The Darkness of Human Heart

——comments on Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is the most distinguished and representative work of Joseph Conrad. Conrad was one of the grittiest and most realistic fiction authors of the late nineteen century. He was born in 1857, in Ukraine which was then part of the Russia Empire. Believing that a Russia citizen had limited opportunities, he joined the British merchant navy, which partly contributed to his becoming a British subject and which, more importantly, enabled him to travel widely, thus ensured the more realistic descriptions and characters in his novels. His other major works were the Nigger of Narcissus, Lord Jim, the Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, and Change.

In the short story Heart of Darkness, Conrad was mainly attempting to raise awareness of the harsh treatments that native Africans suffered from European colonists, with the exploration into the psychology disclosing the darkness of heart in that historic period.

The novel is a tale of horror, a narrative done by Charlie Marlow who shares his experiences on the Congo River in the Dark Continent and what he learned about human behavior. After he came back, he found that what was the most horrible was not the jungle, even the poorest Africa, but the heart of human.

After finishing reading this short novel, we may find that Joseph Conrad shows us the heart of darkness in the following ways.

The heart of Loneliness

Maybe is for some purpose, the book begins and ends in silence. It begins with “me” telling a horrible tale alone and then left to the readers’ own thoughts after it has concluded. But the loneliness of this book is not limited to this only. Prolonged silence and solitude are seen to have damaging effects on many characters in the book. Among Captain Fresleven, Marlow's predecessor, and the Russian we can easily find out their solitude. But alienation have taken the greatest toll on Kurtz, who has forfeited the restraints of conscience and given free rein to his most base and brutal instincts. He is presented as a voice, a mouth that opens as if to devour everything before him. The solitude and silence have achieved their most powerful effect: they have driven Kurtz mad.

The heart of Deception

Deception is a central theme of the novel and is explored on many levels. In the disguise of a ‘‘noble cause,’’ the Belgians have exploited the Congo. Actions taken in the name of philanthropy are merely covers for greed. Claiming to educate the natives, to bring them religion and a better way of life, European colonizers remained to starve, mutilate, and murder the indigenous population for profit. Marlow has even obtained his job through deception, for his aunt misrepresented him as ‘‘an exceptional and gifted creature.’’ At the end of the book, Marlow engages in his own deception when he tells Kurtz's fiancée the lie that Kurtz died with her name on his lips though it’s for her sake.

The heart of Insanity

Insanity will blossom in a totally free world. In this novel, madness seems an inevitable extension of chaos. The atmospheric influences at the heart of the African continent—the stifling heat, the incessant drums, the whispering bush, the mysterious light—play havoc with the unadapted European mind and reduce it either to the insanity of thinking anything is allowable in such an atmosphere. Of course, the craziest man is Kurtz. He, after many years in the jungle, has gone to be mad with power and greed. With no restraints placing on him, he was free to do whatever he liked. He even has conferred a godlike status on himself and has ritual human sacrifices performed for him. He speaks of ‘‘my ivory … my intended … my river … my station,’’ as if everything in the Congo belonged to him which is so ridiculous. He is crazy about power and himself.

The heart of Cruelty

This novel is filled with the acts of inhumanity committing against the natives of the Congo to unspeakable horrors. My first image of this book is the limitless violence that lies at the heart of the human soul. The natives are seen chained by iron collars on their necks, starved, beaten, eating rotten hippo meat, forced into meaningless labor, and finally cruelly murdered. Beyond this, it is implied that Kurtz has had human sacrifices performed for him, and the reader is presented with the sight of a row of severed human heads impaled on posts leading to Kurtz's cabin. There is a saying that, “when law is absent and man allows himself to be ruled by whatever brutal passions lie within him.”

The heart of Ambiguity

As conscience loses hold, ambiguity takes over. As Marlow travels deeper inland, the reality of everything he encounters becomes suspect. The perceptions, motivations, and reliability of those he meets, as well as his own, are all open to doubt. Nothing is to be taken at face value. The central ambiguity of this book is Kurtz himself. Who is he? What does he do? What does he actually say? Maybe you think you are familiar with him, because the whole book is about him. But after a second’s thought, you may find you are wrong because you can’t find any proof. We are just like the various people who come to Marlow as having known Kurtz after Kurtz death. None of us really know him. At the end, Marlow settles for the ambiguous term ‘‘universal genius," which would imply Kurtz was whatever one wanted to make of him.

There are still many words can illustrate the heart of darkness in this novel, such as the racism, the disorder, the corruption and so on. The African continent resembles a heart on the map and was at its darkest and toughest time during 19th century and 20th century, which may be implied by the Heart of Darkness, the name of the story. The blatant oppression and exploitation of the European colonists had turned the fertile and beautiful land into the hell. The author presents us his observation and description of Africa from this angle.

We can see clearly the heavy criticism the author held toward the colonialism as we follow Marlow’s description. The successive criticisms uncover themselves from the ignorance of the European administration in the stations to the misery of the local black people. All the actions serve only for illegal occupation and wealth. They tax on the people in wilderness, they have aimless explosions to build trains, and they plunder ivories in large numbers. All these are greedy and abnormal desires from people of depravity. They are dregs, shameless speculators who squeeze the African with banners of rescuing the Dark Continent. They go there in the name of exploration and happiness messenger and they conquer and pillage with the absurd “superiority “over the black people.

Furthermore, the journey through the tortuous and gloomy river signifies a journey into the brooding and secluded zone in human hearts with perfect strange circumstances challenging the existing value systems. The eerie scenes of Congo River are treacherous for the people and their mind also turn into the primeval world where the evil in hearts find the place to release. They glide like ghosts, on that primitive ground. It is like a tiresome pilgrimage with nightmares everywhere in which the existence of true heroes is doubted.

There is a contrast in Marlow and Kurtz. They both step on the unknown ground, but Marlow finishes his journey and returns with psychological change, with the acknowledgement of the darkness in human hearts. While Kurtz considers him a conqueror over the wilderness and has realized his dream, though in effect to the contrary, the wilderness occupies and takes the complete possession of him until his last breathe. Kurtz is of heroism with no ethics, he carries out the dark plan in the dark forest with his originally stern desire to wipe out his victims. Deeply and profoundly in his heart lurks the primitive lust for temporal and mendacious fame, wealth, success and the appearance of strength. And the resentment of the forests together with his inner darkness gives the final counterattack when he is dying. That is “the horror!”

After Heart of Darkness was written, the true meaning of darkness in the heart and human depravity was revealed in the horrors. Conrad's extensive description adds tension and period perspective to the classic internal and external struggles between good and evil. Kurtz's dying words, "The horror! The horror!" represents despair at the encounter with human depravity--the heart of darkness. Kurtz, civilized and enlightened, embarks on this harrowing journey only to find his soul dark and evil. Marlow finds Kurtz totally devoid of the European civilization but filled with lust for the ivories symbolizing material wealth. When unbound by the strictures of his own culture, he exchanges his soul for a bloody sovereignty, surrenders to the recklessly magnified and released desires that may have not be exposed when we are under normal social circumstances and only the mortal illness brings an end to his reign of terror. We, human beings, just like Kurtz, may fall to lust and evil and disprove our civilization. Each time we sacrifice human dignity, each time we devastate or kill for lust and benefits; heart of darkness bulges and reins us, purges us of the civilization and forces us to face the horror hidden in human.
 

How deep and dark the heart of human could be? We don’t know. In the ending of the chilling story, even Kurtz was terrified by the darkness of his own heart by uttering “The horror! The horror!” We always chase for civilization and freedom. But in Kurtz and in this novel we may learn that the civilization can only be built on the laws and rules. We, human beings, just like Kurtz, may fall to lust and evil as well. Each time we sacrifice human dignity, each time we destroy or kill for lust and benefits; heart of darkness bulges and ruins us, forces us to face the horror hidden in human. I wish all of us, just like the Marlow, can learn something when we come back after this “journey”.