Theme Of Colonialism In Heart Of Darkness

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 uses charazation in the novella Heart of Darkness to show how appalling imperialism truly is. Characters such as Kurtz, the accountant, and the pilgrims plays bigger role than just existing for Marlow’s story. The biggest character in the novella other than Marlow is Kurtz. Kurtz represents a wide variety of different things. He is the perfect example of the insanity imperialism can breed in people. He displays what horrors of imperialism can turn people into. From the second Marlow gets to the Congo everyone admires and

It is common knowledge that there is always more than one side to a story. To hear just one person’s tale, does not mean that there is no more of the story to tell. A story is like a coin, although the head is showing, there is always the tails hidden underneath. The novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad are like this coin. Both novels discuss the colonization of Africa, but through the protagonists’ upbringing, structure of the novels, and the mentality of the colonizers, these two works show there is more than just one side to colonization.

Originally Kurtz had good intentions in journeying to the Congo. He honestly believed in using the ivory trade to better the social and economic aspects of the region, while simultaneously helping the natives to become civilized and part of the world which he thought was superior. Kurtz is only able to impress his own beliefs and ideals upon society and therefore help it however, by taking control of the people of the society. He establishes this control in the

This isolation lends Marlow a sort of objectivity, allowing him to keenly assess the true damage Europe has inflicted upon the Congo. Unbound by friendships or any close ties, Marlow is able to survey the Congo and its colonists from an outsider’s perspective. As previously noted, he refers to them as “pilgrims” as a means of detaching himself. He comments on how when attacked by natives, “The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush” (Conrad 41). By distancing himself from the others, Marlow is able to recognize the pointlessness of the chaotic violence the Europeans perpetuate. Though his distaste for European methods is not always well defined, it is definitely evident, seeming to escalate as he travels further along the Congo. Perhaps, then, the “heart of darkness” that Marlow so frequently says he is journeying into is not the jungle itself, but rather the truth about European brutality. At the core of this heart, both physically and symbolically, lies the Inner Station, where Marlow finds Kurtz. When Marlow first hears about Kurtz, he is fascinated. The colonists rave, “He is a prodigy…He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else” (Conrad 22). These colonists are naïve, uninformed, beholding Kurtz as

    In the opening of his novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad, through Marlow, establishes his thoughts on colonialism. He says that conquerors only use brute force, "nothing to boast of" because it arises, by accident, from another's weakness. Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such an endeavor. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by painting a heinous picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the recesses of the novel. Here we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at

In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the imperialism of Africa is described. Conrad tells the story of the cruel treatment of the natives and of the imperialism of the Congo region through the perspective of the main character, Marlow. Throughout the novel, Marlow describes how the Europeans continuously bestow poor treatment to the native people by enslaving them in their own territory. Analyzing the story with the New Criticism lens, it is evident that Conrad incorporates numerous literary devices in Heart of Darkness, including similes, imagery, personification, and antitheses to describe and exemplify the main idea of cruel imperialism in Africa discussed throughout the novella.

By the time he exists leaves africa he himself has become a savage by allowing his primitive passions override the mission he gave himself. This book also suggests that your surroundings play a big part in your decision to choose your path when it comes to passion or responsibility. When Kurtz is in europe he chooses responsibility in that he is going to help the people of africa by helping them become civilized. Then when he gets to Africa he gives into his passions and does terrible things such as putting peoples heads on spikes. After that when he is on the boat to depart from africa with all mentally stable people, he looks back on the things that he did after he went crazy and realizes just how bad they were hence why his last words before he dies are,’”The horror! The horror!”’(page 73) the man who was with kurtz when he died was Marlow. Another example from Heart of Darkness on the struggel between passion and responsibility is that when Kurtz dies the responsible thing to do would be to bring him home and give him a proper funeral. Instead he is buried offshore in a muddy hole. When Marlow gets back to europe he goes to see Kurtz’s

The Europeans’ desires that grew from imperialism go against the natives and their resistance to the imperialists. Imperialism causes an increase in savagery in the Europeans by making them see natives as either profit or an obstacle, and the natives by making them resist the Europeans. Kurtz himself reaches the level of savagery when Marlow witnesses the words “Exterminate all the brutes!” on his report (Conrad 75). Kurtz practically leads the Belgian Congo, and yet he wishes to resort to inhumane methods such as genocide. Marlow remarks that Kurtz “There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it. He had kicked himself loose of the earth” (Conrad 100). Kurtz does as he pleases, with no one above him or below him to stop him. The

Marlow narrates of events that he encountered on voyage with Kurtz. He depicts him as greedy in fulfilment of his own interests in search of ivory. ‘My ivory.’ Oh, yes, I heard him. ‘My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my – ‘everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him – but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. (121). He makes the natives worship him as a god in order to conquer emerging enemies of this trade. The life of Kurtz until his death portrays not only Leon Rom’s life but other colonists that forgot their mission to the native land but turned into gratification of own

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.

There are many divisions in the relationships between the white explorers and colonizers and the native population that they encounter. Moreover, among the white explorers there are more divisions. Marlow is separated from the other characters because he is critical of imperialism; Kurtz is separated because he has gone against the rigid boundaries that are intended to divide the colonizer from the colonized. While we see that in Heart of Darkness the characters are in constant contact with one another yet the quality of their relationships and their connections are limited because they lack shared values, which is a trait of modernism seen in other works by Conrad as

  In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, challenges a dominant view by exposing the evil nature and the darkness associated with the colonialist ventures. It is expressed by Marlow 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 a darkness." The European colonialists are portrayed as blind lightbearers, people having a façade of progress and culture, yet are blind of their actions. They think they are brining a light to a darkness, yet they are the real darkness or evil. Conrad's critique of European colonialism is most apparent through the oppositions of light and darkness, with the

Kurtz's whole orientation in the Congo was based on the quest for ever-increasing quantities of ivory. In this lay the weakness of Kurtz, for he wanted something, unlike his Russian companion. Kurtz's intelligence, his ideas, and his plans, were captive to his status as ivory gatherer. Kurtz's rejection of the validity of the 'unsound method' was not the problem. The problem with Kurtz, which Marlow does not realize, is not that Kurtz went native, but that he did not go native enough. In other words, Kurtz did not abandon the ivory-fetish. Kurtz's link with colonialism is therefore his undoing, even in the individual decay he undergoes.

Conrad and Achebe have shown the very nature and establishment of colonialism by the improper and unsatisfactory activities of the colonizers. Both of them have revealed the inhuman and callous treatment of the colonizers to the native people. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow observed the harsh attitudes with great surprise .The colonizers did not care about the health and working conditions of the natives as long as they were productive. They were left to suffer by starving without any food. Marlow narrated the horrible conditions of the Black, “Black shapes crouched…half coming out, half effaced…in all attitude of pain, abandonment and despair(p:34 )”. Moreover the natives were mostly naked and were moving like “ants”. Marlow described how the colonizers had made the terrible condition of the Black, “all their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered…”(p:34 ). Furthermore, the colonizers had made their settlement by convincing the natives with their so-called mission to civilize the blacks. The representative of the colonizers “Kurtz” believed that the natives were in need of being humanized, improved, and instructed in the European way of life. Kurtz by his hypocrite and deceitful way had made very effective influence over the natives, only for his personal gain .In order to exploit the natives and their natural resources, the ivory traders had settled down their Central Station and other stations in several places