Heart of Darkness

 Riccardo Pergola III Ricevimento.

Heart of Darkness intensively struck me from the first twenty seconds I started to read it. It could sound pathetic but I was really impressed by the way Conrad was able to mould English language however he wanted. Only for this reason I regarded him very highly even from the first pages of the book, considering that I had never read any of his books before. The book centers around Marlow, a self-examining sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, thought to be an idealistic man capable of “anything”.

While he sits on the Nellie, an old steamboat, at the river Thames (in London) with several other sailors ,Marlow begins to narrate how he entered in the dark continent. The rest of the mates don’t seem to care at all, but he carries on anyway (The narrator appears to be another unnamed guest on the ship). Except two or three small paragraphs, the perspective shifts to Marlow, who becomes the main narrator for the rest of the novel.

He then starts to narrate a personal experience in Africa, which led him to become a freshwater sailor and gave him a terrible glimpse of colonization. He has always loved exploring and venturing into new experiences. Therefore he decides he wants nothing more than to be the skipper of a steamship that travels up and down a river in Africa. His aunt has a connection in the Administration Department of a seafaring and exploration company that gathers ivory, and she manages to get the job for Marlow who replaces a captain who was killed in a fight with the natives. He embarks on a one-month journey to the primary Company station. When he gets there and meets the general manager in his hut, he is told that his steamer, on which Marlow is supposed to set sail, has sunk. As soon as he hears this he decides that he would concentrate on fixing the ship.

One day, a grass shed at the station goes up in flames, and a black man is beaten for allegedly starting the fire. When the man recovers, he flees towards the woods and is never heard from again.

Meanwhile he frequently hears the name “Kurtz” around the station. He gets to know the brickmaker.  Later, while Marlow is in the brickmaker’s quarters, he notices a gloomy painting of a blindfolded woman holding a torch. The brickmaker reveals that the painting was done by Mr. Kurtz, currently the chief of the best station. Eventually Marlow is able to fix up his ship and continue his journey. It is rumored that Kurtz is ill. So the entire crew departs heading for Kurtz’s station. About eight miles from their destination, they stop for the night. There is talk of an approaching attack. Rumor has it that Kurtz may have been killed in a previous one. Suddenly they get attacked by the savages in the fog. They manage to overpower them. Marlow supposes that Kurtz has perished in the attack. This upsets him because he has greatly looked forward to meeting this man.  A little way down the river, the crew spot Kurtz’s station, which they had supposed was lost. They meet a Russian man who says that Kurtz is alive but ill. The natives do not want Kurtz to leave because he has expanded their minds. Kurtz does not want to leave for England to be cured because he has essentially become part of the tribe. After talking for a while with the Russian, Marlow has a very clear picture of the man who has become his obsession. In fact, he is the one who ordered the attack on the steamboat so that they couldn’t take him back to England. Kurtz is worshipped by the natives and completely exploits them.

Finally, he has the chance to talk to Kurtz, who is ill and on his deathbed. The natives surround his hut until he tells them to leave. While on watch, Marlow realizes that Kurtz is gone. He chases him and finds Kurtz in the forest. He does not want to leave the station because his plans have not been fully realized. Marlow manages to take him back to his bed. Kurtz entrusts Marlow with all of his old files and papers. Kurtz dies onboard, while heading for England a few days later, Marlow having attended him until the end. He dies saying, “The horror, the horror.”

Marlow returns to England, but the memory of his friend haunts him. He manages to find the woman from a picture he was given by Kurtz, who is still mourning after a year from his death, and he pays her a visit. She still remembers Kurtz as the great man he was before he left, and Marlow doesn’t tell her what he had become before he dies. He tells her that Kurtz’s last words were her name , the truth would have been too tough to tell a mourning woman.

It is very difficult to accept that we ourselves are evil, even if we try not to be and we build a wall to separate our “beastly”-self from the life-model of reason that we built centuries ago with civilization, we still have those instincts. This is what makes us civilized. Conrad wants us to perceive that even though we must be civilized, that isn’t what we really are. We must know that to be prepared to face the darkness of the true nature of our world… who knows… the darkness may overwhelm each one of us.