The Rhetoric of Restraint in Heart of Darkness
Author(s): John A. McClure
Source: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Dec., 1977), pp. 310-326
Published by: University of California Press
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The Rhetoric of
Restraint in
Heart of D)arkness
JOHN A. MCCLURE
The point was in his being a giftedcreature,and that of
that carall his giftsthe one that stood out pre-eminently,
ried with it a sense of real presence,was his abilityto talk,
his words-the gift of expression,the bewildering,the illuminating,the most exalted and the most contemptible,
the pulsatingstreamof light,or the deceitfulflowfromthe
heartof an impenetrabledarkness.
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness,Part II
LTHOUGH MARLOW MAKES A GREAT DEAL of Kurtz's eloquence, he provides only one sure example of Kurtz's public voice
-a few fragmentsfrom the report to the International Society
for the Suppression of Savage Customs. Significantly,these few
lines bring us close to Kurtz at a moment of moral crisis,when he
faces, and succumbs to, the archetypal temptation of the colonial
wilderness. Marlow summarizes the report:
He beganwith the argumentthatwe whites,fromthe point of developmentwe had arrivedat, "must necessarilyappear to them [savages]in
the natureof supernaturalbeings-we approach themwith the might
as of a deity,"and so on, and so on. "By the simpleexerciseof our will
we can exerta power forgood practicallyunbounded," etc. etc. From
that point he soared and took me with him. The perorationwas magto remember,you know.It gave me the notion
nificent,thoughdifficult
of an exotic Immensityruled by an august Benevolence.It made me
tinglewithenthusiasm.This was the unbounded power of eloquence[310]
Restraintin Heart of Darkness
311
of words-ofburningnoble words.There wereno practicalhin-ts
to
themagiccurrent
interrupt
ofphrases.1
At anotherpoint in the novel Marlow himselfgrappleswith the
questionofhisrelationto theCongolese.Like Kurtz,he is tempted
to asserttheirabsoluteothernessand inferiority,
but he resistsand
stumblesthroughto a saving illumination:"The earth seemed
unearthly.... It was unearthly,
and the men were
No, they
were not inhuman"(36). Because Kurtzlacks restraint,
his speech
is eloquent but immoral.A "deceitfulflowfromthe heartof an
impenetrabledarkness"(48), it reflects
his passionfordomination,
Marlow'sspeech,on the otherhand,derivesits powerof illumination fromhis habit of self-restraint.
Heart of Darkness explores
thesetworhetorics.
At firstencounter,Kurtz'seloquent speech may seem to stand
in ironiccontrastto his brutaldeeds and the passionsthatinspire
them,but a closerstudydisclosesa deep similarity
betweenspeech
and action. Kurtz'snoble utterancesand his ignoble career are
shaped in common by his insatiableappetite. In both speaking
and acting,he worksfirstto unbind himselffromconventional
restraints-whether
syntacticalor social-and then to soar aloft,
extendinghis powerovera largerand largersphere.This pattern
is most clearlyexemplifiedin the report.Beginningwith argument,thatis withcoherentclausal constructions,
Kurtzsoon unbinds himselfand soarsaway on a "magic currentof phrases,"a
rushofvagueand eulogisticwords.In thecourseof thismovement
a metaphoricalcorrelation("we approach them with the might
as of a deity")comesto be takenliterallyin a mannerwhich enables Kurtzto achieveanotherkind of soaring:by the end of the
passagehe is thinkingof himselfas a "supernatural"being.
This patternof unbindingand soaringappearsto be characteristic of Kurtz'sutterancesin general,or at least of his public ones,
for the two other samples of his public voice follow a similar
process of development.The Manager quotes Kurtz as saying,
"Each stationshould be like a beacon on the road towardsbetter
I Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, ed. Robert Kimbrough, rev. ed. (New York:
W. W. Norton, 1971), p. 51. Subsequent referencesto this edition appear parenthetically in the text.
312
Fiction
Nineteenth-Century
things,a centrefortradeof course,but also forhumanising,improving,instructing"
(33). And thebrickmaker
seemsto be echoing
Kurtzwhen he declaimssardonically,
"We want ... forthe guidance of the cause entrustedto us by Europe, so to speak, higher
a singlenessof purpose" (25-26).
intelligence,wide sympathies,
In both thesepassages,as in thereport,Kurtz'sspeechproceeds
froman opening phraseof clausal coherence-a formof verbal
restraint-intothe releaseofferedby mere enumeration,with its
relaxeddemandsforcognitivecoherence,its invitationto acceleration,and itscapacityforincorporating
an endlessstreamof verbal
ivory-noble words.One wayto "swallowall the air,all the earth,
all the men" (61), Kurtz's speech remindsus, is by "enlisting"
themverbally.In Kurtz'scase, this symbolicincorporationforeshadowsnothingless thancannibalism.
Kurtz'ssentencesunfold so smoothlynot only because of his
penchantforenumeration,perhapsthe simplestof all generative
syntacticalpatterns,but also because of his refusalto be interrupted."You don't talk with thatman-you listento him" (54),
theRussiansays,and Marlowfindssignsof an evenmoretroubling
refusalof dialoguein the report,whereKurtzseemsunable or unwilling to interruptthe currentof his own phrases,even when
"practicalhints,"hintsabout conduct,are obviouslyin order.This
resistanceto interruption,
which gives Kurtz'sspeech its fluency,
depriveshimof his capacityforself-deliberation,
internaldialogue.
Because he lacks thiscapacity,Kurtz can "get himselfto believe
anything-anything"(74).
Marlow'scommenton the absence of "practicalhints" in the
reportpointsto anotherwayin whichKurtz'sspeechis structured
and his consciousnessstunted by his lack of restraint.Kurtz's
diction as well as his syntaxreflectshis dream of transcendent
power. By speakingonly in vague generalities,he createsthe impressionof effortless
command;the grandtermshe uses seem to
subsumeall meredetails,to reducetheworldto an unproblematic
totalitywhich he, Kurtz, both understandsand controls.Thus
Kurtz'seloquence,born of thatlack of restraint
whichlicenseshis
appetite for domination,provides him at once with symbolic
experiencesof mastery(in the act of effortless
articulation)and
with falseimagesof a masteredworld (in the articulatedvision).
His eloquence is the product of speech habits which not only
enact the dreamof dominationbut also distortrealityto makethe
Restraint in Heart of Darkness
313
dreamseem plausible.These habitscontributeto Kurtz'sfall.
For realityitselfremainsunmoved by Kurtz's eloquent pronouncements.He maylike to believe thathis aspirationsto moral
distinctions
and to crudergratifications
are reconcilable,but they
remain in factantagonistic.Similarly,he may persuade himself
thathe is a "supernatural"being,exemptedat once fromthe irrational imperativesof his own passionsand those of externalnature,but thisdoes not make it so. The denial merelyrendershim
blind to the dangerof these forcesand impotentto resisttheir
appeal. This appeal Marlow rendersby personifying
the wilderness, portrayingit as a rhetoricianmore persuasiveeven than
Kurtz himself:"the wildernesshad found him out early.. . . it
had whisperedto him thingsabout himselfwhich he did not
know,thingsof whichhe had no conceptiontill he took counsel
with this greatsolitude-and the whisperhad proved irresistibly
fascinating"(59). Everywhere,then, Kurtz's "unbounded . . .
eloquence" (51) binds him to his appetitesand illusions,and
blindshim to reality.The engineof a spurioussoaring,it hastens
his fall.
If Kurtz's speech is unbounded and soaring,Marlow's is restrainedand probing,a symbolicmanifestationof his ethos of
self-restraint.
Marlow is an explorer,but a cautious one. In his
probingnarration,as in his heroic navigationof the Congo, his
progressis frequently
tortuous,and the dramaof his syntaxoften:
correspondsto thatof his voyage:
The broadening
watersflowedthrougha mob of woodedislands;you
lostyourwayon thatriveras youwouldin a desert,and buttedall day
long againstshoals,trying
to findthechannel,till you thoughtyourselfbewitchedand cut offforeverfromeverything
you had known
once. (34)
There are,ofcourse,stretches
ofsmoothsailing,but in bothspeech
and action Marlow tendsto make his way againstthe current:in
exploring the Congo, against the river'sflow,in exploringthe
meaningof the Congo, againstthe flowof his own impulsesand
the impulsesof the languageitself.
In fact,Marlow'sfirstwordshave the effectof counteringa very
Kurtziancurrentof phrases.The framenarrator,lulled by the
314
Fiction
Nineteenth-Century
wavesrockingthe Nellie, has soaredaway on a wakingdream of
imperialglory:
Huntersforgold or pursuersof fame,they[Englishadventurers]
all
had goneout on thatstream,
bearingthesword,and oftenthetorch,
of themightwithintheland,bearersof a sparkfromthe
messengers
had notfloatedon theebb ofthatriverinto
sacredfire.Whatgreatness
of an unknownearthl. . . The dreamsof men, the seed of
themystery
commonwealths,
thegermsof empires.(4-5)
We are on familiargroundhere; the narrator'sdictionand syntax
are thoseof Kurtzand the late-Victorian
imperialisttraditionhe
Like Kurtz,the narratoris addictedto elevateddiction
represents.
and to heroic cliches; like Kurtz's discourses,his tend to begin
withcoherentdeclarationsand thento come ecstatically
undone in
a rushof enumeration.
And once again,the effecton comprehensionis disastrous.The
verytextureof the narrator'sdiscourseservesto distracthim from
any considerationof the mixed motivesbehind imperialism.The
insightof the opening phrase,in which the imperialdrive is ascribedto humanappetitesforwealthand fame,is quicklyobscured
as thecumulativepatternof the sentencecarriesthe speakeralong
to a more elevatedand gratifying
interpretation
of imperialistsas
"bearersof a sparkfromthe sacredfire."Marlow'snarration,followingas it does almostimmediately,
servesto checkthiscurrent
of thoughtand to interruptwhateversympathetic
reveriesit may
have induced in the reader."And thisalso," Marlowinterjects,
as
if intuitingthe narrator'sstateof mind,"has been one of the dark
places of the earth" (5). In the storythat followshe deliversa
devastatingrebuttalto the narrator'sdreamof benign expansion.
as I have suggested,what mightbe called a
And he exemplifies,
rhetoricof restraint.
What Marlow restrains,basically,is the desire for comforting
he resiststhe
solutions,conclusions,certainties.More specifically,
impulse to achieve, throughthe curtailmentof debate and the
a falseimpressionof resolution.
fashioningof eloquent utterances,
One of Marlow'sbasic strategiesforcombatingthe "bewildering"
currentsin his own voice is to carryover the processof discovery,
a momentpriorto delivery,into his narrativeitself,
traditionally
so thatthe act of deliverycomes to partakeof the murkyconfusionsand flashingilluminationsof exploration.Here, forinstance,
Restraint in Heart of Darkness
315
is Marlow'sdescriptionof the manager'spower: "He was obeyed,
yethe inspiredneitherlove nor fear,nor evenrespect.He inspired
uneasiness.That was it! Uneasiness"(22). What is offeredhere is
both a descriptionand the processof its discovery,
the searchfor
the properlexical channelby whichto reach the truthof the experience.But by importingthe searchfor le mot juste into his
narrative,Marlow does not signal his own total victoryover the
temptations
and limitationsof language;he onlyalertsus to their
tesexistence,and to the necessityforstruggle.In fact,his efforts
tify,as criticssuch as J. Hillis Miller have observed,to the difficulty,perhapseven the impossibility,
of doing justice to experience withwords.2
Moreover,by importingdiscoveryinto the act of narration,
Marlow depriveshis speech of fluencyand the authorityit confers;whereas Kurtz's "finished"voice repels interruption,Marlow's provisionalutterancesinvite it. On several occasions,his
narrationis interruptedby the audience aboard the Nellie, but
the mostfrequentintrusionsare by Marlowhimself.While Kurtz
allows nothingto checkthe flowof his phrases,the currentof his
dreams,Marlowinterrupts
himselfconstantly,
to questionthe appropriatenessof a word, to revise an image, to reject an entire
interpretation.
He setshisvoice againsthis voice,his visionagainst
his vision,so thatat timeshis narrativeresemblesa collaborative
effortof severalmen tryingto reconstructa shared experience,
and has the same ragged textureas such a discourse.Richard
Poirier'sportrayalof the modernistauthor'sexperienceof articulation describes Marlow's practice precisely: in reading what
theyhaveproduced,Poirierobserves,modernist
writersseemto feel
only the necessityof alternativeconstructions,
the pressingobligationto revise,qualify,or contradictwhattheyhavejust written.3
Marlow'sneed to contradictand revisehis own utterancesbecomes increasingly
strongas he getsdeeper into his narrativeand
into the Congo. In the firststagesof his narration,his speech is
ofteneasyand colloquial, seasonedwithexpressionsthatnot only
carrythe storyforwardbut remindus as well of the conventional
quality of much discourse,its foundationin shared experience
and attitudes.Littlechapsget "a hankeringafter"exploration;the
2
3
Poets of Reality (1965; rpt. New York: Atheneum, 1974).
The PerformingSelf (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971), pp. 11-12.
316
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
Congo is "a mightybig river,"and men win positions"by hook
familiar
or by crook" (8). Familiar phrasesevoke a comfortingly
world.
But gradually,as Marlow'snarrationcarrieshim back into the
rememberedshocksand confusionsof his experience,his speech
loses its conventionalquality.Marlowis troubledboth by his own
inabilityto understandhis experiencefullyand by the difficulty
of makinghis audience see even the partof it whichhe can comprehend.The journeyto Africatakeshim beyondthe geographical boundariesof his language community,into a world whose
featuresno longer correspondto the images conveyedby the
European words he has for them. Thus, he sometimesoffersa
word only to retractit: "the earthseemed unearthly"(36). For
Marlow,and forhis audience,the word "earth" evokesan image
of the English countryside,and carrieswith it the sense of a
certainrelationbetweenmen and the land. But whathe has seen,
and whathe wantshis audience to see, is somethingverydifferent:
a tangledand malevolentchaos ofgrowingthings.To comprehend
and conveyhis meaning,he mustbecome more specificand concrete.His firstresponseis the simple,thoughqualified,negation;
and throughcomparithenhe developsthe distinctionfiguratively
son and contrast.The English earth is "the shackledformof a
conquered monster,"the Congo earth "a thing monstrousand
free"(36). Withoutdenyingall identity,
he insistson the essential
which are easilyobscuredby abstractlandifferences
differences,
cast doubts on the Englishguage,and which,when confronted,
man's assumptionthathe mayeffortlessly
extendhis rule-cognitiveand political-to the Congo.
In an incidentwhich Marlow recountslater in the narrative,
the potentiallyfatalconsequencesof imposingconventionallabels
worldbecomeclear: Marlow,concentrating
on an unconventional
word "sticks"to identifythe thingsflying
uses
the
on navigation,
about his cabin. In his nativeuniverseof discoursesuch an identificationis natural. But these "sticks"come fromoutside that
on navigation,does
universe,and because Marlow,concentrating
he makes
notrecognizethedisjunctionand adjusthis expectations,
himselfa finetargetforAfricanarrows.His awakeningis in the
comic traditionof thosemomentswhen the explorerrealizesthat
he has indeedsucceededin crossingtheborderintoan alien world,
Restraintin Heart of Darkness
317
and has done so withoutadjustinghis own world view: "Arrows,
byJove!We werebeingshotat!" (45).
Thus the feltneed to recognizehis distancefromthe familiar
and to apprehendand communicatethe difference
it makesforces
Marlow towardsspecificityand figurativelanguage: arrowsare
sticksof a sort(just as the Congo soil is earth),but it is the differentiationthatis significant
when thatsortof stickis whizzingpast
your head. In contrastto Kurtz's consistentlyelevated diction,
then,Marlow'sis oftenmuddywithspecificity.
When he does use
abstractions,as for instancewith those abstractadjectives ("inscrutable," "inconceivable," "unspeakable") that F. R. Leavis
findsso unsatisfactory,4
it is usually in order to emphasizethe
limitsof vision and the difficulty
a new world
of comprehending
in the termsof the old. Leavis himselftestifiesthat the words
convey this message-"the actual effectis not to magnifybut
ratherto muffle"5-butdoes not seem to realize that the muffled
qualityof existenceis an essentialpartof the moralexperienceof
Heart ofDarkness.The need to conveya trueimpressionentangles
Marlowin murkyparadoxes,franticsearchesforthe correctword;
it breaksthe flowof his prose.But the effectis to discoverimportantdistinctions
obscuredby language,and to alert the readerto,
of purelyverbalcomprehension.
the deceptiveness
In these severalways,Marlow's cautious use of language generateswhat mightbe called a syntaxof uncertainty.
The drama
enactedby manyof his sentencesis one of probingexploration,
prolongedfrustration,
provisionalilluminations.This is not always the case, of course-some passagesmove forwardsmoothly
and authoritatively.
But as Marlow pushes on into the heart of
his narrative,his sentencescome increasinglyto turn back on
themselves
in the mannerdescribedby FrancisChristencritically,
sen in his definitionof the cumulativesentence.The main clause,
Christensen observes, "exhausts the mere fact of the idea.
.
.. The
additionsstaywiththe same idea, probingits bearingsand impliit or seekingan analogyor metaphorforit,
cations,exemplifying
or reducingit to details."6In some cases,Marlow'sadditionshave
an even more radical impact on the original formulationthan
4 The Great Tradition (1948; rpt. New York: New York Univ. Press, 1963), p. 177.
5 Ibid.
6 Notes Toward a New Rhetoric (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), p. 6.
318
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
Christensen'sdescriptionsuggests;ratherthan "stayingwith it"
in the conventionalsense, they turn against it dialectically,revealing its one-sidedness.The followingsentence,for instance,
challengesthe conventionalidea
firstevokesand thendramatically
of jungle drums: "Perhaps on some quiet night the tremorof
far-off
drums,sinking,swelling,a tremorvast, faint; a sound
weird,appealing,suggestive,and wild-and perhapswith as profound a meaningas the sound of bells in a Christiancountry"
(20). The firstadditionsto the base clause deepen the aural image
with its connotationsof exoticsavagery;theybuild to the climax
of "wild." But then the sentencebreakssuddenly,with the dash,
and the simile which followsoffersan antitheticalinterpretation
of the drums.What the dash indicatesis an abrupt shiftin perspective,as Marlow stopsrespondingto the drums in a conventional mannerand puts himself,as much as he can, into the culof whichtheyare a part.
turalframework
The result of this achievementis an ungainlysentence,one
which violates the verysyntacticaland cognitivecurrentsit sets
in motion. But the cognitivebreakthroughmore than compensates for the stylisticbreakdown;by probing his topic at such
length-long past the last graceful"and," beyond the limits of
standardsyntax-Marlowreachesthatdialecticalpoint wherethe
object of observationshiftsand reveals its other face, or where
the observernoticesthe limitsof his own articulatedperspective
and allows another perspectiveto suggestitself.By restraining
himselffrorm
passingquicklyover thisdescriptionof the drumsone ofthemostclichepropertiesof theAfricanset-Marlow penetratesbeyondthe superficialexoticismtheyare so frequentlyused
and seesthemfrombehindthe screen,fromwithinthe
to register,
world of which theyare a part. The moral significanceof his
achievementis immediatelyevident: interpretedconventionally
as signsof the savageryof the Africans,the drumscan be used to
justifytheirsubjugation.But when it is recognizedthatthe sense
of wildernessthe drumsevokeis due to the positionof the European observer,and thattheirrole withinthe Africanculturemay
to put an end to the
be as symbolsof relationship,thenany effort
drummingbecomesan attack,not on anarchy,but on community.
Earlierwe saw how Marlow,probingtheword"earth,"recognized
and overcamethe spuriousidentitywhich it imposed on signifi-
Restraint in Heart of Darkness
319
cantlydifferent
landscapes.Here we see him resistinga too easy
oppositionof "savage"Africanto "civilized"Europe.
of Marlow'srestraintbecomesclear when
The full significance
he addressesthe issue of his relationto the Congolese. Kurtz,as
we have seen,uses his eloquence to persuadehimselfthatthereis
betweenhis own race and the
an absolute,ontologicaldifference
Africans;he denies any kinship,and so, implicitly,any need for
the restraintwhich kinship traditionallyentails.When Marlow
facesthe same question in his own "report,"he too is tempted
to denykinship.But, as we have seen,he resists:
The earthseemedunearthly.
We are accustomedto look upon the
but there-thereyou could
shackledformof a conqueredmonster,
and free.It was unearthly,
look at a thingmonstrous
and the men
were- No, theywerenotinhuman. (36)
At thisdecisivemomentmanyforcesare thrusting
Marlowtowards
At the
denial,but one of the mostobviouspressuresis syntactical.
beginningof the passageMarlowfallsinto patternsof balance and
antithesis;by the end,theimpulsiontowardsa balancedresolution
is tremendous.Once again Conrad employsdashesto indicatethe
momentwhen Marlow,listeningcriticallyto the unfoldingof his
own discourse,feelscompelledto checkitsflow.Refusingtheclaim
to absolutesuperiority
explicitin the meaningof his unfinished
sentenceand implicitin its potentiallyperfectstructure,
Marlow
drawsup, acknowledgesthe galling truthof kinship,and speaks
it. At themoralcrisisof his adventurehe confronts
and overcomes
the appetiteforstylistic
perfection.
But while Marlow'srestraintenableshim to use languagemore
successfullythan Kurtz as a vehicle of verbal explorationand
illumination,
at thesametimeit preventshim frompursuingmore
concreteexplorationsas faras Kurtz does. A manuscriptpassage
deleted fromthe publishedversionsof Heart of Darknessasserts
thatcomprehensionof an alien world can only be achieved "by
conquest-or by surrender."7
Marlow,committedto an ethos of
7 Conrad, Heart of Darkness,ed. Kimbrough,p. 36n. The manuscriptitselfis in the
Yale UniversityLibrary.
320
Fiction
Nineteenth-Century
wishesneitherto dominatethe Africansnor to surself-restraint,
their
ways.He wantsinsteadto preservedistanceeven
renderto
in the processof exploration:"An appeal to me in this fiendish
row-is there?Verywell; I hear; I admit,but I have a voice too,
and forgood or evil mine is the speech thatcannot be silenced"
(37).
While Marlowlistensacrossdistanceforclues to the alien existenceof theAfricans,Kurtz,persuadedof his own invulnerability
and of the rectitudeof his project,plunges headlong into the
passional wilderness.Surrenderingto appetite,he sinks deeper
into delusion and depravity,until he is beyond return,cut off
irrevocablyfromany social salvation.The atrocitieshe commits
in the courseof his fall confirmthe soundnessof Marlow'sethos;
a man becomesan enemyboth to himself
withoutself-restraint,
and to others.
Yet Kurtz'sheadlongdriveissuesultimatelyin an illumination
unobtainableto Marlow.The Africans'criesremainfor Marlow
"stringsof amazing words that resembledno sounds of human
intelligibleto Kurtz: "Do you
language,"but theyare perfectly
understandthis?" Marlow asks. "Do I not?" Kurtz replies (68).
whichhe sees as conquest,enableshim to
Kurtz'sblind surrender,
thatMarlowis unable to penetrate;he obcomprehendmysteries
tains,at the expense of a kind of culturaland moral suicide, an
understandingof the language of the place, and hence, perhaps,
a deeperknowledgeof the place itself.
As in thisfigurative
suicide,so in death itself,Kurtzachievesa
inaccessibleto the more cautious Marlow.
level of understanding
His finalwords,"The horror!the horror!"(71), stand in stark
contrastboth to his earlierutterancesand to Marlow's"inconclusive" (7) mode ofnarration."He had summedup-he had judged"
at summaryand judg(72), exclaimsMarlow,whose own efforts
And Marlow suggeststhat it is Kurtz's
ment are ever frustrated.
in somewaysso fatalto vision,whichhas enabled
lack ofrestraint,
him to speak with such authenticeconomyand authority.Kurtz
can speakas he does because "he had made thatlast stride,he had
steppedover the edge,while I had been permittedto draw back
no matterhow
my hesitatingfoot" (72). Ultimatelyself-restraint,
mingledwiththe kind of audacitythatleads a man to set out, as
Marlowdoes, to explorethe heartof darkness,imposeslimitsthat
Restraint in Heart of Darkness
321
self-assertion
need not honor.And if self-assertion
goes equipped,
as Kurtzdoes, with talentand ideas, it mayhave,at whateverexpense,the finalword.
Marlow'sethos impairshis speech in anotherway as well. His
resistanceto the deceitfulcurrentsin the language,whileenabling
him to use speechas a tool of discovery,
makeshis narrationhard
to follow.Heart of Darkness,a novel of speakers,is also one of
and thedepressing
listeners,
factis thatKurtz'sunboundedrhetoric
capturesand holds the wideraudience,includingtwo of the most
worthylistenersin the novel, the Intended and the young Russian.
Kurtz'spoweroverhis fianceeis at leastpartlyrhetorical:"Who
was not his friend,"she asks,"who had heard him speak once?"
(77). Marlowchoosesnot to challengethatpowerboth because he
is yetunsurewhetherhe himselfcan live withthe disillusionments
of his experience,and because he has no faithin women'sability
to live withthe truth.Hence it is withthe Russian,Kurtz'sother
European disciple, that the test comes, albeit indirectly.The
youth,despitehis motley,is a worthyaudience,inquisitive,persistent,humble. He loves books,and even has the Conradiansense
of the purpose of discourse:Conrad's famous "My task . . . is
... to make you see,"8is echoed by the Russian's "He made me
see things-things"(56). Of all the audiences in the novel, the
Russian is the mostattractive.
But the "he" to whom the Russian refersin the passagecited
above is Kurtz, not Marlow. The Russian surrendershimself
completelyto Kurtz,and worshipshim as a divine being. He responds,as do others,to Kurtz'sethos of infallibility,
and to the
dramaof transcendence
inscribedin the verysyntaxof his speech.
This surrendercannot be seen as due to the Russian's ignorance
of the alternativestance,forby the timehe meetsKurtzhe is alin a holybook, Towson's Inquiry,whichhe has
readywell-versed
annotatedextensively.
The Inquiry is a kind of Conradianbible,
as the verymodestyof the title and Marlow's brief description
make clear.The text,"luminouswithanotherthana professional
light,"is an earnestprobing "into the breakingstrainof ships'
8 Joseph Conrad, The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1898; rpt. Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday, Page, 1924), p. xiv.
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It bears
chainsand tackle"(38), thatis, into the limitsof restraint.
a curiousresemblancethen,not only to a holy book, but also to
Heart of Darknessitself,with its analogous inquiryinto human
breakingstrains.By readingit so closely,the Russiandemonstrates
his basic soundness;by abandoningit to followKurtz,he attests
to the relativeweaknessof its appeal.
The pessimisticimplicationsof the Russian's apostasybecome
even deeper when we considerthe similaritybetweenhis history
and Conrad's own: "he had run away fromschool,had gone to
sea in a Russianship; ran awayagain; servedsome timein English
ships" (54). By creatingthe Russian so much in his own image,
Conrad seems to have writtenhimselfinto the novel in the role
of a worthyaudienceforthe rhetoricalstruggle,and then to have
deliveredhimselfinto the hands of the more eloquent but less
illuminatingspeaker.In a sense,he offerstestimonyagainstthe
appeal of his own nature,voice, and vision. And if we consider
the parallelsbetweenthe Inquiry and Heart of Darkness,the implicationsbecome even more oppressive:the youngConrad reads
the older Conrad'swork,but abandonsit to surrenderhimselfto
a tyrannicaldemagogue.Of course,there is no way to "prove"
the validityof such a reading,and it would be foolishto equate
thepersuasivevalue of a maritimehandbookwiththatofHeart of
Darkness.But it is clear,I think,thatthe Russian'schoice is for
the values embodied by Kurtz,and againstthose which Marlow
represents.Marlow himselfmakes only the feeblesteffortto dissuade the youthfromhis infatuation,but he does send him off
equipped once again withTowson's text.
Thus Marlowmakesno convertsamongthosewho havebelieved
in Kurtz,and acquiresno audience of faithfuldisciples.He has,
and theseare doubtfulones.
in fact,onlya fewrhetoricalvictories,
The framenarrator,throughlong experienceof Marlow'sstories,
has come to know how to attendto them.He is readyto listen
carefully:"I listened,I listenedon thewatchforthe sentence,for
the word,thatwould give me the clue to the faintuneasinessinspiredby thisnarrative"(28). And he is reconciledto the provitheir"inconclusive"quality (7).
sionalityof Marlow'srenderings,
Thus prepared,he seemsto receiveMarlow'smessageclearly,for
his earlyvision of the Thames as a channel of light and of the
imperialmissionas an unquestionablegood has givenway by the
Restraint in Heart of Darkness
323
end of Marlow'stale to a farmoresomberview in whichthe river
"seemedtolead intotheheartofan immensedarkness"(79). There
are signs,too,thattherestof Marlow'saudiencehas been similarly
moved,forno one has noticedthetide changing.But theaudience
is a tiny,isolated one of close friends,a brotherhoodof men
privileged,in Conrad's eyes,by a shared experienceof the sea.
There is littlesuggestionthatMarlow can hope to communicate
his discoveriesto the"commonplaceindividuals"(72) in the "monstroustown" (5), whichis his civilization'scenter.
Herein lies the ultimateironyof Heart of Darkness.Perhaps
only thosediscoverieswhichare in factexpressionsof what is alreadyknownor feltcan be communicatedto themassofmen,since
genuine discoveriescreate the need for new patternsof speech
and understanding,
and theseare establishedonlyundergreatpressure (as in the Congo) or withgreatlabor. A rhetoricof restraint
or one restrainedby cirrequiresan audiencecapable of restraint,
cumstance,like the men on theNellie. Thus the contestbetween
Kurtz's unbounded, impositionalstyleand Marlow's restrained,
inquiringstyleendsin a grimstalemate:Marlowattainsthesaving
insights,Kurtzthe audiencesin need of enlightenment.
Marlowdoes win one significant
rhetoricalvictory,but only by
a moral compromisewhich transforms
his voice. When Kurtz,
safelyaboard thecompany'sboat, triesto returnto thewilderness,
Marlow followsand attemptsto counter its appeal: "I tried to
break the spell-the heavy,mute spell of the wilderness-that
seemed to draw him to its pitilessbreast"(67). Kurtz has made
himselfso much the measureof all things,however,thatMarlow's
onlyrecourseis to appeal,as thewildernessitselfhas, to his dream
of power: "'Your successin Europe is assuredin any case,' I affirmedsteadily"(67). Only by a steadyaffirmation
of a deceiving
dream,only,in otherwords,by imitatingKurtz'sown voice,does
Marlowsucceedin breakingthespell of thewilderness.In uttering
this firstsaving lie, he attestsindirectlyto the limitationsof a
rhetoricof restraint.
Yet thereare elementsof ambivalencein Heart ofDarknessthat
make the qualifiedtriumphof Kurtz'svoice less appallingthan I
have suggested.Marlow and Kurtzare by no means simplyantitheticalfigures;both are classifiedby the brickmakeras members
of "the gang of virtue" (26), and Marlow, given his "choice of
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Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
nightmares"(63), commitshimselfto Kurtz. From a rhetorical
perspective,the essentialbond betweenthe two men is thatboth
acknowledgein theirdiscoursethe existenceof moral imperatives
that transcendthe imperativesof the universeof commerce.For
Kurtz,of course,thereis a fataldisjunctionon preciselythispoint
betweenrhetoricand action,but by usingethicalterms,no matter
how inauthentically,
he preservesthememoryof a set of standards
beyondself-interest
and expediency,a set whichhe ultimatelyemploysto judge himself.
In contrastto both Kurtzand Marlow the otherEuropeansin
the Companyspeak a languagedevoid of all moral referencebeyond the immediateimperativesof commercialprofitand loss.
Even in the face of Kurtz'srevelationof the cannibalistictelos
governingcommercialactivity,their discourse remains "valuefree":
The managercameout...... "thereis no disguising
thefact,Mr. Kurtz
has done moreharmthangood to the Company.He did not see the
timewas not ripe forvigorousaction.. . . look how precariousthe
positionis-and why?Because the methodis unsound.""Do you,"
said I, lookingat the shore,"call it 'unsoundmethod'?""Without
doubt,"he exclaimedhotly.. . "It is mydutyto pointit out in the
properquarter." (63)
The manager'sspeechexemplifies
the techniquesby whichcertain
acts of criminalinsanity-thosewhich expressthe inherenttendenciesof powerfulinstitutions-aremade to seem less atrocious,
morerational,and less emblematicof thewhole thantheyactually
are. The managerconcealstheappallingbrutalityof Kurtz'sdeeds
by describingthemin a singleabstractphrase,"vigorousaction,"
whichcarriesfaintlyeulogisticconnotations.And he concealsthe
moral viciousnessof the same deeds, their foundationin "monstrouspassions"(67), by excludingmoral termsfromhis universe
of discourse.By criticizingKurtzin purelyinstrumental
terms"unsoundmethod"-he implicitlydeniesthevalidityofanymoral
critiqueof Kurtz'smotives,and by extensionthoseof all imperialists.A situationthatrevealsthe evil of the entireenterprisecan
thusbe dismissedas a mere matterof bad businesspractice,and
themanagercan go on "cautiously"(63) exploitingand murdering
Africans.
Restraint in Heart of Darkness
325
Reactingagainstthemanager'sbrutallyreductiveinterpretation,
Marlowturns"to Kurtzforrelief"(63), and so has theopportunity
judgmentpronouncedby Kurtz
to hear another,more satisfying
of Kurtz'svoice to thatof the pilgrimsis
himself.The superiority
demonstratedby Kurtz's finalwords,in which he passes moral
judgment on himselfand wins a "moral victory"(72). Kurtz,
unlike the pilgrims,has at least the wordsby whichto judge; his
discoursehas kept alive the tribunalbeforewhich
self-flattering
he ultimatelydeclareshimselfguilty.
For this reason alone, it mightbe argued that the power of
Kurtz'svoice to win disciplesis not altogethera cause fordespair,
amoral unisince his rhetoricpreserves,againstthe aggressively
the
verseof commerce,at leastthe foundationsfora reassessment,
memoryof a higherstandardforconduct.In fact,Heart of Darkness hints,Kurtz'svoice may preservetheseessentialvalues more
than Marlow'sown. For Marlow'ssyntax,by its very
successfully
dynamic,perpetuallyuncoversuncertaintiesand contradictions,
and hence encouragesa restraintakin to despair,ratherthan the
hope whichmust underlieactive engagementwith the world. In
the end, though,Conrad chooses to speak throughMarlow,and
so seems to suggestthat it is his rhetoricof restraintwhich deserves,in a timeof unbounded imperialexpansion,attentionand
emulation.
his
Studiesof Marlow'sstylehave tendedto see it as reflecting
and Conrad'ssense of the disparitybetweenlinguisticformsand
J. Hillis Millerobserves,
ofreality.Marlow'srhetoric,
thestructure
calls attentionto the "gap betweenwordsand the darknessthey
can neverexpress";9and JamesGuetti also stressesthe themeof
linguisticinadequacyimplicitin Marlow'sstyle,whichhe calls a
"rhetoricoffailure."'0My commentshavebeen intendedto extend
I have suggested,have
theseinsights.Marlow'sverbalfrustrations,
roots.Part of the distancehe feels
moral as well as metaphysical
betweenlanguageand the worldis the resultof his own decision
for restraint,his unwillingnessto learn the language of the passions. This unwillingnesscondemnshim to an inconclusiveness
which Kurtz,finally,seemsto transcend.
9
Miller, p. 36.
10 The Limits of Metaphor (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1967), p. 9.
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Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
But Marlow's sense of the distancebetweenwhat is and what
can be said is not the onlyfactorcontributingto his cautious,inin
conclusivestyle.By emphasizingthe elementof self-restraint
Marlow'saction and speech,and the antitheticalquality of selfprojectionin Kurtz's,I have soughtto shiftattentionfromthe
shapinginfluenceof the darknesswithoutto thatof the darkness
within.Marlow senses-and his intuitionis confirmedby the example of Kurtz-that the forcesof this psychologicaldarkness,
man's "unlawful"(67) appetitesand dreams,can easily"capture"
man's speech.And he realizes,again partiallythroughhis experiences with Kurtz, that when these impulses are allowed unrestrainedexpression,the utteranceswhich resultonly compound
the darknessin which men alreadymove, only increasethe gap
betweenwordsand the worldtheymightotherwiseilluminate.It
is Marlow'shabitual vigilanceagainstthe tyrannyof these inner
impulses,as muchas his continuingawarenessof the gap between
wordsand reality,thatmakeshis speechso demandingand allows
him to see so deeplyinto the darkness.
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