CONRAD’S THE HEART OF
DARKNESS
Book One
RESPONSE TO HEART OF DARKNESS
• How does Conrad’s Heart of Darkness differ from the works we’ve read thus
far in regard to:
• Tone or atmosphere
• Writing style, language
• Setting
• Narration (the way in which the story is related to the reader)
OTHERING AND DEFINING THE SELF
• The “Self” (colonizer) defined in opposition the “Other”
• If the “Self” is civilized, then the “Other” is savage
• Means for the “Self” to define its people and culture
• Therefore, central to understanding how British literature defined itself
through subjugating and “othering” different cultures
• Othering: to cast another person or peoples as essentially and
fundamentally different and inferior to one’s self
• Will consider how Conrad’s text “others” the indigenous peoples of the
Congo to assert the superiority of the colonizer
HISTORICAL SETTING
• Moves from London to what is now The Democratic Republic of the Congo
• During novel, The Democratic Republic of the Congo was called “The
Congo Free State” (1885-1908)
• Absolute monarchy under Belgium’s King Leopold II
• The territory privately owned by Leopold and funded by Belgian government
• Given permission to command the Congo by Europe’s colonial nations, who
were allowed to set up territories within the state (hence, multinational
presence in the novel)
• Claimed the Congolese “project” was aimed at humanitarian and philanthropic
work; really about trade in ivory and rubber
• Horrendous human rights abuses; estimated 10 million people died under his
rule
FRAMING DEVICE
• Story of Marlowe’s trip to the Congo related to unnamed narrator; the
unnamed narrator recalls the story for us
• Like More’s Utopia, Conrad distances himself from the primary
storyteller
• Must ask the question, does Conrad use this framing device to shield himself
from criticism?
• Also, Marlow an unreliable narrator—how so?
MARLOW AS UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
• Mystical storyteller, like an “idol” or “Buddha”
• Cannot define “the idea” that “redeems” conquest (7)
• His tale of the Congo “one of Marlow’s inconclusive experiences”,
according to narrator (7)
• 27, trying to convey a “dream” and the ”impossibility” of truth
• Finally, the voice of “the Self” that imagines the people of the Congo as
“black shapes”
THE DARKNESS OF LONDON
• Pages 3-5
• Narrator’s poetic language
• A “brooding” “gloom”
• Current’s “service” to England
• Page 5: Marlow’s ancient Britain
• Page 11: Also, Brussels (the headquarter of the Congo Free State) and the
two knitting women “guarding the door of Darkness”
• England and Europe’s “darkness”: what this darkness over the center of
empire indicate or symbolize?
MARLOW TRAVELS TO THE CONGO
• Pages13-15
• The darkness of the coast and “the truth of things”
• Reality: the Self’s encounter with the Other
• The Man-Of-War
MARLOW’S “DARK THINGS” AND
“BLACK SHAPES”
• Pages 15-18:
• How do Marlow’s depictions of the dying Africans turn them into “others”?
• Why might Marlow refer to the accountant as a “miracle”? What does he see
in the accountant that makes him a comforting “vision”?
THE COLONIZERS
• How does Marlow depict the European colonizers?
• Page 23
MARLOW AND COLONIZATION
• What seems to be Marlow’s attitude toward the colonial venture?
• How does his tone or attitude affect the way we take in his descriptions
of colonization?
• Questions to consider as you read
READING PART TWO
• Why is Marlow obsessed with Kurtz?
• The relationship between the setting and Marlow’s quest for “the truth”
or “the real”
• How Marlow’s “dream-sensation” during the journey affects the reliability
of his narration
• The othering of the indigenous Africans