Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Essay Example

But there are various degrees of madness that lead to this total madness, as this essay will show. The first example of madness is in fact within history, more than 1800 years ago, as the Romans invaded Britain. Marlow reflects on those distant times when England "was one of the dark places on earth." Dark and savage Britain was a dangerous but fascinating terrain that they sought to take from the British but at the same time often went mad in the process. Part of the reason for this madness, and through allusion it is what was happening in Africa at the time the novel was written, is that conquest of a land means "taking it away from those who had a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves . . .

is not a pretty thing." (Conrad, ) The reaction of Europeans to Africa seems to revolve around different types and degrees of madness. Thus there is the futile action of the gunboat as it fires constant, random shots into the jungle. It is not aiming at anyone in particular, or indeed, at any thing in particular. The people in control of it are essentially mad because they feel that they are actually achieving something through the very action. Doing something, however pointless, is always better than doing nothing within this type of madness.

This ship and its occupants however remain reasonably remote from the reality of Africa, they are after all firing into it rather than going into it. A different kind of madness occurs for those who actually take on African through going into it. Kurtz remains at one extreme of madness - total, partly because he has lived in the very interior, at "the very bottom of there" (Conrad, ). Marlow, who is only a little mad as he makes his way into the heart of Africa, recognizes that Kurtz is totally mad, and recognizes why he has ended up in that state.

One moment where Marlow sees the strange fascination of being seduced by madness in Africa is when he hears a native screaming, "the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise" (Conrad, ). Part of Kurtz's madness stems from the fact that he regards himself as "extraordinary" (Conrad, ) and thus is not subject to the rules that the others must adhere to. The Russian excuses him by saying "you can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man" (Conrad, ). Kurtz wanted to educate and civilize the natives of Africa, which within the terms of reference of the book, is essentially a type of madness because it is such a futile attempt.

He is breaking the rules through trying to do something good for the natives, but continues to do so as the darkness wins and he essentially becomes savage. His madness is savage, and his savagery is mad: they are linked together within a kind of mutually parasitic relationship that takes Kurtz further and further into insanity. Essentially the whole book deals with a voyage into the "heart of darkness" which is essentially madness. Marlow realizes that he is discovering the "wild and passionate uproar" at the heart of all human beings.

Heart of Darkness suggests that it is savagery of Africa that most perfectly encapsulates this "uproar" and that the European should avoid too much contact with it if he is to avoid madness. In conclusion, nearly all the characters in Heart of Darkness are mad in one way or another. Kurtz is mad, the natives are