Moral Restraint and Thought in "Heart of Darkness"

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Modernist authors of the twentieth century reinvented literature. Instead of placing the main focus of storytelling on the story itself, they went one step further and based their novels on the concepts of truth, and the understanding of self. They explored the ideas of consciousness, alienation, and inner conflict within the mind, and asked important questions of the reader while testing the boundaries of the soul. Henry James, for example, was concerned with the act of thought itself, and his writings transpired mainly within the minds of his characters. Joseph Conrad, who was an admirer of James, created characters that were influenced by their surroundings, and not just their inner thoughts. Everything from the sway of a tree, to the colour of ones shirt played a role in the mental state of Conrad's characters. In Preface to the Nigger of Narcissus, Conrad wrote "My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel - it is, above all, to make you see. That - and no more and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm-all you demand-and perhaps the glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask"(Preface to The Nigger Of Narcissus.2019). This task is fully achieved in his later work Heart of Darkness.

Heart of Darkness is the ultimate search for moral truth, and self-restraint. This novella explores the concepts of nature versus man, light versus dark, mortality, body and soul. Conrad chooses to relate this story through the eyes of the sailor Marlow, while placing the reader in the position of his shipmates who listen as he recounts his experiences as a young man, traveling up the Congo. With great accuracy we are able to get into the young Marlow's mind, and experience all that he feels, hears, and fears during his time in the heart of the jungle. Conrad's use of metaphors and imagery are what makes this relationship With Marlow possible.

The imagery of darkness, gloom, and death are present in every aspect of the story from the start of this novella to the finish, giving it an air of mystery, and despair, almost like a dream, or a nightmare. The reader automatically senses that something is not quite right, in setting of the tale, and as the haze drifts in and out of the pages, the reader is enlightened little by little.

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