Attitude toward European Imperialism

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, “opens at sunset with Marlow in the company of four friends aboard the yawl Nellie at anchor in the Thames estuary waiting the turn of the tide” (Knowles and Moore 173). Marlow tells the story of his personal experience in the Congo. He, as a sailor of a steamboat, departed from Europe to Africa, where was “one of the dark places of the earth” (Conrad 3). His first assignment was to rescue Kurtz, who was a top agent working of the company in Africa and had fallen ill. Marlow voyaged along the Congo River. On the way up to the Congo, he “passed through several abandoned villages” (Conrad 17). He felt “the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck him as something great and invincible” (Conrad 20). He went through three stations of his company: Outer Station, Central Station, and Inner Station. He saw the despicable behavior of the European traders had done to the Africa natives, only for ivory. Marlow presented with this unseen violence in the cruel suffering of the indigenous Congolese. He saw the corruption of imperialists through his journey. He witnessed scenes of the “horrors” in the Congo. He was shocked by the “horrors.” He described his pilgrimage like nightmares. Conrad uses a frame narrative (Chantler 11) to show his attitude towards imperialism in the depiction of the different stations along Marlow's journey and the people that Marlow encounters.

When Marlow came to the first Station, Outer Station, he first witnessed the treatment of the natives. He recounted, “There were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove” (Conrad 13) the natives. Marlow saw a pile of decaying machinery on the ground and a group of black people arduously walking along...

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...ath” (Conrad 54). Kurtz’s miserable ending indicates the death of European imperialism. “All Europe contribute to the making of Kurtz” (Conrad 45), and also make themselves go to the heart of darkness.

Work Cited

Bloom, Harold. Joseph Conrad. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2003. Print.

Chantler, Ashley. Heart of Darkness: Character Studies. London: Continuum, 2008.

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Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Dover, 2013. Print.

Goonetilleke, D.C.R.A. "Heart of Darkness: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction.

Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center.

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Knowles, Owen, and Gene M. Moore. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Conrad.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

Watt, Ian P. Essays On Conrad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. eBook

Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 7 May 2014.