Category: Heart of Darkness

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Africa is described as the “dark continent” not merely because its inhabitants are dark of complexion, but because it is a place regarded as trapped in primordial darkness. In search of Mr. Kurtz, the character of Marlow says, “Going up that river was like traveling back from the earliest beginnings…

Individuals have the capacity for brutality and disillusionment in the desperate pursuit for power in human nature. Humanity has the potential to adopt methods of hypocrisy and dishonesty leading to an atavistic descent into brutality, or conversely discover a concealed truth, leading to disillusionment about the nature of humankind. This capability to transcend the limitations…

Though Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hobbes lived during different time periods and never had the opportunity to meet each other, both shared several ideas regarding human nature while they also harbored a few differences in ideologies. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness highlights several of these similarities and differences between Conrad’s views and Hobbes’ philosophies. Conrad’s characterization…

From a modern context, Conrad’s representation of Africans in Heart of Darkness are often read as racist. This essay is an assessment of such representations in Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad’s frame narrative about Charles Marlow’s journey down the Congo River in Central Africa has been labelled by literary scholars as one of most seminal…

The modernist movement of the early twentieth century drastically changed the way that art and literature were perceived in western culture. The themes expressed in modernism are perhaps some of the most diverse, disturbing and difficult to understand. One of the principal themes expressed in modernist literature is alienation; this motif can be found in…

While presenting a lecture at the University of Massachusetts, the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe expressed his alienation from the imperialist and patriarchal themes of Heart of Darkness, famously decrying Joseph Conrad’s novel as the work of “a bloody racist”. Provocative and influential, Achebe’s criticisms served as an impetus for a range of theoretical perspectives on…

To consider the charge that Marlow in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is racist, racism must first be defined. Racism has two components – a belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another, and secondly, the right of the superior race to dominate the other (Gove 1870). According to this definition, Marlow fits only…

“The inner truth is hidden-luckily luckily” -Marlow, Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad’s renowned novella, Heart of Darkness, is a work which has sparked great controversy and heated debate with regards to its meaning. Since its publication over one hundred years ago, countless interpretations of the novella have arisen. Indeed, “its imagery has been described in…

It is fair to say, that late 19th Century Europe is not remembered for its progressive and humanistic values. Indeed, European society at this time could probably be described as racist and sexist, with colonialism and ’empire building’ national passions throughout the continent, a passion perhaps best expressed by Belgian King Leopold who described the…

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents an exciting exploration of the vast ethnic and geographical depths of Africa and the Congo River. The novella is a tale of immense conquest of new ground and culture, but under the primary level of the plot, it reveals one’s journey to self-discovery on a distorted road, intertwined with…