Heart of darkness door Joseph Conrad

Summary The auditor is on the Nellie. This was a boat. He was going to begin to sail on a river to the heart of Africa. Marlow is also on the boat. He tells a story to the auditor and others. He explains why he went to Africa in the first place, because he uses to be a seaman. His reason was that when he as a child, there where white spaces on the map of Africa. He wanted to discover these places. But after a few years most of these spaces where filled in with names, rivers and colonies. Still, he wanted to go there. His aunt gave him an opportunity. He got a job to maintain different stations at the river in Africa. He worked for the Company. He had to stay quite a long time at one place because his steamer was broken. Marlow was a captain. When he was at this place, at a head-station, he found out how the whites destroyed the wilderness and how they ill-used the ‘niggers’. He heard a lot of a certain man called ‘Mr. Kurtz’, who used to work for the Company and who had more ivory than everyone at the Company. They had abandoned him because he wanted to keep the ivory for himself. Everyone was very jealous of him. One day, when Marlows steamer was fixed, he got an order to go to Mr. Kurtz to take him away from his station because he was ill. He got a crew, thirty black men, and a manager and three other white men also travelled with him. They sailed for months. When they were very close to Kurtz’ station, they were attacked by a lot of black people. They killed the black assistant of Marlow, but were scared away with a rifle. When they arrived at the station the manager and his assistants went to Kurtz’ house. Marlow stayed at the steamer. He met a Russian who admired Kurtz and worked for him. He talked about his intelligence and great adventures and his great speech. He said that everyone who heard Kurtz would admire him. Marlow really wanted to talk to Mr. Kurtz. The manager and other men carried Kurtz out of the house on a stretcher. The Russian left the place, and went to the wilderness to disappear forever. When the manager and his crew came out of the house, they were suddenly surrounded by thousands of black people who were ready to attack. They wanted to protect Kurtz, because they admired him too. Kurtz sat up and commanded them to go. They obeyed. Kurtz ivory was brought to the steamer, too. In a hut on the steamer Kurtz talked to Marlow. At night, when Marlow looked at the stretcher, Kurtz was gone. Marlow found him lying in the grass near by the steamer and he carried him back. Kurtz was dying. He gave his documents, letters and a picture of his girl to Marlow. Then he died. His last words were. “The horror, the horror” When Marlow arrived back in England he went back to Kurtz girl to give her the documents and letters and her picture. Kurtz had been dead for one year now, but she was still mourning. They talked about Kurtz. She wanted to know what his last words were. Marlow said it was her name. He couldn’t tell the truth because ‘t would have been too dark – too dark altogether.’ Investigation of the narrative technique. - The writer describes a lot. He describes how the sphere in the wilderness is, how dark it can be and how it effects the human character. - The place was the heart of Africa, on a river or on riverbanks and between the trees nearby the river. The time of the story told by Marlow is a few months, but I don’t know how long it took Marlow to tell his story to the auditor. - The main character is Marlow. He tells the whole story. He is a round character because you can read how he feels and what he thinks. He is a captain on a steamer, but actually he had been a seaman for very many years. He is very fascinated by Kurtz when he first hears about him and his greatest wish was to talk with him. He got the opportunity to even hear his last words. Marlow is also fascinated by the ‘heart of darkness’ that hadn’t become ‘dark’ by the black people, but by the whites. His discovery is this: In our deepest nature, all men are savage. An other character is the manager. He is an insensitive person because he isn’t touched by the way whites treat the black people and he has no mercy for Kurtz, who was a criminal according to him. The Russian, who worked for Kurtz was a flat character because you couldn’t read his feelings. He was only twenty-five tears but had gone through a lot. He admired Kurtz a lot and he had listed to many of his stories. Kurtz is another character. He had worked for the Company but when he got very good contacts with many black neighbours he traded ivory with them and became richer than everyone at the Company. He didn’t want to work for the Company anymore.
Finding the theme Themes are: - Capitalism (the ivory trading Company) - Colonialism - Moral Enlightenment - Adventure
There is a great deal of tension in Marlow’s mind about whether he should profit from the immoral actions of the company he works for. Marlow believes that the company is ignorant of the tension between moral enlightenment and capitalism. He thinks the managers are very cruel to its labourers. Place in history - This novel was first published in 1902 - He was an English novelist, born in Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of the greatest novelists and prose stylists in English literature. In 1874, Conrad went to sea and later joined (1878) an English merchant ship, becoming (1884) a master mariner as well as a British citizen. Retiring from the merchant fleet in 1894, he began his career as a novelist, and all of his novels are written in English, an acquired language. His notable early works include The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897), Lord Jim (1900), and the novellas Youth (1902), Heart of Darkness (1902), and Typhoon (1903). The novels Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Under Western Eyes (1911), and Chance (1913) are regarded by many as Conrad’s greatest works. Of his later works, Victory (1915) is the best known. He also collaborated on two novels with Ford Madox Ford, The Inheritors (1901) and Romance (1903). Marked by a distinctive, opulent prose style, Conrad’s novels combine realism and high drama. Their settings include nautical backgrounds as well as high society, and international politics. Conrad was a skilled creator of atmosphere and character; the impact of various situations was augmented by his use of symbolism. He portrayed acutely the conflict between non-western cultures and modern civilization. His characters exhibit the possibilities for isolation and moral deterioration in modern life. - This novel is written in a style of romanticism. In 1902 stories about new worlds were very popular. People wanted stories that looked very deep into one’s soul. Also they wanted to read about imagination and intuition. This novel is very typical to the time it was written. - It’s very typical for the author, too. He has written more about Africans, for example in Lord Jim. It’s obvious he was very interested in this subject.