Based off Joseph Conrad’s personal experiences in Europe, specifically on the Thames River, Heart Of Darkness is centered around the travels of Marlow throughout Africa and the great Congo River. Using textual evidence compare how Conrad’s novel is parallel to his realistic journeys. Use the three websites below to help with your assessment.
Conrad’s book, Heart of Darkness, is about his trip to Belgian Congo for four years and the good and bad effect that the surroundings had on him. Conrad can see the world from the “outside,” with, “the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth [that] struck… [Conrad] as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently.” It is almost as if Conrad’s life is balancing on the edge right now as he is traveling through Africa, and those who want to bring him down, like “evil or truth,” are waiting for something else to tip the scales. By hanging his life from a thread like this and relying so much on his surroundings, there is no surprise that he had trouble mentally and physically during this time. This could also be why he kills Kurtz off, because Kurtz could be part of his soul and is easier to kill within a novel, especially after a failed suicide attempt. Overall the book represents with great detail and insight some parts of the authors life.
ReplyDeleteWhile Conrad was working in the Congo from 1890-1894, he underwent a breakdown, both mentally and physically. This continued to affect him for the entirety of his life. He found that his thought process became foggy. This was a dark, yet dynamic part of his life. He later reflected on his time there by paralleling his experiences in Heart of Darkness. He mirrors his imperialistic surroundings and the ugly realities associated with King Leopold II’s harsh rule. He uses Marlow’s character to speak his views. Marlow’s “story” that he narrates is fragmented, much like Conrad’s own mysterious mental state. Kutz, however, highlights the exploitation and shady business that Conrad observed so frequently in the Congo. With his subtle use of symbolism to portray the corruption, Conrad’s work becomes more believable, and therefore powerful. Additionally, his pessimistic tone reflects upon the madness, anxiety, and gloom of the Congo at the time Conrad was there.
ReplyDeleteOften authors use personal experiences as inspiration for their own novels. This is clearly seen in Joesph Conrad’s novella, The Heart of Darkness. The novella’s plot and Conrad’s life draw several parallels and many feel as though Heart of Darkness is a “thinly veiled autobiography”. Conrad himself was a sailor who actually sailed on the Congo River during his tenure as a merchant marine, which instantaneously draws a parallel with Marlow, the main character, who is a sailor who travels up the Congo River to meet a man named Kurtz. Marlow documents his travels “up that river”, which to Marlow, reminded him of “the earliest beginnings of the world” (49). Marlow’s journey on the Congo River reflects many of the same thoughts Conrad felt as he traveled “from Matadi to Kinshasa”(13) ,where the air, similar to Conrad’s experience was “warm, thick, heavy, and sluggish” (49). It was in the Congo, that Conrad experienced a “physical and mental breakdown” which is clearly seen in Heart of Darkness. Marlow sees first hand the terrors of imperialism as well as a the terrors of being in a foreign land in which the natives attack him as “arrows flew out” at his men while “the bush was swarming with human limbs”(61). These events mirror the mental breakdown Conrad felt during his four year stay in the wild Congo region as well as Conrad’s physical breakdown which is mirrored through Marlow’s nearly life threatening illness. Overall, Heart of Darkness and Conrad’s life tie together in several ways which makes Conrad’s novella a portal of insight into the author’s life.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Conrad’s novel, The Heart of Darkness, correlates to his real life endeavors. The overall prevailing theme in this novel is essentially darkness and despair. Conrad was exposed to this throughout his early childhood when his father was imprisoned in Warsaw for alleged political conspiracies when Conrad was only three. This relates to the novel because of Conrad’s perseverance through physical depravation, illness, and even mental and ideological instabilities. When Conrad was a part of a British merchant ship, “While in the Congo he underwent a physical and mental breakdown that would effect his health for the rest of his life. When Conrad returned from the Congo to resettle in London, his mind and thoughts were fragmented, and he went into exile for several reasons, including political, aesthetic, and personal,” (Karl 308). Just as Marlow faced many issues, including his discontent with the way the Africans were treated upon the ship and the illness and death he witnessed, Conrad took his scarring experiences in the Congo and utilized them to help add another dimension of wholehearted reality to the overall work of The Heart of Darkness.
ReplyDeleteThe novella The Heart of Darkness relates back its author Joseph Conrad it tells the story of Marlow's adventures throughout Africa and the Congo River, something Conrad himself explored during his own life. Joseph Conrad arrived in the Congo in 1889 to become captain of a steamer. His travel experiences of despair, loneliness at sea, and the endless plight of lost home are all also seen within Heart of Darkness. The plot and overall intensity of Heart of Darkness is heightened because Conrad is able to image and correlate his real-life experiences into the novella. The reader feels a sense of personal connection and emotion because they are in fact reading of an actual person's encounters while captaining a steamer on the Congo River. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken deeper and deeper into the world of Conrad and his endeavors into the harsh, dark, lonesome realm of endless captaincy.
ReplyDeleteMany incidents shared by authors in their literature is often based on experiences from their lives. The life and ideas of Joseph Conrad is vividly depicted by the character of Marlow from Conrad's work, Heart of Darkness. Both Conrad and Marlow share a very deep fascination for the sea. While vacationing in western Europe in 1873, Conrad saw the sea for the first time. He was amazed by the nature of the sea and decided to make a career working in nautical environments. The sea meant much more to Conrad than just a beautiful site; the sea assisted him deciphering human nature. Conrad comments on human nature in many of his literary works by using maritime settings. In Heart of Darkness, the narrator describes the how the minds of seam, "are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them—the ship; and so is their country—the sea", which depicts Marlow's fervor for the sea. Both Conrad and Marlow do not work for the sea, instead they live for the sea. The sea is more than just a job to them; it is an abode to both of them. It provides shelter to them, and the sea controls the lives of seamen because the sea is the "mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny". Conrad's deep passion for the sea is described in not only Heart of Darkness but many of his other works as well.
ReplyDeleteLife is a composure of memories and experiences over time. Nature is a excellent way to symbolize and represent things in life. A river is used to represent the adventure and struggles in Joseph Conrad's life. His novel, Heart of Darkness, is parallel with his own life thrills on a river in Europe. The river is used as a concrete and abstract symbol. Imperialism is one of the major themes in the novel. The main characters Marlow and Kurtz deal with the hardship of witnessing the direct effects of imperialism. They are able to witness first-hand the hardship and reality of the lives of other people. Marlow has a more personal account with the theme. At a glance he “saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest… seemed to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before the sunlight face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart” (48). Marlow is taken back by the things he has experienced on his journey. One of the major things that take place in the second part of the novel is his humbling experience where he realizes that everything is not actually how he thought it was going to be. This is important because he is taking what he has learned and redirecting his life to include and function with regards to it. This is important with regards to Conrad’s life because Marlow is a direct representation of his actions and thoughts. Conrad was faced with difficult situations in his life. He had to learn to deal with them in order to move on and live life. Marlow’s digestion of the overall theme of the “darker” side of life and the new things he was seen really demonstrates the unique foil that Conrad shares with his novel’s character.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Conrad led a life filled with adventure and self-discovery. His trip to Congo shaped his persona and led him to question his existence. The raw wilderness mirrored the struggles he felt inside. Conrad describes why he feels Kurtz does not deserve to live, and how the wilderness fueled this ideal by, "I turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for a moment it seemed to me as if I also was buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night." Joseph deeply feels that he is meant to deal with the harshness of the wilderness by himself, and have his actions be hindered by Kurtz. The novel describes vividly Joseph’s actions and the animalistic nature of those actions.
ReplyDeleteJust as with painting, photography, and even music, literature often draws on personal experiences and surrounding for inspiration. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, provides an exemplary specimen for this claim as well as a fascinating and eerie read. The author himself, a native Pole, has much in common with the novel’s narrator, Marlow. Born in 1857, a time when Nationalism was sweeping across Continental and Maritime Europe, his life and the life of his adoptive revolved around the fever for “Eldorado”, or the chance to strike it rich in foreign lands, as well as gain prestige and power for one’s country. Conrad himself sailed with English explorers for several years and traversed the Belgian Congo, where the setting for Heart of Darkness was inspired. Controlled at the time by King Leopold of Belgium, the Belgian Congo was a revolting hotspot of corruption and moral decay with slavery and many other ills running rampant. Many of these harrowing images have found their way into Conrad’s narrative. Imperialism, and the many underlying themes that fell within its umbrella, is the most widely apparent motif here. The “White Man’s Burden”, a popular ideology at the time, is also displayed by Kurtz’s reports to the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs. Spurred on by Darwin’s recent findings of natural selection, how could the European resist being “messengers of the might within the land, bearers of the spark of the sacred fire” (19). “In the pose of a meditating Buddha”, Marlow reveals his exploits, which parallel almost exactly those of Conrad (95).
ReplyDeleteMarlow experiences negative and positive events on his journey just as Joseph Conrad had on his voyage to the Congo. Conrad traveled over the sea as Marlow does, and Marlow goes through the struggle and accomplishment of fixing up the steamship. Once Marlow grows ill after his adventures, he returns back to Europe in a state of exile just as Conrad had done. His experiences of 1890 dealing with imperialism translate into his novel. Conrad uses Marlow as a voice and Kurtz as an example of the corruption in the Congo. Conrad and the character Marlow are similar in that they enjoy and thrive on adventure as "Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world" (88). Marlow is the window to an explanation of his views of the Congo and his idea of a voyage and adventure.
ReplyDeleteConrad's voyage to the Congo as a steamboat captain in 1980 proved to be the colors of his rhetoric tapestry in "The Heart of Darkness." This voyage not only jeopardized his physical health, but also targeted his emotional morals and inward sanity as he was faced with human atrocities. Western imperialist attitudes targeted the Congo, shocking Conrad with realistic entitlement of a dark landscape and the dark hearts of unjust leaders. Characters like Kurtz and Marlow demonstrate quotidian life under Kind Leopold II in vibrant way only possible through fiction. These two characters breath the air of his travels, with dark hearts that pump the blood of his experiences. Marlow's vague recount of the tale symbolizes the "had to be there" attitude that Conrad struggles with as he attempts to unveil the horror of his experiences as a steamboat captain. The mystery surrounding his characters tale demonstrates his attitude and the associated cloudiness and darkness of the setting. Kurtz on the other hand is the product of Conrad's experience with the darkest corruption and intelligent tyranny of the time.
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