Heart Of Darkness Isolation Essay

Heart of Darkness is a story that is split up in three parts and is narrated by the protagonist Charles Marlow. Marlow tells his story to five men that were all on the boat, journeying up the Congo River into the heart of Africa. As Marlow is telling his story during their excursion, the men and the reader observe that he is an ivory trader and he works with Kurtz, however during the story the reader can notice the racism. However, this created the suspense to the readers because Joseph Conrad showed the “darkness” that was displayed between London and Africa. Also, throughout this story the reader can experience many moods and emotions such as good and evil, fear, and power. The mood is dark, gloomy, and very evil. Throughout, the novel the

Joseph Conrad, in his novel Heart of Darkness, uses the contrasting places of Europe and Africa in order to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the entirety of the work. This journey back in time, “to a prehistoric earth” illustrates Marlow’s physical journey as well as relates to his emotional and spiritual experience. Marlow characterizes events, ideas, and locations that he encounters in terms of light or darkness. Marlow continuously equates light with knowledge and civility and darkness with mystery and savagery. When he begins his narrative, Marlow evokes light and, therefore, civility, with reality, believing it to be a tangible expression of man's natural state. Similarly, Marlow uses darkness to depict savagery as a vice having escaped with nature. However, as he proceeds deeper into the heart of the African jungle and begins to understand savagery as a primitive form of civilization and, therefore, a reflection on his own reality, the metaphor shifts, until the narrator raises his head at the end of the novel to discover that the Thames seemed to 'lead into the heart of an immense darkness.'' The alteration of the light-dark metaphor corresponds with Marlow's awareness that the only reality, truth, or light about civilization is that it is, regardless of appearances, is instead darkness.

Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad is dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the darkest part of Africa at the turn of the twentieth century. The story follows the protagonist Marlow, an English marine merchant, as he travels through the African jungle up the Congo river in search for a mysterious man named Kurtz. Through Marlow's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. Through his use of irony, characters, and symbolism in the novel, Conrad aims to unveil the underlying horrors of colonialism. By shedding light on the brutality of colonialism in Heart of Darkness, Conrad shows that European values have been irrevocably eclipsed by darkness.

When Marlow refers to the river’s “brown current”, it suggests that part of the darkness has leaked into their exterior (Conrad 64). In other words, some of the uncivilization of the interior has made an impression on them. This is suggesting that everyone has a part of them that is uncivilized on the inside, and sometimes it becomes apparent on the exterior. By saying the water of the river is brown, Conrad is saying some of the darkness, or uncivilization, of the crew members, including Marlow, has escaped their interior and is now prevalent on the outside. The surrounding jungle has brought out some of this uncivilized darkness that was thought to be

In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz is depicted as an upstanding European who has been transformed by his time in the jungle- being away from the society he was used to that could have prevented him from becoming such a tyrant. I have experienced being in a situation where I was very different from the people around me. It forced me to figure out their interests so I was able to join in on their conversations. By the end of the day, I no longer felt alone. So that experience taught me that I am going to come across diversity in life, but I need to be open and accepting of it. If I had chosen to just be shy, I wouldn’t have learned this lesson. I didn’t find myself being pulled toward base, cruel instincts as Kurtz, but I think that’s because Kurtz had no one to control him. If a person gains that much power, it may lead to the transformation that Kurtz experienced. –pg. 144 “But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad.”

At the novels completion, Marlow has altered every belief he had formerly held. From a caterpillar at the commencement, cocooning while in the depths and darkness’ of Africa, and flying away from his previous convictions and assertions, Marlow evolves throughout the novel.

Joseph Conrad utilizes the essential differences between “primal” and “primitive” to tell the story, Heart of Darkness. Through Marlow, the reader is posed with existential questions on personal beliefs and humanity. A resounding theme of the story is the emotional journey for purpose and the idea that it is not enough to find a purpose, but to be candid in the fulfillment of said

In the novel he assimilates into society, and becomes capable of using them to gather more Ivory while in the movie he becomes the ruler of the natives, but rarely does much else. Despite being considered insane to all who were not with him, both Marlow and Willard grasp onto him, becoming infatuated with him, and try to help him when they reach

     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

* Rising Action – the brutality Marlow witnesses in the Company’s employees, the rumors he hears that Kurtz is a remarkable and humane man, and the numerous examples of Europeans breaking down mentally or physically in the environment of Africa. * Climax – Marlow’s discovery, upon reaching the Innes State, that Kurtz has completely abandoned European morals and norms of behavior. *

Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad" (Conrad 61). ADD STUFF HERE Marlow showcases his own characterization throughout the novel in narrative form. When he first is exposed to the shameless cruelty inflicted on the natives, he is horrified (Conrad). However, as he fights his own battle against the confusion in his mind, he winds up even more confused as he transitions to accepting this cruelty by the end of the novel.

     Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, explores something truer and more fundamental than a mere personal narrative. It is a night journey into the unconscious and a confrontation within the self. Certain circumstances of Marlow's voyage, when looked at in these terms, have new importance. Marlow insists on the dreamlike quality of his narrative. "It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream - sensation." Even before leaving Brussels, Marlow felt as though he "was about to set off for center of the earth," not the center of a continent. The introspective voyager leaves his familiar rational world, is "cut

 Marlow's journey leads him in an urgent search for Kurtz, the one man who can provide him with the truth about himself. Like Marlow, Kurtz came to the Congo in hopes to bring "light" and civilization to a backwards society. He is a highly-educated, refined gentlemen; yet, in the end, the brutal nature of the Congo forces him to resort to the life of a murderer and pilferer. The name Kurtz itself has symbolic meaning. "The physical shortness in Kurtz implies a shortness of character and spirit" (Heart of Darkness: A systematic evaluation). Marlow and Kurtz both symbolize the two conditions of human nature. "Kurtz represents what man could become if left to his own intrinsic devices outside protective society. Marlow represents a pure untainted civilized soul who has not been drawn to savagery by a dark, alienated jungle." (Heart of Darkness: A systematic evaluation). When the two come face to face, each man sees a reflection of what he might have become in the other. In Kurtz, Marlow sees the potential

Marlow begins to see glimpses of the darkness that awaits him, the natives along the path are described, in a manner closer to animal than human:

Biographical criticism takes into account that literary works are created by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers comprehend the work more thoroughly. “Heart of Darkness” is one of the most remarkable of Conrad’s short novels, and its autobiographical narrative is evident. Miller pays attention that Marlow’s tale differs greatly from the stories of ordinary seamen, as though it is put in the historical context of the nineteenth-century world-dominating imperialism, it concerns the issues of enlightenment caused by traumatic experience (31-32). The novel may be interpreted as the writer’s journey into self-reflection. The narrator becomes the author’s alter ego who expresses ideas and thoughts, which worry Conrad himself. Biographical facts help the writer restore the environment that influenced him to create the