Main Topics Of The Novel Heart Of Darkness - Essay Example

Heart of Darkness And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men. (Conrad, 2). The imagery used in the opening pages of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness go far to illustrate some of the main concepts of the book. One of the primary themes that runs through this story is the way that civilization in the form of European white men came in to destroy the native black men of the Congo in the name of imperialism. The main character of the book is Marlow, who sits on the deck of a ship becalmed on the Thames until the tide should turn within these early pages. The time setting is just at sunset and the imagery that presents itself to the men on the boat seems to naturally put them into a reflective state of mind. The narrator of this early section, identified only by the reflective pronoun 'I', even points out that each of the men were too involved in their own thoughts to be interested in playing a game of dominoes that one of them had brought out. The scene as it presents itself to Marlow calls to mind the deep and disturbing memories and ideas that he gained as a fresh-water sailor working in the Congo. Thus, the imagery of this opening scene does a great deal to inform the reader of the ideas Conrad is trying to convey regarding imperial conquest. As can be seen in the above quote, the scene painted for the reader is not the peaceful image one might expect a writer to create given the calm scene. The men are lying about on a ship's deck with nothing to do. The ship itself is described as calm, "without a flutter of her sails" (Conrad, 1). Within this scene, "the water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds" (Conrad, 2). Even the barges moving upstream are seen as standing relatively motionless by the narrator. "The tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished spirits" (Conrad, 2). Imagining this kind of scene, there seems no room for anything that isn't peaceful and calming. The narrator's words illustrate an almost magical timelessness, a place where nothing unpleasant might harm you. However, there are hints at a darkness lying at the heart of this pleasant scene. These are found as the narrator describes the change in color of the sunlight from a "glowing white" to a "dull red without rays and without heat" (Conrad, 2). What this imagery indicates is a place once full of hope and light and an ability to warm others has changed to something incapable of reaching out, cold and sullen. It is so close to lifelessness that it is even threatening to " go out suddenly, stricken to death" (Conrad, 2). Even more of the metaphor is exposed when the narrator identifies the cause of the sun's sudden ailment as "the gloom brooding over a crowd of men" (Conrad, 2). This gloom is present in physical form as the narrator describes the dark gathering in the west, "brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun" (Conrad, 2). Thus, the scene is lovely and peaceful as long as one only chooses to look in specific directions as one direction suggests something ominous. The imagery of light and dark is also brought out in direct relation to man and his activities throughout history. As this opening scene is presented, the narrator describes his reverence for the Thames because of the history and greatness that have been carried out with its assistance. "We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs forever, but in the august light of abiding memories" (Conrad, 2). These memories include many of the great naval war heroes of the relatively recent (to Conrad) past. Sir Frances Drake and Sir John Franklin are mentioned by name, described as "knights-errant of the sea" (Conrad, 3), which calls to mind images of saviors in flashing silver armor on white horses, reflecting the sun as they charge away to battle for the defense and the welfare of their nation. Their tools are the ships whose names "are like jewels flashing in the night of time" again bringing in the concept of bright, reflective light piercing through darkness. All of these people who have ridden on the waters of the Thames were "bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire" (Conrad, 3). What this indicates is that the narrator, and many of his companions, think of England and her sons as the bringers of metaphorical light through their conquest of other lands and the spreading of their own religious beliefs and civilized knowledge. This light is contrasted almost equally against darkness. "The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled t the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its bank" gives a sense of decline and retirement to the "venerable stream" that adds to the darkness of the surrounding atmosphere. Along with the ships and the men who brought such shining light to the land, there are also mentioned "the Erebus and the Terror, bound on other conquests - and that never returned" (Conrad, 3). The conspicuous absence of the men associated with equal darkness in this scene is immediately rectified once Marlow starts talking, but this absence also helps make the rest of the story, and the idea that the other men on the ship hadn't considered the darkness these men brought to the uncivilized world, more surprising. The only indication that civilization holds its own form of darkness is provided as the sun continues to set and "the place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars" (Conrad, 3). It is not a mistake that the natural gloom described earlier stems from the same cardinal direction as the town. Although sunset is typically considered the onset of darkness, the narrator comments that “the serenity became less brilliant but more profound” (Conrad, 3). For the narrator, although the atmosphere is becoming darker and darker with the setting of the sun, greater meaning is beginning to emerge through the gloom. Although it is most likely that he is talking about the way a silhouette might take on greater detail and structure when the bright light behind it is reduced, this imagery finally directly addresses the main point of the book - to shine light on the darkness that colonization and imperialism introduced into the Congo and the evils of commercial society in the name of civilizing the natives. Thus, in the first two pages of the novella, in a motionless scene involving four men sitting on a becalmed deck, Conrad presents the main concepts of his story through simple imagery of light and dark, calling into question which is worse and which is better and the harm that can be wrought when the difference is unknown. Works Cited Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. 1902. The Literature Network (2006). Read More