Essay about Point of View and Theme in Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad's short novel Heart of Darkness (first published in 1902) is undoubtedly critically acclaimed, moreover, it is considered to be one of the greatest English novels. Conrad, who is of Polish ancestry, is as well considered to be an outstanding storyteller and a great stylist of modern fiction (Achebe 2). Even though this novel was written more than hundred years ago, it still draws many people's attention. The plot of the novel revolves around the main character, Marlow, and his journey to the heart of Africa (the Congo River). Marlow accepts to work as a steamship captain for a Belgian ivory-trade company and seeks to meet Kurtz, another important character in the novel whom many people admired, including, to a point, Marlow. On

Darkness is used throughout the novel to symbolize savagery, death and the unknown. Marlow's observation is reinforced when London is described as a "brooding gloom". In thisinstance the physical description of the city serves to reinforce Marlow's theory, and refute the earlier judgments of the frame narrator.

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.

There can be multiple inferences from the clues that Conrad gives us. It is adding to the novel and giving the meaning. It could mean that there is just as much “darkness” in Europe as there is in Africa. Conrad’s main character, Marlow, has never been one that was easy to read or figure out. So why should the intended message be given to us plainly?

“Oh, propriety...We’re always so concerned with propriety. Even in total madness, we will stick to our hierarchies and chains of command.” This concept--human concern with fitting societal standards and hierarchies--is a clear theme in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Even as ivory transporter Charles Marlow journeys into Central Africa, a land described as “mad” and “savage”, those around him remain primarily interested in maintaining a set image and social standards, a strange concept amidst such perceived “madness”. This obsession with propriety in Heart of Darkness is seen through the anomalous character development of both Kurtz and Marlow, and the Company’s response. Overall, this contributes to a larger meaning explored by the novel--the question of good and evil and whether or not the two are truly distinguishable.

The prejudice of the Europeans is noticeably demonstrated in Heart of Darkness. The portrayal of the Africans by Marlow, the European protagonist travelling in Africa, depicts the stereotypical Africans as beasts who lack complexity. He compares them to animals. For example, Marlow described the natives’ death pit as,

Throughout history, many imperialistic countries employ different forms of prejudice within society to help enable the governing heads to rule with very little resistance and to further assist the growth of their nation even though the method deployed are incorrect in many ways. Africans in Heart of Darkness were isolated in order to help expand the horizons of the growing British Empire through economic and other personal agendas, such as protection. By instilling the ideology of prejudice within a person, they are more likely to carry out more efficient, inhumane methods of carrying out a task without much hesitation and drawback as it gives them motivation to do so without a real just purpose. At the time this book was written, England was

Within the novel, Conrad first appeals to the race criticism lens. In the novel, Conrad separates Marlow and the rest of the company workers from the natives of Africa. Before Marlow leaves on his journey he provides background information on how he acquires the job, as he states that the previous man “whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him, thunderstruck, till some man … made a tentative jab with a spear at

In Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow’s melancholy tone sets the mood for severity of the abhorrent occurrences he witnessed while in the interior of the Congo Free State, and as the intermediate narrator, is able to re-explore this dreadful experience during his narration, that allows him to represent his thoughts and gives reader’s direct access to his conscious. As the central consciousness of the novella, Marlow is first presented directly by our anonymous first person narrator (a passenger on the ship), but because of the story’s interweaving plot structure, a flashback occurs and Marlow steps in as the narrator, and it becomes our job as readers to understand Marlow through his actions as he himself analyzes his inner-self. Conrad follows

The heart of darkness is a novella written by joseph Conrad that depicts the way many of the British imperialists dealt with the natives, how wealth and fortune triumphs over compassion and morality. Conrad’s work contains many forms of evidence proving the point that Conrad might have had some negatively charged racial views. In the novella Heart of Darkness Conrad uses the character of Marlow to express his views on the topic of racism. Conrad’s childhood shaped him for the rest of his life showing that it might have had some negative impacts on him. The views expressed were common for the time period.

It is incredible that a single character can bring such wonder, curiosity, and darkness. Anyone who has read further into the novel “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad will see the ironic, and mind-twisting aspects of imperialism, colonialism, racism, savagery, and insanity throughout the book, brought by the unique characters. One of these characters was Marlow, who was a thirty-two-year-old sailor who longed adventure and fulfilled his dreams of exploring the “blank places” of the map as a young man by taking a job as a riverboat captain with the Belgian company as he travels into the dark heart of Africa. The most important character that truly brings those aspects to the story is Kurtz. Repetitively throughout the journey, Marlow hears

     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

He narrates the story through Marlow, a sailor journeying into the Congo, and captures the experience of travelling to an uncivilized land. In short, Conrad believes man is controlled by the restraints of society and when those restraints are removed, he becomes an animal. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad illustrates that outside of social restraints

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a frame narrative which creates a clear and organized structure. This structure helps emphasize upon the hypocrisy of imperialism in the novel and Marlow’s journey to discovering his true identity. The orderly and systematic nature of the structure corresponds with the Company in the novel and how it seems so structured on the outside while their mission is actually extremely chaotic underneath as displayed by Kurtz. The cyclical structure of the novel outlines Marlow’s journey in finding himself and his true identity. As the chaos of the journey is uncovered, Marlow delves deeper and deeper into uncertainty regarding the things going on around him in his life.