Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Essay Example

In The Nigger of the Narcissus the peril to social order embedded in an understanding of the ultimate pointlessness of life was emphasised. Heart of Darkness stresses a similar dilemma, even though in this story what is in danger is not merely the group, but the individual. While Conrad had easily avoided the difficulty of his imperfect protagonist in deciding, for the leading male of The Nigger of the Narcissus, the ship’s entire crew, in Heart of Darkness the predicament is worked out, not just once, but twice: the reader does not merely have the character of Mr.

Kurtz is the ‘universal genius’ but that of Marlow as well, in a more intricate and morally forceful character than he was in “Youth.”1 In fact, we cannot sufficiently understand and appreciate Heart of Darkness if we fail to take into account in structural terms the bond that it creates between Mr. Kurtz and Marlow. The decision of Marlow to journey into the heart of Congo is shown to the reader as the idealistic ambition of a man pursuing the glamour of the mystifying, representing a childhood dream to explore the void space of wonderful mystery that Africa mirrored on the maps of the period.

He discovers, at the headquarters of the Brussels’ steamship company, and ambiance stinking with reflections of death and is sufficiently perceptive to notice the threatening atmosphere; he is not discouraged, though, and abandons Brussels seeing himself caught up in a usual business. But it is not long before the obvious restlessness of Marlow paved the way to a more profound sense of danger. Even throughout his journey along the coast of Africa, Marlow is already portraying his experience as a somnolent pilgrimage among indications for nightmares, a rational point in which Conrad is silently developing a major thesis of the narrative.

The sight of the anchored French man-of-war carelessly firing repeatedly into the dark interior of the jungle is the first indication of the dark futility for Marlow in which he is to be dealt with.
The first White man that Marlow encounters is the accountant of the Central Station, a character ridiculously spruced amidst the grimy surroundings.