“Heart of Darkness” is the literary masterpiece of Joseph Conrad that proves him the creator of exotic vistas, adventurous narratives and acutely ironic insights into human nature and the bases of civilization.
Before we discuss the
story let’s have a view on the main characters of this story and their relationships. The story’s main character is Marlow - a character who is probably in no small part based on the author himself – and his journey of self-discovery. Kurtz
represents someone who has succumbed to that fascination and has sunk into savagery. Marlow creates an
image of Kurtz possibly in the image of the man he himself would have liked to be and he thinks that Kurtz can tell him things about himself, which he does not know.
Major themes of the story are imperialism, colonization, humanity and truth. The story implies that the setting of laws and codes that encourage men to achieve greater and greater tasks creates civilizations. It acts as a buffer to prevent men from reverting back to their darker tendencies. The tendency to revert to savagery is seen in Kurtz. When Marlow meets Kurtz he finds a man who has totally thrown off the restraints of
civilization and has de-evolved into a primitive state. The underlying theme of “Heart of Darkness” is that civilization is superficial and the level of civilization is less stable or permanent that many people in society perceive.
There are three African Wilderness views which predominate in “Heart of Darkness” i.e. Marlow’s aunt point of view to see Africa full of savages that need to be saved – or Belgians in the outer station, Africa’s wilderness represents economic prospects like free slave labor and ivory – or Marlow himself, Africa represents a chance for adventure and self-discovery.
Finally we can say that “Heart of Darkness” is a dark, haunting, very well-written exploration of madness spawned by disconnection from civilization.
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