and origin of universe and life runs
throughout Conrad’s work and like his failing health (fever, gout), disturbed his worried
mind to the end of his life. Conrad attempts to explain it by saying that no final
accounting of human behaviour (or origin) is possible; that the inexplicable enters into
every explanation5. He continues to look in opposite directions at the same time, of the
so-called Homo Duplex, the double man, either evolutionist or creationist. Despite the
fact that he shared with the Victorians their rejection of the religious, social and
intellectual order of the past in his rational industrial metaphor6, his mind was unable to
suppress the irrational side of psyche, which haunted him despite the adopted rational
stance in regard to universe. The irrational side of psyche, in contrast to accepted
evolutionist attitude, is mirrored in regions, cultures and experiences that surrounded
him for the most of his career as a seaman and writer. Whether that was the Malay
Archipelago, terrifying sea, terrorist underworld in England, darkly metaphysical
butcher’s Congo or diabolic province of Sulaco, one indelible feeling that permeates his
work is feeling of fear. By analogy, reasons for man’s fear lie in the unknown, which
may be guessed at times, as something inherently evil. One single undeniable fact that
Conrad poses in his literature is the force of evil, which is not diminished by perpetual
5
Karl, F.R. (1979). Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux.
6
Watt, I. (2000). Essays on Conrad, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
opposition of evolutionist attitude to the larger view of the world which Conrad has
absorbed from his nineteenth-century experience. Therefore, evil works more within the
reality of the creationist universe.

2.2. Types of evil

Conrad, either as a seaman or a writer, compelled by his surroundings or experiences,

unconsciously drifts into the creationist universe where he encounters three types of
evil5: physical, moral and metaphysical. These types of evil work in creationist universe
either in Malay Archipelago, Atlantic ocean, London, Bruxelles or Congo. Physical evil
is that which causes harm to the body or the mind 6. Moral evil is deliberate departure
from an accepted moral code. This sort of evil can take two aspects. The first is when
one does something that he or she knows to be wrong – the will acting against the
guidance of the conscience. In this sense moral evil can exist even for the atheist, i.e.
evolutionist. The second is acting against the precepts of religion – committing sin.
Someone who departs unknowing from such codes does not do evil. Metaphysical evil is
that which exists due to the structure of the universe. This category generates the most
lively debates. Some do not hold that it exists at all – that decay and death are a part of
the order of life, and are thus not negative. Others hold that they cause suffering of
others, and are thus evil. These latter must then find reasons to justify this kind of evil in

5
Evil, [ME evel, evil, OE yfel; Goth ubils, OHG ubil, G. ubel, OFris, MD evil]. According to definitions in
number of English language dictionaries has number of meanings: adj.:1. morally wrong; immoral;
wicked. 2. harmful; injurious. 3. characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate;
disastrous. 4. due to actual or imputed bad conduct or character 5. marked by anger, irritability,
irrascibility, evil disposition, etc. (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English
Language, (1996), New York: Gramercy Books) "Evil is any force, being or activity that increases human
suffering. It is a negative force, concerned with loss and deprivation; it interferes with human welfare or it
subtracts something from the universe. (www.wikipedia.org)
6
This kind of evil need not be conscious or deliberate – a traffic accident may be an evil event, though
there was no bad intent. Similarly, one may speak of an “evil storm” on the horizon – it looks like it will
cause suffering, but evil intent is not truly ascribed to it. Of course, deliberate (unsolicited) bodily injury,
or the thwarting of a person’s full development, are also evil. (www. wikipedia).
the universe of a benevolent God. The Christian solution to this problem is the concept
of Original sin. The imperfections of the world are a result of Adam and Eve's original
mistake in the Garden of Eden. In that way, their sons, Abel and Cain, who embody the
paradox that came from the Creator (but not directly attributed to Him), perpetuate the
metaphysical evil and inherent paradox of mankind – presence of both good and evil in
mankind and justification of the existence of evil in the universe.

To strengthen the paradox, Joseph Conrad rejected the social and intellectual order of the
day by assuming that there is no greater force, the supreme being that is called God and
that everything is illusion:

"I am like a man who has lost his gods. My efforts seem unrelated to anything
in heaven and everything under heaven is impalpable to the touch like shapes
of mist. Do you see how easy writing must be under such conditions? Do you
see? Even writing to a friend – to a person one has heard, touched, drank with,
quarrelled with – does not give me a sense of reality. All is illusion – the words
written, the mind at which they are aimed, the truth they are intended to express,
the hands that will hold the paper, the eyes that will glance at the lines. Every
image floats vaguely in a sea of doubt – and the doubt itself is lost in an
unexplored universe of incertitudes.“7

3. “HEART OF DARKNESS”

7
Watt, I. (2000), Essays on Conrad, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.1. Sinister Vision: Visual Effects in Interplay of Ligh and
Darkness – Jungian “Shadow” and Dualism of Man

Timeless as it may seem, Heart of Darkness is a semi-fictionalised account of Conrad’s

experience in Congo in 1889-1890 when he was an employee of a Belgian company
Societe Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo. Conrad got an appointment
on board the steamer Roi des Belges through his influential aunt Marguerita Poradowska
in Brussels. The steamer was to reach company’s isolated outer station in the interior on
Congo River and bring back Georges Antoine Klein, the inner station agent now close to
death. The trip, a considerable one of a thousand miles, normally took well over a month
because of obstacles in the river and the nature of the waterway itself. At that time,
Congo was proclaimed the “Congo Free State” in ownership of Leopold II, the king of
Belgium. Belgian imperialists were exploiting the rubber-bearing land and almost all
exploitable land was divided among concession companies. Forced labour, hostages,
slave chains, starving porters, burned villages, paramilitary company “sentries”, and the
chicotte8 were the order of the day. In these circumstances Conrad went to Congo, saw
the conditions in which the exploitation was going on, and retold it in his novella Heart
of Darkness. The novella is staged on board of a cruising yawl Nellie sometime at the
turn of the twentieth century. The atmosphere on the docks of a Gravesend in London
suggests something intrinsically dark and foreboding as the sun sets:

“The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed
into a mournful gloom, brooding over the biggest, and the greatest, town on
Earth.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 5)

Before the ending of the day the atmosphere is that of ‘a serenity of still and exquisite
brilliance’, the sky “a benign immensity of unstained light”, but there appears the gloom
to the west, “brooding over the upper reaches”, which “became sombre every minute”.
8
The chicotte was a vicious whip made out of raw, sun-dried hippopotamus hide, cut into a long sharp-
edged cork-screw strip. It was applied to bare buttocks, and left permanent scars. Twenty strokes of it sent
victims into unconsciousness; and a 100 or more strokes were often fatal. The chicotte was freely used by
both Leopold's men and the French
The change in atmosphere, contrast of light and darkness, day and night, seems to
suggest that there exists an invisible force underlying the light of the day. Such force,
represented through appearance of darkness, becomes dominant feature from the start of
the novella, and intensifies the mood in which the story unfolds. The struggle of light is
played against the background of approaching darkness which moves menacingly
toward it threatening to envelop the light in its gloom. The chiaroscuro that Conrad
applied here represents eternal ‘janiform’ dualism of never ceasing struggle between the
light and darkness, but also the existence of both at the same time. The inference is that
the light cannot be seen or perceived without darkness or vice versa, that is, the light
cannot exist without darkness, and darkness cannot exist without light. In this
juxtaposition, there is a paradox in unity of opposites, which is frequently mentioned in
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as well as in his other works. The men aboard the
Nellie, besides the narrator, are the Director of Companies as captain, the Lawyer, the
Accountant and Charlie Marlow. The narrator states that “it was difficult to realize” that
captain’s work “was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the
brooding gloom”. This reference, seems to serve the notion that, according to Swiss
psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, there exists that other side of ourselves, which is to be
found in the personal unconscioous, the “shadow”. The shadow, according to Jung, is
the inferior being in ourselves, the one who wants to do all the things that we do not
allow ourselves to do, who is everything that we are not, the Mr. Hyde to our Dr. Jekyll.
It is as if the narrator, from the opening page, intimates in this way, that the glossy
surface of empire, whose typical representative is The Director of Companies, wears off
to reveal hidden content, the meaning of which is not always palatable. The narrator
pictures it as a gloom in comparison to the luminous estuary and estuary is suggested as
projection of captain’s persona, and persona, according to Jung, is a necessity; through
it the man relates to his world. Persona simplifies one’s contacts by indicating what
other people can expect from one, and on the whole makes one pleasanter. So in this
contrast of light and darkness there is a juxtaposition of a persona and shadow as
paradoxical unity of every individual. There is, as Jung points out, no shadow without
the sun, and no shadow (in the sense of the personal unconscious) without the light of
consciousness. It is, in fact, in the nature of things that there should be light and dark,
sun and shade. The shadow is unavoidable and man is incomplete without it. Therefore,
captain’s work is behind him, within the brooding gloom, that is, it is a product of his
‘shadow’ which he casts and it is a reflection of empire’s shadow, that is, its atrocities
done in colonies. Soon, the sun sets and darkness covers the scene, giving completely
different aspect to the setting:

“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, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over
a crowd of men. Forthwith a change came over the waters…”
(Heart of Darkness, p. 6)

The “exquisite brilliance” and “unstained light” was soon stained with emerging gloom,
that “became sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun”. Presence
of physical darkness, shown here with dramatic effect, complements the brightness of
the day and the fall of the sun is, strangely enough, “imperceptible”. Outward signs it
gives after that, show an incredible change in its appearance, quality, and, one may
think, change in essence and physical structure. This ominous representation of a
daytime and night-time following one another is traditionally associated with the notion
that nature of every man is inextricably bound with processes in the outer nature itself,
which surround one. It is as if this motif in literature highlights the double nature of
every man in which light follows the darkness or vice versa.

3.2. Civilization as the “Cradle” of Darkness, (Paradox);

Darkness as Evil, Pagan Symbol

The narrator brings back the spirit of the past that hangs over the Thames river by calling
into memory names of people to whom it served such as Sir Francis Drake or Sir John
Franklin: “…knights all, titled and untitled – the great knights errants of the sea”,…
“hunters for gold or pursuers of fame”, “the dark interlopers…” Even the names of the
ships, Erebus9 and Terror evoke certain associations related to darkness. When the
darkness finally descended on the stream, with ominous outlines of town, Charlie
Marlow spoke:

“ ‘And this also‘, said Marlow suddenly, ‘has been one of the dark places of the
earth. ’ ” (Heart of Darkness, p. 7)

Marlow is not a typical seaman, as minds of typical seamen are of “the stay-at-home
order” and the meaning of their yarns “lies within the shell of a cracked nut”. But to
Marlow the meaning lies outside the kernel, enveloping the tale. Marlow starts his story
by evocation of Roman conquest of Britain, saying that light came out of the Thames
River some time ago, but the effect is that the darkness was there yesterday. Quite
decidedly, in words of African scholar Chinua Achebe, the river Thames is River
Emeritus. It has rendered centuries-long service and deserves old age pension. In other
words, with conquest and civilizing influence of Romans, the Thames River has
conquered its darkness. In Marlow’s words, what early Roman conquerors encountered
there was terrifying wilderness and utter savagery. Marlow juxtaposes a decent young
Roman citizen in toga (the colour of which is white) to savagery that closes round him
inland and speaks of the fascination of the abomination that goes to work upon him
because he, as a civilized man, “has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible”.
Western Europe was one of the dark places on Earth where the conquerors brought
civilization. It was plunder with killing on a grand scale without thinking “as is very
proper for those who tackle darkness”. To outrageous killings and mindless violence
conquerors have ascribed the idea of bearing the torch of “progress”, the “light of
civilization”.

As he speaks, Marlow assumes shape of “Buddha preaching in European clothes and

without a lotus-flower”. His outward appearance seems to mark his departure from the
known world, in which monotheistic faith is dominant, into the unknown, that is, the
9
In Greek mythology, Erebus "deep darkness or shadow", was the son of a primordial god, Chaos, and
represented the personification of darkness and shadow, which filled in all the corners and crannies of the
world. His name is used interchangeably with Tartarus and Hades since Erebus is often thought of as part
of the underworld. William F. Hansen (2004). Handbook of Classical Mythology. London: Hermes House.
world of “pagan” religions, so regarded from the monotheistic point of view. In this
way, Marlow symbolises something resembling pagan idol or pagan symbol. His
transition from the Western world into the Oriental is also followed with the darkness
replacing the light, the light that stands for the good and the darkness that stands for evil.
Darkness works within the reality of evil, or metaphysical evil as it is inseparable part of
nature, and with the end of light, it brings the death of life. Marlow, without a lotus-
flower, as European Buddha, only indicates that the meaning of his yarn is hidden, or not
very clear. In his monologue, Marlow says:

” ‘It (journey) seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about

me – and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough, too – and pitiful – not
extraordinary in any way – not very clear either. No, not very clear. And yet
it seemed to throw a kind of light.’ ” (Heart of Darkness, p. 11)

3.3. Biblical Parallels: Introduction into

the World of Metaphysical Evil

As a boy, Charlie Marlow looked at blank spaces on maps where he wanted to go,
because they did not look very clear and for that reason were particularly inviting. First,
he was attracted by the whiteness of the North Pole, but in truth, he hankered after “the
biggest, the most blank”, the Black continent. But Marlow says that, since his boyhood,
it ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery – “it had become a place of darkness”.
(Heart of Darkness, p. 12) Paradoxically, in this statement, it is obviously suggested that
darkness had arrived with white colonialists, and that Congo River had not overcome its
darkness like Thames did. Blank space, as a “white patch for a boy to dream gloriously
over” was not white anymore but was made dark by the “progress” of the white race. In
this way, metaphysical darkness works within metaphor of whiteness and blackness, that
follow one another, complement one another. The white race is supposed to constitute
the body, while African land and rivers are supposed to be a reflection of that body, that
is, its Jungian shadow. Congo River serves to represent the pull of the unknown, or to
portray the diabolism and ancient evil in imagery of a snake that lures Marlow in the
same way it tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the Old Testament, the
Hebrew part of the Holy Bible, the serpent, viewed as an ancient evil upon which God
had later put curse, tempted Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit:

”And the serpent was more crafty than any animal of the field which Jehovah
Elohim had made. And it is said to the woman, Is it even so, that God had said,
Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,
we may eat of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree that is in the
midst of the garden, God had said; ye shall not eat of it, and ye shall not touch
it, lest ye die. And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not certainly die; but
God knows that in the day ye eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and ye will
be as God, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasure for the eyes, and the tree was to be desired
to give intelligence; and she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave also to her
husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked.’ ” (Genesis 3)

The snake-like river tempted and hypnotized Marlow ”like a snake would a bird – a silly
little bird…but could not shake off the idea. The snake had charmed me…fascinating –
deadly…” (Heart of Darkness, p. 12) Although in the Genesis of the Old Testament
woman is tempted by the snake, in Heart of Darkness Charlie Marlow is charmed by the
snake, but the female influence is obvious in character of Charlie’s aunt. His
enthusiastic, influential aunt encouraged him to go, and her role that can be paralleled
with first biblical woman is present in her exhortation:

” ‘It will be delightful. I am ready to do anything, anything for you. It

is a glorious idea. I know the wife of a very high personage in the
administration, and also a man who has lots of influence with, ’ etc., etc.
She was determined to make no end of fuss to get me appointed skipper
of a river steamboat, if such was my fancy. ” (Heart of Darkness, p. 12)
In similar way, Eve offers Adam fruit from a forbidden tree and makes him eat it, so that
their eyes will be opened, and they would be like God, knowing good and evil. Charlie’s
aunt acts as a “mediator” between him and the physical embodiment of a diabolical
biblical snake, the Congo River. Her influence is of a biblical Eve who knows that the
company’s business, that is, the tree, was good for food, and it was pleasure for the eyes,
and the tree was desired to give intelligence…Therefore, in Heart of Darkness, she
introduced Marlow into a sinful world, world of metaphysical evil and imperfections he
was not aware of, where his eyes are opened to know both good and evil. In Dino de
Laurentis’s film version of the Holy Bible, Eve tasted the forbidden fruit and offered it
to Adam by saying that “our human eyes will be opened and we will be like God”.
Thereupon Adam feels terrible uneasiness by saying: “But…that is disobedience!” And
after that, he tastes the fruit hesitatingly. Similarly, aunt tells Marlow about necessity of
“weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways” which made him most
uncomfortable.10 Taking a view of Marlow’s aunt from a biblical perspective is justified
in Marlow’s statement:

“It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of
their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is
too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up, it would go to pieces
before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living
contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the
whole thing over.’ “

With import of this statement, Conrad suggests that men are aware of evil behind noble
intentions more than women are, as men, roughened by failures and bad experience, live
in a real world and see the true nature of things.

10
Charlie’s aunt is, in fact, Marguerita Poradowska, widow of Conrad’s deceased relative from Brussels,
to whom he was attracted and had plans of marrying her. She proved to be a useful connection for
Conrad’s employment in a Belgian company Societe Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo.
An act of biting the forbidden fruit is, metaphorically, shown in action of Marlow
entering the company building, undergoing the medical examination, signing the
contract and joining the company’s business. However, Marlow senses something
ominous, as eerie atmosphere pervades the place. First, he is met by the two women
knitting black wool which strongly suggests the initiation into the unknown, of which he
has no conception and is afraid of. The description of a building, its surroundings and its
interior has a strong association with Adam’s “cursed land” away from the Garden of
Eden. In Genesis, after tasting the fruit from the tree of knowledge, God cursed Adam
and placed him in a land far away from the Garden of Eden:

“And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,
and eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat
of it: cursed be the ground of thy account; with toil shalt thou eat [of] it all
the days of thy life; and thorns and thistles shall it yield thee; and thou shalt
eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until
thou return to the ground: for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art;
and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis, 3:17)

Similarly, the company’s building, which is in a narrow and deserted street in the deep
shadow, the surrounding of it is that of “a dead silence, grass sprouting between the
stones,” staircase is swept and ungarnished, “as arid as a desert”, and may be associated
with the “cursed ground” of Adams’s account, as well as with Cain’s ground, cursed by
God, after Cain slew his brother:

“And now be thou cursed from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to
receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it
shall not henceforth yield thee its strength; a wanderer and fugitive shalt
thou be on the earth.” (Genesis, 4:11)

However, Marlow is not a fratricide, but is, instead, a wanderer, and unknowingly,
committer or perpetrator of a transgression, as he seeks forbidden knowledge from a tree
of knowledge, which, in distorted metaphor, is company’s business. “Magnificent
dependency”, that is, the Congo Free State and its river, are represented as a “cursed
ground”, or ground of Adam’s or Marlow’s “account”. The whole territory of Africa in
the 19th century was a stage of horrible scramble for loot that, in Conrad’s words,
disfigured the conscience of Europe like never before in history of a mankind.

3.4. Diabolism: Red Colour of “Progress”; Paradox – Whiteness and

Blackness Inextricably Bound (Whiteness also Stands for Evil)

After being preceded into a waiting-room by the “knitter of black wool”, Marlow sees
shining map of “progress” in Africa, marked with all the colours of a rainbow. The scene
of the two women knitting black wool represents picture of a destiny and serves to
predict the tragedy. In their room Marlow again comes in view of the snake-like river.
They are keepers of the door of darkness. They knit the wool feverishly, and in it they
are likened to knitting machine that “created space, time, love, hate, pain, despair”, as
there are numbers of souls waiting for them to knit their destiny. Symbolic snake did not
make Marlow to know both good and evil, but will lead him, upstream, to become
conscious of the ultimate evil, final and unthinkable. Besides other colours on the map,
there is a vast amount of red – which marks “real work” done there and purple patch
where colonialists are, mentioned as “jolly pioneers of progress”. In Africa, colours do
not always have usual connotations like they have in Europe. In some parts of Africa
such as Egypt, black colour does not have evil connotations. Black colour in Egypt
represents Egyptian god Horus11, god of Lower Egypt, of its Northern part, and Egypt
was one of the cultures in which black colour does not signify evil, but is instead colour
of black fertile land of the Nile delta which gives life. In contrast to black, red colour
represents Seth12, god of Upper Egypt, its Southern part, and is adversary to Horus. Seth
represents dry, barren desert; therefore, the colour of this evil adversary or Diabolos was
11
Egyptian Religion. a solar deity, regarded as either the son or the brother of Isis or Osiris, and usually
represented as a falcon or as a man with the head of a falcon [ < LL < Gk Horus < Egypt Hur hawk
12
Egyptian religion. the brother and murderer of Osiris, represented as having the form of a donkey or
other mammal and regarded as personifying the desert. Also, Set.
scorching red.13 Red colour on map of “progress” that Marlow looked at is in notable
accord with number of traditions that represent Devil or Diabolos. It coincides with this
kind of evil which represents, and the suggestion is that such evil is brought with white
imperialism. Throughout the novella, red colour is also prominent in places where
torture, malevolence and cruelty take place.

After procedures to join company’s business are over, the feeling of uneasiness came
over Marlow, especially after signing the document wherein he obliged not to disclose
any trade secrets.

“I began to feel slightly uneasy. You know I am not used to such ceremonies,
and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was as though I had
been let into some conspiracy – I don’t know – something not quite right; and
I was glad to get out.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 15)

With such an obligation Marlow may be said to have undertaken to finish the unholy
work on the “cursed ground” without letting others know anything about his
disagreeable job. Not disclosing any trade secrets should mean that Marlow is not going
to make others aware that they are involved in a world of metaphysical evil. The relation
of Belgians and other Europeans to evil and wickedness stems from the corruption of
nation to oppress others for profit and earthly gain, as is illustrated in Marlow’s
perception of imperial capital Brussels as “white sepulchre”. The “white sepulchre”, that
is, the white architecture of Brussels serves as a mental picture of a mass murder of over
ten millions of Congolese in one of the greatest acts of genocide up to that time.
Metaphorically, whiteness of the “sepulchre” should represent the heaps of bones, the
mortal remains of the Congolese, as well as vast amounts of ivory collected in
imperialist conquest and exploitation. The notion of evil works both in application of

13
Seth is associated with desert, his colour is usually red, and ancient Egyptians considered red-haired or
people with rubicand complexion followers of Seth. Plutarch and Herodot record that the red-haired
Egyptians were offered in sacrifice rites. Image of Seth is usually that of a reddish hybrid animal, whose
species cannot be determined, and for that reason is simply known as – Seth – the beast. Seth is placed
somewhere between the deceiver and the demon, or is personification of a devil. (Omer. N. (2006) “Đavo:
mit i istina”, Sarajevo: Preporod)
white and black colour, light and darkness, as these are usually considered to be
antithetical, but are in fact, inextricably bound. In order to appear distinctly, light usually
looms up in darkness as it stands in sharp contrast to it. Similarly, darkness intensifies
the effect of blackness when it is contrasted to lighter background or whiteness.
However, one cannot appear without the presence of another, which suggests, by
analogy, that one cannot exist without the other. Conrad’s paradoxical juxtuposition of
light and darkness is another reminder of “janiform” nature of his works.

The first intimations of Marlow’s descent into Inferno or “cursed ground” is a baleful
presence of two “knitters of black wool” in their plain black clothes. The younger one
was “introducing continuously to the unknown” while the elderly woman with her
unconcerned glance intimated that she knew everything about Marlow and others:

‘The swift and indifferent placidity of that look troubled me. Two youths with
foolish and cheery countenances were being piloted over, and she threw at them
the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about
them and all about me, too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny
and fateful. Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of
Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing
continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces
with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant.
Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again – not half, by a long way.
(Heart of Darkness, p.16)

After signing the contract, Marlow undergoes strange medical examination which
foreshadows even stranger journey. The procedure that Marlow undergoes is strangely
impersonal, as there was something sinister in the atmosphere of the company. The
doctor says, after measuring his cranium, that changes take place inside. In other words,
Marlow is forewarned that he is about to find out about the unknown.
In public, those departing to distant colonies had an aureole of the emissaries of light.
Marlow is surprised with delight of his aunt in his “noble assignment” as he is aware that
the main goal of the company is profit, but his aunt lives in a blissful ignorance. His
aunt, deliberately unaware, symbolizes Europe that closes her eyes before the
consequences of colonial undertaking. After Marlow left his aunt’s residence, queer
feeling came over him that he was an impostor, and had a moment of startled pause
before leaving for Africa.

3.5. Sinister Backcloth; Metaphysical evil: Civilization’s

Flaw – Speculations about White Race

Charlie Marlow’s journey to Africa is paralleled with Conrad’s voyage to Congo Free
State, founded in 1885 and ruled by Leopold II, King of Belgium. The political territory
of Central Africa comprises the French Congo and Leopold’s Congo Free State.
Marlow’s journey on a steamer is, in reality, Conrad’s voyage on steamer Roi des Belges
in 1889-1890. Sinister backdrop of narration is the vast African wilderness soon to be
carved out by the colonial powers. Names of the trading places, like Gran’ Bassam,
Little Popo in the novella do not bring any strong associations relating to evil or
diabolism but “seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister back-
cloth” (Heart of Darkness, p. 19). The ports of call have “farcical names”; the uniform
sombreness of African coast brings associations to unexplored ground, terra incognita,
and, in Marlow’s words, thinking about it “is like thinking about an enigma” (Heart of
Darkness, p. 19). The arrival of the white civilisation at a wide, lush African jungle has
the effect of a senseless delusion as if there was a calculated endeavour to keep Marlow
and others away from the truth of things. “White progress” accentuates the metaphysical
evil, as there is a presence of fault in civilisation juxtaposed to a boat paddled by black
natives and nature represented as surf along the ocean, “as if Nature herself had tried to
ward off intruders”.
Civilisation is considered to be faulty in comparison to the untouched nature and its
humanity, as the narrator’s tableaux strongly suggest a flaw in magnificent superiority of
technologically advanced race. The “flaw” is depicted as destructive effects of a
“superior” race whose violent actions taint the African landscape and its centuries old
settlements. The “flaw” is thought to represent a fault, a distinct feature of metaphysical
evil, as it is implied that there is something intrinsically wrong and evil in humankind,
especially in the portion of it that is superior to another one. Wrongness that is present in
civilisation seems to suggest Marlow’s conscious reflection that “some confounded fact
we man have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up
and knock the whole thing over”. This reflection serves as a clear reference to Original
sin as heritage of the mankind. The seascape scene that Marlow narrates brings to light
that the fault in mankind, in this instance, is a scramble for loot in oppression of one
another, a competition for profit of powerful nations, as a result of the flaw inherited
through the Original sin. It is evidenced in European bombing of African coast as a
portent of a disaster that was to come:

“Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast.

There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears
the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped
limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the
low hull: the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down,
swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky and water,
there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one
of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white
smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech – and
nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in
the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not
disippated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp
of natives – he called them enemies! – hidden out of sight somewhere.”
(Heart of Darkness, p. 20)
Sinister backcloth of the novella is accentuated by the mention of trading places with
farcical names where “the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy
atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb”. Nightmarish journey foreshadows Marlow’s
descent into Inferno on Earth, which is both metaphorical and real. On a sea-going
steamer, Marlow is forewarned by a Swedish captain’s question what becomes of the
greedy European kind when they go up country. He mentions the case of a Swede who
hanged himself on the road for reason not known to them: “Who knows? The sun too
much for him, or the country perhaps”. (Heart of Darkness, p. 21). The scenes opening
before Marlow are of colonial desolation and destruction, of “inhabited devastation
brought about by the ‘progress”. The trading stations are thought to be beacons of light
towards progress and betterment. However, what Marlow encounters is completely
opposite to what he expected to find. The trading posts are elaborately equated with
specific circles of Hell14, thus in Dante’s influence on Conrad’s texts, there is a close
structural parallel between Heart of Darkness and the Inferno. Marlow’s step into
Inferno is marked by the diabolical scene of a chain-gang driven by “the reclaimed”, one
of the natives recruited into the Force Publique15 Marlow was profoundly shocked with
the scene of a chain-gang as he is later haunted by paradox of meaning of those words
with which he was sent on a journey and disturbing scenes that awaited him in the
Congo. These chained people were not enemies, the real enemies came to them as
“insoluble mystery from the sea”, as invaders, slave owners, master butchers and
torturers. Paradoxically, in Europe, they were called “emissaries of light, bearers of the
progress, missionaries bringing civilization”. In this way, Conrad’s diabolical scene of a
chain gang creates effect of complete inversion of usual concepts of civilization and
savagery.
3.6. Diabolism; Marlow’s Descent into Inferno; Physical
and Moral Evil; Reversed Colour Symbolism

Conrad’s reference to diabolism, which, in case of a chain gang, is represented through

action thought to be aided or caused by the devil, is clear. In it, devil is personified, first

14
Robert Evans, "Conrad's Underworld". 1956
15
Force Publique, or Public Force, founded in the Congo Free State in 1885
as a human, but behind which stand powerful but negative emotions like greed, lust and
rapacity:

“I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot
desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that
swayed and drove men – men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I
foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted
with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly.
How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later
and a thousand miles farther.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 23)

Marlow’s portrayal of the “red-eyed devils” is in notable accord with visual imagery of
European tradition, where the image of devil is usually depicted either with dark or
reddish colour. The “reclaimed” native, a “product of new forces at work” is dark-
skinned and “red-eyed”. Again, red colour is prominent through reference to god Seth,
equivalent of devil in religion of the ancient Egyptians. A flabby, red-eyed is the
description of colonial Europe and her rapacious and soulless stupidity.
By further exploring the first river station, Marlow steps into the “grove of death” and
discovers a group of dying blacks, victims of the colonialists’ futile efforts at railway
building:

“My purpose was to stroll into the shade for a moment; but no sooner within
than it seemed to me I had stepped into the gloomy circle of some Inferno…”
(Heart of Darkness, p. 24)

Conrad subtly creates a nightmarish apprehension and draws parallel between his
forthcoming experience and Dante’s model. Conrad’s realisation of the grove is clearly
Dantesque:

“Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks,
clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all
 the attitudes of pain, abandonment and despair.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 24)

The landscape of pain and bodies in contorted collapse boldly recreates Dante’s
example. The literary method encountered here is regularly encountered in Dante’s text.
It clearly summons the visual world of prostrated bodies met with throughout the
Inferno. Leaving the Wood of Suicides in Canto Fourteen, Dante builds a visual picture
of the damned using a language that similarly reiterates diverse physical movement:

“Many separate herds of naked souls I saw,

all weeping desperately …
Some souls were stretched out flat upon their backs,
others were crouched there all tightly hunched,
some wandered, never stopping, round and round.”
(Inferno, Canto 14, 197)

Conrad’s visual projection of Inferno seems to bring feeling that some sort of scaffold,
torture chamber or even Hell, is on Earth. Marlow’s narrative as a frame of reference
shows the picture of bodies of natives in their angular disfigurement, that is, the account
of destruction of their well-being inflicted by colonialists’ actions, which is instance of
moral evil, but is further enveloped in metaphysical evil. Cruelty and malevolence are
examples of moral evil, as natives are in a state of complete exhaustion and collapse, in a
scene that defies description. The cause of their pitiful state is cruelty and malevolence
of colonialists through their ruthless exploitation; so, when overworked and deprived of
corporeal needs to the extent that their physical well-being is destroyed, natives
“sickened, became inefficient and were then allowed to crawl away and rest”.
Colonialists’ moral evil as a deliberate departure from an accepted moral code can take
two aspects: the first when they do something they know to be wrong – the will acting
against the guidance of the conscience; in this sense moral evil can exist even for the
atheist, the second is acting against the preceipts of religion – committing sin. Someone
who departs unknowing from such codes does not do evil. Thus the “pagans” or
“savages” whom colonialists encountered did not do evil in the eyes of the Christian
missionaries when found “in a state of nature” – but did so if they were “converted” to
Christianity but then reverted to their native customs. Contrary to Marlow’s aunt’s
statement, Joseph Conrad in his letter to British Consul Roger Casement in 1905, writes
that “barbarism per se is no crime deserving of a heavy visitation; …a punishment sent
for a definite transgression; but in this the Upoto man is not aware of any transgression,
and therefore can see no end to the infliction. It must appear to him very awful and
mysterious; …an insoluble mystery from the sea”. (Citation: Conrad, Joseph. “Very
Awful and Mysterious: An Open Letter to Roger Casement.”) In the “grove of death”
scene, there is a strong presence of physical evil which includes all that causes harm to
man, whether by bodily injury, by thwarting one’s natural desires, or by preventing the
full development of one’s powers, either in the order of nature directly, or through the
various social conditions under which mankind naturally exists. Physical evils directly
due to nature are sickness, accident, death, etc. Poverty, oppression and some forms of
disease are instances of evil arising from imperfect social organization. Mental suffering,
such as anxiety, disappointment, and remorse, and the limitation of intelligence which
prevents human beings from attaining to the full comprehension of their environment,
are congenital forms of evil each vary in character and degree according to natural
disposition and social circumstances. Decay and death are part of cycle of Order and life,
and are instances of metaphysical evil, whereas the colonial exploitation in Heart of
Darkness, whose consequences are pictured in scenes such as the “grove of death”, is
instance of quickened process of decay and death brought upon by the humans who, as
oppressors of natives and “catalysts” of the process, are part of nature, which, besides
containing the imperfection of being finite, also contains imperfection in form of
humanity which wilfully errs. In this case, moral evil which covers wilful acts of human
beings such as mass murder of natives (through exploitation) and physical evil, which
means bodily pain or mental anguish inflicted on natives (fear, illness, grief, war, etc.)
are enveloped in metaphysical evil, which means imperfection and chance (criminals
going unpunished, deformities, etc). In Dantesque “grove of death”, the dominant
features are lameness and partially, deafness, dumbness and blindness, altogether
features of metaphysical evil. In comparison of the three kinds of evil, all moral evil is
the direct or indirect result of moral agents’ free wills or ability to choose; physical and
metaphysical evil may or may not be the result of moral agents’ choices, albeit it is, in
the “grove of death.” Metaphysical evil also, is limitation by one another of various
component parts of the natural world. Through the mutual limitation natural objects are
for the most part prevented from attaining to their full or ideal perfection, such as in
instance of the exploited Congolese slaves or African land ravished by the exploiters,
whether by the constant pressure of physical condition, for example, by the colonialists-
exploiters, or by sudden catastrophes. Metaphysical evil, on one hand, works within the
reality of formal evil, which means that animals and vegetable organisms are variously
influenced by climate and other natural causes, while predatory animals depend for their
existence on the destruction of life, whereas nature is subject to storms and convulsions,
and its order depends on a system of perpetual decay and renewal due to the interaction
of its constituent parts. On the other hand, in monotheistic religions, it is difficult to say
whether metaphysical evil should be rightly classed with the merely formal evil which
belongs to inanimate objects, or with the suffering of human beings. 16 Thus, it has often
been supposed that animal suffering, together with many of the imperfections of
inanimate nature, was due to the fall of man, with whose welfare, as the chief part of
creation, were bound up the fortunes of the rest (Genesis 3 and Corinthians 9). In Heart
of Darkness humans assume the role of natural objects through mutual limitation: the
Congolese are not only limited or prevented from attaining their full potential or ideal
perfection, but are overworked to the extent that they are facing slow death from
extreme exhaustion and undernourishment:

‘They were dying slowly – it was very clear. They were not enemies, they
were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, - nothing but black
shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.
Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts,
lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened,
became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. These
moribund shapes were free as air – and nearly as thin…” (Heart of Darkness,
p. 24)
16
The latter view was generally held in ancient times, and may perhaps be referred to anthropomorphic
tendency of primitive minds which appears in the doctrine of metempsychosis.
Quite decidedly, metaphysical evil in the “grove of death” scene is closely intertwined
with moral and physical evil, as actions of humans, in this case of white European
colonialists, affect the others adversely to the point that the natural process of decay and
death for them is enormously quickened.

Cruel and senseless treatment of other people is incomprehensible to Marlow. Piece of

worsted attached to the neck of one dying young man led Marlow to wonder about his
story. For Marlow he is a human being and by being one, he has value of a human being.
For colonial Europe, people in the “grove of death” are not people, they are worthless
and are being treaded on without second thought, as leaves of grass. They are taken for
force labour, but paradoxically they do not even work, because their health is destroyed
by ruthless treatment; butchered and wrecked they just die. This extermination is
conducted by an “emissary of light and progress”. Right after he saw a grove of death
Marlow meets a faultlessly dressed European that stepped out of his cabin to “to get a
breath of fresh air”. These two pictures are not put together by coincidence, it is a
paradox of civilisation. Conrad pictures horror of senseless extermination and
annihilation of other man and right after, the picture of the ones who did it, picture of
civilisation, European man dressed according to the latest fashion. Polished accountant
is a simulacrum of civilisation: “The accountant’s physical presence, likened to that of ‘a
hairdresser’s dummy’, is marked by Marlow to give no indication of the ‘great
demoralization of the land’ around him.”17
Europeans depart from moral code, either of conscience or preceipts of religion.
Nowadays, it is known that Belgians’ exploitation of the Congo, in only forty years of
King Leopold’s rule, led to forced death of fifteen to twenty million inhabitants of the
Congo Free State. Furthermore, the accentuated contrast between light and darkness, or
whiteness and blackness is used to reverse the symbolism of colours. Light or whiteness
is usually associated with the good while darkness or blackness is usually associated
with evil. However, the narrator reverses the conventional meaning of colours and
attributes negative connotation to whiteness or white colonialists through a bit of white

17
Bloom.H. (2009)Bloom’s Guide: Heart of Darkness, by Infobase Publishing, p. 21.
worsted round the neck of one of the dying blacks. Marlow asks himself about purpose
of it, whether there is any idea at all connected with it and concludes that “it looked
startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas”. It is
inferred that calamity came with presence of white race, as such was the case with
African tribe mentioned before in a story of Dane Fresleven, who tortured chief of the
village tribe in dispute over two hens. Fresleven was killed and tribe cleared into the
forest expecting masive retaliation, leaving village forever. Afterwards, the Company’s
chief whiter-than-white accountant met by Marlow, in an unexpected elegance of get-up,
exhibits shocking indifference towards the dying sick man (some invalid agent from up-
country) and hates “savages” – hates them “to the death”. While making correct entries,
accountant feels intense hatred of natives; thus the narrator emphasizes the white
Western rationality which stands in sharp contrast to seemingly irrational nature of black
people. Thus, sense of cold reason calculated to make profit, becomes raison d’etre for
colonial mind, which plays down the suffering of seemingly inferior beings or even
justifies it for the sake of a “greater cause”. Also, to Marlow, it seems that he is “part of
high and just proceedings”, which is the most usual excuse for involvement in major
events known as conquests, euphemistically termed “historical processes” behind which
is evil intent which makes philosophical relativism:

“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking 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 – something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a
sacrifice to…” (Heart of Darkness, p. 10)

3.7. Imperfection and Finiteness as Features of

Metaphysical Evil; Man’s Choice; “Shadow”
The description of people and interrupted, ravished landscape is much more figurative
than literal: it tends to introduce and reinforce some of the principal thematic motifs
suggested above. The motif is again, hint to a metaphysical evil in state of nature as
being finite, and imperfect and finite humanity within. The reason for being finite and
imperfect lies in a great potential of humankind for destruction, or mutual limitation of
natural objects, which in Conrad’s evolutionist assumption, is inherited from animal
kingdom. However, Conrad’s work aspires to the condition of paradox, in his disposition
to look in both directions: he uses biblical, that is, the Creationist parable of Cain and
Abel18 to account for radical and diabolical evil,19 in humans oppressing one another.
Meticulously contemplating the nature of humankind, Joseph Conrad comes to
conclusion which mirrors unpalatable truth: the nature of man is “janiform”, or double,
man is equally capable for good and evil. With this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dualism,
Conrad highlights the central theme of his literary works, the choice of man to do good
or evil, which contradicts previous statetement that mirrors nineteen century scheme of
the mechanistic, determinist universe as a machine that had “evolved”.20 But he could,
like Hardy and the very naturalists whose art he abhorred, only show the universe as
malevolent, or at best schemingly neutral (F.R. Karl, The Three Lives, p. 401). In such
universe, its components – organic matter – are finite, subject to eternal decree that
makes end of things; similarly, the humans are finite, as mortals not endowed with
absolute knowledge, and in their imperfection, inclined to aberration which leads to evil
acts. In Heart of Darkness, managers, agents in charge of collecting ivory, as well as
“pilgrims”, all blinded by the prospect of acquiring material wealth, will stop at nothing
to provide sufficient quantities of ivory that will ensure that they rise in position. Being
away from Europe, they unleash Jungian shadow manifested in ruthless tortures and
mass killings of natives they commit in Congo for the sake of “higher purpose” as it is
evidenced in number of scenes: a carrier dead in harness near the path, randomly chosen
negro beaten for arson attack at the Central station, middle-aged negro with a bullet-hole
in the forehead. Marlow, with all his cultural baggage, is in quarrel with colonialism and

18
Life and Letters, I, 214-15
19
Emannuel Kant
20
Letters to Cunningham Graham, 1897
undeniably atrocious Belgian variety, as he is keen observer of the depravities and
corruption of his fellow men.

3.8. The Collective Unconscious as Potential for Good or Evil

First station is a place where Marlow hears the name of agent Kurtz, for the first time.
Polished accountant mentioned the name. He refers to Kurtz as very important person
that enjoyed great appreciation in otherwise prosaic job of trade agent. In weeks to come
Marlowe has heard the name countless times, but always with the tone of admiration,
respect, fear and tremendous dose of something unsaid. In the cabin of one trade agent
Marlow sees a panting in oil and finds out that it is made by Kurtz.

“Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman,

draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was
sombre--almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the
effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister.”

In the meantime Marlow has heard much about Kurtz, a man with countless and
unfailing talents. His magnetic personality fascinated everyone who ever came in touch
with him. There was a legend spread around him. Marlow felt that fascination. He found
out that same people recommended two of them and that notion made some vague bond
between them. Kurtz’s painting fascinated Marlow. Symbolically, it was a painting of
colonial Europe personified in a figure of a lady that makes her way in the dark in
luxuriant dress and blindfolded, with the torch of “progress”. Connection between
messianic nature ascribed to Kurtz and very prosaic function that he conducts in the
company is very strange. Speaking about the bright future that awaits Kurtz, one of the
agents (one that Marlow calls “this papier-mâché Mephistopheles”) is sure Kurtz will be
rewarded with very high position in the company. What is strange is the tone of the
spoken word about Kurtz, there is something fateful in those words that bring us back to
the knitters of black wool, from the lobby of the Company.
By observing the immensity of the wilderness, Marlow felt the finiteness and limitation
of human being in contrast to lush jungle. Road ahead of him was unknown and his
destination was unknown.
“I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity looking at us
two were meant as an appeal or as a menace. What were we who had strayed
in here? Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us? I felt how
big, how confoundedly big, was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was
deaf as well. What was in there? I could see a little ivory coming out from
there, and I had heard Mr. Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about it,
too--God knows! Yet somehow it didn't bring any image with it--no more
than if I had been told an angel or a fiend was in there.” (Heart of Darkness,
p. 92)

Marlow’s nightmarish journey is an essence of the story. According to Jung there is a

part of human psyche that is common to all humankind. That is the collective
unconscious. According to Jung, this is the deepest layer of the unconscious, much
deeper than the personal unconsciousness. Our consciousness emerges from that
completely unknown material. The experiences of humankind in the process of
“sedimentation” are deposited in collective unconsciousness and emerge only trough
instincts. “Instincts being defined as impulses to action without conscious motivation.”21
Jung claims that human brain was moulded with “distant experience of the mankind”,
the experience of our ancestors written as trace, as a river bed in collective
unconsciousness. Our life, our experience is filling these riverbeds, and that is why all
humans have common mark. We are not aware of these traces, but Jung says that
“Probably every ‘impressive’ experience is just such a break-through into an old,
previously unconscious riverbed.”22

Marlow’s journey up river was symbolic journey to the collective unconscious. River is
the symbol of the trace (the riverbed) that is filling with experience.
21
http://www.cgjungpage.org
22
Jung, C.G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections
 “Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the
world…There were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will
sometimes when you have not a moment to spare for yourself; but it came in
the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst
the overwhelmin 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 an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you
with a vengeful aspect.”

Phrase “heart of darkness” appears for the first time in the novel when the manager of
the station, wishing death for Kurtz, points out to river and jungle, saying to his
assistant.

“ ’Ah! my boy, trust to this--I say, trust to this.’ I saw him extend his short
flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the
river – seemed to beckon with a dishonouring flourish before the sunlit face
of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the
profound darkness of its heart. It was so startling that I leaped to my feet and
looked back at the edge of the forest, as though I had expected an answer of
some sort to that black display of confidence.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 47)

Marlow felt that his offensive gesture, his pointing to nature, wildernesses somehow
seems to “…appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of
its heart.” Manager’s allusion to death which merciless jungle brings in progress of time
upon mortals who happen to make their way there is clear. “Darkness of heart” is
another Conradian metaphor for metaphysical evil symbolized by slow death that Kurtz
is about to find in the jungle, isolated in his Inner Station.

Marlow’s journey up river was symbolic journey to the collective unconscious. River is
the symbol of the trace (the riverbed) that is being filled with experience.
 “Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the
world…” (Heart of Darkness, p. 48)

Continuing the journey up river, Marlow is saying:

“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet
there.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 50)

It is the darkness of primeval, primitive nature. They were on a journey to the world of
prehistoric humanity, they travelled to the world that Europe once was, in a dark space
from which our conscience emerges. The question that Marlow puts to reader is: Is it
possible to make connection with oneself from hundred and hundred years before?
Marlow said, “We could not understand because we were too far and could not
remember because we were travelling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are
gone, leaving hardly a sign--and no memories.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 51) Earlier he
saw the wilderness chained, defeated, tortured in the grove of death and now he saw it
monstrous and free. Marlow felt kinship with the savages on shore and that feeling
comes from the dawn of humanity stored in us through the collective unconscious. Wild
creatures on the shores were not inhuman, and Marlow started to share a thought of
distant kinship with that “human turmoil”.

“…but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there
was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness
of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you--
you so remote from the night of first ages--could comprehend.” (Heart
of Darkness, p. 51)

It was a call that he responded to, recognized it, discovered it in a darkest depth of his
soul, just as sometimes in our dreams the symbols of man from Altamira could appear.
Marlow was coming closer to primeval, primitive nature of a man, heart of darkness, era
without the light of torch.

What had he found in the wilderness, same emotion as everywhere, fear, sorrow,
fidelity, courage, rage, and he was thinking how easily the rags of civilisations could fall
off, and without them we are all the same. Conrad emphasizes that veneer of civilisation
is not what makes one a human. It wears off to reveal starker realities. And when man
discovers that he is equal to savages on the shore, the question is, what will keep him
from not committing evil, what can he rely on? “He must meet that truth with his own
true stuff--with his own inborn strength. Principles won't do.” What will lead him,
instincts? Where will he set a limit? Based on what? How can he defend himself from
evil? Metaphysical evil, or in other words, the ability for transgression is a source of
moral personality of man. Without ability for transgression there would not be moral
personality of human being. (Animals cannot commit sin that is only in the sphere of
humans.) Morality could not exist or would not be visible like a figure on identical
background. Conrad is trying to reveal to us that there is a primordial cognition of evil
which pre-dates civilisation, religion, and law. Metaphysical evil as our inborn
imperfection is inside of us, but at the same time, inside of us is also the awareness of it
and restraint. These forces that stand in opposition to it are the essence of what makes us
human.23

As a political statement, Heart of Darkness is an indictment of imperialism at its worse,

and it inveighs against evil of racism and colonialism even though he was accused by
some authors of racist sentiments.24 One of the most distinctive features of his literature
is the fact that the standpoint of his characters and his own standpoint can not be
determined precisely. His narrative language is often ironic, but not an impersonal,
phony language of political correctness that we are used to nowadays. However, despite
his Cain and Abel metaphor in letter to Cunningham Graham, the novel Heart of
darkness bristles with firm and honest belief of the brotherhood based on feeling of
kinship with another race. Novella “Heart of Darkness” is a 19th century journey to
23
Bloom’s Guides: Heart of Darkness, 2009, Infobase Publishing
24
Chinua Achebe
discovery of kinship with other races, as scientific proof of kinship of different races is
based on genetic researches that converge to the same point: one common ancestor,
scientific Adam. According to these researches, all humankind descends from the same
progenitor. And although Conrad mentions “ugly feeling” of remote kinship to humanity
of Black Continent, he admits that there was “some response” to the “terrible frankness
of that noise” which he, “remote from the night of first ages could comprehend.” It is
also an allusion to Jungian riverbed of the collective unconscious of humankind.

The mist is the boundary. After the clearing of the mist “more blinding than the night”,
Marlow reaches Kurtz. The mist comes down and clears away, as curtains that hide
something. Behind the mist the scream is heard. It is a primordial scream and Marlow is
able to understand its meaning. The meaning is sorrow. After arriving to the heart of
darkness Marlow realises that the basic human emotions common to us all, are at the
core of humanity.

In the moment when helmsman is killed Marlow becomes aware of another astonishing
fact. Thirty natives that helped on the ship as working force were from the cannibal
tribes, and through the whole journey they fed from their own food reserves. Death of
the helmsman brought the fact to the fore. Marlow pushed the body of the helmsman to
the river to prevent other cannibals eat it, but was more obsessed with question why
those fellows did not attack them. There were thirty of them and only five white men,
and there was no obstruction in their way. Then Marlow becomes aware of their self-
restraint, they were starving but they were restraining themselves. “And I saw that
something restraining, one of those human secrets that baffle probability, had come into
play there.” Marlow calls it a human secret. The cannibals set for themselves a boundary
and did not want to cross it. Restraint is one quality purely human, that does not allow
one to flout all social norms or to indulge in unbridled pleasures thus exhibiting
shocking spiritual indifference:

”Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena

prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. But there was the fact
 facing me--the fact dazzling, to be seen, like the foam on the depths
of the sea, like a ripple on an unfathomable enigma, a mystery greater--
when I thought of it--than the curious, inexplicable note of desperate
grief in this savage clamour that had swept by us on the river-bank,
behind the blind whiteness of the fog.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 62)

In this way, Conrad achieves paradox by picturing “noble savage” who will recognize
the “sacred limit” sooner than the civilized man who happened to make his way to
Congo, and will show restraint in company of white man even when assailed by dark
thoughts of hunger.

3.9. Mr. Kurtz – the “Shadow”

Thinking about Kurtz, his legendary talents, unsurpassed gift of speech, art of oratory
which is described in novel as “pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the
heart of an impenetrable darkness”, Marlow asked himself: What did Kurtz discover in
the heart of darkness? What did he belong to and did the darkness take over him? What
will happen to modern urban man who finds himself in the darkness of the first ages,
where there is no social contract, no laws of civilisation or religion and no public
opinion? Where would human go led by nothing but his instincts? Killing, incest,
robbery, worshipping…The questions are: What is transgression when the civilisation
that sets the rules is gone? What rules and restrictions does man hold on to when
returned to the dawn of mankind?

“…how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a
man's untrammelled feet may take him into by the way of solitude--
utter solitude without a policeman--by the way of silence--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.” ((Heart of Darkness, p. 70)

The truth about Kurtz emerged very clearly. Marlow observed Kurtz’s cabin and a series
of decorated stakes through binocular, until later he realised the true nature of these
ornaments:

“Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and its first result was to make me throw
my head back as if before a blow. Then I went carefully from post to post with
my glass, and I saw my mistake. These round knobs were not ornamental but
symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing--food for
thought and also for vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky;
but at all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole.
They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if
their faces had not been turned to the house.” (Heart of Darkness, p. 82)

Character of Kurtz is modelled on several individuals Conrad met in Congo. One of

them was Leon Rom, Belgian ivory agent whose flower bed was decorated with human
skulls impaled on stakes around his station.

Kurtz is repeatedly mentioned in the novel as the shadow. “This shadow looked satiated
and calm”, “I was anxious to deal with this shadow by myself alone”, “I had to beat that
Shadow--this wandering and tormented thing.” This could be considered as Jungian
archetype. His Persona (presentation of self to the outer world) was embodiment of
perfection, intelligence and goodness. According to Jung more perfect Persona is, means
more dark and dense the shadow is. In the heart of darkness, Kurtz has found his own
shadow that was not hidden part of psyche any more, but that ruled over everything.
Kurtz was nothing but shadow in the end.

What he found in himself was hunger which he did not restrain. Marlow has witnessed
horrible rituals in which Kurtz was worshipped by the savages. Kurtz has overreached,
transgressed all bounds, commited every sin, committed the unthinkable and in the
process came to nothingness. His evil has reached the diabolical level and with that state
annihilated everything that is human. Kurtz has become a “hollow man.”25

“But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible
vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had 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....” (Heart of Darkness, p. 83)

Symbolically, the shadow emerges in his report to the “International Society for the
Suppression of Savage Customs”, that consists of seventeen pages written with high
style about the noble cause and methods, report full of altruism and in the end the
sentence written afterwards: “Exterminate all the brutes!” Kurtz, with awakening of his
unrestrained, forgotten and brutal impulses that brought to surface his darker side or
shadow, discovers primeval evil in his mind by not resisting to devilish temptation to
“appear to them (savages) in the nature of supernatural beings – approach them with the
might as of deity…” (Heart of Darkness, p. 72) Kurtz, “by the simple exercise of (our)
will” exerts a power for good (or evil) “practically unbounded”. Kurtz is found to be
“hollow at the core” and thus crumbles under intense pressure as “hollow man”.

Marlow emphasizes that all Europe has taken part in creating Kurtz. In a way, Kurtz is
colonial Europe, full of noble cause, progress and altruism that in the end in his report
ordered extermination.

Twenty million of indigenous people have perished in Congo in forty year’s time of
Leopold II colonial government.

4. PARALLELS BETWEEN “HEART OF DARKNESS”

AND OTHER JOSEPH CONRAD’S WORKS
25
“Mistah Kurtz -- he dead.” T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
Although the works of Joseph Conrad as young or mature writer bear little resemblance,
especially in style, structure and narrative technique, to Heart of Darkness, one single
indelible fact is that their common feature is thematic motif. Themes that constantly run
through other Conrad’s literary creations, especially in Almayer’s Folly, The Nigger of
the”Narcissus”, Lord Jim and Nostromo are metaphysical evil, diabolism and paradox:
the three types of evil (moral, physical and metaphysical) as well as radical and
diabolical that present powerful driving force behind major events in the history of the
world, diabolism that serves as a stage prop without which the stage would not normally
function and paradox as eternal metaphor of a man tortured by doubt, suspicion,
scepticism, uneasiness, lack of conviction and lack of confidence. Conrad’s work, at its
best, aspires to the condition of paradox: either in his commitment to solidarity and a
preoccupation with isolation, in his traitional moral affirmations and radically deep
insight, philosophical sophistication and a fear that reflection paralyses will, atheistic
assumptions and supernatural implications, romantic enthusiasms and cynical ironies,
hostility to revolutionaries, yet sympathy to rebels.

In Almayer’s Folly, his first novel, Conrad approaches the problem of paradox through
foreignness and otherness, in almost the same way he realizes it through the character of
Marlow in Heart of Darkness. In both works, protagonists exhibit contempt for other
race, but at the same time are drawn to otherness. In Almayer’s Folly it is the case of
greedy Kaspar Almayer who despises the Malay race of his wife to whom he is bound
by marriage of convenience, only until he, in his thoughts, gets rich and shuts her
somewhere out of his gorgeous future, but it is Almayer who dotes on his daughter of
the same Malay blood. In similar way, Conrad achieves paradox by portraying Marlow
who, in words of distinguished Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, voices sentiments of a
“bloody racist” who reduces the entire African population encountered there to “overly
stereotyped stage props”, but, at the same time is drawn to Black African race towards
which he feels magnetic pull, remote kinship and awe. Both Almayer and Marlow are
assailed by constant influences that can be either good or bad. As a result of it, Almayer
and Kurtz, being hollow at the core, yield to dark powers, whereas Marlow resists,
persists and survives the deadly lure of nightmares. However, Almayer, Marlow, Lord
Jim and Mr. Kurtz share common “infernal alloy in their metal” as the temptation of
magnetic force of metaphysical evil, that is, death, is put in their way. Metaphysical evil,
according to number of Christian theologians, is accursed inheritance of humankind
through Original Sin in Garden of Eden, and it is implied that their “infernal alloy” is
imperfection, flaw that resulted in Adam’s and Eve’s transgression. The indulgence in
evil is obvious in acts of Almayer, Kurtz and Guzman Bento (tyrant in the novel
Nostromo) who tend to “overreach”, flout all social and moral norms, “sacred limit” for
the sake of radical or diabolical evil. They become “overreachers”26, which only
accentuates physical and moral evil enveloped in metaphysical evil, or infernal alloy in
man’s metal. Clearly, James Wait, Kurtz and Guzman Bento (with his “army of
skeletons”) are the epitome of Diabolos or devil, as malevolence that emanates from
them moves beyond the limits of comprehension of a group, and signify the final decree
of metaphysical evil, Thanatos27, that is, the death itself.

26
“Overreacher“ – a literary convention introduced by English playwright Christopher Marlow (1564-93),
based on his drama Tamburlaine the Great (1587) and Doctor Faustus (1604) „Overreacher“ presents
individual who cannot accept middle state, wants to usurp power over life and death, and "overreaches“.
27
Thanatos – an ancient Greek personification of death.
5. CONCLUSION

“And there are things--they look small enough sometimes too--by which some
of us are totally and completely undone.”
Lord Jim

Metaphysical evil, for Joseph Conrad, is closely related to definition and nature of
humanity. In his works we can recognize motives derived from mythological, religious
and philosophical understanding of evil. The motive of metaphysical evil, for Conrad is
not something he is occupied with in the sphere of logically based “problem of evil” as
argument of atheism or Theodicy. He is concerned with metaphysical evil only in the
sphere of humankind. For Conrad, the existence of metaphysical evil is closely
connected with the essence of humanity, which is the reason why man is far removed
from the unconscious animal and, to the same extent, far removed from the immaculate
being that will never be placed in the same dilemma as humans are. In his works Conrad
presents, in every nuance, a condition, state of mind in which man can be obsessed with
evil to the total annihilation of everything that is human. In moments when one’s
emotion, temper, rage is unbridled, one breaks free from restraint and one commits “the
unthinkable”; humanness ceased to exist and becomes “the diabolical.”

Conrad constantly makes searing excavations into the humanity to show where it comes
from, and discovers that it originated from restraint. According to Conrad, every man
has “some infernal alloy in his metal” and no man is save from evil when faced with
strong temptation. The struggle to restrain one’s drives and weaknesses is the essence of
humanness. That is human struggle against metaphysical evil. The greatness of Conrad’s
works is in it that, by painting this struggle, he is able to give reader an idea about
immense complexity and delicacy of human existence.

The diabolical in Conrad's works in one way is manifested as diabolical evil devoid of
motive, and present in every novel at which reader looks as into an abyss, as it is totally
incomprehensible. The other ways the diabolical is manifested are temptations or
demonic influence. The example is demonic influence of San Tome mine and James
Wait as Thanatos, the demon of death. In religious and mythological aspects of the
theme, demonic or diabolic element has no real power for action besides the power to
influence the people, changing their character and encouraging them to do evil. Demonic
forces in Conrad's novels operate in the way to bring to surface greed, ferocity,
indolence, arrogance, envy and constantly awaken the dark side of human personality.

Paradox is powerful tool for Conrad with which he assails the reader's mind. It is a
weapon with which he defeats our indifference, our relativism, us being lulled into
illusions of our moral values. He forces us to, by taking a look at a merciless mirror, see
deeply disturbing picture. Conrad, by use of paradox as stylistic means, achieves that the
reader, entirely controlled by the author, experience a moment of recognition. Conrad's
moments of recognition are always striking for the reader, striking for our conscience
and our self-respect. They leave behind them anxiety and agitation. Paradox present in
all of his works destroys illusions of society, civilization and culture. In the moment we
become aware of it, his mission is already accomplished, inside us the seed of doubt is
sown and introspection has started.
Words and epigrams of Joseph Conrad are often quoted in poetry of T.S.Eliot. This
epilogue can be closed with verses of T.S.Eliot:

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
Little Gidding
(No. 4 Of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot
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