HEART OF DARKNESS: STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Civilization & colonization are a cycle. In Heart of Darkness, countries like England and France are in the process of subjugating nations in Africa. Though believed to be the height of civilization, these two countries were once subdued and colonized with the same methods they employ in Africa by the Roman empire years before. Marlow references this cycle when he muses that England had once been one of the “dark places of the world,” and he uses this fact to delineate the irrationality of colonization. Rome in Caesar’s timeEngland under Elizabeth I African Chieftan

A balance must be struck between Apollonian and Dionysian forces to maintain sanity. European nations like England and France in Heart of Darkness adhered to strict moral codes of conduct and were veritably obsessed with the ordered Apollonian style of life. When men went off to Africa, then, the complete lack of Apollonian structure caused them to lose their minds as they were consumed with primitive, Dionysian impulses. The Doctor, in warning Marlow to avoid agitation, touched on this as a cause of insanity, and Marlow, as he mused over the internal aspects of the men he met, examined the breakdown inevitable when one side of this scale becomes disproportionately large. Order, law and art under Apollo Unrestricted immorality and pleasure nder Dionysus

The hypocrisy of colonization Heart of Darkness paints for us a vivid picture of the hypocrisy of colonization: countries colonizing others based on the idea of “civilizing” a place, when, in actuality, they destroy the people and the land. Even more frustrating is Marlow--Africans, to him, book mostly objects; Marlow refers to his helmsman as a piece of machinery, and Kurtz’s African mistress is at best a piece of statuary. It can be argued that Heart of Darkness participates in an oppression of nonwhites that is much more sinister and much harder to remedy than the open abuses of Kurtz or the Company’s men. Africans become for Marlow a mere backdrop, a human screen against which he can play out his philosophical and existential struggles.

White Areas on the Map At the beginning of his tale, Marlow recounts how, when he was young, he was fascinated with the white areas on the map, the areas yet to be explored. Areas scoured by man were full of lines and shading, but those untouched remained pure white. In keeping with Conrad’s theme of the destructive and irrational nature of colonization, these maps play a crucial role. Because the unexplored regions remained white, they were pure and uncorrupted, but everywhere man’s foot had been, the land on the map turned black.

Fresleven’s Body Marlow’s precursor, Fresleven, died in a fight with the natives over two chickens. After he died, however, his bones remained exactly where they had fallen, and grass grew up through them. The natives refused to touch the bones, for they had thought Fresleven to be a god, and his death alarmed them. Because he was capable of dying, however, he could not have been a god, and his bones remained visible as a sign to the natives that the whites were no more deified than they were.

Kurtz’s painting Shown to Marlow by the Brickmaker, this piece of art depicted a blindfolded woman holding a lighted torch aloft in the darkness. Such an image combines ancient depictions of Justice, who was blind, and Liberty, who held a lighted torch. Kurtz’s choice of image reflected the irrational European view that colonization was bringing civilization and peace to those they conquered, and the fact that a woman was shown as the symbol emphasizes Marlow’s belief that women live in a world of their own, separate from the actual, tangible facts of the world.

Light vs. Darkness In Heart of Darkness, light doesn't necessarily symbolize pure goodness or pure enlightenment. In fact, Conrad's vision is so dark that we're not even sure he fully trusts light. As Marlow says, "sunlight can be made to lie, too" (3.50). Over and over, we see light giving way to darkness: the sun sets, sane people go crazy, and the white ivory introduces a brutal trade. And over and over, we see black and white merging: Brussels as a "whited sepulcher" (1.21); the ivory deep in the black jungle; the white-capped woman knitting with black wool (1.24), the Intended as a "pale head" dressed "all in black" (3.53). Marlow compares white men to black men, and concludes (potentially) that these men are all the same. Consider what happens when his steamboat is stuck in the fog: he says that the fog is so thick that they can't tell up from down. Without understanding differences—like the difference between black and white, or up and down—you can't tell anything at all.

The White Sepulcher The “White Sepulcher” is a Biblical allusion: The phrase “whited sepulchre” comes from the biblical Book of Matthew. In the passage, Matthew describes “whited sepulchres” as something beautiful on the outside but containing horrors within (the bodies of the dead); thus, the image is appropriate for Brussels, given the hypocritical Belgian rhetoric about imperialism’s civilizing mission. (Belgian colonies, particularly the Congo, were notorious for the violence perpetuated against the natives.)