Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad .pptx

Heart of Darkness

1. Historical Background – Heart of Darkness "At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, "When I grow up I will go there. . . True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. I had got filled in since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery -- a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness“ (Conrad 5).

2. British Empire-Building Atlantic Slave Trade (1650 - 1900): up to 28 million central & west Africans captured & driven to coasts to be sold as slaves 1450 and 1850: at least 12 million Africans were shipped from Africa to New World--notorious “Middle Passage” (20% mortality rate) Mid-18 th C. British-French wars for control of India (Robt. Clive & British East India Co.)

3. British Empire-Building 1789: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa = slave narrative fuels anti-slavery movement 1792: Slave uprising in Haiti led by Toussant L'Ouverture 55,000 blacks,wage guerrilla & frontal war against British for years. 1795 - 1818: British seize control of Cape Colony, South Africa, from Dutch, declare control & increase Brit. immigration; Dutch Boers move inland & seize land

4. Imperialism and Colonialism

5. IMPERIALISM DEFINED Imperialism is the policy or action by which one country controls another country or territory. Most such control is achieved by military means to gain economic and political advantages. Such a policy is also called expansionism. An expansionist state that obtains overseas territories follows a policy usually called colonialism. An imperialist government may wish to gain new markets for its exports, plus sources of inexpensive labor and raw materials. A far-flung empire may satisfy a nation's desire for military advantage or recognition as a world power.

6. COLONIALISM DEFINED Colonialism is the policy or practice by which one country installs a settlement of its people on the lands of another society. Usually, a colonizing country also quickly establishes political control over the other society. Colonialism is generally associated with the European overseas expansion that began about 1500. (But it has occurred in most parts of the world and in most historical eras, even the most ancient.)

7. Heart of Darkness

8. GRAHAM GREENE, Journey without Maps (1936) I thought for some reason even then of Africa, not a particular place, but a shape, a strangeness, a wanting to know. The unconscious mind is often sentimental; I have written ‘ a shape ’ , and the shape, of course, is roughly that of the human heart. Africa will always be the Africa of the Victorian atlas, the blank unexplored continent the shape of the human heart.

9. Factual/Historical Viewpoint The Congo River was discovered by Europeans in 1482 No one traveled more than 200 miles upstream until 1877 Is 1,600 miles long and only impassable to water traffic between two places, creating a two-hundred mile overland trip Matadi (the Company Station) Kinshasa (the Central Station)

10. The Congo It was not until 1877, after the English-born American explorer Henry Morton Stanley had completed a three-year journey across central Africa, that the exact length and course of the mighty Congo River were known. Stanley discovered that the Congo extends some 1,600 miles into Africa from its eastern coast to its western edge, where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean, and that only one stretch of it is impassable. That section lies between Matadi , two hundred miles in from the mouth of the Congo, and Kinshasa , yet another two hundred miles further inland. In Heart of Darkness , Conrad calls Matadi the Company Station and Kinshasa the Central Station . Between those two places, one is forced to proceed by land, which is exactly what Marlow does on his "two hundred-mile tramp" between the two Stations, described in the book.

11. History of the Congo 1878 – King Leopold II of Belgium asked explorer Henry Morton Stanley to set up a Belgian colony in the Congo Wanted to “ end slavery and civilize the natives ” Actually interested in more material benefits 1885 – Congress of Berlin forms Congo Free State This was ruled by Leopold II alone The Congress of Berlin is referred to in the book as “ the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs. ” Leopold never even visited the Congo. He set up “ the Company ” to run it for him.

12. Africa and Imperialism

13. 1879-1885 Henry Morton Stanley explores the region for Leopold II of Belgium 1890 Conrad ’ s expedition to the Congo ( “ Before the Congo I was a mere animal ” ) CONGO FREE STATE (1885)

14. Colonial Africa, circa 1892

15. Democratic Republic of the Congo 1908 Belgian Congo 1960 Independence 1964 People ’ s Republic of the Congo 1971 Republic of Zaire 1997 Democratic Republic of the Congo

16. Democratic Republic of the Congo (1997) The name of this African nation derives from a people known as the BaKongo, first rendered as “ Congo ” in Portuguese chronicles of exploration in 1482. In their language, the 2,900-mile-long Congo River is called nzadi , “ the river that swallows all rivers. ”

17. King Leopold II (reigned 1865 – 1909) Belgian exploitation of the Congo initially focused on the rubber industry.

18. King Leopold II In 1878, King Leopold II of Belgium asked Stanley to found a Belgian colony in the Congo. The King charged Stanley with setting up outposts along the Congo River, particularly at Matadi. Leopold II described his motives to the rest of Europe as springing from a desire to end slavery in the Congo and civilize the natives, but his actual desires were for material gain. In 1885, at the Congress of Berlin, an international committee agreed to the formation of a new country to be known as the Congo Free State. In Heart of Darkness , Conrad refers to this committee as the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs . Leopold II, who was to be sole ruler of this land, never set foot in the Congo Free State. Instead, he formed a company, called simply “the Company” in Heart of Darkness , that ran the country for him.

19. 19 King Leopold and the Congo Belgium, as a small country, did not possess numerous overseas colonies, unlike its neighbours, Holland, France, Germany, and Great Britain, but shared their imperial ambitions. Leopold persuaded other European powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to give him personal possession of the Congo. In 1876 he organized an international association as a front for his private plan to “ develop ” central Africa. Leopold used the Congo as a huge money-making resource, committing human rights violations in the process, as he built public works projects in Belgium with the money he accrued.

20. King Leopold II of Belgium declared in 1898: “The mission which the agents of the State have to accomplish on the Congo is a noble one. They have to continue the development of civilization in the centre of Equatorial Africa, receiving their inspiration directly from Berlin and Brussels. Placed face to face with primitive barbarism, grappling with sanguinary customs that date back thousands of years, they are obliged to reduce these gradually .” ( qtd . in Kimbrough 80 )

21. H. M. Stanley declared (1898): “King Leopold II found the Congo . . . cursed by cannibalism, savagery, and despair; and he has been trying with a patience, which I can never sufficiently admire, to relieve it of its horrors, rescue it from its oppressors, and save it from perdition . . .” (qtd. in Kimbrough 80)

22. The Ivory Trade A prevalent feeling among Europeans of the 1890s was that the African people required introduction to European culture and technology in order to become more evolved. The responsibility for that introduction, known as the " white man's burden ," gave rise to a fervor to bring Christianity and commerce to Africa. In return, the Europeans took huge quantities of ivory out of Africa. During the 1890s, at the time Heart of Darkness takes place, ivory was in enormous demand in Europe, where it was used to make jewelry, piano keys, and billiard balls, among other items. From 1888 to 1892, the amount of ivory exported from the Congo Free State rose from just under 13,000 pounds to over a quarter of a million pounds.

23. The Ivory Trade In 1892, Leopold II declared all natural resources in the Congo Free State to be his property. This meant the Belgians could stop dealing with African traders and simply take what they wanted themselves. As a consequence, Belgian traders pushed deeper into Africa in search of new sources of ivory, setting up stations all along the Congo River. One of the furthermost stations, located at Stanley Falls, was the likely inspiration for Kurtz's Inner Station.

24. Belgian Atrocities in the Congo The Belgian traders committed many well-documented acts of atrocity against the African natives, including the severing of hands and heads.

25. Belgian Atrocities in the Congo Reports of these atrocities reached the European public, leading to an international movement protesting the Belgian presence in Africa. These acts, reflected in Heart of Darkness , continued, despite an order by Leopold II that they cease. Heart of Darkness was an important literary intervention into the emerging debate about atrocities in the Congo. Edmund Dene Morel, who founded the Congo Reform Association in 1904, described Conrad's story as "the most powerful thing ever written on the subject." For Morel, the title became synonymous with the "tortured African world" of the Congo that suffered under the autocratic rule of King Leopold, a man Morel described as "a great genius for evil."

26. 5-8 Million Victims (50% of Population) “ It is blood-curdling to see them (the soldiers) returning with the hands of the slain, and to find the hands of young children amongst the bigger ones evidencing their bravery...The rubber from this district has cost hundreds of lives, and the scenes I have witnessed, while unable to help the oppressed, have been almost enough to make me wish I were dead... This rubber traffic is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to rise and sweep every white person on the Upper Congo into eternity, there would still be left a fearful balance to their credit. ” -- Belgian Official

27. Countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain that acquired large empires exploited both land and people. However… Some measures to protect the rights of overseas subjects were introduced. Rights of women and men to vote. Protection against industrial exploitation was making child labour illegal and improving employment conditions. Some of these rights were followed in the African colonies…..but NOT BY LEOPOLD II Leopold had to give up the Congo to Belgium in 1908 as a result of the international campaign exposing Leopold ’ s activities in the Congo. White King, Red Rubber, Black Death

28. Belgian Atrocities in the Congo In 1908, after the Belgian parliament finally sent its own review board into the Congo to investigate, Leopold II was forced to give up his personal stake in the area and control of the Congo reverted to the Belgian government. The country was granted its independence from Belgium in 1960, and changed its name from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Zaire in 1971.

29. 29 King Leopold ’ s Ghost Novel by Adam Hochschild written in 1998 Tells the horrific story of King Leopold ’ s colonial rule over a country and it ’ s native peoples. Based on the true story of the colonial activities. King Leopold II, never set foot in the Congo, but managed to ruin a country…his ghost remains today in memories of the Congolese.

30. The Explorer Stanley ’ s Role H. M. Stanley, a journalist who explored the Congo on an expedition financed by King Leopold of Belgium. Stanley greatly aided his backer in gaining a firm foothold in what was to become the Belgian Congo (later Zaire), now the Democratic Republic of Congo. King Leopold II never set foot in Africa.

31. 31 “ The White Man ’ s Burden ” * “ King Leopold found the Congo…cursed by cannibalism, savagery, and despair; and he has been trying with patience, which I can never sufficiently admire, to relieve it of its horrors, rescue it from its oppressors, and save it from perdition. ” --H.M. Stanley *The idea that Europeans must carry the burden of civilizing Africa.

32. Different Motives of Imperialism Some Westerners felt it was their duty to “ civilize ” the “ savage ” inhabitant of colonial lands in order to make them more “ modern ” and European. The English writer Rudyard Kipling displayed such an attitude in 1899 with a poem entitle “ The White Man ’ s Burden. ” 32 Take up the White Man ’ s burden-- Send forth the best ye breed-- Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives ’ need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild-- Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.

33. The “ White Man ’ s Burden ” ? The first step toward lightening the White Man ’ s Burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness! Pear ’ s Soap is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances, while amongst the cultured of all nations, it holds the highest place-it is the ideal toilet soap.

34. Rudyard Kipling The White Man’s Burden Take up the White Man’s burden Send forth the best ye breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captive’s need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild – Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

35. Ivory and “ the White Man ’ s Burden ” Most Europeans in the 1890s felt that the African peoples needed exposure to European culture and technology to become more evolved. This responsibility was known as “ the white man ’ s burden ” and the fervor to bring Christianity and commerce to Africa grew. In return for these “ benefits, ” the Europeans extracted HUGE amounts of ivory.

36. Ivory, cont. Uses of ivory in the 1890s Jewelry and other decorative items Piano keys Billiard balls From 1888 to 1892, the amount of ivory exported from the Congo rose from 13,000 pounds to more than a quarter million pounds. 1892 – Leopold declares all natural resources in the Congo are his sole property This gave the Belgians free reign to take whatever they wanted however they wished. Trade expands, new stations are established farther and farther away

37. The Results of Ivory Fever Documented atrocities committed by the Belgian ivory traders include the severing of hands and heads. Reports of this, combined with Conrad ’ s portrayal of the system in Heart of Darkness, led to an international protest movement against Belgium ’ s presence in Africa Leopold outlawed these practices, but his decree had little effect Belgian parliament finally took control away from the king Belgium did not grant independence to the Congo until 1960

38. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) “ The Colossus of Rhodes ” Uncle Sam: “ The Colossus of the Pacific ” (A Parody)

39. Joseph Conrad ’ s Life Born Josef Teodore Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, in Podolia, Ukraine, 3 December 1857. Conrad ’ s father and mother, Apollo and Ewa, were political activists. They were imprisoned 7 months and eventually deported to Vologda. Apollo introduced him son to the work of Dickens, Fenimore Cooper and Captain Marryat in Polish and French translations.

40. Joseph Conrad ’ s Life His father died of tuberculosis and his funeral was attended by a thousand admirers Conrad was raised by his uncle; attended school (he was disobedient) In 1874, Conrad went to Marseilles, France, and joined the Merchant Navy. He visited Australia, various islands in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, South America, and he even sailed up the Congo River in Africa. In 1894, Conrad finally left the sea behind him and settled down in England. Gun running for the Spanish and a love affair led to a suicide attempt. Conrad became a British merchant sailor and eventually a master mariner and citizen in 1886 . His ten years in the British Merchant Marine shaped most of his stories.

41. Joseph Conrad ’ s Life Conrad 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. Conrad retired from sailing and took up writing full time. Died of a heart attack in 1924. Buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

42. Joseph Conrad ’ s Major Works Almayer ’ s Folly (1895) The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897) Lord Jim (1900) Heart of Darkness (1902) Typhoon (1902) Nostromo (1904) The Secret Sharer (1907) Under Western Eyes (1910) Chance (1914)

43. Heart of Darkness First published as a serial in London ’ s Blackwood Magazine in 1899 First unified publication in1902 Considered by many to be the finest short novel ever written in English Bridges the Victorian and Modern literary periods Modern criticism sharply divided over merit due to racist/imperialist themes

44. Conrad’s World View For Conrad, the world as we experience it is not a place that can be reduced to a set of clear, explicit truths Instead, its truths (of the psyche, of the human mind and soul) are messy, vague, irrational, suggestive, and dark. Conrad’s intention is to lead his readers to an experience of the “heart of darkness.” His goal is not to shed the light of reason on it, but to recreate his experience of darkness in our feelings, our sensibilities, our own dark and mysterious hearts.

45. About the Novel Since its publication, Heart of Darkness has fascinated readers and critics, almost all of whom regard the novel as significant because of its use of ambiguity and (in Conrad's own words) "foggishness" to dramatize Marlow's perceptions of the horrors he encounters. Critics have regarded Heart of Darkness as a work that in several important ways broke many narrative conventions and brought the English novel into the twentieth century.

46. Key Facts Full Title :   Heart of Darkness Author :  Joseph Conrad Type of Work :  Novella (between a novel and a short story in length and scope) Genre :  Symbolism, colonial literature, adventure tale, frame story, almost a romance in its insistence on heroism and the supernatural and its preference for the symbolic over the realistic

47. Key Facts Time and Place Written :  England, 1898–1899; inspired by Conrad’s journey to the Congo in 1890 Date of First Publication :  Published in 1902 in the volume Youth: A Narrative; and Two Other Stories Narrator :  There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to Marlow’s story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ship’s captain. Point of View :  The first narrator speaks in the first-person plural, on behalf of four other passengers who listen to Marlow’s tale. Marlow narrates his story in the first person, describing only what he witnesses and experiences, and provides his own commentary on the story.

48. Key Facts Tone :  Ambivalent: Marlow is disgusted at the brutality of the Company and horrified by Kurtz’s degeneration, but he claims that any thinking man would be tempted into similar behavior. Setting (time) :  Latter part of the nineteenth century, probably sometime between 1876 and 1892 Setting (place) :  Opens on the Thames River outside London, where Marlow is telling the story that makes up Heart of Darkness. Events of the story take place in Brussels, at the Company’s offices, and in the Congo, then a Belgian territory. Protagonist :  Charlie Marlow

49. Key Facts Major Conflict :  Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as “civilized” Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context of European society. Rising Action : The brutality Marlow witnesses in the Company’s employees, the rumors he hears that Kurtz is a remarkable man, and the numerous examples of Europeans breaking down mentally or physically in the environment of Africa. Climax :  Marlow’s discovery, upon reaching the Inner Station. Falling Action :  Marlow’s acceptance of responsibility for Kurtz’s legacy, Marlow’s encounters with Company officials and Kurtz’s family and friends, Marlow’s visit to Kurtz’s “Intended.”

50. Key Facts Themes:  The hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a result of imperialism, the absurdity of evil Motifs:   Darkness (very seldom opposed by light), Interiors vs. surfaces (kernel/shell, Coast/inland, station/forest, etc.), Ironic understatement, Hyperbolic language, Inability to find words to describe situation adequately, Images of ridiculous waste, Upriver versus downriver / toward and away from Kurtz / away from and back toward civilization (quest or journey structure.

51. Historical Context

52. Marlow’s & Conrad’s 1889-90 journey into “ Heart of Darkness ” Joseph Conrad (1857-1914)

53. Historical Context In 1890, Joseph Conrad secured employment in the Congo as the captain of a river steamboat; this was also the approximate year in which the main action of Heart of Darkness takes place. Illness forced Conrad's return home after only six months in Africa, but that was long enough for intense impressions to have been formed in the novelist's mind. Today, the country at the center of Heart of Darkness is called Zaire, but when Conrad wrote about them the country was called the Congo Free State, or Belgian Congo.

54. Heart of Darkness Background After a long stint in the east had come to an end, he was having trouble finding a new position. With the help of a relative in Brussels he got the position as captain of a steamer for a Belgian trading company. Conrad had always dreamed of sailing the Congo He had to leave early for the job, as the previous captain was killed in a trivial quarrel

55. Heart of Darkness Background 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 scrabble for loot, the terrible heat and the lack of water. He saw human skeletons of bodies left to rot - many were men from the chain gangs building the railroads. He found his ship was damaged. Dysentary was rampant as was malaria; Conrad had to terminate his contract due to illness and never fully recovered

56. PATTERNS OF “THREE” Note the following patterns in your books: Three chapters Three times Marlow breaks the story Three stations Three women (Aunt, Mistress, Intended) Three central characters (Kurtz, Marlow, Narrator) Three characters with names Three views of Africa (political, religious, economic)

57. Narrative Style in HOD Heart of Darkness is a frame story (a story within a story). The first narrator sets the scene, describes the boat and the Thames, and introduces Marlow, the primary narrator. The structure mimics the oral tradition of storytelling: Readers settle down with the sailors on the boat to listen to Marlow's narrative. Oral storytelling brings with it associations of fables, legends, and epic journeys. Readers are introduced to the idea that the tale Marlow tells is a quest, a myth.

58. Narrative Style in HOD The story within a story technique also distances Conrad as the author. Readers are unsure whether they are reading the tale at second- or third-hand. It becomes difficult to distinguish whether the opinions expressed are Conrad's own or the narrator's. The book is divided into three chapters that indicate changes in Marlow's attitude towards Kurtz or the idea of Kurtz. In Chapter One, Marlow begins to build a picture of Kurtz from other people's descriptions of him. Chapter Two sees Marlow's growing obsession with meeting and talking with Kurtz. In Chapter Three, Marlow and Kurtz actually meet.

59. Narrative Style in HOD The book has a distinct circular structure : the first narrator begins and ends the novel in the same evening while on the boat moored on the Thames. "Darkness" (excess, madness, destruction) is not only in the jungle but everywhere , even in London, which was the heart of the British empire and its colonialism. There is a clear progression downward to hell that recalls Dante’s Inferno , and perhaps also Hamlet’s descent into madness.

60. Heart of Darkness Narrative Structure Framed Narrative Narrator begins Marlow takes over Narrator breaks in occasionally Marlow is Conrad ’ s alter-ego, he shows up in some of Conrad ’ s other works including “ Youth: A Narrative ” and Lord Jim Marlow recounts his tale while he is on a small vessel on the Thames with some drinking buddies who are ex-merchant seamen. As he recounts his story the group sits in an all-encompassing darkness.

61. Narrative Structure of Heart of Darkness

62. Contrasts in Heart of Darkness Light vs. Dark Heavy vs. Light Inferiority vs. Superiority Civil vs. Savage Interior vs. Exterior Illusion vs. Truth Misogyny vs. Misanthropy Insanity vs. Sanity Racism vs. Anti-racism Imperialism vs. Insularity Evil What makes well-intentioned people do bad things?

63. Heart of Darkness Motifs Darkness Primitive Impulses (Kurtz, previous captain, etc.) Cruelty of Man (Kurtz and Company) Immorality/Amorality (Kurtz) Lies/Hypocrisy (Marlow chooses Kurtz ’ s evil versus Company ’ s hypocritical evil) Imperialization/Colonization (Belgian Company) Greed / Exploitation of People Power Corrupts Savage vs. Civil

64. Heart of Darkness Motifs Role of Women Civilization exploitive of women Civilization as a binding and self-perpetuating force Physical connected to Psychological Barriers (fog, thick forest) Rivers (connection to past, parallels time and journey)

65. Varied Interpretations Some feel the novel offers a scathing attack on colonialist ideology, others feel the novel celebrates and defends colonialization and racism. Some see Kurtz as the embodiment of all the evil and horror of capitalist society. Others view it as a portrayal of one man ’ s journey into the primitive unconscious where one must confront one ’ s own inner darkness. Still others see it as a modern journey quest, perhaps with an anti-hero rather than a hero.

66. Criticism – Early and Modern Early Hailed as a portrayal of the demoralizing effect life in the African wilderness supposedly had on European men Praised as a study of the collapse of the white man ’ s morality when he is released from the restraints of European law and order Modern Criticized for the blatantly racist attitudes it portrays Some believe Conrad was simply reflecting the attitudes held common at the time Others believe he may have been holding the ideas up for scorn and ridicule

67. Victorian and Modern Literature Victorian (1837 – 1901) Traditional subject matter, form, and style Deals with issues of the day, including Social, economic, religious, and intellectual issues Industrial Revolution Class tensions, early feminist movement, pressures for social and political reform Impact of Darwin ’ s theories on evolution Modern (post WWI – WWII) Authors experiment with subject matter, form, and style Deals with issues of the day, including Horrors of WWI Massive loss of life Loss of faith Expanding technology and science Also encompassed/is related to Postmodernism

68. Review of Criticism Paul O ’ Prey: “ It is an irony that the ’ failures ’ of Marlow and Kurtz are paralleled by a corresponding failure of Conrad ’ s technique—brilliant though it is—as the vast abstract darkness he imagines exceeds his capacity to analyze and dramatize it, and the very inability to portray the story ’ s central subject, the ‘ unimaginable, ’ the ‘ impenetratable ’ (evil, emptiness, mystery or whatever) becomes a central theme. ” James Guetti complains that Marlow “ never gets below the surface, ” and is “ denied the final self-knowledge that Kurtz had.?

69. Review of Criticism Conrad, writing in 1922, responds to similar criticism: “ Explicitness, my dear fellow, is fatal to the glamour of all artistic work, robbing it of all suggestiveness, destroying all illusion. You seem to believe in literalness and explicitness, in facts and in expression. Yet nothing is more clear than the utter insignificance of explicit statement and also its power to call attention away from things that matter in the region of art. ”

70. Review of Criticism Marlowe, the narrator, describes how difficult conveying a story is: “ Do you see the story? Do you see anything? 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 the very essence of dream . . .No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one ’ s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone. ”

71. Interpretation Archetypal (the shadow; the quest) Marxist Sociological / Cultural Psychological Religious Moral

72. The Shadow Archetype The Shadow is a very common archetype that reflects deeper elements of our psyche, where latent dispositions which are common to us all arise. Our shadow may appear in dreams, hallucinations and musings, often as something or someone who is bad, fearsome or despicable in some way. It also reflects something that was once split from us in early management of the objects in our lives.

73. The Shadow Archetype We tend to see it in “others.” That is to say, we project our dark side onto others and thus interpret them as “enemies” or as “exotic.” Thus, the shadow is the personification of that part of human, psychic possibility that we deny in ourselves and project onto others. The goal of personality integration is to integrate the rejected, inferior side of our life into our total experience and to take responsibility for it.

74. The Shadow Archetype It is, by its name, dark, shadowy, unknown and potentially troubling. It embodies chaos and wildness of character. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. It has a sense of the exotic and can be disturbingly fascinating. In myth, it appears as the wild man, spider-people, mysterious fighters and dark enemies.

75. The Archetypal Quest HOD is a modern myth (= tradition of quest narrative) In a quest, the story develops as a central character, the hero, meets and overcomes a series of obstacles on the way to accomplishing a task. archetypal quest stories – Virgil’s Aeneid & Dante's Inferno HOD contains has mythological “quest”elements: -- fellow journeymen (the Pilgrims) -- a fool (the Harlequin = the Russian) -- a set of obstacles as they travel down river (“descent to the underworld”)

76. The Archetypal Quest But is there a conventional hero? It is unclear whether the hero is Marlow or Kurtz. Marlow is a flawed hero - for most of the book he lacks insight and is uncertain of the nature of his own quest, nor is it clear why he is obsessed by Kurtz. Kurtz himself remains an enigma. This quest yields an empty prize: the mystery, the task, remains incomplete, "unsolved."

77. Marxist Interpretation “Marxism” refers to the economics of class warfare . Heart of Darkness is a depiction of, and an attack upon, colonialism in general , and, more specifically, the brutal form colonialism took in the Belgian Congo. the mistreatment of the Africans the greed of the so-called "pilgrims" the broken idealism of Kurtz the French man-of-war lobbing shells into the jungle the grove of death which Marlow stumbles upon the little note that Kurtz appends to his noble-minded essay on The Suppression of Savage Customs the importance of ivory to the economics of the system.

78. Sociological/Cultural Interpretation Heart of Darkness may also be read as a sociological investigation of those who conquer and those who are conquered , and the complicated interplay between them. Marlow's invocation of the Roman conquest of Britain cultural ambiguity of those Africans who have taken on some of the ways of their Europeans the ways in which the wilderness tends to strip away the civility of the Europeans and brutalize them Conrad is not impartial and scientifically detached from these things, and he even has a bit of fun with such impartiality in his depiction the doctor who tells Marlow that people who go out to Africa become "scientifically interesting."

79. Psychological Interpretation Conrad goes out of his way to suggest that in some sense Marlow's journey is like a dream or a return to our primitive past -- an exploration of the dark recesses of the human mind. Apparent similarities to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud in its suggestion that dreams are a clue to hidden areas of the mind we are all primitive brutes and savages, capable of the most appalling wishes and the most horrifying impulses (the Id) we can make sense of the urge Marlow feels to leave his boat and join the natives for a savage whoop and holler notice that Marlow keeps insisting that Kurtz is a voice -- a voice who seems to speak to him out of the heart of the immense darkness

80. Religious Interpretation Heart of Darkness is also an examination of various aspects of religion and religious practices. the way Conrad plays with the concept of pilgrims and pilgrimages the role of Christian missionary concepts in the justifications of the colonialists the dark way in which Kurtz fulfills his own messianic ambitions by setting himself up as one of the local gods

81. Moral Interpretation Heart of Darkness is preoccupied with general questions about the nature of good and evil , or civilization and savagery. Moral ambiguity is a central concept in the novel, and is expressed throughout the narrative in the tension between opposing forces. Irony is also deeply embedded in the novel. At one level, it shows the hypocrisy of the Europeans’ “moral” purpose of invading Africa, when their motive is really only commercial. At another level, it shows how these European emissaries, instead of 'suppressing savage customs,' actually become savages themselves.

82. Moral Interpretation Civilization versus wilderness Culture versus savagery Fascination versus repulsion Freedom versus restraint Innocence versus experience Justice versus injustice Reality versus unreality Strength versus weakness Success versus failure Work versus idleness

83. Review of Criticism Marxist: You can see Heart of Darkness as a depiction of, and an attack upon, colonialism in general, and, more specifically, the particularly brutal form colonialism took in the Belgian Congo. the mistreatment of the Africans the greed of the so-called “ pilgrims ” the broken idealism of Kurtz the French man-of-war lobbing shells into the jungle the grove of death upon which Marlow stumbles the little note that Kurtz appends to his noble-minded essay on The Suppression of Savage Customs the importance of ivory to the economics of the system.

84. Review of Criticism Sociological/Cultural : Conrad was also apparently interested in a more general sociological investigation of those who conquer and those who are conquered, and the complicated interplay between them. Marlow ’ s invocation of the Roman conquest of Britain cultural ambiguity of those Africans who have taken on some of the ways of their Europeans the ways in which the wilderness tends to strip away the civility of the Europeans and brutalize them Conrad is not impartial and scientifically detached from these things, and he even has a bit of fun with such impartiality in his depiction the doctor who tells Marlow that people who go out to Africa become “ scientifically interesting. ”

85. Review of Criticism Psychological/Psychoanalytical: Conrad goes out of his way to suggest that in some sense Marlow ’ s journey is like a dream or a return to our primitive past—an exploration of the dark recesses of the human mind. Apparent similarities to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud in its suggestion that dreams are a clue to hidden areas of the mind we are all primitive brutes and savages, capable of the most appalling wishes and the most horrifying impulses (the Id) we can make sense of the urge Marlow feels to leave his boat and join the natives for a savage whoop and holler notice that Marlow keeps insisting that Kurtz is a voice—a voice who seems to speak to him out of the heart of the immense darkness

86. Review of Criticism Religious: Heart of Darkness as an examination of various aspects of religion and religious practices. examine the way Conrad plays with the concept of pilgrims and pilgrimages the role of Christian missionary concepts in the justifications of the colonialists the dark way in which Kurtz fulfills his own messianic ambitions by setting himself up as one of the local gods

87. Review of Criticism Moral-Philosophical: Heart of Darkness is preoccupied with general questions about the nature of good and evil, or civilization and savagery What saves Marlow from becoming evil? Is Kurtz more or less evil than the pilgrims? Why does Marlow associate lies with mortality?

88. Review of Criticism Formalist : Focus on the literary patterns and structures inherent in Heart of Darkness Threes: There are three parts to the story, three breaks in the story (1 in pt. 1 and 2 in pt. 2), and three central characters: the outside narrator, Marlow and Kurtz Contrasting images (dark and light, open and closed) Center to periphery: Kurtz->Marlow->Outside Narrator->the reader Are the answers to be found in the center or on the periphery?

89. Review of Criticism Modernism: Heart of Darkness published in the Late Victorian Era 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 and interest in primitiveness and savagery as the condition upon which civilization is built a skepticism and a sense that multiplicity, ambiguity, and irony—in life and in art—are the necessary responses of the intelligent mind to the human condition.

90. Movie Versions of the Book

91. Apocalypse Now Apocalypse Now is a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola starring Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall and Marlon Brando This film was based on Conrad ’ s Heart of Darkness . Coppola takes the story to Vietnam. Captain Willard (Marlow) is sent on a mission to kill Colonel Kurtz who has gone renegade

92. Circle of Influence Thomas Pynchon T.S. Eliot Ernest Hemingway F. Scott Fitzgerald William Faulkner Gabriel Garcia Marquez Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Luis Borges Carlos Fuentes George Orwell Saul Bellow Eugene O ’ Neill Graham Greene