Hypocrisy of Imperialism in The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, describes a life-altering journey that the protagonist, Marlow, experiences in the African Congo.  The story explores the historical period of colonialism in Africa to exemplify Marlow's struggles.  Marlow, like other Europeans of his time, is brought up to believe certain things about colonialism, but his views change as he experiences colonialism first hand. This essay will explore Marlow's view of colonialism, which is shaped through his experiences and also from his relation to Kurtz.  Marlow's understanding of Kurtz's experiences show him the effects colonialism can have on a man's soul.

    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.

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

What makes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness more than the run of the mill adventure tale, is its moral complexity. By the end of the novel, we find a protagonist who has immense appreciation for a man who lacks honest redemption, the mysterious Mr. Kurtz. It is the literal vivaciousness and unyielding spirit of this man, his pure intentionality, which Marlow finds so entrancing and which leaves the reader with larger questions regarding the human capacity. Therefore, Heart of Darkness is profoundly different given its character complexity and ambiguous narrative technique which ultimately deliver home a message of the complex motivations and capabilities of mankind.

     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

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 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.

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

Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” displays a cynical view on imperialism and its effects on both the imperialists and the colonized. It also explores the depth of the malignance in human interactions at the same time. One passage presents this perspective by presenting the two spiritual outlooks of Marlow and the pilgrims on board of his steamboat watching the emergence of Kurtz’s mistress after Marlowe sees him for the first time. The mystical and spiritual elements that are twisted in this passage alone confirm the degradation to animal status the Congolese natives endure. The emergence of the Congolese mistress is a clear afterimage of the of a people, who are transformed into an afterimage and caricature of independent entity they were before the imperialist’s presence.

It is evident that during the Victorian era, Britain gained its sense of identity from the notion of the empire. It was during this period that the idea of the steam engine emerged, breaking the barriers of long distance travel which was then available to the average man via ships and trains (Sussman 14). This, in turn, led to the growth of imperialism that promoted the civilising mission in the ‘many blank spaces on earth’ (Conrad 35). With specific interest in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, I argue that Victorian impressions of the civilising mission were constantly encumbered with racist qualities.

First point: As we all know, the British Empire was the biggest empire that dominated the world ever since the British started exploring the earth in the 15th century. The fact that Heart of Darkness was written in the United Kingdom is highly ironic, seeing as the book talks about the hypocrisy of imperialism. This could be seen as Conrad mocking the ways in which the British Empire treated their colonies’ inhabitants. Because the book was published in the UK, Conrad earned himself an approval, in a way, to mock the ways in which his country treated its colonies. Conrad tells the reader how the white men in the stations used misleading descriptions of their actions in Africa, exposing how the “trade” and “civilization” were really not what

Heart of darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a prime example of European imperialist power over the lower less developed countries of Africa. Joseph Conrad’s book ensued many critics and other authors to question if Conrad was a racist.

The horrors of the past do not fade with time - whether the horrors occur in one’s lifetime or decades before. In Heart of Darkness and Native Guard, Joseph Conrad and Natasha Trethewey respectively chronicle their characters’ journeys as they struggle to overcome the demons of their personal histories and of history itself. With persistent reflection, both characters achieve a clearer understanding of their pasts, allowing them to transform according to the truths they have discovered. Conrad and Trethewey use water as a symbol to express the shift in their characters’ identities: Marlow from apathetic detachment to passive awareness and Trethewey’s speaker from confused turmoil to a definite identity.

Postcolonialism is the literary theory that speaks about the human consequences of external control and economic exploitation of native people and their lands. Colonialism is a major theme in the novella Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. The story follows an introspective sailor named Marlow and his journey into the African Congo to meet Mr. Kurtz, an enigmatic and idealistic man. During his journey deeper into the jungle, Marlow witnesses various atrocities committed by his fellow colonists against the Native Africans. In Heart of Darkness, the noble and romantic cause of bringing civilization and progress to the darkness at the heart of Africa is corrupted into an oppressive occupation and brings to light the evils of colonialism and

And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, "followed the sea" with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames...It had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled--the great knights-errant of the sea. (302)