Heart of Darkness and Wide Sargasso Sea:
Depiction and Effect Due to Colonization
Both Heart of Darkness and Wide Sargasso Sea deal with Englishmen, Charles Marlow and Mr. Rochester, who are placed in unfamiliar and different environments than accustomed to. These two characters not only deal with their own personal struggles, but are connected to the struggles of people close to them (namely Kurtz and Antoinette).Joseph Conrad and Jean Rhys attribute these hardships to the effects of colonialism. Conrad mainly uses Kurtz as his symbol for colonialism, while Rhys uses Mr. Rochester. The ways in which these two characters interact with their new settings move the narratives.
Throughout Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad points to the hypocrisy and horrors associated with colonialism. The half-English, half-French Kurtz is the main vehicle used to convey his theme of European colonialism, as “all [of] Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” (Conrad 164). It was Kurtz who goes to Africa for the "sake of loot, and thus becomes a great literary symbol for the decadence of colonialism" (Zins 63). With his help, Marlow dissects the reasoning behind colonialism, eventually seeing its evil nature.
Kurtz was the chief of the Inner Station, where he was in charge of a very important ivory-trading post. Marlow learns that because of Kurtz’s ability to obtain more ivory than anybody else, he is of “greatest importance to the Company” and is to become a “somebody in the Administration” (Conrad 143). However, a critical aspect is the way in which he went about his business, as it was ruthless and selfish, characteristics that go hand-in-hand with European colonization.
Despite being such an integral character, Kurtz, for the most ...
... middle of paper ...
...nd Helen Tiffin. Key Concepts in Post-colonial Studies. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.
Bausch, Richard, and R. V. Cassill. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 126-86. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000. Print.
Hay, Eloise Knapp. The Political Novels of Joseph Conrad: a Critical Study. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1972. 120. Print.
Rhys, Jean, and Judith L. Raiskin. "Wide Sargasso Sea." Wide Saragossa Sea: Backgrounds, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. 3-112. Print.
Zins, Henryk S. "Joseph Conrad and the Early British Critics of Colonialism in the Congo." Lubelskie Materiały Neofilologiczne 22.(1998): 155-169. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Sun. 08 May 2011.
Conrad’s interpretation of imperialism is an interesting view of the matter. He successfully portrays his perception of imperialism through his novella, Heart of Darkness. He developed his own impressionistic style within his novel and is coined as one of the most difficult authors to comprehend. His use of the tools within his area of expertise allows the novella to unfold before the readers’ eyes. His ability to manipulate the art of language into an intricately woven design made of simple words is an astounding capability and is a primary reason for the success of Heart of Darkness. In the final chapters of the novella, the protagonist Marlow is sailing away from the dark heart of the Congo with an ailing Kurtz. As the boat makes its decent from the depth of the jungle, symbolically, Kurtz is leaving the savagery in which he was engaged. With each passing mile, he becomes more civilized and ultimately comes to the realization of the error of his ways. Symbolically, as he leaves the darkness of the heart of the river, he becomes sane and civilized and comprehends th...
Guetti, James. 'Heart of Darkness and the Failure of the Imagination', Sewanee Review LXXIII, No. 3 (Summer 1965), pp. 488-502. Ed. C. B. Cox.
In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, he asserts man’s extensive capacity for evil. Through the method of European imperialism, Conrad contrasts the civilized outer European world to the dark uncharted African jungle. Charlie Marlow, the protagonist of the story, recounts his journey into the Congo to resupply the ivory stations and his quest for a man named Kurtz while explaining his adventures to four other men on ship called the Nellie, which happens to be heading towards London on a river called the Thames. Marlow decides to share his trek when he notices the London skyline and begins to think of “ ‘one of the dark places of the earth,’ ” thus referring to the African Congo (11). Mr. Kurtz serves as the mysterious character in the
In the present era of decolonization, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents one of fictions strongest accounts of British imperialism. Conrad’s attitude towards imperialism and race has been the subject of much literary and historical debate. Many literary critics view Conrad as accepting blindly the arrogant attitude of the white male European and condemn Conrad to be a racist and imperialists. The other side vehemently defends Conrad, perceiving the novel to be an attack on imperialism and the colonial experience. Understanding the two viewpoints side by side provides a unique understanding that leads to a commonality that both share; the novel simply presents a criticism of colonialists in Africa. The novel merely portrays a fictional account of British imperialism in the African jungle, where fiction offers maximum entertainment it lacks in focus. The novel is not a critique of European colonialism and imperialism, but rather a presentation of colonialism and the theme of darkness throughout the novel sheds a negative light on the selfishness of humanity and the system that was taking advantage of the native peoples. In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad presents a criticism of British imperial colonization not for the purpose of taking sides, but with aims of bettering the system that was in place during Conrad’s experience in the African Congo. Conrad uses the character of Marlow and his original justification of imperialism so long as it was efficient and unselfish that was later transformed when the reality of colonialism displayed the selfishness of man, to show that colonialism throughout history displaces the needs of the mother country over the colonized peoples and is thus always selfish.
Using these ironic terms shows that Conrad wanted to exploit the Native people of Africa and the European people working in Africa through a postcolonial analysis. Whether or not this story has some truth to it as to when Conrad did travel to the Congo is not known. But there is not escaping the premeditated attempts by Conrad to illustrate these two separate cultures as ones whose qualities intersected and overlapped.
Every aspect in Conrad?s book has a deep meaning, which can then be linked to the light and dark imagery. In the novel there are two rivers, the Thames and the Congo. The...
Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 6th ed. vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993. 1759-1817.
Bradley, Candice (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Lawrence Univ.). "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture, 24 Jan. 1996. Available: http://www.freespeech.org/james/conrad/heart.htm (Accessed: Apr. 2001)
Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” Norton Anthology of British Literature. 7th Edition. Vol. B. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et. al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Watts, Cedric. 'Heart of Darkness.' The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad. Ed. J.H. Stape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 45-62.
These emissaries of light are shown to be crude, sordid and violent. They had no regard for the destruction of Africa’s natural environment, wantonly destroying hills in a feeble attempt to establish a railway, “No change appeared on the face of the rock....the cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on.” (Conrad 76) This statement reveals the real motive for venturing into the Congo which was not to bring a better, more civilized lifestyle to the poor, underprivileged Africans; but to satisfy their lust for power. “It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.” (Conrad 65)
Within the text of Heart of Darkness, the reader is presented with many metaphors. Those that recur, and are most arresting and notable, are light and dark, nature and Kurtz and Marlow. The repeated use of light and dark imagery represents civilization and primitiveness, and of course the eternal meaning of good and evil. However, the more in depth the reader goes the more complex it becomes. Complex also are the meanings behind the metaphors of nature included within the text. It represents a challenge for the colonists, often also signifying decay and degeneration. Finally Kurtz and Marlow represent imperialism and the colonists. All these metaphors come together and contribute not only to the effect for the reader, but also to the overall meaning.
Marlow's idea that the English are capable of competently approaching imperialism has no supportive evidence. In any case, the savage and inefficient methods of the Belgians prove that the idealistic claims of European imperialism are far from true. In this, it is likely that Conrad's experience in the Congo changed his outlook on imperialism, just as it did Marlow.
* Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness” in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, M.H. Abrams, general editor. (London: W.W. Norton, 1962, 2000)
By the time Marlow and Kurtz meet, Marlow is already well aware of the similarities they share. Both are imperialists, and while Marlow detests the treatment of the natives by his employers (Belgian colonists), he also makes apparent his abhorrence toward the Africans. On the other hand, Kurtz abandons the pretense of helping the natives achieve civilization, as displayed by the Europeans. Instead, he adopts their customs and becomes their leader in the never-ending quest for ivory. "He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of the supernatural beings- we approach them with the might as of a deity' (Longman, 2000, p. 2226). Marlow also admired Kurtz' resourcefulness and survival skills, especially his perseverence through jungle fever. "The wilderness had patted him on the head....it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite." (Longman, 2000, p. 2225).