Literary Analysis Of The Heart Of Darkness

Written in 1902, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness follows the character Marlow in his journey up the Congo River to find the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader. In the story, Conrad explores the issues of colonialism and imperialism. The Company has enslaved native Congolese to help them mine for ivory and rubber in the area. The Congolese experience brutal working conditions as the company profits off their free labor. Racism is evident throughout the story with Marlow calling the blacks “savages” and with the lack of dialogue for Congolese characters. Throughout the story, Conrad seems to suggest that imperialism and colonialism rise from greed, power struggle, and the need for wealth. He also seems to imply that imperialism and

The Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, is a thrilling, yet suspenseful piece, constantly keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. Conrad describes the scenery and details around him, and uses words such as sails of the barges “drifting up with the tide” and a “haze” rested on the low shores in which the audience is able to picture dark skies, with misty skies, over the water (imagery). Conrad creates a deeper and darker tone as he uses words such as “mournful gloom” and “the air was dark”, which makes the audience wonder why the sky is dark and why the surroundings are filled with gloom (tone). Conrad controls the verbal pacing and focus, as he puts a shorter sentence before a longer sentence, building the longer sentence off of the shorter sentence (syntax). Conrad says, “A haze rested on the shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark, filled with gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth”, in the short sentence more emphasis is placed on the “haze” and darkness. The longer sentence goes on to describe more details, building off of the “haze” and darkness.

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad suggest that true human existence cannot prevail productively without the dynamics of society. Throughout numerous scenes in the novel, Conrad stresses the necessity of societal restraints through Kurtz’s inability to prosper as a human being when he is removed from the expectations of civilization. In the scene above, Marlow’s myopic observations of Kurtz reveals Conrad’s theme by illustrating the annihilation of Kurtz’s essential human characteristics as he descends into a barbaric lifestyle absent of the norms of society. Not only does the above scene support Conrad’s main theme, but it portrays his writing style, characterization of Marlow, and symbolism as used throughout the novel.

In Heart Of Darkness, Conrad introduces the following characters, the manager, the brickman, and the foreman, with various distinctive characteristics. Additionally, Conrad applies each man to contribute towards accumulating information about Mr. Kurtz to Marlow. Correspondingly, while Marlow was accumulating information regarding Mr. Kurtz, Marlow encounters a painting created by Mr. Kurtz, which possesses a symbolic connotation to it. Furthermore, as a consequence of Marlow interest in Kurtz, it exceedingly represents Marlow’s characteristic.

1. The setting of the story begins on the Nellie, a ship. The turn of the tide is significant because it gives the men on board extra time to talk, and Marlow begins telling his story. In addition, symbolically, the turning of the tide conveys a change, and perhaps, foreshadowing of the story. The author spends a lot of time dealing with light because it is the main symbol in the novella. Light and darkness are universal symbols that represent good and evil. Although not explicitly stated, those who have the light are those who are “civilized”, and those who have the darkness are those who remain “uncivilized”, particularly the people living in Africa.

You can argue that nearly everyone on this planet has at least one desire within that is so dark and evil that they would do anything to achieve that goal. However, most individuals are capable of controlling and taming their greedy desires for personal gain such as wealth, power, and fame, to the point where they are concealed, leaving their sanity untouched by the extreme darkness of their sinful wishes. Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, provides the greatest example of how man’s appetite for greed can prevail and consume almost an entire race’s soul into complete and utter madness, to the stage where it is solely driven by the blackness and impurity of greed. In Heart of Darkness,

Although the author Joseph Conrad never met the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who died more than a century before Conrad’s birth, their distinct philosophies still have numerous points of intersection, suggesting some fundamental truths within the structure of the human reality. Through the novella, Heart of Darkness, Conrad details his perspectives on the faults of man and reality as a whole, with views often coinciding with many of Leibniz’s own, as found in his numerous philosophical works. Consequently, the two perspectives combine together, like a cyclopean image, to enhance and deepen each of the two men’s philosophies on humanity.

The company which Marlow was hired by was ran by white men in Europe (Conrad). In respect to the distance between the Congo and Europe, one should automatically realize that the social norms will be very different in those two places. The journey in which the company takes begins at the Thames River and brings the main characters to the darkness, the Congo jungle (Conrad). Seeing as the men are taken away from civilization and put in the jungle, they are removed form all laws and regulations that they followed in their normal lives. As the story continues, the comparison between traveling deeper into the jungle and looking farther into one's own heart is extremely evident. Marlow finds that his journey to the inner station drastically clouds his judgements and does away with his moral compass. Conrad displayed different events that Marlow was forced to go through during his journey upriver such as seeing the chain gang, working with cannibals, and becoming numb to the killing of innocent natives all to portray how the heart is directly effected by the darkness surrounding it; ultimately, showing how quickly Marlow's heart became blind to the evil around him (Conrad). Within these two different settings, starting at the Thames River and ending at the inner station, ones sees how quickly a heart can lose sight of civilized truths based upon the dark environment they are placed

In the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad suggests that when removed from civilization and unrestrained, people succumb to the evil in human nature and regress into savagery. Charlie Marlow, the protagonist of the story, ventures out into the depths of Africa, eager to explore its unknown territories. Despite hoping for success, Marlow learns of the horrors that lie behind the curtain of civilization. Throughout the novel, the author presents this main idea with certain elements of fiction. A key scene that portrays the theme of the story occurs when Marlow follows Kurtz’s path from his steamboat into the wilderness. Kurtz, who represents the result of unchecked ambitions, recalls his experience in the wilderness, and readers learn of his character prior to his downfall. This scene displays the main idea using the author’s style, the point of view, and the characterization of Kurtz.

“‘The darkness of destructive selfishness’” is a common theme throughout twentieth century British literature (Thomas). A great deal of literary works contain tenants, such as selfishness, which are supported throughout the stories. These tenants, or themes, can be supported various different ways depending on the literary techniques used by the author. Numerous times the literary techniques common in twentieth century British literature were used to develop the commonly used theme of inherent selfishness. Inherent selfishness simply means that there is a deep-rooted greed and is common in this writing due to the high rates of colonization that were taking place throughout the world during this time period. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph

Through Marlow’s journey, readers see the appalling tools of colonialism laid bare and the real reason behind Europe’s mindset is exposed. Conrad argues with the accusation of Europe and other countries who use violence to “civilize” land and their inhabitants, as inhuman and savage. That the natives who are suppose to be helped are really not the uncivilized people. Furthermore, the Europeans are barbaric due to their greed for wealth and power. The author indicated this problem throughout Heart of Darkness, because he wanted people to question who was really “civilized” and “savaged.” His novel allowed people to see this defining feature of the Modern period in its true

Part I In the novel, Second Class Citizen, the main character, Adah, is a strong, Nigerian women who faces sexism from within her own culture since she was born. She explains, "She was a girl who had arrived when everyone was expecting and predicting a boy... She was so insignificant" (Emecheta 7). In the Ibo culture that Adah grew up in, being a girl was looked down upon. Giving birth to a boy was a major accomplishment, whereas giving birth to a girl was an equally major disappointment. Girls were taught to be useful, not intelligent: "A year or two would do, as long as she can write her name and count. Then she will learn to sew" (Emecheta 9). In Ibo culture, girls were valued for their domestic

Although, as a society, we discourage the process of not judging a book by its cover, we have all been guilty of doing it at some point. The first item we look at when we pick up a new book is the title and the cover as a whole. These are two key components when it comes to using our heuristics to decide if a book is worthwhile reading or not. With only two items to judge by, each has to hold significant importance in order to draw a reader into reading the novel. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad represents a mysterious title to draw readers into reading the novel, but hold a much more significant underlying meaning which represents many elements in the novel, while also symbolizing external concepts in the overall plot. The title represents many important elements such as the character of Mr. Kurtz and others, to the setting of Africa in the novel, and to the concept of the evil nature of imperialism outside of the novel. Through the title, Conrad has created significance for elements of the novel creating a very large impact on readers of the book.

Heart of Darkness is written by Joseph Conrad and published in 1899. It is a novella written in the early modernism literary period.

Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness follows Marlow’s oral telling of his journey into the heart of Africa. Three men listen to him recount his journey up the Congo River, into the heart of Africa, darkness and Man himself. Conrad uses Kurtz, the chief of the Inner Station, and the natives to convey certain messages.