Literary Criticism: Heart of Darkness

The light, the dark, and the horror: Deconstructing Conrad’s colonial Heart of Darkness

Abstract: This essay deconstructs the notion that Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness is a justification for racism and colonization; instead, this essay argues that the novel demonstrates and satirizes the ability for one to become psychologically dark through the process of colonization. The novel does not directly expose the horror of violence in the Congo, but it does create a sympathetic appeal to readers that disavows the brutal force of conquest. Through the metaphor of lightness and darkness, the novel constructs a binary that originally depicts the separation between savage and civilized; however, through a closer reading this binary shifts to represent abstract ideas like truth and cultural integrations as light and violence and horror as darkness. This novel does much more to argue that the darkness might not be a geographical

darkness, or a pigmentation darkness, but perhaps a psychological darkness which is forged from the colonial process.

It’s the turn of the twentieth century when Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Heart of

Darkness and the European colonization of Africa is in full swing. At this time colonization inflicts its fair share of horror, but the race differential between white Europeans and a colonial race still breeds conflict. In 1871, Charles Darwin published his book The Descent of Man, in which he argued that some races would naturally and competitively rise in society. He says, “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races” (Darwin 102). This is part of the scientific context in which Conrad writes; however, science was not in power

over the colonies, the Europeans were. During Conrad’s time, King Leopold II was the monarch of Belgium, and thus the Belgian Congo. Leopold writes in a letter to Christian colonial missionaries, “Convert always the blacks by using the whip....Teach the niggers to forget their heroes and to adore only ours. Never present a chair to a black that comes to visit you” (Leopold II). To say the least, the colonization of the Congo was not a romantic one. This is where Joseph Conrad’s experience in the Congo and his novel Heart of Darkness steps in to comment on the colonial process. Contrary to critical analysis, Conrad’s novel does not idealize the imperialization of Africa. Through the use of his central metaphor, Conrad’s novel deconstructs the binary of civilization and savagery, and instead his novel does much more to argue that the

darkness might not be a geographical darkness, or a pigmentation darkness, but perhaps a psychological darkness which is forged from the colonial process.

Heart of Darkness opens with Marlow’s commentary on the colonial history of the

British Isles while on a boat on the Thames. He says, “‘And this also,’ said Marlow suddenly, ‘has been one of the dark places of the earth....I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago – the other day.... Light came out of this river ever since’” (Conrad 5). This can be read as Marlow’s, and Conrad’s, justification of the colonial process because it has brought light to a dark place of the earth; however, Marlow is only stating that there is civilization and light in England now, not that it has to be spread. Marlow continues to speak about the colonial process. He says, “What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth? ... The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germ of empires” (Conrad 5). Marlow speaks these words at the beginning of the novel, before he tells his story of the Congo. These words seem to justify the notion that Marlow is an imperialist at heart and truly believes that Europe is the light of the world and the rest is darkness. The light is what creates and prompts large empires to bear the light of civilization into the “uncivilized” world.

Under these assumptions, Chinua Achebe argues that Conrad’s novel is racist at heart and functions as an imperialist manifesto. He writes in his article “An Image of Africa,” “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unmarked” (Achebe 342). Achebe’s basis for this argument is that Heart of Darkness does not depict the human African, only the African landscape. Throughout the whole novel Africans do not serve as characters, but as a backdrop for the white European characters. Achebe states that this is the problem, “Africa as a setting and a backdrop which eliminates the African as a human factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril” (Achebe 343-

344). This dehumanization of Africans allows for the ease of colonization and denial of rights, this is true; however, Achebe seems to be overlapping Marlow and Conrad. Marlow does not spend his time in the book justifying the degradation of colonized peoples in the Congo and Conrad does not write to support the claim that Africans are less than people. By combining the two, its very easy to argue that this novel supports the dehumanization of Africans based on the fact they aren’t characters, but this book is not about the lack of the African voice – even though it is very sparse. Instead the heart of this novel lies not with the debate over its imperial motivation, as Achebe would suggest, it lies around the theme of darkness, horror, and light.

Conrad’s novel does more to expose the horror of the colonial process in the Congo than it does to justify it. Achebe suggests that “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization” (Achebe 338). In the novel, this binary is represented in the metaphor of lightness opposed to darkness. Marlow establishes this binary early on in the novel stating that the Thames ebbs light and the Congo ebbs darkness. Marlow speaks about Congo on a map, “True, by this time it was not a blank space any more...It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery ... It had become place of darkness” (Conrad 8). In this explanation, the European, civilized world represents light and the “uncivilized”

Congan world represents darkness, but throughout the novel this binary metaphor begins to morph and break down. The geographic sources of lightness and darkness become less important and the psychological sources begin to take the focus. Prior to Marlow’s departure, he speaks with the doctor, where Marlow is told that explorers are rarely seen again. He said when he does see them again that they don’t seem physically altered, but that “the changes take place inside” (Conrad 11). Conrad is suggesting that the real darkness associated with civility might come from the inside, not race or geography. The novel argues that this incivility, or darkness, manifests when put in morally challenging situations, such as the colonial Congo. This is where Achebe argues that Africa only serves as a moral battleground where white Europeans grapple with their hearts of darkness seeded from colonialism.

The cultural context in which Conrad writes is important to the message of the novel. He is writing amidst Victorian England where scientists and monarchs condone racism and practice cultural superiority. If Conrad is attempting to expose the horror and darkness associated with these evils, then he has to do so while appealing to his Victorian audience. According to an article by Samet Güven, “[Conrad] condemns the evil of colonial exploitation. Thus, it can be said that Heart of Darkness is different from traditional Victorian novel since the novel leads the readers to think realistically and reflects the truth of colonialism imposed by England in Africa” (Güven, 86). Conrad’s binary of Africa and Europe does not fully manifest itself in the binary of

light and dark; these two antitheses do not completely overlap. Heart of Darkness is not establishing a “savage other” for Europeans to downcast; instead, the novel is establishing a correlation between the two continents and drawing out the idea that neither geography, nor race breeds darkness, but horror does; the horror of colonialism is what Conrad disavows. This argument can be examined in an early passage in the novel. Marlow speaks about the Roman colonists that conquered England: "They were no colonists, their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you only want brute force – nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident

arising from the weakness of others...It was robbery with violence, aggravated

murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind – as is very proper for those

who tackle a darkness... What redeems it is the idea only" (Conrad 6-7).

This passage is integral to understanding Marlow’s disgust with violent conquerization and colonization. Marlow understands that the purpose for colonization has good intentions, but somewhere it has the ability to go dark. In the case of the Roman conquerors, through a darkness and violence, light and “civilization” was brought to England, but Marlow argues that this wave of civilization did not come as colonization, but it came as conquerization and occupation – two words that could be applied to Kurtz’s rule in the Congo. Therefore, it is possible argue that there are two forms of light Marlow speaks of, the light of spreading and mixing culture and civilization and the false light of conquest which causes horror, and eventually psychological darkness.

Kurtz serves as Marlow’s example of how colonization can turn into darkness. Marlow

describes the Congo River and compares it to Kurtz. He says, “The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress. And Kurtz’s life was running swiftly too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time” (Conrad 67). In this passage, the Congo’s heart of darkness is almost indecipherable from Kurtz’s heart. This darkness not only transcends time, it hinders the progress of the crew, who is working towards “pure” colonization. Marlow again describes Kurtz’s shroud of darkness. He states, “His was an impenetrable darkness. I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines” (Conrad 68). Marlow has these thoughts while Kurtz is on his deathbed, where Kurtz’s last words are “The horror! The horror!” (69). Marlow does not hold Kurtz in high regards after he perishes; in fact, Marlow seems to disavow the models of Kurtz’s clout. It is clear to see that Kurtz has some sort of remorse on the horror that he has experienced or inflicted while in the

Congo, and in Marlow’s eyes this horror is seen as the source of his “impenetrable darkness.” Somewhere along Kurtz’s colonization process, he struck horror which lead him down the road of psychological darkness stemmed from years of occupation and violence.

Even if Marlow doesn’t explain all of the implications of the dark imperial process

through Kurtz, Conrad suggests that the process always ends in darkness and horror. He doesn’t make this a geographical darkness, but the idea that colonization is a river that flows towards darkness – the two go hand in hand. The last lines of the book state that the Thames river “seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness” (Conrad 77). The Thames functions as a metaphor in the beginning of the novel. The river serves as the river of light that sails ships that carry imperialist light and civilization into the hearts of darkness, but after Marlow’s story the heart of darkness loses its place on the map and surrounds the entire mouth of the Thames. The English ships don’t have to sail to a colony to find darkness, if they set sail down the river of

imperialist desire they will surely be lead into hearts of darkness. Güven argues, “It is clear that Conrad regards colonialism and imperialism different from that of his citizens since he witnesses what the Europeans do in Congo during his journey and that is the reason why; it is possible to call Heart of Darkness as subversion of European colonial discourse” (Güven 86). Conrad’s novel explicitly demonstrates the racist tendencies that European powers inflicted on Africa. Achebe is right that European powers saw Africans as others and the antithesis to civilization,

but Heart of Darkness explores the binary between what is civil and incivil. Achebe claims the novel is degrading towards Africans because Conrad is a racist, but the novel depicts the subhuman conditions of Congans because this is how Europeans saw them. In order to expose the horrors of the colonial process Conrad has to first identify the cultural sentiments, replicate them, exaggerate them, and demonstrate how they dramatically influence the heart towards darkness. Through Conrad’s metaphor of light and darkness, the incivility doesn’t lie where the demarcated “darkness” lies, but the darkness lies inside of the psyche of the colonial process.

Conrad wasn’t racist; he used racism as a tool to explain the horror. Through the exposé style of Marlow’s story, readers are given a lesson on how not to colonize based on the assumption it causes horror and darkness. Nidesh Lawtoo argues, “Marlow's oscillating narrative functions as a persistent effort to conjure the phantom of mimesis

in front of his listeners... Moreover, Conrad reminds us that affective mimesis is responsible for the incorporation of dominant ideological imperatives, for putting them into praxis and for the horrors that all too often continue to ensue in our modern, mass-mediatized societies” (Lawtoo 68). Marlow uses his time and storytelling abilities to expose the horrors he witnessed in the Congo; therefore, Marlow functions as a journalist bringing the cultural implications of the colonial empire’s extent back to its source. Conrad is accomplishing the same goal by publishing Heart of Darkness. The purpose of the novel is not to justify the colonization of African nations, but to expose the colonial trade process for what it really is, unjust and full of exploitation. Conrad does not use the traditional approach of exposing the horror by graphically depicting the violence, but he instead creates characters that have fallen to psychological darkness driven by colonial power. This rhetorical construction creates a more personal connection with the process of colonization rather than a pure demonization of it.

The novel fixates largely on the source of darkness, so where is the light? The novel suggests that the true light comes from cultural adaptation and the exposing of horror. The novel begins with a brief exposition that includes a description on Marlow’s pose. The narrator says, “he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower” (Conrad 6). This comparison of Marlow to the Buddha implicates his travels in the East. Marlow never mentions horrors from that side of the world, only that he had visited, and now he has brought back pieces of the cultural context. An article by P.K. Saha states, “If Marlow is a flawed hero,

the Buddhist perspective becomes especially important for understanding him as a product of the nineteenth century, sharing in its guilt, yet attempting to transcend it” (Saha 159). Marlow never rises to his heroic potential of breaking the system of mass exploitation in the Congo, but he anticlimactically shares the story of what he has learned from the Congo. As a participant in the system of European rule in Africa, Marlow is involved in the problem and should share the guilt, which could be a reason for him telling this story. However, Marlow chooses actively to “preach” from his ship on the Thames, a ship that has the potential for sailing into darkness. Marlow draws on pieces of cultural baggage that he has accumulated from his world travels, and

without straightforwardly disavowing the colonial process, and even partially covering parts of the horror up to the Intended, Marlow displays a want to separate from the tendency to slip into an apathetic, psychological darkness that arises from colonization. From his story to his pose, Marlow embodies the idea that what European society needs is more cultural knowledge and experience. This is the truer light that Marlow argues is redeemable. Heart of Darkness is not Conrad’s attempt to promote the dehumanization of Africans or to decry the horrors the colonized people were subjected to. An article by White and Finston claims, “The problem, or better put, the source of the problem is not that Conrad was a racist who dehumanized Africans, as Achebe has charged, but that once Marlow begins steaming upriver, Conrad pretty much effectively abandoned the people of Africa and his memories of the horrors he witnessed there” (White, Finston 40). This article argues that Conrad does not have a

racist agenda, but that he chooses not to expand on the violence he witnesses. Marlow, too, does not speak to horrifying violence, his only interaction is through Kurtz’s horrors. However, Marlow’s rhetoric is never intended to explain the horrors of colonialism and why it should be stopped; instead, Marlow and Conrad allude to a problem that would relate to their listeners and readers. The rhetoric used argues that the heart is corrupted with darkness through the horrifying process of colonization. This appeal is not meant to capture the gut wrenching human indignities that were being carried out in the Congo, but the appeal was to white Europeans who want to call themselves civilized. Marlow is asking the question, are conquests really civil?

Unlike Darwin and Leopold II, Marlow and Conrad do not justify or encourage racism.

They see, through Kurtz’s eyes, that racial disparities breed violence and darkness. Marlow’s short mimicry of the colonial voice at the beginning of the novel does not embolden conquest, but parodies it. Conrad argues that colonialism is wrong because it influences one’s disposition for darkness. The act of colonialism masquerades as a light that attempts to bring civilization to the world; however, that mask of light only covers the horror underneath. Therefore, Heart of Darkness is not a manifesto supporting colonization or demonizing it; it is assuming the role of European powers and satirizing them. Instead, Conrad is arguing that the only real light comes from a blending of cultures and preaching about the influence horror has on the overall darkness of one’s psyche.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of

Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Paul B.

Armstrong. 4th ed. New York: Norton. 336-49. Print.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts,

Criticism. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.

Darwin, Charles. Descent of Man. Vol. 1. London: John Murray, 1871. Darwin Online: The

Descent of Man. Darwin Online. Web. 03 May 2015.

Güven, Samet. "Post-Colonial Analysis Of Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness." Journal Of

History, Culture & Art Research / Tarih Kültür Ve Sanat Arastirmalari Dergisi 2.2

(2013): 79-87. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 May 2015.

Lawtoo, Nidesh. "The Horror Of Mimesis: Enthusiastic Outbreak[S]" In Heart Of Darkness."

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Leopold, II. "Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium." Letter to Colonial Missionaries. 1883.

Saha, P.K. "Conrad's Heart Of Darkness." Explicator 50.3 (1992): 155. Academic Search

Complete. Web. 3 May 2015.

White, Harry, and Irving L. Finston. "The Two River Narratives In Heart Of Darkness."

Conradiana 42.1/2 (2010): 1-43. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 May 2015.