Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
[The Heart of Darkness] is a dreadful
and fascinating tale, full as any of
Poe’s mystery and haunting
terrors, yet with all the
substantial basis of reality that no
man who had no lived as well as
dreamed could conjure into
existence.
--from a review in
Nation, 1906
What is the book about anyway?
seafaring
river boating
trade and exploration
imperialism and colonialism
race relations
the attempt to find meaning in the
universe while trying to get at the
mysteries of the subconscious mind
Conrad’s Biography
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In adulthood Conrad became a
British merchant sailor and
eventually a master mariner in
1886.
He traveled widely in the east.
He took on a stint as a steamer
captain (1890) in the Congo, but
became ill within three months
and had to leave.
After his illness, Conrad retired
from sailing and took up writing
full time.
Writing took a physical and
emotional toll on Conrad. He
considered his writing
experiences draining.
Background- rewind a bit…
► After
his long stint in the east had come to an
end, Conrad was having trouble finding a new
position.
► With the help of a relative in Brussels, he attained
his new position as captain of a steamer for a
Belgian trading company.
► Conrad had always dreamed of sailing the Congo
in Africa.
► He had to leave almost immediately for the job;
the previous captain was killed in a trivial quarrel.
Background continued…
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While traveling from Boma (at the mouthof the river) to the company
station at Matadi, he met Roger Casement who told Conrad stories of the
harsh treatment of Africans in the colonies.
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Conrad saw some of the most shocking and depraved examples of human
corruption he’d ever witnessed. He was disgusted by the ill treatment of
the natives, the scramble for loot, the terrible heat and the lack of water.
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He saw human skeletons of bodies left to rot - many were bodies of men
from the chain gangs building the railroads.
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At one point, he went back and found his ship was damaged and had to
be repaired.
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Dysentery was rampant as was malaria; Conrad had to terminate his
contract due to illness and never fully recovered.
Frame Story
► The
novella opens with a frame story in
which the unnamed narrator and four
companions aboard the a ship named the
Nellie are sailing the Thames River. To pass
the time, one of the men, Charlie Marlow,
describes his experiences as a steamboat
captain for a European trading company
with outposts in Africa. Our anonymous
narrator occasionally intrudes on Marlow’s
narrative and comments on it.
Characters
► Anonymous
narrator aboard the Nellie, a
former seaman with a sense of humor
► Marlow-a seaman who piloted a steamboat
for a large Belgian trading company
► General Manager-the chief of the company’s
Central Station who seeks to replace Kurtz
► Russian-a boyish seaman who idolizes Kurtz
► Kurtz-the characteristic chief of the
company’s inner station
Narrative Structure
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Framed Narrative
 Narrator begins
 Marlow takes over
 Narrator breaks in occasionally
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Marlow is Conrad’s alter-ego; he shows up in some of
Conrad’s other works including “Youth: A Narrative” and
Lord Jim
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Marlow recounts his tale while he is on a small vessel on
the Thames with some drinking buddies who are exmerchant seamen. As he recounts his story, the group sits
in an all-encompassing darkness and passes around the
bottle.
Varied Interpretations
► Many
different interpretations have been
suggested for this text- You will have to
develop your own!
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What is Conrad saying about colonialism and capitalism as
a whole?
What might Kurtz symbolize?
What is this really a journey into?
How could this be an escape?
Conflicts, Themes, Symbols, & Motifs
► Light
vs. Dark
► Civilization vs. Savagery
► Racism
► Search for Identity
► Effects of Imperialism
► Hypocrisy of Imperialism
► Individual Responsibility
Modernism & Heart of Darkness
►
Heart of Darkness was published in the late Victorian-Early
Modern Era but exhibits mostly Modern traits:
 a distrust of abstractions as a way of delineating truth
 an interest in an exploration of the psychological
 a belief in art as a separate and somewhat privileged kind of
human experience
 a desire for transcendence mingled with a feeling that
transcendence cannot be achieved
 an awareness of primitiveness and savagery as the condition upon
which civilization is built, and therefore an interest in the
experience and expressions of non-European peoples
 a skepticism that emerges from the notion that human ideas about
the world seldom fit the complexity of the world itself, and thus a
sense that multiplicity, ambiguity, and irony--in life and in art--are
the necessary responses of the intelligent mind to the human
condition
Conrad’s Use of Diction

Very Descriptive words
 “Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and in
their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed
steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico.”
**Oh, yes! Get ready for some serious imagery!

Uses synonyms for “dark” for emphasis
 “All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine,
and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and
dazzling splendor, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and
below.”
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Vivid sound imagery
 ‘“It is the gift of the great,’ she went on, and the sound of her low voice
seemed to have the accompaniment of all the other sounds, full of
mystery, desolation, and sorrow, I had ever heard- the ripple of the river,
the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of wild
crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried form afar, the
whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal
darkness.”
Diction continued…
 Uses anaphora, which is emphasizing words by repeating
them at the beginning of neighboring clauses, to help build
tension.
“I looked around, and I don’t know why, but I
assure you that never, never before, did this
land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this
blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so
dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so
pitiless to human weakness.”
 Very patronizing
 While describing a black man Marlow says “The man
seemed young- almost a boy- but you know with them it’s
hard to tell.” About his crew he says “They wandered here
and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like
a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence.”
Diction continued…
Negative connotations
“Droll thing life is- that mysterious arrangement
of merciless logic for a futile purpose.”
Conversational choice of words and
punctuation
“He forgot I hadn’t heard any of these splendid
monologues on, what was it? on love, justice,
conduct of like- or what not.”
Punctuation
Dashes
 Used frequently
 Help put a greater emphasis on his point
 “We live, as we dream- alone….”
 Used as appositives
 “He allowed this “boy”- an overfed young negro from the coastto treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking
insolence.”
 Used for a conversational effect
 “But this must have been before his- let us say- nerves went
wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances
ending with unspeakable rites, which- as far as I reluctantly
gathered from what I heard at various times- were offered up to
him- do you understand?- to Mr Kurtz himself.”
Exclamation Points
 Used for the basic use of emphasis.
 “But it was a victory!”
 Sometimes followed by a word that is not capitalized, simply for the
conversational aspect to come across.
 “I said Hang!- and let things slide.”
Ellipses
 Shows Marlow’s thoughts trailing off.
 “The danger, if any, I expounded, was from out proximity to a great
human passion let loose. Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in
violence- but more generally takes the form of apathy….”
 Leaves certain ideas and thoughts hanging for his listeners to think
about for themselves.
 “It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream- making a vain attempt,
because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that
commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of
struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is
of the very essence of dreams….”