Joseph Conrad’s novella The Heart of Darkness can be read as a journey both physical and metaphorical. It is a journey into the very depths of darkness as it is into the depths of human psyche and soul. Africa that is seen as the dark continent and  the Eurocentric vision sees the natives are seen as savage, barbaric and uncivilized. But the pertinent question remains as to whose darkness are we addressing. The article delves into various aspects of this darkness and how the darkness exemplifies the darkness within one’s soul.

The aim of study of this paper heart of darkness whose darkness is it anyway?

As A.C. Ward puts it: “He was a realist because his creative genius, stabilised by experience, sought some central actuality as a starting point for all his stories. He did not invent plots. He was almost incapable of such invention. His material was reality, subjected to the transmuting process of a lively imagination. Seeds of fact planted in his mind germinated (sometimes through long periods) under the light of his imaginative temperament, until there grew the completed ‘romantic-realistic’ novel or tale.”[1]

Heart of Darkness wasoriginally produced serially in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and later published in the form of a novella in 1902.It details Marlow’s journey into the Belgian Congo and this journey is structured  on multiple levels. There is the physical journey that Marlowe undertakes abroad his steamboat into the dark continent,  but what is more important is the metaphorical journey into the of darkness of the heart of man. This article dwells on this journey motif and how the journey-both physical and metaphorical- changes the traveller.

The time that the novella is centred around is 1890 and that was the time when colonialism  was at its peak. European powers especially the English, the French and the Germans had their greedy eyes on Africa, the continent rich in minerals and natural resources. KingLeopold II of Belgium, was in possession of Congo Free State. Adam Hochschild, in his book King Leopold’s Ghost, goes at length to show how Africa was painted as a dark continent and all kind of outlandish beliefs were propagated to support this view.[2]  Leopold had at one time wanted to acquire Philippines but failed, and then he turned his greedy eyes towards Africa which was ironically seventy times the size of Belgium. To the outer world he masked his greed by posing it with a philanthropic campaign - that of ‘civilizing the Congo’. The International Association of the Congo was created in 1879 to convince the world that he wanted to drive the Arab slavers out of the Congo and establish free trade.[3] A Congo free State was established, through which Leopold embarked on rapid exploitation of the state. He gave land to private companies who in turn left no stone unturned to maximize profits. Initially it was ivory that fascinated him though later he turned to rubber because with the invention of pneumatic rubber tyre, raw demand of rubber had grown many times.To satiate his greed Leopold established the Force Publique which was a military force in Congo free state. The local population had no say in administration and this brute force employed all inhuman means to get to their evil ends. Hands were cut off if targets in collection of daily quota, were not met.Men were forced to collect rubber all day long and women were taken hostages and kept in cages like animals. What this brewed was  large scale deaths, disease and starvation, resulting in the country to be totally dependent on Belgium for food.[4] On his Congo voyage Joseph Conradsensitive soul was moved by what he saw.The hypocrisy of ‘civilizing the continent’ appalled him. He saw through the white man’s rhetoric and the hypocrisy of the benevolent project of ‘civilization’ of the ‘brutes’ appalled him. In his letter to William Blackwood on December 31, 1898, Conrad writes, “The title I am thinking of is The Heart of Darkness…The criminality of inefficiency and pure selfishness when tackling the civilizing work on Africa is a justifiable idea.”[5]

The novella begins with Marlowe the protagonist recounting his journey up the Congo river. Marlowe is travelling to retrieve Kurtz. The whole journey itself looks like an conundrum. It is a voyage into the dark and the unknown. The portrayal of Africa as a dark place is present throughout the novella. At the very outset the doctor to whom Marlowe goes for his check-up has a warning for him. After feeling his pulse and going through the regular check-up he wants to measure his skull. When  enquired about his reason for doing so, he categorically states that it was an experiment and of interest to science to watch the mental change that the dark continent is supposed to bring on, though he quickly adds that hardly anyone actually comes back. (p.16)This portrayal of darkness as the unknown and evil, is the discourse that is unnerving.

Africa in the novella reflects the Eurocentric colonial perspective that was largely prevalent during the 19^th century and continued till the early 20^th century. It is the fear of the unknown. Africa stands in sharp contrast to Europe which was taken as the norm and all digressions marginalized. This standpoint stems from the inherent fear of the European colonialists’ fear of the unfamiliar. Seeing from this standpoint Conrad’s portrayal of Africa is heavily influenced by this Eurocentric perception and is shown as a primitive and uncivilized land. Only European intervention can ‘redeem’ them. The portrayal at innumerable places is clearly disturbing:

“No they were not inhuman. Well you know that was the worst of it-this suspicion  of their not being inhuman”[6]

And their language: “they howled and leaped and spun and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of  their humanity-like yours-the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.”(p.58) 

But where the darkness actually dwells is quite clear by a number of episodes. Fresleven, Marlowe’s predecessor ‘was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs’(p.47) and yet he does not hesitate to whack an ‘old nigger thunderstruck’(p.47) . Then the gunboat that blindly drops shells into Africa:

There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts….Pop would go one of the six inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of dare devilry in the sight; andit was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives-he called them enemies!-hidden out of sight somewhere.(p.20)

African characters in the novella are made invisible. They are totally dehumanised, objectified and given no identity. These nameless and faceless figures function only as props in the plot. In contrast to Marlowe, Kurtz and other European figure who occupy centre stage, these characters are totally marginalized. The helmsman is a piece of machinery.  The natives manning the French steamer are ‘paddled by black fellows’(p.51). The most disturbing scene is that of the chain-gang which continues to haunt one’s conscience.

“Black rags were wound around their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck , and all were connected together with a chin whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.” (p.53)

Or the point where humans are nothing but ‘black shapes’ lying “crouched..beneath the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all attitudes of pain, abondment and despair.” (P.25 )Again as Marlowe  reaches the outer station, the first impression is portrayed in a very inhuman manner“Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up.” (p.26)“These moribund shapes…” (p.26)“one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees,” (p.27)

The European laws  created and executed by the whites were used to oppress the natives in their own land.  Lee Lourdeaux says regarding Apocalypse Now, the cinematic adaptation of The Heart of Darkness, that the imperialists are not merely using the law. The have seized from the native ‘the right to define the law’.Edward Garnett chooses to see the text as a ‘page torn from the life of the Dark Continent-a page which has been hitherto carefully blurred and kept away from the European eyes”[7]. He concludes his premise  by stating that Conrad's Heart of Darkness offers an “analysis of the deterioration of the white man's morale, when he is let loose from European restraint, and to make trade profits out of the subject races”[8]. To this Conrad responded and wrote “your brave attempt to grapple with the foggishness of Heart of Darkness, to explain what I myself tried to shape blindfold, as it were, touched me profoundly”[9].

Chinua Achebe’s  famous critique, “An Image of Africa”, refuses to see the text as any good because of the fact how Africa is dehumanised in it. He calls Conrad an outright racist and avers:

The point of my observations should be quite clear by now, namely that 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 unremarked [10]

Achebe points out how the Africans are referred as ‘specimen’ and how Marlow comments on how one African is an improved specimen because he can fire up a vertical boiler (Achebe 172). But as one reads on one realises that there is more humanity inherent in these ‘savages’ and the inhumanity of the ‘civilized’ world puts you on the edge.

"Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair."(p.25)

"The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us — who could tell? We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse."(p.57-58)

Such descriptions found in abundance in the novella tend to support Achebe’s view and reflect the dehumanization and objectification of the African characters in the novel, depicting them as savage, suffering, and inhuman, which is a significant critique of the work's racial attitudes. As Patricia Waugh in “Modernism and Enlightenment: Reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” says:

“The object of his critique is a corrupt ‘enlightened’ idealism which actually facilitates Imperialist expansion, but his critique is conducted in the very terms of what it sets to condemn. He ends therefore , by participating in the violence of its conceptual imposition.”[11]

Africa is described as a very underdeveloped and dangerous place to be in.  There are exceptions where Africa is portrayedalso times where Conrad describes Africa as a beautiful place (though he does not explicitly state that he thinks it is beautiful), how the land is glistening and the sea is glittering. But even in these descriptions there are usually traces of evil or danger lurking such as a creeping mist and the jungle being so dark green it is almost black. However, it should be noted that even the stereotypes of Africa as a paradise belong to the same discourse of exoticism.

The darkness then is not only the obscurity of the African jungle but refers to the darkness both moral and psychological residing in the characters. As Marlowe moves deeper in the jungle the decay and brutality glares at him. The inhuman treatment of the natives, their brutality and heartlessness is laid threadbare. Kurtz is an epitome of this darkness of European colonialism in Africa. Though he had started as an ambitious ivory trader he has sunk into the darkness and the absolute control and power has corrupted him absolutely. The resulting moral decay is symbolic of the moral decay and savagery of the entire colonial enterprise

It is only towards the end that the words “The Horror! The Horror” emanate but then perhaps it is too late to right the wrongs.

1. A.C Ward, Twentieth Century English Literature, (New Delhi: B.I Publications,1974) p.56.
2. AdamHochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).

3. Ibid., p. 64, 65, and 81.

4. Ibid., p. 161, 190, 191, and 233.

5. William Blackburn, ed., Joseph Conrad: Letters to William Blackwood and David S. Meldrum, (Durham: Duke UP, 1958). p.66

6. Joseph Conrad,(1902), The Heart of Darkness.P.58.

https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Conrad/Heart_Darkness.pdf . (All subsequent quotes have been taken from the above edition and included in the text)

7. LeeLourdeaux,  Italian & Irish Filmmakers in America (Springfield: Ford,Capra, Coppola & Scorsese, 1993.)

8. Ross Murfin, Heart of Darkness(New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 1996.) p.98.

9. ibid. p.99.

10. Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. "The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed.Vincent B. Leitch. (New York: Norton, 2001) p.1789.

11. Patricia Waugh, Practising Postmodernism/Reading Modernism, (London: Hodder Headline Group, 1992,) p.80