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The Symbolism of Darkness in "Heart of Darkness
Symbolism in the heart of darkness review essay
The Symbolism of Darkness in "Heart of Darkness
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In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, symbolism is quite prevalently used to portray the development of the heart of darkness. Conrad used a variety of symbols, including characters, objects, and ideologies.
The first narrator and Marlow supply contradicting beliefs on the colonization of Africa. The first narrator believed that it was England's duty to save Africa from their own savage ways, like the Romans did to England many year before. When the Romans first went to England it was a vast and wilderness to them, as Africa was to England. He thought that colonialism would assist the African people to find a purpose and aid the country to prosper, as England
Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 to Polish parents (Gorra 42). His classic novella Heart of Darkness is based largely on his personal journey to the Dark Continent in 1890. His naval adventures with the French Merchant Marines and British Merchant Service greatly influenced each of his works (Hampson 99).
In the book “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad wrote about the horrors that were committed by Leopold’s regime. As one of the first insider to witness these horrors, he wrote “Heart of Darkness”, with this book, he was able to spread the word about the atrocities he had seen in Leopold’s greedy pursuit of rubber and ivory in the congo. This book details closely how Leopold made his humongous profit. Leopold issued decrees on the Congo such as that the native people may only trade with his state agents or with his concessions. Leopold’s concessions were private companies that would sell the ivory and rubber, they would give Leopold 50% of their profits. The Abir Congo Company was one of these concessions that harvest the natural rubber of the Congo.They were granted a large portion of the land in the north and had the right to impose a rubber tax on its inhabitants. It was through concessions like these but also from his personal company (the Congo Free State) that Leopold created his personal wealth. This book brings us one step closer to answering our question since it tells us how Leopold got ahold of all of his profits. But this brings us to another question of, exactly how much money did the Congo bring to Leopold II?
There are three main topics to discuss when it comes to analyzing Conrad’s Heart of Darkness - symbolic interpretations, character development and language. Heart of Darkness has an abundance of almost subliminal undertones. This novella is written to such precision and high detail that almost every paragraph has a significant part to play in the overall plot. The author, Conrad, concentrates on creating a story to illustrate ideas and themes, rather than just a simple narrative. These ideas and themes are constantly pitched at the reader in a very intense and unrelenting manner, which makes them all the more powerful. Therefore, even a passage of just five pages can have a remarkable amount of detail to discuss.
In analysis of Heart of Darkness, much is made of Conrad’s intentions in telling his
Vague Descriptions in Heart of Darkness. A dark, unfamiliar setting and a suspenseful plot give Heart of Darkness the characteristics of a good novel, but what really stands out is Conrad's writing. The story is full of vague imagery and descriptions that the reader must contemplate in order to fully understand. Writing so vividly was an impressive feat for Conrad, who was actually not a native English speaker.
In today‘s civilization, we find many menacing emotions that keep us humans from doing good deeds. We have different states of mind, and consciousness. There are levels that allow us to openly express what we are thinking. But there are also levels we know exist, but we refuse to allow others to know. Also, there are even states of mind we can’t even comprehend on our own. In Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, the 3 states of the conscious mind are connected, displayed and ignored as the Europeans conform to what everyone else is doing and disregard their own true thoughts. The consciousness of the mind is easily overpowered by menacing forces, such as conformity, savagery and ignorance. These menacing forces encircle all forms of civilization, and have an effect on the human brain whether it’s realized or not.
Throughout the excerpt from, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses many forms of imagery and figurative language to reveal the mood. The imagery used is a key factor to get the reader involved in the novella and truly understand the excerpt. The figurative language used demonstrates an ominous and uneasy mood through the metaphors, similes etc.
Beyond the shield of civilization and into the depths of a primitive, untamed frontier lies the true face of the human soul. It is in the midst of this savagery and unrelenting danger that mankind confronts the brooding nature of his inner self. Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, is the story of one man's insight into life as he embarks on a voyage to the edges of the world. Here, he meets the bitter, yet enlightening forces that eventually shape his outlook on life and his own individuality. Conrad’s portrayal of the characters, setting, and symbols, allow the reader to reflect on the true nature of man.
In typical novels, many of the symbols in the Heart of Darkness are used as symbolizing the same things. Light is normally a symbol of knowledge and darkness symbolizes evil. White normally symbolizes purity and black is typically death. In Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of darkness, these symbols differ from what a reader is used to them representing. Along with symbolism, in the novel, the white man dehumanizes the black man in the Congo where the novel takes place.
The use of irony within the ‘The Heart of Darkness’ by Conrad is an important notion. Irony in this novella helps to bring about encapsulating self-discovery and enlightenment of the self. Furthermore the use of characters and what they represent also brings about communicating what it means to be civilised. Thus these two facets shall be the focus within my essay.
An iconography is a symbolic representation that carries hidden meaning of a term, image, and item. Both Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart fully describe many symbolisms of specific items and all of them are attached to different kinds of meaning behind. Although Heart of Darkness is a famous literature that was criticized by Chinua Achebe and each of their work represents different point of views during similar time of history, both literatures have a similarity that they operate iconography in relation to race, class and identity with their own interpretations of symbols and icons.
In his novel, Conrad uses the literary element of symbolism through the painting, darkness, and the white sepulcher to demonstrate the theme of As Marlow continues to work for the Company, he continues to see darkness revealed in a plethora of ways. As the story begins, Marlow talks about how the Congo is dark. Readers later come to see specific examples of what he meant. " ' And this also, ' said Marlow suddenly, 'has been one of the darkest places of the earth '" (Conrad 3).
The "Heart of Darkness," written by Joseph Conrad in 1899 as a short story, is about two men who face their own identities as what they consider to be civilized Europeans and the struggle to not to abandon their themselves and their morality once they venture into the "darkness." The use of "darkness" is in the book's title and in throughout the story and takes on a number of meanings that are not easily understood until the story progresses. As you read the story you realize that the meaning of "darkness" is not something that is constant but changes depending on the context it used.
Every great author posses the ability to create a novel deeply woven in symbolism and subliminal messages. Underneath the literal journey encountered in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness lies a tale saturated with subtle, yet, significant imagery that brings forth the true meaning of the novella. Throughout Heart of Darkness Conrad uses a plethora of simple colors, objects, and places to convey multifaceted images and ideas. His fine execution of the tools of the English language allows him to quickly lure the reader aboard the Nellie and not release him until the horror is over. Although the interpretation of symbols in the Heart of Darkness is elaborate, due to their simplicity they are often overlooked.
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a great example of a Modernist novel because of its general obscurity. The language is thick and opaque. The novel is littered with words such as: inconceivable, inscrutable, gloom. Rather than defining characters in black and white terms, like good and bad, they entire novel is in different shades of gray. The unfolding of events takes the reader between many a foggy bank; the action in the book and not just the language echoes tones of gray.