Analysis of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Analysis of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

When Joseph Conrad composed Heart of Darkness he created a literary masterpiece which embodied the essence of light contrasting with darkness. Throughout the novel Conrad constantly utilizes the images of light and dark and uses them to mold a vision, which the reader is then able to use to decipher the literal and metaphorical meanings of the novel. As Conrad said, “ 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, before all, to make you see.” (Crankshaw 34) In Heart of Darkness Conrad makes the reader “see” by absorbing into every aspect possible of the book images of lightness and darkness. The light and dark images of the novel contrast not only each other but them selves allowing the reader to envision the struggle one encounters once they have met with the darkness in their heart. The setting, symbols, and the characters each contain light and dark images create the center theme of the novel.

The physical setting of the novel plays a major role in the journey through Heart of Darkness in both a physical or literal sense as well as in the metaphorical journey through one’s own heart. Each and every aspect of the setting can be paralleled to darkness and unknown aspects of one’s own self. This aspect provides for the metaphorical ways of interpreting the novel. The novel opens on the deck of a large sailing vessel called the Nellie. As the reader is introduced to each character onboard the ship the sun is continuing its decent and shortly all will be exposed to the utter darkness brought upon with the approach of night. Marlow then begins the journey, which will bring the reader into the far reaches of the African Congo. This beginning scene is the first use of the darkness. These images are used to foreshadow the mystery of what lies ahead for Marlow on his journey. Marlow uses the first images of light verses the dark or the civilized verses the uncivilized when he imagines what the past must have been like on the Thames Estuary:

…Light came out of this river since- you say Knights? Yes; but it was like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in a flicker-may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.

(Conrad 7)

Within this narrative paragraph Marlow se...

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..., at least in the case of Marlow, constantly and uselessly pondering its ‘inscrutable’ intention, the native is one with it, embraced by it, fairly breathed by it…” (Johnson 71). This paragraph explains clearly why the white men go insane when in isolation and why the natives are defined as hallow men who are easily manipulated and abused by the white men. Here, within explanation of characters, the reader is able to decipher the secret as to why light and darkness can not intertwine with one another.

By reading the novel and comprehending all of the different aspects, one will be able to go through both interior and exterior journeys of Marlow. While reading Heart of Darkness one must take George Moore’s advice in that you must study “the paragraph, and afterwards the page, and after the page the chapter. And the chapter (should be)sought in relation to the book: the book was always in mind…” (Moore 167). This quote represents the cylindrical cycle which the novel is set in. Once Marlow is finished with his story the untold story of the narrator will begin, and all through his adventure he will surely keep in mind the story of Marlow and the light and darkness in us all.