Heart of Darkness: A Cautionary

Heart of Darkness: A Cautionary Tale

Evil has many faces and, contrary to popular belief, it not always ugly. Evil functions at its best when no one believes it will infect him or her. Evil operates slowly, working with the human mind and its desires, tricking the individual into believing that nothing is wrong. Evil even tricks individuals through the unintended consequences of good intensions. Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness is a story that represents this kind of evil. Kurtz is a man that represents evil in a way that is frightening because he did not set out to be evil. Kurtz had a plan and the plan went very well but he did not count on certain consequences, which caught him off guard and set him up for falling into evil completely unaware. Kurtz's transformation reveals the frailty of man in various situations. Kurtz stumbles when he thinks he can make a society better. He stumbles when attempting to manage that responsibility. He fails when it comes to behaving compassionate toward others and takes advantage of those who worship him. He allows greed to rule his lusts and destroy his reasoning. Everything he touches does not turn to gold but rather, disorder. The sad truth is that Kurtz is too smitten to see what has happened. Kurtz demonstrates how evil works best when it takes the soul over one small piece at a time. Kurtz would have never set out to have a heart of darkness but he could not see the danger in the small compromises he was making. Heart of Darkness is a novel of despair but, more importantly, it is a stern warning to readers to avoid such a fate.

Marlow's encounters with Kurtz reveal the frailty of the human soul but it takes him some time to realize this. Marlow explains how Kurtz is a "gifted" (Conrad 294) man whose "sympathies were in the right place" (295). These sympathies took a turn for the worse as Marlow discovers and after years of being placed on a pedestal by others and himself, he begins to lose sense of what is real, appropriate, and reasonable. This physical state takes a toll on his mental state as well. The natives worshipped him and we read that he had the "power to charm of frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honor" (296). Here we see how he is beginning to believe in his greatness simply because that is all he gets from the natives. He is proof that if we hear something long enough, we will start to believe it, regardless if it is true or not. Kurtz had no reason to doubt these people and with no one else to question his or their sanity, it was easier to simply go along with the crowd. This was not the only thing play, however. Kurtz had a passion that would not be quelled and that was what drove him to become the man he was. He literally sold his soul to have the power he did in the Amazon. While this is something he never decides to do out right, he does eventually sell his soul, or the better part of it, for ivory. The passion becomes an obsession and he soon finds himself willing to do anything to have it, even if it means killing his dear friend if he did not hand over his ivory. Kurtz declares that he will shoot the man unless he gives him his ivory. He fiend then states he "cleared out of the country, because he could do so . . . And there was nothing on earth to prevent him from killing whom he jolly well pleased" (301). Here we see that Kurtz is literally kin fog the land. There are no police to help keep order and since Kurtz is the perceived God, everything he says and does will not be questioned. The power he possessed was much for one man but he was unable to see that because he was enthralled in the immediate satisfaction it gave him. We can also see how Kurtz's self-adoration has gone to his head with his shrunken heads collection, which he "only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts" (303). Marlow went into the Amazon to seek out what he though would be a powerful and respectable man. He was impressed with what he had heard about him and wanted to meet the man behind the myth. What he discovered was how fragile the human psyche is. Kurtz revealed the ugly side of humanity that comes with pride and the lust for power.

One of the primary themes in Heart of Darkness is evil, and the many forms in which it is manifested in the novel. The concept is complex in that is spans a wide range of the effects of evil. Ridley points out that the novel explores the evil for "white man and for black" which is "lack of restraint; not apathy or passivity, and not temptation itself, but the succumbing thereto" (Ridley). Ridley points out that one important parallel in the story is Kurtz and Marlow's helmsman. The two are alike in that they had "no restraint" (Ridley). Ridley maintains that Conrad was concerned with what his novel stated with these different characters. He writes that we discover who we really are "when the external controls are removed and you must live with evil and staggering temptation" (Ridley). Marlow discovers this truth. Conrad, writes, "Your strength comes in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, backbreaking business . . . you must fall back upon your own inmate strength, upon your own capacity for faithfulness" (Conrad 294). Ridley maintains, "Restraint, arising from just such faithfulness or from some deliberate belief, is of course lacking in Kurtz" (Ridley). This realization drives the plot of the novel but it is a realization that is slow to emerge.

Marlow realizes it before Kurtz and he becomes our reliable narrator, revealing opposites in the story. Conrad supports this realization with a "balance of opposites, a core of faith vs. hollowness, restraint vs. its lack, civilization vs. savagery, light vs. darkness" (Ripley). Ridley asserts that Conrad uses the opposites of Kurtz and Marlow as well as Kurtz and his women. The women might be similar but they are not the same. Ridley argues that they are indeed opposites, one of which is the "embodiment of primitive darkness" (Ridley). Marlow is significant to the tale not simply because the tale needs to be told but it needs to be told from a perspective that can recognize what has happened too this man. Gillon claims that Marlow can "understand the nature of Kurtz's fall because he has experienced the same temptation" (Gillon). He does not allow himself to give into the temptation as Kurtz does but this does not mean that he does not feel the pull toward it. Gillon asserts, "He may feel alienated from his fellow men, both in the jungle and upon his return to the civilized world, but he has not cut himself off from the whole world, as Kurtz did" (Gillon). Marlow was not expecting the truth he discovered. Gillon also notes the irony involved with Marlow's discovery for truth is that it involves telling a lie. He cannot bring himself to hurt Kurtz's Intended with the ugly truth and admits that telling her the truth would have been too dark. Yet, he is a changed man. As he speaks with the woman, he states that Kurtz's end "was in every way worthy of his life" (Conrad 320). Marlow enters into the darkness and is able to save himself from its grasp. Instead of ending up like Kurtz, Marlow has learned something valuable. Gillon claims that this is a "heightened perception of life's complexity . . . The supreme lesson he has learned is to respect man's faith, any faith or sincere conviction. He harbors a secret he cannot divulge to other people. Man must forever remain shut within the shell of his own personality" (Gillon). Marlow understands what happens to Kurtz and articulates it perfectly when he recognizes the truth as the "strange commingling of desire and hate" (Conrad 315). He also realizes that he came dangerously close to committing the same mistake but stepped back just in time.

The evil in Heart of Darkness is not savagery itself, "for the cannibal crewmen are depicted as dignified, admirable fellows, restrained by some code of their own, and the superb native woman has both majesty and pathos" (Ridley). The evil emerges in Kurtz's "unrestrained succumbing to savagery" (Ridley). Through yielding to this savagery, Kurtz turns from his Intended. In this context, the Intended is more than a woman; she is a "symbol of all he had meant to do" (Ridley). However, these intensions never reached fruition. There is more going on between Marlow and Kurtz because of Marlow's desire to know Kurtz. There is a curiosity there that allows Marlow to be open to Kurtz on some level. He is fascinated by his success and searches him out. He may begin his journey as a man looking for another man but Gillon maintains that Marlow's search represents a "search for truth" (Gillon). This search reveals the depth of the evil he discovers. John Jervis aggress with this notion, adding that the novel explores darkness. He states that "Africa is dark even in the sunlight; but the darkness is the darkness of the primeval, not the darkness of evil" (Jervis 68). He also explains that Africa, in all her splendor, is "voiceless" (68) and beyond good or evil. Africa "just is" (68), according to Jervis and she "may even have been the instrument of Kurtz's downfall; but his downfall is not to be laid at her door" (68). Jervis asserts that Kurtz had "fallen below the 'savages' with whom he was surrounded" (69). "He knows the heights of civilized virtue and the depths of its betrayal" (69). Africa has simply becomes Kurtz's "stage, the scene for his downfall. Africa is not dark in itself, then, but only in relation to 'us'; the threat, the attraction, of an impossible freedom" (69). How this downfall occurs is an honest glimpse into the human psyche. Jervis notes that, in his solitude, Kurtz had "looked inwards, into his 'self', and had found nothing. The horror of this had sent him, in desperation, to the other horror, that of unreflective immersion" (69). There are moments of clarity where this notion bubbles to the top. For example, when Kurtz's friend tells the story of being in the wilderness, he realizes that being alone in the wilderness makes one go mad. He states, "I had . . . To go through the ordeal of looking into it myself" (Conrad 311). Jervis writes, that Conrad's message includes the "curse of the modern self, that it cannot, must not, 'forget' itself" (69). This is the thing that Marlow remembers. Jervis maintains that Marlow's ambivalence is telling in that Kurtz remains "heroic, precisely because he did try to confront fundamentals of self and meaning. In this sense, a confrontation with the 'heart of darkness' is necessary, unavoidable, for only this could the truth be revealed, even if this 'truth' turns out to be incommunicable, or even a lie" (69). He tries but he fails miserably because he allows himself to believe the lies that surround him. He cannot fight these even though he knows that they are wrong. Evil has taken him, one small compromise at a time, until there is no moral compass. Jervis goes, on to say that Kurtz "embodies the paradoxes and problems of modern imperialism in the confrontation with otherness" (70). He also represents the fragility of the human psyche when mankind gets what he wants. The gratification he found from indulging in the lie killed whatever ethics were left.

Marlow is the narrator that must tell the story because Kurtz is too far gone. Kaplan points out that throughout the novel, Marlow "insists upon the distinction between truth and lies; between men and women; between civilization and savagery; and, most of all, between Self and Other" (Kaplan). In Kaplan's opinion, the most significant of these distinctions is between the self and the others because the "opposition that sustains the colonial enterprise" (Kaplan). Kaplan believes that it is the lure and the subsequent fear of it justifies the task at hand. What Marlow discovers, however, is that "all binary oppositions collapse in the course of his narrative: colonists prove to be conquerors, the gang of virtue is indistinguishable from the gang of greed, the illusions of women merely echo the illusions of men, and there is no clear distinction between lies and truth" (Kaplan). Kurtz's relationships with women reflect his relationships with the natives. He is not concerned about them in anyway except by how they can benefit him. We see this best displayed in Kurtz's relationship with his mistress and his Intended. These women are portrayed in a very different light. Marlow uses vibrant language when he speaks of Kurtz's mistress. She walks proud and holds her head high. We also know that she is referred to as "savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent" (306). In contrast, his Intended is portrayed as a sad woman, surrounded by darkness. She is deluded with positive impressions of him. Her love is wasted on the man and while she deserves to know the truth, it might be too much for her. Women, in general, are disrespected in the novel. This is par with Kurtz's relationships. Kurtz has abandoned any sense of loyalty, along with his decency, to pander to his own desires and emotions. Terence Bowers states that the novel is similar to Dante's Inferno in that Marlow's journey is much like an underworld in which the "moral structure of the world created by European imperialism" (Bowers). He claims that this world is a "moral sham" (Bowers), which seems to fit within Conrad's ironies, considering the fact the Europeans thought of themselves as those that brought good things to other cultures. Marlow witnesses all that is broken within this culture but he also recognizes what is not broken, just as Kurtz did. He also witnesses the horrors of what the riches of this country can do. He is the lucky one in that he escapes it.