Analysis Of Joseph Conrad 's ' Heart Of Darkness '

    Literature is never interpreted in exactly the same way by two different readers. A prime example of a work of literature that is very ambiguous is Joseph Conrad's, "Heart of Darkness". The Ambiguities that exist in this book are Marlow's relationship to colonialism, Marlow's changing feelings toward Kurtz, and Marlow's lie to the Intended at the end of the story.

    Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is full of oppositions.  The most obvious is the juxtaposition of darkness and light, which are both present from the very beginning, in imagery and in metaphor.  The novella is a puzzling mixture of anti-imperialism and racism, civilization and savagery, idealism and nihilism.  How can they be reconciled?  The final scene, in which Marlow confronts Kurtz's Intended, might be expected to provide resolution.  However, it seems, instead, merely to focus the dilemmas in the book, rather than solving them.

     Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a story about a man named Marlow and his Journey into the African Congo. By reading the novel and understanding all the imagery Conrad has inserted, we can get a better understanding of the

Born December third, 1857 in Berdichev, Ukraine, Joseph Conrad was a part of the noble Polish class. His parents, Apollo and Evelina Korzeniowski, were polish patriots who colluded against oppressive russian rule; consequently, they were apprehended and sent to live in the russian province of Vologda with the only four-year-old joseph. Conrad’s parents would die several years later, leaving him to be raised by an uncle in Poland. After receiving private school in Krakow, the now sixteen-year-old Conrad left Poland and traveled to the port city of Marseilles, France, where he began his years as a mariner.

Joseph Conrad was born on December 3, 1857 near Berdichev, in the Russian-ruled Poland. He was Christened Jozef Teodor Korzeniovski but changed his name later because he "could not bear to hear people mispronouncing his name all the time". He was the first and only son of Apollo and Evelina Nalecz Korzeniowski. His father was an aristocrat, a land-owner who had two great passions which Joseph inherited: a love for his country and a love for writing letters ( Warner, 1950: 8).

After the help from Marlow’s aunt, he gets a job on commanding a ship. Marlow sails a couple of days traveling to Europe and he makes it to the company's station. He see’s slaves chained together by the neck, he gets terrified. Although he starts to run away from the slaves, he still sees more black slaves in poor conditions. Marlow meets the chief accountant of the company and while there, the chief mentions a guy name Mr. Krutz. The accountant tells Marlow that he will meet Krutz when he arrives at the trading post. Leaving the station, Marlow began his two-hundred mile journey to the trading post. Unfortunately, his steamboat gets stuck. He meets another man who feeds him negative information about Mr. Krutz. Hearing all the information about Mr. Krutz makes Marlow even more anxious to meet him. Once he arrives at the post, he sees pilgrims bringing out Mr. Krutz and a woman who is involved with him. Mr. Krutz suddenly disappears. They go

Plot: Marlow begins his story by explaining that his job opened up after two Native Africans killed the previous captain. He embarks on a journey to Brussels where two women are knitting; this scares Marlow. After signing a document, Marlow is ready for action and takes a French steamboat to Africa. During this voyage, he sees black men rowing and acclaims that they look fit and energetic. After arriving in Africa, Marlow experiences the black slavery as he sees

It is here that he first learns of Kurtz, an exceptional trader who is destined for great things. Marlow then travels to the Company’s Central Station, walking two hundred miles inland with a sick, overweight white man who was carried by Africans, until they grew tired and abandoned him. Once at the station, Marlow meets the manager, a hollow man who got his job not by virtue of his merit but simply by remaining alive. His only talent is making people feel uneasy with his creepy smile. The boat Marlow was supposed to captain had been torn up in an accident just before he arrived, so Marlow spends months at the station making repairs and waiting for rivets. During this time, Marlow watches many of the white men do no work and walk aimlessly. One day a building caught fire and the white men decided to punish an African for it. Marlow then meets another hollow man, the brick maker, who has no materials to build bricks. The brick maker questions Marlow about his connections in Europe, and Marlow learns more about Kurtz, who is an artist in Africa with the purpose of bringing light to the natives. Marlow determines that neither the manager nor the brick maker like

In the present era of decolonization, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents one of fictions strongest accounts of British imperialism. Conrad’s attitude towards imperialism and race has been the subject of much literary and historical debate. Many literary critics view Conrad as accepting blindly the arrogant attitude of the white male European and condemn Conrad to be a racist and imperialists. The other side vehemently defends Conrad, perceiving the novel to be an attack on imperialism and the colonial experience. Understanding the two viewpoints side by side provides a unique understanding that leads to a commonality that both share; the novel simply presents a criticism of colonialists in Africa. The novel merely portrays a

The stories in the book Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad and the movie Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola are very similar. The main characters in both are similar, but do have their differences, like who they were before they took the job, the settings they were put in, .

Modernism holds a mirror to Romantic views, then wipes the fog off to show the unsavoury truth. To say that Modernism is in some way separate to Romanticism would be misleading, for modernism is an extension, an expansion on Romantic views, rather than a reaction. The Novella, “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad shows the transition from Romantic to Modernism, not as an opposing idea, but an evolution of it.

The two major themes of Heart of Darkness are the conflict between “reality” and “darkness,” and the idea of restraint and whether or not it is necessary. Conrad’s passage describing the restraint of the hungry cannibals exemplifies both themes:  It describes how reality shapes human behavior, and contrasts the characters of Kurtz and Marlow.  “Reality,” as it is used here, is defined as “that which is civilized.”

In the novels Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and The Mystic Masseur by V.S Naipul the structures of gender and class are represented through the effects of imperialism and education. Through the lenses of, The Beginnings of English Literary Study in British India by Gauri Viswanathan and Soft-Soaping Empire by Anne McClintock, readers can relate the importance of imperialism back to the novels. Imperialism is the foundation for which gender and class are constructed.

Man from the very beginning since the fall, has been known to have a heart that is filled with darkness and evil. Man’s condition is filled with sin. Often times we give into our sin and act on those things. In Scripture there’s repeated verses that tell us the state of our heart. One verse in particular which is found in Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”. Man’s hearts have been known to deceive, to fool us and think we don’t have a problem when often times we do. Because of this we can fall into a blind condition and deceive ourselves. We become blind to what we actually are, and don’t realize the sin and darkness hidden in our heart. The Heart of Darkness is a story written by Joseph Conrad about a voyage up the Congo River into the very heart of Africa. The story is told from the narrative of Charles Marlow. On a boat, he tells his fellow crew the story of some man named Kurtz. With this, Marlow’s fascination of Kurtz, the ivory trader grows. As the story progresses we learn the atrocities that Kurtz had committed in Africa and just how utterly wicked a man’s heart is.

It has been said that although Conrad may not have been 'the greatest novelist, he was certainly the greatest artist every to write a novel';. I feel that this is an apt description of Conrad's writing style in Heart of Darkness (1902), as he paints many verbal pictures by using expressive words and many figurative descriptions of places and people. An extensive use of words relating to colour, is evident throughout the novella. The idea of darkness (and light) is emphasized from the title of the novella, and continues to play an important role throughout in the story .