Conrad\'s Heart of Darkness Historical

¶ … Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Historical literature is filled with examples of pre- and post-colonialist paradigms. Within each of these models, however, there is a certain part of a larger story that can only be told in the larger view of the historical process. One of the grand themes that help us wade through that process is that of the dehumanization of the individual. For whatever psychotically reasons, humans seem to have the need to change others into less than human in order to subjugate them economically, intellectually, or culturally. We might even think of the process of imperialism as practiced by the European powers as dehumanization of culture and society; begun at the micro level and then evolving into the macro. The individual becomes the "other," which may be gender, race, or even ideals.

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was written at the end of the 19th century. At this time, Britain was still the greatest power in the world, still under the guise of its station as the predominant influence in economics and culture, and still set in its ways as the Victorian Empire. Conrad is very symbolic in this story, told in a narrative style. Conrad is very symbolic in this story, told in a narrative style. Briefly, it follows Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a position as a river captain with a Belgian company to transport ivory down the Congo River. The story is told to a group of men who are anchored on a ship on the Thames River. The manner in which the chronology of the story merges with the time of day and looming darkness is part of Conrad's atmosphere of symbolism. There are numerous themes and symbols within the novel, Africa as the "dark" continent, London as a "dark" place within the old Roman Empire, the nature of the primitive, a psychological journey into "inner-darkness," and most certainly the ideal of imperialism and colonialism. However, it is with the theme of imperialism that had the most defining impact on the novel and its precedents. That theme is expressed in several ways in the novel that support the idea of a cognitive dissonance, or separation of the individual -- dehumanization and a definition that anything outside of a narrow paradigm may be considered negative. There are clearly interwoven themes within the novel -- contagion as a paradigm for the journey and the views that Marlow has about race and gender.

One way we can look at Marlow's interpretation of his universe is through the subject of contagion as biological disease and sickness, but also as sociological and psychological sickness -- which brings us to his view of women and the onslaught of sexism in the novel. For instance, Emotional contagion is a sociological tendency to catch, feel, and empathize with emotions that are similar or influenced by peers. It can be observed in group behavior with mimicry and synchronization of body language, verbiage, and attitude. Hysterical contagion takes this a step further, and occurs when a group of individuals show either psychological or physical signs of an illness when in fact there is no pathogen -- again, an imitative behavior. All of these views of contagion have a rather negative connotation and are somehow tied together with a theme of uncleanliness or lack of civilization.

Of course, in Heart of Darkness, it is clear from the start that the trip into the "bowels" of Africa is not one of a positive or optimistic nature. "Mad terror scattered them [the natives], men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned" (Conrad, 21). But it is in the explanation of the nature of Marlow's universe when the boat moves back towards civilization that sets the stage for what the diseased continent has done:

The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time (Conrad, 188).

But what was this contagion, this feeling of doom and disease that descended upon the ship and her Captain and how did this fuel Conrad's version of gender? And what is the "heart of darkness" in relation to contagion? If we look at the British empire of the 19th century, we note that starting with the late 16th century, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom began amassing dominions colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by London's Parliament. By 1902, for instance, the British Empire had influence on almost 1/2 billion people and 1/4 of the total global population and economy, and its culture, language, and way of looking at the world was considered the correct interpretation of a modern society. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across various global colonies. Thus, there was a perception that what was good, right, and civilized was British -- all else was not. African was the "dark" continent based on racism and imperialism, but not so dark that the potential for profit would be obscured by the fear of being socially, psychologically, or medically exposed to disease. and, if one takes that concept -- DIS -- EASE further, it implies that anything out of the British comfort zone had potential negative consequences. Women in the British system were second-class citizens, even those who were educated. There was a precise order of things -- middle class men worked and provided income while their wives managed the house and children. Women were responsible for limited aspects of society, even though the Queen was venerated (Swisher).

Conrad's contagion of women portrays them as weak, grieving and ignorant individuals that are entirely dependent upon men -- almost without an individuality and mindset. This is odd at times because there is a clear message about the evils of blatant imperialism, yet Marlow sees women in quite a one-dimensional manner. We first see this when we are introduced to Marlow's aunt, who seems twittering and completely willing to believe that men know best. "It will be delightful; I am ready to do anything. It is a glorious idea" (Conrad, 18). The Aunt has no clue of the truth of Africa, or of the trials and tribulations necessary -- it is simply an adventure thought of by a man and based on his good sense. Marlowe notes that "She was determined to make no end of fuss to get me appointed skipper of a river steamboat, if such was my fancy" (Conrad, 19).

Continuing with this theme of ignorance, as we move through the contagion into Africa, Kurtz's "Intended" shows little more than naivete' and a blind subjugation to men. Regardless that Kurtz has blood on his hands and has done horrible things at the Inner Station, the Intended sees him as a "remarkable man" who has a "generous heart" and a "goodness that shone in every act…. I am proud to know I understood him better than anyone on earth" (Conrad, 209). Marlow, though is amazed at her blindness to what he knows to be the truth of the situation, " it was more than a year since his death, more than a year since the news came; she seemed as though she would remember and mourn forever" (Conrad, 206).

Critics have argued that this sexism stems from a naturally patriarchal world-view so prominent in Victorian England. Men had the power, Queen Victoria the exception. In this culture, there were a "whole matrix of inter-male relationships involving competitiveness, desire, bonding, and the sharing and appropriation of power and knowledge" (Roberts, 458). Certainly this sounds like the oddly dysfunctional relationship between Kurtz and Marlow. To maintain this system, though, women were used as sexual scapegoats, naive bankers, and even more, having little more reason to exist than at the whim of men -- implying in many ways that they were the ones who were, at the very heart of the matter, central to the destruction of the male spirit.

For Conrad, this is the epitome of psychological contagion -- the sickness of the mind that allows, on one hand, for abject hypocrisy and evil intent, and the other, such simple and childlike naivete that one almost can see these individuals as different species. This idea of psychological contagion -- disease of the mind and the soul, is linked for Conrad in both imperialism and sexism. The idea of the dark Africa, jungles of rotting vegetation, dripping wet, is a real example of the social, moral, physical, and even mental disintegration of society, as well as the view that gender was responsible for the fall of man. At first, for instance, we think Kurtz is simply mad. Later, we realize that he was driven insane by Africa, and the inability for him to decipher the company's needs with the darkness of Africa -- a true cognitive dissonance:

There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives -- he called them enemies! -- hidden out of sight somewhere (Conrad, 34).

Too, though, Africa is not only dark and mysterious, it is a lonely place for a westerner. The climate is far from comforting, the mode of transportation strange and unwieldy, and certainly, the lack of stability in government and economics both made it easy for many British to become wealthy, as well as to hoard resentment towards such a place. If we also think of the insects, constantly buzzing, spreading infection, we essentially have Mother Nature, at least in the geographic biography, also acting as an agent of contagion and mistrust -- perhaps even the contagion causing even more blatant sexism?

Others have suggested that the women in Heart of Darkness clearly represent death and this idea of contagion. We can look at Kurtz's African mistress as she embodies the "dead" African landscape. In fact, as we meet her, Marlow notes:

And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul (Conrad, 168).

Further, Marlow continually talks about her in terms of the landscape as "the white man's grave," "the lurking death," and even the focus of contagion, "profound darkness." Ironically, the Intended shares this nefarious personification. When meeting with her, Marlow reminisces sadly,

I saw her and him [Kurtz] in the same instant of time -- his death and her sorrow -- I saw her sorry in the very moment of his death…. I saw them together…. I heard them together….I had blundered into a place of cruel and absurd mysteries not fit for a human being to behold (Conrad, 207-8).

Through Marlow's eyes, then, we see the Indented as death and contagion also. This contagion spreads all over the path of the characters, and even Marlow cannot defend the Intended and says, "she was one of those creatures that are not the playthings of Time" (Conrad, 207).

Taken further, this negativity towards women actually moves the men towards death -- towards the abyss, particularly since they are unable to understand that from the moment they left the comfort of Great Britain, the hierarchy, the rules, and the place of men and women in society, they were exposed to contagion -- of the heart, soul, mind, and body.

They were dying slowly -- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. & #8230; and slowly the eyelids rose and the sunken eyes looked up at me…. Enormous and vacant (Conrad, 42).

It is likely no accident that there are only two White women with speaking roles in Heart of Darkness; Marlow's aunt and Kurtz's Intended. In one way, they perform a similar function, that of the restrictive, naive, and rather childlike view of the world, men, nature, and most certainly of British imperialism. Their language, their reference points, and their contribution to the text really do not propel the plot, but serve as a way of describing what darkness brings to the white adventurers. White women clearly are different than African women; white women are a mystery in their naivete, but still civilized and needed for procreation and comfort. Native women, though, are like the jungle -- more than mysterious, but dangerous and seductive. It is the job of men to protect white women, because they clearly cannot protect themselves, "Oh, she is out of it -- completely -- They -- the women, I mean -- are out of it -- should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse. Oh, she had to be out of it" (Conrad, 132).