"Heart of Darkness": A review by Matthew Canada

“Heart of Darkness”, by Joseph Conrad, tells the story of a steamboat captain named Marlow, as he ventures up the Congo River. The story begins five fellows wait on the tide aboard a boat on the Thames River. As the sun sets on the company, the men begin to reminisce and wonder at all of the mighty vessels that have departed from the Thames in the past, all of a sudden, Marlow states that even the famous Thames was once home to “savages” just as it was once one of the places on earth where “civilization” had yet to take hold. Marlow wonders what it may have been like for the early explores who ventured for into the once wild area, what it may have like for a Roman commander trying to angle his way to a fairer post, or for a toga wearing aristocrat hoping for treasures or trade. Marlow continues, recounting his travels up the Congo while on a job with a Belgian trading company, an opportunity set up through his aunt.
After a long journey aboard a French steamer, during which he sees a French man-o-war laying waste to a seemingly empty coastline. Later he is told that the French ship was caught in battle with a tribe of natives. He finally arrives at the mouth of the Congo where he boards another steamer in order to get to his next destination.

After another, albeit lesser, voyage up the Congo, Marlow reaches the Outer Station, where he witness many cruel scenes of subjugation of natives, recounting that he came a across a group of the “savages” chained together just waiting to die. Sympathetic, Marlow attempts to console one of the men by offering him a biscuit. When he gets closer, he spots a mysterious strand of white European cloth on the normally loincloth-clad native. Before he can wonder too extensively on it, he meets the station’s chief accountant, who tells Marlow of a legendary Company agent named Kurtz. Kurtz is renowned for supplying the Company with more ivory single handedly than all of the other agents combined. This piques Marlow’s interests, and he hopes to meet Kurtz.

The next leg of his journey brings him two hundred miles over land to the Central Station, where he discovers that the station manager sunk the steam boat he was supposed to captain. Marlow sets to work right away, yet ends up taking three months to finally fix the ship. During this time Marlow again encounters the name of Kurtz, once when the station’s brick maker talks to him about Kurtz and the other when he discovers that the station manager and his uncle hold a hate for Kurtz rooted in paranoia. Kurtz then reveals himself to the duo, dispelling their fantasies about his death. Later, the manager leaves on an expedition that never returns.
After three months, Marlow embarks up the Congo, head for Kurtz, who has reportedly fallen ill. He brings with him the station manager, a group of armed pilgrims and a group of rather amiable cannibals. Before long they arrive at an abandoned hut with a pile of firewood in front of it. Atop the wood, a sign reads, “Wood for You. Hurry Up. Approach Cautiously.” signed off with an illegible signature. When Marlow investigates the hut, he finds a seaman’s journal which he determines belongs to a Russian wandering trader who is on the station manager’s blacklist.

Soon afterwards, the come under attack by a group of natives. Marlow manages to scare off the native with the ship’s whistle, yet not soon enough to save his native born helmsman, who dies at Marlow’s feet, soaking his socks and shoes with blood. When Marlow explains how he threw the shoes overboard, the tale is interrupted by one of the five from the beginning of the story. Marlow retorts, stating that the interrupter’s high class life style prevents him from understanding his behavior. Marlow then pauses to mentions that Kurtz had a fiancé waiting for his return, and that he held himself responsible for the preservation of Kurtz’s memory.

Quickly jumping back into the tale, Marlow tells the group that soon after the battle, a man who turned out to be the Russian beckoned them to shore, as they finally arrived at Kurtz’s outpost. The Russian tells Marlow of his experiences with Kurtz, recounting of the ups and downs of knowing the agent. Eventually, Kurtz s loaded onto the steamer, in critical condition due to a lack of treatment. This causes conflict with the natives of the area, who have come to follow Kurtz after their extended dealings. Kurtz calls them off. At this point, the station manager pulls Marlow aside and reveals to him his intentions of giving up on Kurtz, saying that he has gone insane. Marlow is disgusted and reaffirms his admiration of Kurtz, thus alienating himself from the rest of the Company’s crew. Marlow’s narrative draws to a close, as he explains how after meeting with the Russian again, he warns him of the target on his back, allowing him to escape the manager. Marlow also has to chase Kurtz, who escapes the boat in an effort to return to the tribe. After confronting Kurtz, Marlow manages to convince him to return home to undergo treatment. As they depart, the tribe that had been following Kurtz, along with his mistress let out a wail, lamenting his departure. On their way home, Marlow becomes better acquainted with Kurtz, listening to all of his philosophies. Unfortunately, the steamboat again becomes damaged, and the repairs add a lot of time to their return trip, so much so that Kurtz is dismayed that he may not survive. Marlow watches Kurtz right up until he is about to die, muttering the last words, ‘“The horror! The horror!”’. Marlow himself becomes quite ill, barely surviving, and having to rely on his aunt to nurse him back to health once he returns to Brussels. After he recovers, the Company demands that Marlow hand over papers and letters that Kurtz entrusted to him, threatening legal action. Instead, he only offers them a pamphlet Kurtz wrote with a crucial part ripped out. Then a man professing to be Kurtz’s cousin comes by and takes a few of the letters Kurtz wrote to his family. He also remarks that Kurt was once a great musician. Next a journalist comes by and takes the pamphlet that the Company rejected, saying that Kurtz was an expert in radical politics. Left with only a few remaining letters and a picture of Kurtz’s fiancé, Marlow travels to the woman’s residence and hands over the last few documents, discovering that she is still in mourning over a year after Kurtz died. When she asks what his last words were, Marlow lies and tells her that he recited her name to the end. Here, Marlow ends the narrative, and the perspective returns to a nameless narrator, who reflects on the Thames, thinking that the river seemed to lead into the heart of a great darkness.

In all, I felt that the impact of the story is immense. Admittedly, I found the writing style to be somewhat hard to follow at times, but I did recognize when Conrad touched upon a controversial subject. It is obvious that race and superiority are major themes in this book, and I enjoyed the way Conrad poked at social norms from the perspective of “civil” society, while at the same time providing facts that supported the truth that the “natives” and “savages” were also civilized to an extent. For example, while the self-proclaimed civilized Westerners were still practicing medicine based on head measurements, the tribes were capable of organized, guerilla warfare, evidenced by their ambush on Marlow. Moreover, Conrad also touched upon the shortcomings of even the greatest of men. This evident in the character of Kurtz; such a legend finally met its own end due to the fact that he was greedy and would risk his life just for a chance at fame. Overall, I feel that “Heart of Darkness” earned its title of “Classic”, in that it still remains a controversial piece of literature that is relevant to current society.