The Limits of Narrative in Heart of Darkness
Early English novelists depicted a very general reality; that is, what many observed to be "real" is what found its way into the narratives. For example, several novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries emphasize, or entirely revolve around, the idea of social status. Samuel Richardson's Pamela addresses a servant's dilemma between her morals and low social position; the hero of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones must also confront his "low birth." Jane Austen famously portrayed class struggles in nearly every one of her novels. These texts all represented the world at its face; the actions of the characters spoke for their "reality," and the narrator was simply the descriptor of these events. The novels conformed to a very narrow world-view, limited by popular thought. True, there was much to explore within this confinement, as shown by the range of commentary in the texts. Still, as stories they could only offer what society observed: a kind of reality by consensus. As Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness demonstrates, modernism rejected the aims and methods of realism, and claimed the inner self represented the real more closely than the public world. Furthermore, realism appeared to represent the world wholly and concisely. Conrad's novel rejects this, and instead exposes the failure of language to describe a complete reality. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow himself is incomplete, and so is his narrative. He is forced into imprecise language, resigned to using negative modifiers and repeating inexact words. He struggles to tell his story satisfactorily, and by his own admission, his telling is deficient. The limitation of language, then, becomes the focus of t...
... middle of paper ...
...e rejection of nineteenth century realism. Since Marlow the storyteller is flawed, his story falters as a result. The novel effectively reduces each to their flaws, but does not attempt to hide its limitations behind a manufactured authority. It is this absence, or seeming absence, of controlled writing that brings Heart of Darkness closer to "the real" than any authoritative work of realism.
Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. 1902. New York: Dover, 1990.
Erdinast-Vulcan, Daphna. The Strange Short Fiction of Joseph Conrad. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 78-108.
Greaney, Michael. Conrad, Language, and Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 57-76.
Hawthorn, Jeremy. Studying the Novel. 4th ed. London: Arnold, 2001. 60-61
Leavis, F.R. The Great Tradition. New York: Stewart, 1950. 173-82.
Authors often write not only to tell a story, but to communicate personal ideas and opinions to the readers. Even more personal beliefs can be read through the bias that the author uses, often the product of society or race. In the novella Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad displays his opinions through the attitudes and actions of his main characters Marlow and Mr. Kurtz. Similarly, Chinua Achebe shows his personal beliefs through the character Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart. Both authors, whether intentionally or not, show their opinions on the relations between Native Africans and European colonists in the Victorian era, and the races themselves.
The coronation of Charlemagne is now easier to understand after going through the historical evidence. It is clear that the Pope Leo is the driving force behind the coronation in order to expand papal authority and secure his own position from accusations. The overarching events of the time show that Empress Irene's decision to take the role of emperor is the key to allowing the coronation of Charlemagne to take place. Finally, through careful study of the primary sources and identifying the perspective of the writer the actual events before the coronation can be deduced despite contradictions between sources.
In many ways “Heart of Darkness” was a provisional novel between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Later on many of them were taken it as an adventure novel and started stage performances all over the world. The idea of a horror so terrible it could not be named was a nineteenth century mentality, as was the idea of anthropophagy as an extraordinary horror. The book was meanings as a lead in to the twentieth century for a number of reasons. One of the most important aspects was tied to twentieth-century susceptibilities as the sense of cultural belief, awareness of the irrational and of the insensible mind.
other hand, obesity accounts for about 13 percent of children in the United States, which is why physical education programs should be one of the last things to go. They also help students release the stress they have built up through out the day and teach them the ...
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow can be seen as the hero of the story despite his alternating morals and the fact that Marlow ultimately does nothing to improve the situation in Africa. Throughout the whole narrative Marlow finds himself thrust into many shocking situations yet chooses the path of an observant bystander, giving his own opinion at the time, but no lasting action or motivation is conceived. On top of this fact Marlow’s morals are anything but set in stone; they waver innumerable times over the course of the plot. Yet Marlow is more often than not seen as the prominent hero of the plot. How is this possible? This is because readers aren’t looking for perfection in a character, but depth, and Marlow achieves this level of depth through his epiphanies and the changes that take place in his perception of the world. These revelations in turn challenge the reader to reevaluate themselves.
As Marlow assists the reader in understanding the story he tells, many inversions and contrasts are utilized in order to increase apperception of the true meaning it holds. One of the most commonly occurring divergences is the un orthodox implications that light and dark embody. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness brims with paradoxes and symbolism throughout its entirety, with the intent of assisting the reader in comprehending the truth of not only human nature, but of the world.
The child’s game had ended. After I nearly ran Kurtz over, we stood facing each other. He was unsteady on his feet, swaying like the trees that surrounded us. What stood before me was a ghost. Each layer of him had been carved away by the jungle, until nothing remained. Despite this, his strength still exceeded that of my own. With the tribal fires burning so close, one shout from him would unleash his natives on me. But in that same realization, I felt my own strength kindle inside me. I could just as easily muffle his command and overtake him. The scene flashed past my eyes as though I was remembering not imagining. The stick that lay two feet from me was beating down on the ghost, as my bloodied hand strangled his cries. My mind abruptly reeled backwards as I realized what unspeakable dark thoughts I had let in. Kurtz seemed to understand where my mind had wandered; it was as though the jungle’s wind has whispered my internal struggles to him. His face twisted into a smile. He seemed to gloat and enjoy standing by to watch my soul begin to destroy itself.
* McClure, John A. “The Rhetoric of Restraint in Heart of Darkness” in Nineteenth Century Fiction, Volume 32, Issue 3 (Dec. 1977), pp. 310-26 – available through www.jstor.org
Without personal access to authors, readers are left to themselves to interpret literature. This can become challenging with more difficult texts, such as Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Fortunately, literary audiences are not abandoned to flounder in pieces such as this; active readers may look through many different lenses to see possible meanings in a work. For example, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be deciphered with a post-colonial, feminist, or archetypal mindset, or analyzed with Freudian psycho-analytic theory. The latter two would effectively reveal the greater roles of Kurtz and Marlow as the id and the ego, respectively, and offer the opportunity to draw a conclusion about the work as a whole.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness 3rd Ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton Critical, 1988.
Glossbrenner, Alfred, and Emily Glossbrenner. About the Author the Passionate Reader's Guide to the Author You Love, including Things You Never Knew, Juicy Bits You'll Want to Know, and Hundreds of Ideas for What to Read next. San Diego: Cader, 2000. Print.
Samantha Cleaver’s article titled “Is Your Child Getting Enough Physical Education?” addresses America’s past and previous issues regarding obesity. In addition, she also brings up the fact our country is overlooking the real reason as to why obesity is still a problem if children are required to take physical education classes. Cleaver explains that “only 4 percent of elementary schools, 7 percent middle schools, and 2 percent of high schools provide daily physical education classes for the entire year” (Cleaver, 2008) . Furthermore, Cleaver brings to our attention that America should take into consideration the small amount of physical education students are receiving, and the amount of time they are being active in the classroom. She
Proponents of physical education often contend their case with these and other similar arguments, but upon closer examination of the physical education system, its true use and effectiveness are highly questionable. Those who argue that physical education is integral to the nation’s health must reexamine the nation in which we live, a nation in which more than one-third of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pennsylvanian legislation has mandated physical education since 1999, but since 1999, the adult obesity rate has risen by 11%. Regardless of the proponents’ claims, physical education is not having its intended effect on public health. (Note: I am not trying to suggest that physical education is deleterious to public health. I am just showing that physical education has done a negligible job promoting health). Furthermore, physical education consumes an entire class period of a student’s day, a class period which could be spent learning one of many highly important, pertinent 21st century subjects that the Common Core has inexplicably ignored: micro and macro economics, U.S.
Gabbard, C., LeBlanc, B., & Lowy, S. (1994). Physical Education for Children: Building the Foundation, 2nd edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, inc.
Modernism began as a movement in that late 19th, early 20th centuries. Artists started to feel restricted by the styles and conventions of the Renaissance period. Thusly came the dawn of Modernism in many different forms, ranging from Impressionism to Cubism.