Review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
April 26th, 2011 | 
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As a rule, I do not review books I do not enjoy because there are so many books that I really like and would rather spend my time on. But here I am reviewing Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
The book I’d intended to review, while reading it, I was feeling so drained that I put it down and got the brilliant idea to instead read Heart of Darkness because it is among the 501 books you must read. And it was also among the pile of books for me to read. It was there staring at me. I had no idea what it was about so I started reading.
I read it and didn’t enjoy. I found the depiction of blacks quite offensive. I’ve read other books that used the “N” word, and because of the era in which the book was written, I put that aside and really got into the story, but I struggled with this one. But if I am honest, I must say that the book is very descriptive and you can see that Conrad was pulling from his experiences.
So what made Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad different for me?
To be honest I have no idea, but it could be words such as savages that really got to me. Heart of Darkness was written in the late 19th Century and was first published in 1902, so at that time that kind of language to depict blacks was still en vogue, but that doesn’t make it more palatable.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest, I will now set aside my personal feelings and review Heart of Darkness as objectively as I can.
The story is told through the eyes of the primary character Charlie Marlow, which is actually the author in disguise since Heart of Darkness is based on Conrad’s adventures while “captaining” a steamer on the Congo River, with some embellishments of course. Marlow is on a steamer and starts to relate one of his adventures to his companions. And this is how he tells the tale of Heart of Darkness.
For some time, Marlow had wanted to captain a boat, and through the connections of his aunt he got the opportunity to do so for a European trading company. When he gets to the area where his steamer was supposed to be anchored he finds it shipwrecked. He is saddened by that but spends the next months to get it ready for the trip.
He hears about Mr. Kurtz, the trading company’s most successful agent. It appears that Kurtz has disappeared, and there are many rumours floating around as to what became of him. He also learns that Kurtz is unwell so he sets off to find him. Marlow describes the hardships they endure in trying to find him. Even though Kurtz’s first appearance in the novel comes quite late, he is the other central character in the story.
Along the way to find Kurtz they are attacked by African natives and some of crew are killed. They eventually find the Station where Kurtz is, and his hut is surrounded by severed heads on stilts. Marlow hears about the most horrific tales of the way Kurtz treats the natives – he forces them to work for him and takes their ivory. Kurtz threatens to kill in a quest to acquire ivory.
Marlow gets a glimpse of the darkness of Kurtz’s soul. Kurtz has been transformed into a tyrant who has committed heinous acts in his quest for power, his quest to dominate others. You see the dangers of greed in Heart of Darkness.
Kurtz is quite ill when Marlow finds and takes him to safety on the steamer, but he dies on the return journey. Before he dies though, he gives some papers and letters to Marlow. On his deathbed in a feverish state Kurtz cries out, “The horror! The horror!” And as the story unfolds the reader realizes that the European trading company that Marlow now works for, operates under the pretext of spreading knowledge throughout Africa, but what they really care about is getting their hands on the ivory. All they care about is making a lot of money
When Marlow returns to civilization he visits Kurtz’s fiancé to give her some of the letters that he got from Kurtz. She wants to know about his final words, and to spare her feelings Marlow tells her that Kurtz called her name.
I think the darkness that Conrad is speaking about is the harsh treatment of African natives. He is talking about darkness of people’s soul, in their quests to dominate others. It’s a story about imperialism. What conditions have to exist for darkness to overcome each of us?
Heart of Darkness is often described as Conrad’s greatest work. While reading the book you sometimes feel as if you are reading a travelogue without the dates.
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