Heart of Darkness

One of the very first lines in the story, “I’ve never told anyone about what happened in the stream that day, and I never will… at least not with my mouth” (King 1), alludes to a very dark scenario in the narrator’s past, and sets the tone of fear and ambiguity for the rest of the tale. More instances of foreshadowing appear throughout the story, each with their own intention and significance, but the most important examples, such as the one earlier mentioned, appear in the opening paragraphs. This gives the reader the feeling that the narrator is afraid, and eager to share his burden with them claiming that “that terrible face grows clearer and clearer in my mind’s eye / the face of the man in the black suit grows ever clearer, ever closer” (King 1-2). This implies that the narrator is running out of time to share his story, and does an excellent job of creating a sense of

4. Mr. Erwin Martin, the protagonist of the story, was a small, intelligent, neat and precise man, who followed a rigid daily routine. He never drank or smoked and because of this it made him an exemplary employee at his firm. His boss even stated that “Man is fallible but Martin isn’t”. In terms of characters Martin is considered a round character. He is considered this because he is well developed and has many character traits. As the story progresses Erwin does some things out of character. One of these being, the plotting of the murder of his fellow co-worker. It does not coincide with his character traits and we can also infer that he is going through a change which might make him a dynamic character as well. Instead of murdering Mrs. Barrows with brute force, he “kills” her career by using his knowledge of his perceived personality against her. He does all these things in order to rid himself of Mrs. Barrows and continue his routine life.

He wants to see Africa and explore it, so he applies to a trading company where he can operate a steam boat up. His Aunt suggests that the Company is an imperialistic one, but Marlow says, “I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit” (77). Once he arrives to the Congo, he must quickly adapt to not only new physical conditions but also to new cultures and societies. Because of this shift, Marlow’s “id, superego, ego” becomes unbalanced.

Overall, Marlow believes that work is highly beneficial to a person. When someone works, they are kept sane, and are kept honest. Not only are they more sensible, and productive, it makes one a better person in the long run, unlike the ridiculous Europeans overcome by greed and laziness.

10) Why did the ‘Lynch Mob’ go home? What main point do you think the novelist hoped to make by introducing this episode into the story?

Marlow’s evolution renders ‘Heart of Darkness’ a remarkable work of literature, but it is not simply the budding of the narrator’s mind that makes the novel sensational. Marlow’s perception of the voyage is what truly renders the work exceptional. European expansion, as written by European writers, was generally cast in a positive light. When Conrad depicts the desolation of the journey and reveals the sanities and lives robbed through the conquest, he clearly does not conform to the writers of his time. This exposure of European expansion in such a sinister a fashion was innovative for writers of the late 17th century. This revolutionary perception is what truly allows ‘Heart of Darkness’ to be considered a novel rich in moral and detail.

Marlow compares his experience in Africa as the Romans did “nineteen hundred years ago,” they both were shocked when they got there. When Romans came long ago they did not expect to see anyone, and when Marlow came he expected something different. He thought that the natives were happy to have civilization and wanted to integrate into their society. But he was wrong, they were being treated as “criminals” and were not even respected. He knew that something else was going on there. The men that were there were just “lusty, red-eyed devils” looking for their fortune. They did not

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart illustrate the different ways of presenting Africa in literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows Africa through the perspective of the colonizing Europeans, who tend to depict all the natives as savages. In response to Conrad 's stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart through the point of view of the natives to show Africans, not as primitives, but as members of a thriving society. Things Fall Apart follows Okonkwo 's life as he strives for prestige in his community. When European missionaries come to Umuofia, Okonkwo 's clan, Okonkwo tries to protect the culture that the missionaries would destroy in the name of "civilizing" the natives. However his rigid mentality and violent behavior has the opposite of its intended effect, perpetuating the stereotype of the wild African in the eyes of the European readers.

    So in the space of three sentences, the natives go from being "grotesque masks" to "chaps" who were "as natural and true as the surf along the coast."  Marlow is having a great deal of trouble making up his mind over the Africans, and he never really comes to any conclusion.

     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

The mysteriousness of the title is the first indicator of the mysteriousness of Marlow's journey into Africa. Seemingly no one--Marlow, Kurtz, the reader--is quite certain if any conclusions he draws over the course of the story are completely accurate.

Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad and “Apocalypse Now”, a movie directed by Francis Coppola represent two outstanding examples that compare relevant ideas regarding racism, colonialism, and prejudices. The two combine film along with descriptive language to portray their mastery during different eras. For Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses his writing techniques to illustrate Marlow in the Congo, while in “Apocalypse Now”, Coppola uses film editing and close ups on important scenes with unique sounds to identify Willards’ quest for Kurtz. Both portray the idea of colonization in foreign lands that otherwise may have been uninhabited by their own people if left alone.

Marlow is the wanderer into the unconscious mind; he is meandering through his deepest understanding of himself. In other words, he is a symbol for the archetype meeting himself in the depths of his unconscious mind. Not only is he initially finding meaning through his encounter with Kurtz but also he is attempting to find meaning through the retelling of his story. Marlow’s voyage ventures “deep into his own personal heart of darkness, where lurks the impulse to savagery that he had never acknowledged while in the deceptive milieu of a sophisticated city” (Spivack 432). Marlow is the principal character through which

In the Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, the main character, shows his opinion of women in a well masked, descriptive manner. Although women are not given a large speaking role ,the readers still feel their presence throughout the novel. In the scene at the Central Station, the description of the symbols in the painting,the blindfold, the torch, and the darkness, allow the readers to see the darkness in the world and the thought that women should not be exposed to that darkness. Marlow believe that women are too fragile to know the truth and should instead be left in their beautiful, untouched world.

The Company tries to cover up their malicious deeds by making them sound noble, even when the outcomes result in sickness and death. Their business is supposed to help the natives, but rather, they are using it for their own benefits. The accountant also swings over the fact that the whites dislike the natives, and the Europeans would do anything to keep their professions. Thus, Marlow’s aunt and the accountant symbolize the chicanery of imperialism and how the employees of the Company do not out any attention to the fact that they are actually hurting the innocent natives.