Colonialism and Imperialism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Marlow begins his journey into the center of Africa, his perceptions of Africa change significantly, so he realizes that the darkness is inherent everywhere, not just Africa. In his eyes, the Europeans are the savages.

Marlow tells his shipmates on the boat (the Nelly) that the natives passed him “within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (16). Marlow’s story of his experience exhibits how the Europeans captured the natives and forced them to work; to strip their homeland of its resources and natural beauty. When the Europeans colonize Africa, they do not want to help the African people, but exploit them and put them to work for their own desire of obtaining ivory, rubber, and other resources and goods. As the Europeans imperialize the area, they do not build culture or assist in the development of the Congo region, but break down culture as they enslave the natives and take away their rights, along with stripping the area of resources and natural, earthly beauty, which is conveyed through the cruel physical treatment towards the natives. This treatment is also presented through the literary devices that Conrad decides to use to reveal the experiences of the natives to the

Marlow further degrades Africans by depicting the natives as simplistic and prehistoric. "The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us—who could tell?" (Page 137). The natives are so primitive that they are denied language. Marlow chooses to question African culture by asking "who could tell?" instead of trying to grasp the native's signals because he believes the man's ideas are insignificant and shouldn’t be taken seriously or that the African is too insane to have anything allegeable to

One of the first glimpses into the frivolous occupation of Africa by the Europeans is seen when Marlow recounts his journey to Africa aboard a French steamer. The immensity of Africa is describe as "The edge of a colossal

Marlow says that, "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-- nothing to boast of."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) . Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such a voyage. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by illustrating a picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the novel. White Europeans are used as symbols of self-deception, and we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as it is very proper for those who tackle darkness."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) This shows how Conrad feels about colonialism through Marlow, because Marlow feels strongly adverse to the actions of the whites in the Congo.

A counter-interpretation of Marlow's relationship to colonialism is that he takes an active role in Europe's colonialism of Africa. He talks of how he used to study maps of all the continents when he was younger and wishes to travel to all of them. Marlow says, "We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet." (p. 63) This gives sight into the adventurous nature of Marlow in exploring new places. It shows that Marlow can actually be participating and supporting colonialism with out necessarily believing in enslaving the people of the Exotic lands which are traveled too.

Marlow tells a story of his first trip to Africa on a steamboat with a company that gathers ivory. The real adventure begins as he goes on a journey to the Congo to find a man known as Kurtz, who he has a weird obsession with upon hearing about him. Like the framing device of the novel, the idea of the Company and trading of ivory seems structured from an outside point of view. The Company appeases their journey by calling it “economic trade” and “civilization” for the savage. But through the journey, Marlow witnesses the cruelty of the Company. The structure’s underlying chaos and corruption gives rise to the hypocrisy of imperialism in the novel. The “economic trade” and “civilization” relates to the frame of the novel while Kurtz and the actual

A key element in the book was to show the true evil of the European's vision for conquest. Marlow narrates about the evil cost of European imperialism many times, such as when he compares the British to the Romans, stating they “use Brute force”. However, Marlow (and perhaps Conrad) felt that European imperialism could have been excusable if there was a greater good to come out of the terrible treatment of “savages”. Marlow also disapproves, but does nothing, when a black boy is beaten early on in the story. The importance of Marlow's deeper thoughts, and his actions, are hard to describe. On one hand, Marlow is disgusted by the treatment of the slaves, but on the other takes no real action to change what is happening. The same could have been said about many decent people from the 19th century, and now, which is that their hearts are in the right places but are not willing to step up and try to change things

The passage demonstrates a parallel between the colonialism that took place with the Romans the the Europeans in Africa; “... when the Romans first came here…” The comparison between the expeditions goes to emphasize on how the effect of colonization and the reasoning behind colonizing in the first place. Marlow states that the area was “one of the dark places of the earth,” showing that when the Europeans entered Africa, they had no knowledge of what was there and what was to be expected; everything was “dark” and a mystery to them all. Marlow claimed that the Romans presence in England had given the island and its people knowledge and understanding; “light.” In the same way, England came into Africa under the belief that their presence

The conquering of a place and its people does not just affect the land and its resources; it also affects those inhabiting it. Marlow describes the Congolese’s spirituality being oppressed, “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking is away from those who have a different complexion of slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” (Conrad, 69). Marlow discusses his aunt’s thoughts on the process, “She talked about weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways.” He watches the Europeans using their own laws to control and oppress the people of the Congo, for example, he sees an ugly chain-gang at the first station, which does not seem as though they are criminals. Nevertheless, the European law had decided for the natives, Marlow describes, “like shells from the man-of-war, like an insoluble mystery from the sea. (Conrad, 12). The Congolese appointed to work on his ship, he describes as, still belonging, “to the beginnings of time,” but “as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river, it didn’t enter anybody’s head to trouble how they would live. (Conrad, 33-34). Skulls of then men judged by the European law were set on stakes around Kurtz’s

There is an abundance of literature in which characters become caught between colliding cultures. Often, these characters experience a period of growth from their exposure to a culture that’s dissimilar to their own. Such is the case with Marlow, Joseph Conrad’s infamous protagonist from ‘Heart of Darkness’. Marlow sets off to Africa on an ivory conquest and promptly found himself sailing into the heart of the Congo River. Along the way he is faced with disgruntled natives, cannibals, and the ominous and foreboding landscape. Marlow’s response to these tribulations is an introspective one, in which he calls into question his identity. This transcending of his former self renders the work as a whole a

No; you want a deliberate belief.’”* The inherent strength of civilized people is in our ability to trust to faith, to believe so much in something that it will preserve our sense of self even when it is threatened by total absence of, even the opposite conditions of, all that formed to make it. The Africans fascinate Marlow, lure that part of him that wants to escape from the surface-realities created by sociality. Is it a deliberate belief that saves him from asserting his attraction, or an accident of situation? “‘You wonder I didn’t go ashore for a howl and a dance? Well, no—I didn’t. Fine sentiments, you say? Fine sentiments be hanged! I had no time. I had to mess about with white-lead and strips of woollen blanket helping to put bandages on those leaky steam-pipes, I tell you. ...There was surface-truth enough in these things to save a wiser man.’”* The technological realities of civilized man happened to allow him to focus his thoughts on work. This reconciles with the notion of a ‘deliberate belief’ because Marlow unshakeably believes that work contains truth (and he can assert this truth against the truth of the Africans) and is not another system of surface-reality. Marlow sees his journey as a demonstration of the failure of surface-realities to restrain man from gratifying his instinctual lusts; their failure in even remaining surface-truths but degenerating in the minds of man to delusions that undermine

In the novel Marlow recounts vivid images of cruelty that he saw on his journey such as the impalement of African heads by the Ivory Company Chief, Mr. Kurtz as well as descriptions of torture towards African workers as a way to illustrate the horrors of the imperializing project that was taking

Marlow is a migrant to Africa; he is the ‘other’ however it is the African’s that are portrayed to the reader as the ‘other’ through Marlow’s observations of the stations and river. Initially, Marlow’s accounts

    In the opening of his novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad, through Marlow, establishes his thoughts on colonialism. He says that conquerors only use brute force, "nothing to boast of" because it arises, by accident, from another's weakness. Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such an endeavor. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by painting a heinous picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the recesses of the novel. Here we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at