HEART OF DARKNESS Flashcards
HEART OF DARKNESS’ PLOT
It is the story of a nightmarish journey into the Belgian Congo told by a sailor named Marlow.
It can be read as a moral story, an anticolonial novel, an allegory of colonisation.
It explores the complexity of human nature.
Situation – The novel begins in London on the river Thames, where Marlow starts telling the other men on the boat about the time he went on a trip to find Kurtz, who ran the Belgian Company’s station in the jungle.
the brutality of European imperialism in Africa – During the journey Marlow sees the brutality of European imperialism in Africa:
The natives are treated very cruelly, the Europeans order them to do meaningless things and keep them in terrible conditions of slavery.
They used to justify their actions through the idea of bringing civilization.
Colonisation has a double effect:
on the natives = they are dehumanised and enslaved
on the colonisers = they are suffocated by the desire of power
When Marlow finds Kurtz he discovers he is seriously ill, but doesn’t want to go back to Europe. Marlow realises that Kurtz is worshipped by the natives and has become a cannibal.
He succeeds in convincing Kurtz to return, but dies during the trip.
Kurtz’s last words are ‘The Horror! The Horror!’ and Marlow thinks they are his own final judgement on
himself
his actions and
European imperialism
The reader will never know the truth about the dictator but can build his own idea through the different povs.
The corruption of European civilisation – For Conrad the ‘light’ of European civilisation hides the ‘darkness’ of corruption and the death of any moral value.
The contrast between darkness and whiteness
Darkness refers to Africa
it unexplored regions
the “blackness” of its habitants
the obscurity of the hearts of the colonisers
The mystery of human’s soul
The whiteness refers to the Europe
Its apparent civility
The colour ivory ( what the europeans want to colonise africa for )
HEART OF DARKNESS’ CHARACTERS
Marlow
Marlow is a determined young seaman.
– He is a philosopher and a man of action.
– He represents a moral guide for the reader, a mediator between the colonists and the natives.
Kurtz
Kurtz is a ivory trader who went to Congo with his “white man values”.
He has become a demigod for the natives.
He is also a men of culture: he is a painter, a musician, a writer, a promising politician
He represents the struggle between good and evil, and because of this he’s very mysterious thanks to the different personalities he wears.
HEART OF DARKNESS’S STYLE
Conrad uses two subjective narrators
The frame narrator – because he tells the whole story – he is a passenger on the ship while Marlow is telling the story of the trip
Marlow – he is a subjective and partial pov
This underlines the distance between the truth and the reader ( because we know the story through a subjective narrator )
He also uses time shifts breaking the chronological order
Building a Railway
Marlow reaches a power station and finds a path towards the hill. There are six black men building a railway.
Suddenly there is a noise and the people run.
A detonation shakes the ground and some smoke comes out of the cliff and this is all. Nothing has changed.
He was hollow at the core
Marlow is looking at Kurtz’s house with his glass and he sees no signs of life: only a ruined roof, long mud walls, and little square windows.
Kurtz’s home is silent and isolated, there is no sign of life and it seems to be abandoned.
