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Conrad - Heart of darkness About the author: Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Joseph Conrad is born on December 3rd in 1857 near Berditchev (today, that\'s Ukrainian territory) in Poland as Józef Teodor Konrad Nalęcz Korzeniowski. He is the son of a nobleman. His father is a writer and a translator of English and French literature. So Joseph gets into contact with literature very early. He grows up in Russia for his family is deported to Siberia in 1861 in consequence of his father\'s political activity. Shortly after this his mother dies of tuberculosis and four years later his father also dies.
So Joseph moves to his uncle in Kraków. At the age of sixteen he leaves the country for Marseille to join French Merchant Navy. While working on a ship Conrad comes to the West Indies and even gets involved into gun running. In order to avoid the Russian military service he becomes a sailor on a British merchant ship and makes a good career. He learns the English language, receives the British citizenship and is appointed for captain by 1886. On this occasion he changes his name into Joseph Conrad.
His experience as a sailor provides him with material for his literary work. Especially his voyage up the Congo river was important for "Heart of Darkness". Particularly his descriptions of landscapes and his presentations of foreign cultures are based on his voyages. In 1894 he decides to end his naval career and starts a new life as an author. He moves to England and marries in 1896. In the same year his first novel "An Outcast of the Islands" is published.
He gets famous for the novels "Heart of Darkness" (1902) and "Nostromo" (1904). From now on he continues to write until the year of his death. Altogether he writes 13 novels and many short stories. Conrad writes in English, but he could also speak fluent Russian, Polish and French. He dies in 1924 of an heart attack in Bishopsbourne near Canterbury. - 1 - Two main characters: Marlow's character: As a child, Marlow wanted to explore "blank spaces" on the globe.
This dream turns into reality when Marlow becomes a sailor when he is a young man. He gets appointed by an ivory-trading company. His mission is to go to the Congo and visit enigmatic Mr Kurtz. On this voyage through the jungle he has to wait at several stations of his company, where he notices how meaningless the work of the white agents in the Congo is. This makes him to an anti-colonialist. He recognizes the lie in the words "enemies", "criminals" or "rebels" used in connection with the natives by the other white \"pilgrims\".
In some situation he feels sympathy with the native workers, but mostly he reacts like an objective observer; especially at the beginning of his story. Later his character changes: His coolness vanishes more and more, but he get more human and shows feelings. An example is his attitude towards one of his workers. The first example shows Marlow\'s racism: "He [a native] was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. [..
.] A few months of training had done for that really fine chap. He squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge [...] he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge.
" And the second example is his reaction to the death of the native helmsman. Marlow feels the brotherhood of human beings: "He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, [...] I had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering." At the end of the story, when Marlow visits Kurtz' fiancé he is that "human" that he lies for not shocking the young women with Kurtz' real last words: "The horror! The horror!" Marlow himself discovers the change of his identity, when he thinks of the doctor visited by him at the beginning of his mission.
The doctor predicted Marlow that he would be changed like everyone else in the "heart of darkness". - 2 - Mr Kurtz' character: Kurtz is very enigmatic and fascinating for many people who get into contact with him. For example the natives, the strange Russian ("the harlequin"), his over-sensitive fiancé and Marlow. First when he comes to the Congo he is led by great ideals: He wants to humanize, improve and instruct. But the years of being alone in the jungle make him abandon these ideals. He is turns more and more into an animal.
As soon as he tasted the power, he sets himself up as a god for the natives. He kills the native "rebels" as they are called by the Russian and puts the heads of them on the six posts in front of his building. And later he just hates the natives, this can be seen from the postscript of his essay about \"Suppression of Savage Customs\"; which is: \"Exterminate all the brutes\". He is famous for the mass of ivory he sends from his station; it is more than all other stations send put together. This shows his enterprising spirit, but it is also a consequence of his \"unsound methods\". When Marlow visits him he is very ill so that he hardly can move anymore, but he still has a clear and loud voice; a symbol for his eloquence.
In Marlow's mind Kurtz is reduced to a strong voice, too. This is expressed in Marlow's statement shortly after Kurtz' death: \"The voice was gone. What else had been there? But I am of course aware that next day the pilgrims buried something in a muddy hole.\" His rhetoric is very good so that everyone who listens is fascinated by him. (He is very charismatic.) But the problem is that the content of his words is not good at all.
- 3 - Summary of "Heart of Darkness" Part I: The story begins on a small ship on the river Thames near London. It is a calm evening and the crew is waiting for the turn of the tide. On the ship there are the unnamed narrator of the whole story, the novel's protagonist called Marlow, their captain, a lawyer and an accountant. First the narrator introduces these men. Then he has Marlow tell his tale. Marlow begins with his journey to and through the Congo jungle.
This story is the main part of the novel. So the beginning, the end and a few lines throughout the novel belong to a frame story. Marlow starts off with the history of Britain: About 1900 years ago the Romans came there and occupied the country and its treasures. But they found a cold, foggy and lonely country. The inhabitants were (or seemed to be) all uncivilized, living in a primeval state of non-culture and so the Romans ran into huge problems. Then Marlow compares this situation with his time: In the British colonies in Africa (and all around the world) the self same problems and conflicts arise.
But he thinks that it is not so bad with Britain and it's colonies as it has been with the Roman Empire and Britain, because Britain is devoted to efficiency (there will be some evidence against that in the course of the story) and the Romans had just robbed with violence. As a boy Marlow has "a passion for maps" and wants to explore unknown parts of the world. As a young man he sails the Pacific for about six years before he comes back to London, from where he decided to go to the Congo region. His aunt helps him get an appointment as a steamboat pilot, as she knows the wife of an influential official at a huge continental trading company. Shortly after that he gets the job. He goes to the headquarters of the trading company in Brussels, where he realizes how dangerous his enterprise will be: "And the river [Congo] was there - fascinating - deadly like a snake.
" He talks for less than a minute with the director and is sent to Africa ship, that carries soldiers and customhouse officers. On this voyage he sees a French war ship that fires for no apparent reason into the primeval forest: There are no enemies and even if there were natives they could not be called enemies, because they didn't have any modern weapons. - 4 - Finally he reaches a station of his company where he has to wait for ten days for a caravan to the Central Station. At this outer station everything is broken, but nobody cares. The natives are forced into slavery and many of them die of illness and hunger. These slaves, however, have to do really meaningless work.
Here an example: \"Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn\'t one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.\" At this time he first hears about Mr Kurtz. The accountant, a very bureaucratic man, of the station describes Mr Kurtz as a first class agent at the inner Congo who gets more ivory than all other agents taken together.
So Mr Kurtz would soon rise within the company. After the ten days he starts the 200-mile-trip to the Central Station with sixty native porters. On this trip he has first problems with the natives, because there was an overweight man, who always lost consciousness in the heat and later got fever, travelling with them. So he had to be carried by the natives, who didn\'t want to do that. They start some kind of revolt and run away. When they arrive at the Central Station Marlow is informed that his steamer has sunk, because \"some volunteer skipper\" had been in charge of it for about three hours.
So Marlow has to stay at the Central Station for a couple of months until his steamer is repaired. That is difficult, because on the Central Station there are no rivets and it is not easy to get them from other stations. During this time Marlow finds out a lot about the personal relations and struggles within his company: The brickmaker of the station, who cannot make any bricks, because some raw material is missing, ingratiates himself with Marlow, because he thinks that Marlow has great influence in the company (because of his aunt). Part II: Another strange thing is that Marlow can\'t help thinking, that the manager of the station has sunk his steamer on purpose, in order that Marlow shall not be able to supply Mr Kurtz\' station. The manager is hopeful that Kurtz is to die soon so that this man of success may not be appointed manager in his place. This suspicion gets stronger when Marlow listens to a private conversation between the manager and his uncle, who is the leader of a peculiar expedition, which passes the Central Station.
Their interview is about Mr Kurtz and his future career in the company. The impression of the Central Station is very bad indeed, because the Whites are very lazy and waste the little materials they have got. On the other hand the natives once again were working hard on meaningless projects. Having repaired his steamboat Marlow starts his trip to the inner station lead by Kurtz. The manager, some other white agents (Marlow calls them - 5 - \"pilgrims.\") and some native workers who are cannibals are travelling with them.
Some fifty miles away from the inner station, they come upon a little cabin with a woodpile in front of it. On a board there is left a message for them: \"Wood for you. Hurry up Approach cautiously.\" In the cabin Marlow finds a book about seamanship with notes written in some kind of secret writing. (Later the characters turn out to be Cyrillic.) Stunned by these strange things and unsure what was wrong up the river, they wait for the next morning.
The next morning there is dense fog; so they cannot start and are afraid of being attacked by the natives, because they hear some strange screams in the forest. Two hours after the fog has lifted they get attacked about one and a half mile below Kurtz\' station. Natives shoot small arrows at them and the "pilgrims" fire back with their Winchesters rifles. A spear kills one of the natives on board of the ship. Finally, they arrive at Kurtz\' station. There is a long building with six posts in front of it.
On landing Marlow is greeted by a man with a suit made of coloured patches. He is the Russian who has left the book in the hut and he is a great admirer of Kurtz\'. Marlow calls the Russian "the harlequin" because of his funny suit. Part III: Marlow has quite a long conversation with the "harlequin" about Mr Kurtz and his station. The harlequin tells Marlow that he has listened to Kurtz for many nights; Kurtz spoke about almost every topic one can think of. And he also informs Marlow of how Kurtz deals with the natives: Kurtz forces the chiefs of the tribes in the whole region to bring him as much ivory as they can.
To attain this power, he has himself adored like a god by the natives. As Marlow takes a look through his binoculars he makes a shocking discovery: On each of the six posts in front of Kurtz\' building a head of a native "rebel" has been put. Then Mr Kurtz is seen being carried along on a stretcher by some natives. He is very ill and Marlow and the director wonder whether he will survive. When the manager learns about Kurtz\' "unsound methods" of getting the ivory, he is very angry, because it will not be possible to exploit this ivory region for many years. Then "harlequin" fears not without good cause that the manager wants to kill him, for assisting Kurtz' method.
So he decides to flee, but before he leaves he has another conversation with Marlow: He tells him, that the natives, who attacked their ship before they reached the inner station, acted under orders of Kurtz, who did not want to be taken away. - 6 - About midnight Marlow awakes, from loud drumbeats. He gets of the steamer and goes ashore to look into Kurtz\' building, but he is gone. When Marlow walks on a path near the station he sees a broad trail in the high grass. Soon he recognizes that it is made by Kurtz on crawling on the ground: At first Marlow is afraid that Kurtz might make the natives attack him, but later he takes Kurtz back into his cabin. The next day, they leave the inner station.
On both sides of the river there are many natives who watch Kurtz' departure. The "pilgrims" want to fire at them, but Marlow chases the natives away with the steam whistle to prevent a massacre. Later on their trip back, Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers to make sure that it will be treated confidentially. Then Mr Kurtz dies. His last words were: "The horror! The horror!" They bury him in the forest. Marlow does not tell anything about his voyage back to Europe.
But when he is back in Brussels, there are some people who want to get the papers he got from Mr Kurtz: First a representative of the company wants to have the papers, because Kurtz made expeditions in the company\'s territory and so they are of great interest for the company, but Marlow refuses to hand him the papers. Later a man approaches Marlow saying he is Kurtz\' cousin, but all he gets from Marlow is an unimportant note. Lastly a journalist asks Marlow for some of the papers. He introduces himself as a friend of Kurtz\'. He is of the opinion that Kurtz would have been a good politician of any extremist party, because Kurtz had all qualities of a demagoge. Marlow gives him a report about the \"Suppression of Savage Customs\" written by Kurtz.
These incidences show the corruption of the company: Everyone wants to exploit Kurtz' work for his personal interests. Then Marlow decides to visit Mr Kurtz\' fiancé. In Kurtz' papers there is a photograph of the lady. She wears black and has still very strong feelings for Kurtz. Marlow gives the personal letters back to her and she asks him for Kurtz\' last words. But Marlow does not have the heart to tell her the truth ("The horror! The horror!") and lies to her that it would have been her name.
Marlow's story ends here and the captain of the Nellie of the beginning of the story says that they (the crew on the ship on the Thames) missed the turn of the tide. The nameless narrator of the whole story ends up saying that the Themes seems "to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."
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