Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness

¶ … Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness

Differences have always been considered a strong reason for people to discriminate others. When coming across entities that differ in various ways from them, humans are inclined to attempt to break up the differences, so that the other would use the same practices as them. From the beginning of time, there have been several occurrences when a certain group of people has marginalized and eventually destroyed another because they simply felt that otherness is wrong.

The concept of the other is present all across Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in a variety of occasions related to the creature created by doctor Frankenstein and how people are terrified at it, wanting to kill it. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darnkess is yet another novel involving the concept of the other, with Kurtz's character being determined to undermine the African population in Congo regardless of the consequences that his action had.

It would be wrong to say that the concept of the other is detrimental for humankind, but it can be detrimental for people depending on how they perceive it, and to what level they are willing to accept it. The simplest relation involving the concept of the other is that between a mother and her child, as they both gradually start to discover that they are unique, as they are not incorporated in each other's sense of identity. The mother and the child eventually realize that their wills are self-governing and that they are not connected to each other through this feature. (Ejsmudn, Arnika Nora)

Being a person means that one would be required to get involved in a series of experiences, such as parenthood and childhood. However, these experiences are merely divisions of the total sum that one has as a person.

In Frankenstein, matters are slightly different, since the doctor did not give birth to the creature and the only relationship between them is that of creator-creation. The concept of the other is more intense and complex in this case, as tension is added to the situation.

People feel contained to feel the same feelings for a creation that is not human in comparison to the feelings that they have for one that is. Factors such as survival of the species and human supremacy arise in circumstances like these. The creation is also conscious of the differences existing between it and its creator, each entity having to create their identity in the newly formed relationship. In the process of discover their identities, the two entities are presented with a choice relating to them either accepting their attraction, or trying to separate and destroy each other.

In Frankenstein and in Heart of Darkness, doctor Frankenstein and Kurtz are not only responsible for considering the creature and the Africans different. They actually perceive them as a threat, as something standing in their way of securing their identity and their safety. (Sharrett Christopher)

Joseph Conrad makes it possible for his readers to see how human nature changes when it is presented with the concept of the other. While the European model of civilization had been related to mercy, compassion, and goodwill towards others, matters proved to be otherwise at the moment when Conrad's European characters encountered the African population. White people had apparently lost any sense of civilization, solely expressing their desire to dominate, exploit, torture, and dehumanize the black people that they had come across.

People are generally inclined to consider differences in race and species to be related to the concept of the other. From the early ages, mankind has been against differences of every kind, virtually expressing their desire to impose their power over the entities that had been different. There is much controversy around the colonization era, as most people in the present condemn the methods used by white people at the time. Concomitantly, present day people consider the period to have been vital in the process of evolution. While the main concept concerning the colonization era had been related to the colonists taking up land around the world and civilizing the natives that they found, the situation had been very different, as otherness intervened and influenced colonists in oppressing any natives that they came across because of their differences in color, language, traditions, and practically everything that had been different about them.

While it initially seemed that the Europeans had intended to bring civilization into Africa, the situation had slowly but surely become obvious, with black people being harshly discriminated in the process. White people had mainly wanted to impose their power over the weaker black population and to exploit the resources present in the territory.