[Niamh’s Reads] Heart of Darkness

In another riveting article of Niamh’s Reads, Niamh McGonnell-Hall explores the horrors of colonisation and humanity in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and why it haunts to this day.

The reflections in the dark rivers of the Congo go deeper than you think.   “The rest of the world was nowhere … swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind” (Conrad 64) 

A literal understory? A metaphorical understory? An allegory for the complex nature and deep deterioration of the human psyche and civilisation? Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness (1899), sucks you into a humid, mosquito-infested, piranha-filled labyrinth of African Congo rivers, but this isn’t the only thing you explore inside the pages. As part of his understory, Conrad uses the Congo jungle as an entire book-length metaphor to explore the deterioration of the human psyche and the moral corruption of the imperialist machine and colonialist greed, making this book a must-read.

As Fraticelli states, the journey into the Congo “has both a geographical and a psychological dimension.”^[2] So, between the humid description and misty boat rides, lies a complex investigation of madness. Within its twisting rivers, Marlow discovers the moral corruption of the ivory trade and the colonialist approach to exploration. Conrad uses Marlow’s arrival at the Central Station and his witness of the slaves, who are forced to labour under the careful watch of their colonist bosses, to explore the negative effects of colonialism sweeping his world at the time. In comparison to the immediate description of the jungle as dark and swarming and foggy, the Central Station is a black hole of the greed of colonialism and the immorality of Conrad's imperialism. The dark jungle and the ‘civilised’ settlements are an inverted image of reality, where the colonist expansion is the actual darkness against the natural jungle. 

Mr. Kurtz is an unnerving and, frankly, very creepy madman who has severed heads on sticks in his front garden. As much as severed heads with “black, dried, sunken with closed eyelids” (Conrad 95) are shockingly disturbing, they do serve another function as well. (Thank God, because that is seriously messed up from our guy Conrad.) In one sense, Mr. Kurtz and his severed heads can show how the Congo has driven Kurtz mad and the moral corruption of imperialism that sent him into the dark. But there’s another layer to it. Has he been driven mad by the forest and the company that sent him in search of the precious ivory? Or has the imperialist agenda lowered the inhibitions that kept his already-present madness at bay? Is it his true mad nature that has invaded the Congo? 

Throughout the novel, Conrad never drops this commentary on civilisation, expansion and colonisation. The progression of Mr. Kurtz, as a madman, is a symbol of the destruction of the human psyche, due to the unrestrained and immoral landscape of the ivory trade. As Fraticelli hits the nail on the head again, “the colonizer is in turn colonized by the environment, becoming the host of the very darkness he seeks to enlighten.”^[2] Mr Kurtz’s vicious search for ivory has polluted his surroundings, with greed enveloping the forest and transforming it into darkness, not the other way around. 

The most famous line of this novel is “The horror! The horror!” (18). This scream came from Mr. Kurtz himself as he died on board the steamer with Marlow. The vibe exuded is most definitely one of a horrifying jungle, the steamer slowly chugging along through the thick water. But what is the horror? The horror of the jungle? The horror of ivory? The horror of twisted humanity? That is left for the reader to decide. Conrad has positioned us in front of a window that displays all the complexities of colonialism and imperialism. We watch as the dark jungle takes over the human psyche, driving it mad. Or is it just enacting its revenge? Is the Heart of Darkness already in the Congo, or have the colonists brought it with them, spreading it into the jungle and there, without a sense of morality in the imperialist fog, it grows, dragging its owners into the dark with it? 

All of these philosophical questions are unexpected when reading from the view of this book being just about the jungle. Think about your first impressions of the book as a case that within it holds Conrad's commentary. Heart of Darkness is not just about the jungle, piranhas, snakes, mist and, as the title suggests, darkness. It is about a deep exploration of the immorality of colonisation and what that can do to the human psyche. Will Marlow make it out of the dark? I guess you’ll just have to read it to find out. 

References: 

[1] Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Penguin UK, 2008.

[2] Miguel A., Fraticelli. Madness & Geography A Study on Voice, Discourse, and Polyphony in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. University of Oslo, 2016, https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/52482. PhD thesis.