Fate or Free Will In a complex society, people are forced to make many hard choices. For thousands of years, people have theorized if these choices were truly made by themselves, or predetermined by an omnipotent being. In the late 19th century, Modernist writers became fed up with the Romanticized view of self-determination and the perfection of society in previous works of literature. One such author was Joseph Conrad, who tackled this issue in his novella Heart of Darkness. From the perspective of Marlow, the reader learns about a mythical figure stationed in the center of the Congo whom Marlow is destined to meet. Conrad manipulates Marlow’s journey with his established interest in the Congo, the apparent inevitability of certain events …show more content…
As Marlow is heading into the doctor’s office, he notices “two women one fat and the other slim… knitting black wool” (74). These figures remind Marlow of the knitting Moirae, who determine people's fates. After meeting with the doctor, he feels “as though [he] had been let into some conspiracy”(74). The two women create a precedent in his mind, reinforcing the belief that he is fated to visit the Congo. In the tail end of the novella, while Marlow is chasing Kurtz, he strangely remembers “the knitting old woman with the cat” (147). The “fates,” in his mind, were leading him to this specific point in his life, this was his destiny. Despite having very little physical influence on the narrative, Marlow’s knowledge of Greek mythology influences his decisions believing they were fated to occur. Marlow’s beliefs in fate and destiny determine his actions and making them self-fulfilling. Using his free-will, Marlow is creating his own fate for himself to follow. Marlow’s fatalistic beliefs cause him to follow a path he believes he has to follow. At a young age, Marlow convinced himself that the Congo was his destiny. When he was older he fulfilled this destiny. Many things drove him down this path, such as his beliefs in fatalism and that almighty beings were making his choices for him. Conrad, being fed up with older views on fate, created a more nihilistic take on the debate. The individual's fate is freely made by the individual
Although in order to deal with these situations one could ever imagine, one needs to be on a journey where these problems may arise, as demonstrated within Heart of Darkness and Blood Diamond. An individual may never know when an opportunity will come out in one 's favor, however, the ability to accept or decline the offer has a drastic change in your life whether one knows or not. “I got my appointment—of course; and I got it very quick. It appears the Company had received news that one of their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives. This was my chance, and it made me the more anxious to go.” (Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, 11) Marlow needs to see the trouble arising as the only reason he had achieved this job is due to the old employing dying from incidents in Africa by natives, as there are signs an individual may notice or not which can stop these incidents from occurring. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow had stated, "I had to wait in the station for ten days – an eternity." (Joseph Conrad, 27) This quotation demonstrates that Marlow was impatient to begin this path and journey of his life, as he wanted to discover this piece of land for than anything the slightest bit of delay is driving him insane. The journey in which an individual goes through is not always by choice, as in Blood Diamond Solomon was forced and
“The mind of the man is cable of anything.” These are the words Joseph Conrad uses to describe the potential of each human being, a potential that can be limited based on a person’s ideal of what is right and what is wrong. Conrad makes this ideal visible in his piece of literature “Heart of Darkness,” in which he describes Marlow’s, the novel’s protagonist, journey to the center of imperialism, Africa, where he encounters the dehumanizing treatment of white Europeans towards the African civilization. During his expedition, Marlow learns that morals are individual perceptions of what is right and what is wrong.
...o, while the novella’s archetypal structure glorifies Marlow’s domination of Kurtz. These two analyses taken together provide a much fuller and more comprehensive interpretation of the work. Conrad presents the idea that there is some darkness within each person. The darkness is is inherited and instinctual, but because it is natural does not make it right. He celebrates – and thereby almost advises – the turn from instinct. By telling Marlow’s tale, Joseph Conrad stresses to his audience the importance of self-knowledge and the unnecessity of instinct in civilization.
As Marlow tells his story we see and understand the situations Marlow faced. In his first encounter with the tribes men, Marlow steps into a "gloomy circle of some inferno", where dark figures surrounded him. He compares this incident with that of a massacre, the starving and wasting bodies lying in "confusion". Marlow then encounters a young black boy with a piece of white cotton string tied around his neck. This simple piece of string symbolizes the young boy's innocence. Shortly after Marlow offers the boy a biscuit, another one of the shapes approaches the river , crawling, and drinks of the water. Marlow could not stand the sight of the suffering any longer. It was as though he felt what they were feeling and just when he was willing to help, he stands up and walks away. The path where Marlow meets those that had traveled to an unknown land, and walked uncertain of where they where but sure of what they wanted, started here.
Heart of Darkness ?gHeart of Darkness?h, written by Joseph Conrad, holds thematically a wide range of references to problems of politics, morality and social order. It was written in a period when European exploitation of Africa was at a gruesome height. Conrad uses double oblique narration. A flame narrator reports the story as told by Marlow, assigned to the command of a river steamboat scheduled to transport an exploring expedition. Kurtz is a first-agent at an important trading post of ivory, located in the interior of the Congo. Both Marlow and Kertz found the reality through their work in Africa. Marlow felt great indignation with people in the sepulchral city after his journey to the Congo region because he discovered, through his work, the reality of the universe, such as the great virtue of efficiency, the darkness in society and individuals and the surface reality. When Kurtz found himself on his deathbed and he said ?gThe horror, The horror referring to his life in inner Africa, which caused him disintegration. Marlow emphasized the virtue of ?gefficiency?h throughout the story because he thought of it as the only way to survive in the wilderness. After seeing the dying natives in the forest of the outer station, Marlow described them as ?ginefficient.?h Under ?gthe devotion to efficiency,?h incompetent people were excluded from society. Only efficient people can survive. For example, since Kurtz was the most efficient agent, with regards to producing ivory, his employers respected his achievement and regarded him as an essential person.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel about a man named Marlow and his journey into the depths of the African Congo. Marlow is in search of a man named Kurtz, an ivory trader. Though Marlow?s physical journey seems rather simple, it takes him further into his own heart and soul than into the Congo. The setting, symbols and characters each contain light and dark images, these images shape the central theme of the novel.
His words are a trap that carries readers into the perception of the most complete darkness in a phonological cradle. The frame narration used by Conrad provides Marlow the chance to exit from the story and speak directly to his audience, and he often uses this occasion to remark, “No, 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 not possible to do that. We live, as we dream—alone” (Conrad, 130).
The novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is literally about Marlow’s journey into the Belgian Congo, but symbolically about the discovery of his heart and soul during his journey, only to find that it is consumed by darkness. He realizes that the man he admired and respected most, is really demonic and that he may be just like him. He is able to come to this realization however, before it takes the best of him.
Civilization is not as advanced as first assumed. Joseph Conrad asserts this disheartening message in his novel, Heart of Darkness. The novel follows a European man reliving his journey to the Congo through story telling to his shipmates. Through Marlow’s journey, Conrad reveals the stark contrasts between European civilization and African savagery. Heart of Darkness explores the struggles of different societies with an intention to expose the weaknesses of a complicated imperialistic ideal.
Heart of Darkness is a kind of little world unto itself. The reader of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness should take the time to consider this work from a psychological point of view. There are, after all, an awful lot of heads and skulls in the book, and 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.
Beyond the shield of civilization and into the depths of a primitive, untamed frontier lies the true face of the human soul. It is in the midst of this savagery and unrelenting danger that mankind confronts the brooding nature of his inner self. Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, is the story of one man's insight into life as he embarks on a voyage to the edges of the world. Here, he meets the bitter, yet enlightening forces that eventually shape his outlook on life and his own individuality. Conrad’s portrayal of the characters, setting, and symbols, allow the reader to reflect on the true nature of man.
A long debated issue that has plagued human beings since the fall of man is what leads people to commit evil actions and whether evil is inherent in all people. In the literary work of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Marlow grapples with those two similar issues. They way in which Charlie Marlow, the protagonist and skipper, goes about determining the answers are by observing his and other people's goals and motivations throughout his voyage of discovery and self-enlightenment in the Congo of Africa.
In Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness the story of Marlow, an Englishman travelling physically up an unnamed river in Africa and psychologically into the human possibility, is related to the reader through several narrational voices. The primary first-person narrator is an Englishman aboard the yawl, the 'Nellie', who relates the story as it is told to him by Marlow. Within Marlow's narrative are several instances when Marlow relies upon others, such as the Russian, the brickmaker and the Manager at the central station, for information. Therefore, through complicated narrational structure resulting from the polyphonous account, Conrad can already represent to the reader the theme of the shifting nature of reality. As each narrator relates what is important to them, the audience must realise that each voice edits, absents information and is affected by their own experiences and the culture and ideology within which they judge and respond. Therefore the text reveals itself as non-essentialist. It is also seen through the narratorial voices, who are all significantly European males, although challenging the received view of imperial praxis as glorious and daring, a racist and patriarchal text, which eventually, through Marlow's own assimilation of the ideology of his time, reinscribes and replicates that which it attempts to criticise: European action in Africa.
In Joseph Conrad's novel, The Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow narrates the story of his journey into the dark continent, Africa. Through his experiences he learns a lot about himself and about the nature of mankind. He discovers that all humans have the capability within themselves to do good or evil. Outside circumstances substantially influence which path a human will take. Marlow travels not only through the darkness of Africa, but also through the darkness of the human soul.
Literature is never interpreted in exactly the same way by two different readers. A prime example of a work of literature that is very ambiguous is Joseph Conrad's, "Heart of Darkness". The Ambiguities that exist in this book are Marlow's relationship to colonialism, Marlow's changing feelings toward Kurtz, and Marlow's lie to the Intended at the end of the story.