Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad’s short novel Heart of Darknessis widely considered one of the richest examplesof the use of symbolism in modern literature.Though the story is a mere fraction of a normalnovel’s length, Conrad’s dense, layered prosecan make for a slow and potentially frustrat-ing—though ultimately rewarding—readingexperience. Themain story is centered on a river-boat pilot named Marlow who signs on to workfor a Belgian company making inroads into theAfrican Congo. Once he reaches Africa,Marlow’s piloting job transforms into a questto locate a mysterious company employeenamed Kurtz who has all but vanished into theAfrican jungle. Marlow’s journey is a nightmar-ish trip through a land he does not understand,where his European cohorts operate without theinfluence of laws or ‘‘civilized’’ society.

Heart of Darkness is a frame tale, a structurethat was quite popular in the last half of thenineteenth century. A frame tale features astory within a story: the narrator of the frametale meets a character who proceeds to tell astory, usually based on personal experience, tothe narrator. The narrator of the frame tale isessentially an observer who interacts with thestoryteller only before and after the ‘‘story withina story’’ is told, thus creating a ‘‘frame’’ aroundthe bulk of the narrative. This structure was usedby many of the greats of the period, includingEdgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and SamuelTaylor Coleridge. The frame tale technique is

JOSEPH CONRAD

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especially useful when the narrator and thestoryteller hold contrasting views on the mainsubject of the tale. In Heart of Darkness, theunnamed narrator expresses nothing but prideat his nation’s success at spreading civilizationacross the world. This is in stark contrast toMarlow’s views at the end of the tale.

An experienced seaman, Conrad looselybased Heart of Darkness on his own experiencesworking as a steamboat pilot in the BelgianCongo in the 1890s. The book is now gene-rally recognized as a bitter indictment of theEuropean imperialism that took place, mostlyin Africa, at the close of the nineteenth century.However, some modern critics see the book in aless favorable light. Nigerian author ChinuaAchebe has referred to Heart of Darkness as‘‘an offensive and deplorable book’’ and toConrad himself as ‘‘a thoroughgoing racist.’’Some critics acknowledge that the book reflectsracist views; however, they argue that theseviews do not belong to Conrad himself but tohis fictional creation Marlow. In any case, evenAchebe agrees that ‘‘Conrad saw and con-demned the evil of imperial exploitation’’ ofAfrica, and he did it before such a sentimentwas popular throughout Europe.

The novella was originally printed in threeparts in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1899 and wasfirst published as a standalone work in 1902. Theauthor’s abundant use of the symbolic—particu-larly the frequent use of ‘‘light’’ and ‘‘dark’’ toconvey ever-shifting meanings—has promptedover a century of lively critical analysis and haskept the book high on reading lists in highschools and colleges across the United States.Conrad wrote several other notable novels,novellas, and short stories, including Lord Jim(1900), another nautical tale in which Marlowserves as narrator. Heart of Darkness securedConrad’s place as one of the masters of modernliterature.

PLOT SUMMARY

Part IHeart of Darkness opens aboard the ship Nellieon the Thames River in London at dusk. Fivelongtime friends have gathered on the boat,though only one is mentioned by name:Marlow. The other men are referred to by theircurrent occupation, such as the Lawyer and theAccountant. All were once seamen, but Marlow

is the only one who remains a sailor. Like allsailors, Marlow shows a ‘‘propensity to spinyarns.’’ At dusk, as the sun falls into a patch ofbrooding clouds in the west, the unnamed nar-rator ponders the centuries of great ships andgreat men the river has seen during the gloriousexpansion of the British Empire.

Suddenly, Marlow begins to speak of theregion’s earlier, darker history. He imagineshow desolate and wild the region must haveseemed to the first Romans who claimed theland as part of their empire two thousand yearsbefore. Although the area now holds the mostimportant city in England—and arguably allEurope—Marlow is quick to point out thatthey ‘‘live in the flicker,’’ implying that darknesscan return at any time. Marlow then tells of hisown experience with darkness—similar to thefirst Romans, but in Africa. Since his storymakes up the bulk of the rest of the book,Marlow acts as a narrator to the reader and tohis friends aboard the Nellie.

Having recently returned from several yearsin the Pacific and Indian Oceans,Marlow tries tokeep himself busy in London. He becomes rest-less, though, and calls upon his relatives in

THEY WERE CONQUERORS, AND FOR THAT YOU

WANT ONLY BRUTE FORCE—NOTHING TO BOAST OF,

WHEN YOU HAVE IT, SINCE YOUR STRENGTH IS JUST AN

ACCIDENT ARISING FROM THEWEAKNESS OF OTHERS.

THEY GRABBED WHAT THEY COULD GET FOR THE SAKE

OF WHATWAS TO BE GOT. IT WAS JUST ROBBERY WITH

VIOLENCE, AGGRAVATED MURDER ON A GREAT SCALE,

ANDMEN GOING AT IT BLIND—AS IS VERY PROPER FOR

THOSE WHO TACKLE A DARKNESS. THE CONQUEST OF

THE EARTH, WHICH MOSTLYMEANS THE TAKING IT

AWAY FROM THOSEWHOHAVE A DIFFERENT

COMPLEXION OR SLIGHTLY FLATTER NOSES THAN

OURSELVES, IS NOT A PRETTY THING WHEN YOU LOOK

INTO IT TOOMUCH.’’

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continental Europe to help him secure a position

piloting a boat along the Congo River in Africa.

His family’s influence, and the fact that a Belgian

company has just lost a boat captain in the

Congo due to an argument with a native chief,

lands Marlow an immediate appointment.

Marlow travels to Belgium to sign the employ-

ment contract, noting that the city from which

the Company operates looks to him like ‘‘a

whited sepulchre,’’ or burial vault. The contract

is signed, and a French doctor examines Marlowto affirm his health for the trip. He bids farewellto his aunt and heads to Africa aboard a Frenchsteamer.

Long before reaching his port, Marlowencounters the African coastline, made see-mingly impenetrable by ‘‘a colossal jungle, sodark green as to be almost black,’’ and extendingas far as he can see. The steamer passes numer-ous ragged outposts, as well as a warship firingits cannons into the dense jungle for whatappears to be no reason. A member of the crewinforms Marlow that there is ‘‘a camp ofnatives—he called them enemies!—hidden outof sight somewhere.’’

Marlow finally reaches the mouth of theCongo River after a month of travel. He boardsanother vessel and continues up the river, sincehe is to be stationed more than two hundredmiles from the coast. The captain of the boat, aSwede, tells Marlow of a recent passenger whohad hanged himself for no known reason.Marlow is deposited thirty miles upriver at oneof the Company’s stations to await further pas-sage. The station is a ‘‘scene of inhabited devas-tation,’’ riddled with broken-down machines

Joseph Conrad The Library of Congress

BIOGRAPHY

JOSEPH CONRAD

Though renowned as an English author,Joseph Conrad was actually born Jozef TeodorKonrad Korzeniowski in the Ukraine in 1857.By the time Conrad was twelve, both of hisparents had died of tuberculosis. He spent therest of his youth under the care of his uncleTadeusz in Switzerland. Conrad then went toFrance to become a merchant seaman. He even-tually continued on to England, where he foundgreater success and ultimately became a Britishcitizen in 1886.

In 1890, Conrad took a job piloting a boat inthe Congo for a Belgian company, much like thecharacter Marlow in Heart of Darkness. After afew short months of declining health, Conraddecided to return to England, where he spentseveral weeks hospitalized, recovering from hisAfrican excursion. During this time, Conradconcentrated his efforts on writing. His firstnovel, Almayer’s Folly, was published in 1895and received generally favorable reviews.Several books later, Conrad was vaulted intothe most esteemed echelons of living writerswith the publication of Lord Jim (1900).

Conrad continued writing for twenty yearsafter the publication of Heart of Darkness,achieving financial success only in the last dec-ade of his life. He died of a heart attack onAugust 3, 1924 and was buried in CanterburyCemetery.

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and apparently pointless excavations. Marlowsees a group of black men chained together—judged by the colonists to be criminals—carryingbaskets of dirt. Marlow ducks into a stand oftrees for shade and finds himself among a groupof blackmen on the verge of death, each too ill orweak to continue working. He offers one a bis-cuit from his pocket and then leaves the men totheir suffering.

Continuing on, Marlow encounters theCompany’s chief accountant, an astonishinglywell-dressed man who is to be the first to men-tion a name Marlow will come to know well:Kurtz. The accountant comments that Marlowis bound to meet the fellow Company agentwhen he travels upriver. According to theaccountant, Kurtz is not only ‘‘a very remark-able person,’’ but also brings in more ivory forthe Company than all other traders put together.

Ten days later, Marlow leaves camp with alarge caravan to begin the two-hundred-mile,two-week trek to the Central Station. When hearrives, Marlow is told the boat he was meant topilot has sunk. It is now his job to reclaim theboat and fix it. The general manager of the sta-tion, an anxious man who seems concernedabout Kurtz’s well-being at an outpost fartherinland, asks Marlow how long it will take torepair the ship and head on. Marlow estimatesthat it will take a few months and quickly setsto work.

Marlow notices that, other than himself,none of the employees at the camp appears todo anything productive. They spend their timetalking about ivory and devising plots andschemes against each other that are neverenacted. Marlow becomes acquainted withanother Company agent, a brick-maker whohas not made any bricks because of the absenceof some key component never specified. Thebrick-maker is very interested in Marlow andhis connections back in Europe, but Marlow isinterested only in repairing his ship and learningabout Kurtz. The brick-maker tells Marlow thatKurtz is ‘‘a prodigy’’ and accuses Marlow ofbeing from the same ‘‘gang’’ as Kurtz—a gangthat is destined to assume control of the CentralStation in due time.

After beginning his work on the boat,Marlow realizes he will need rivets ordered tofinish his repairs. There are no rivets to be foundin Central Station, yet he had seen piles and casesof them back at the station he had only recently

left. Marlow muses, ‘‘Three carriers could havebrought all that was wanted to set that steam-boat afloat.’’ Marlow asks the brick-maker, whomaintains a close relationship with the generalmanager, to make sure he gets rivets. In themeantime, the general manager’s uncle emergesfrom the jungle. He is the leader of the EldoradoExploring Expedition, a secretive group whoseonly goal seems to be to ‘‘tear treasure out of thebowels of the land’’—inMarlow’s view, a callingno higher than ‘‘burglars breaking into a safe.’’

Part IIOne night, as Marlow falls in and out of sleep onthe deck of his sidelined steamer, he hears twomen below him in conversation. It is the generalmanager and his uncle, discussing Kurtz in lessthan glowing terms. The manager dislikes Kurtzfor his brazen lack of respect, and fears Kurtz isplotting to take over his position. The uncle tellsthe manager that Kurtz—or another unnamed‘‘pestilential fellow’’ thought to be in the districtwith Kurtz—should be hanged to serve as anexample. The manager speaks contemptuouslyof Kurtz’s notion that the stations should notonly be for trade, but also for ‘‘humanising,improving, instructing.’’ Marlow leaps to hisfeet and startles the two men, who then try toslip away coolly. A few days later, the uncledeparts camp with the Eldorado ExploringExpedition. Much later, Marlow hears newsthat all of the expedition’s donkeys have died.He reports dryly, ‘‘I know nothing as to the fateof the less valuable animals,’’ meaning the uncleand his fellow explorers.

Marlow finishes repairing his boat; accom-panied by the manager, a few pilgrims from theCentral Station, and a crew of natives, he sails upthe Congo toward Kurtz’s camp. Marlow com-pares journeying upriver to ‘‘travelling back to theearliest beginnings of the world,’’ a place of still-ness but not peace. Marlow describes it as ‘‘thestillness of an implacable force brooding over aninscrutable intention.’’ The journey takes twomonths, though Marlow keeps busy with themany challenges of navigating an unfamiliarriver. His crew of natives, referred to as cannibalsthough they are never seen to eat people, prove tobe hard workers. Marlow is especially fond of thefireman, who looks after the boiler that providesthe boat’s steam power. Marlow calls him ‘‘animproved specimen,’’ but also compares the manto ‘‘a dog in a parody of breeches and a featherhat, walking on his hind legs.’’

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Fifty miles from Kurtz and his InnerStation, the boat reaches a hut with a stack ofcut wood intended for them and a note warningthe travelers to approach the station with cau-tion. In the hut, Marlow finds a well-wornbook devoted to various trivial matters ofseamanship. He finds notes in the margins leftby the previous owner, apparently written insome kind of code. He takes the book with himto serve as a diversion from the gloom of theenveloping jungle.

A few days later, with the boat within tenmiles of the Inner Station, they become trappedin blinding fog and must stop. While waiting forthe fog to lift, they hear a human cry from some-where nearby. The pilgrims on board fear anattack by the local natives, but Marlow thinksthe impenetrable fog will protect them. The fogeventually lifts and they continue, approachingwithin a mile and a half of Kurtz’s Inner Station.There, the river is split by a shallow sandbankthat forces Marlow to steer the boat close toshore.

At that moment, a flurry of arrows raindown upon the boat from the shore. The pil-grims blindly fire back with their guns. Thenative helmsman of the boat, also trying toreturn fire, is hit with a spear. Marlow blowsthe boat’s steam whistle, and the attackers flee.The helmsman dies, leaving a pool of blood inthe pilothouse that soaks Marlow’s shoes.Marlow removes his shoes and tosses them intothe river. The surprise attack leaves Marlowconvinced that in a region of such violence,Kurtz must be dead. This thought fills Marlowwith loneliness, even though he has never met theman.Marlow puts on dry slippers, pulls the deadhelmsman’s body out of the pilothouse, andthrows him overboard to prevent the cannibalsfrom eating him.

At last, they reach the Inner Station. On theshore, a young Russian man dressed in color-fully patched clothing, ‘‘like a harlequin,’’ greetsthem. He already knows of the attack on theboat but tells them that everything is fine now.The manager and the pilgrims go to meet Kurtz.Marlow stays behind with the Russian andlearns that he was the one who left the stack ofwood at the hut downriver. Marlow shows himthe book he took from the hut, and the Russianthanks him for returning it. Marlow realizes thatthe notes in the margin are not written in code,but in Russian. Marlow also learns from the

Russian why his boat was attacked: the nativesdo not want the white men to take Kurtz awayfrom them.

Part IIIThe Russian tells Marlow how he came to meetKurtz and how Kurtz immediately captured hisdevotion. He also mentions that Kurtz enlistedthe local tribe to help him acquire ivory—notthrough trade, but through violence. Kurtz, forall his lofty ideas, seems obsessed with obtainingivory. Once, he even threatened to kill theRussian over a small piece of ivory the manreceived as a gift from a local chief. Even afterthis, the Russian remains as close to Kurtz asanyone can; he even cared for the man when hebecame ill. This time, however, Kurtz’s illness isgrave enough to demand more serious treatment.

Through his binoculars,Marlow surveys thehilltop house where Kurtz rests. He is shocked tofind the surrounding fence posts topped by thedecapitated heads of natives. The Russiandefends Kurtz, claiming that these are theheads of rebels. Marlow notes, ‘‘Those rebelliousheads looked very subdued to me on theirsticks.’’ Kurtz is brought from the house on amakeshift stretcher. Tribesmen swarm out fromthe jungle, surrounding the stretcher and its car-riers. Kurtz sits up and shouts something thatMarlow cannot hear, and the natives clear out.The men carrying Kurtz place him in a smallcabin on the boat. Suddenly, an exquisitely deco-rated native woman appears on the shore next tothe steamer; she stares intently at the men onboard, then walks away. The Russian says thatif she had tried to board the ship he would havetried to shoot her and that she was acquaintedwith Kurtz.

Inside Kurtz’s cabin, Marlow hears Kurtzarguing with the manager. Kurtz insists that themanager has not come to save him but to savethe ivory. He also insists that he is not so ill thathe should be removed from his station. Themanager steps out of the cabin and complainsto Marlow that Kurtz has ruined the region forthe Company, doing far more harm than good.

The Russian tells Marlow that he trusts himto look after Kurtz and will take his leave. Healso informs Marlow that it was Kurtz whoordered the natives to attack the steamboat asthey approached. Kurtz had hoped to scare themanager and his men and send them back toCentral Station thinking he must already be

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dead. Marlow gives the Russian gun cartridges,tobacco, and a pair of shoes, and the colorfullydressed man disappears into the night.

After midnight, Marlow is awakened bydrumming and a burst of ritualistic cries. Hechecks Kurtz’s cabin and discovers him missing.Marlow goes ashore and heads toward thedrumming in search of Kurtz. Just thirty yardsfrom the closest native fire, he catches up toKurtz, crawling toward it like a man under thespell of great magic. Kurtz warns him to goaway. Marlow first threatens Kurtz and thenflatters him in an attempt to get him back tothe boat. Kurtz speaks of his grand plans andthe manager’s attempts to ruin him, but much toMarlow’s relief, Kurtz returns to the boat.

The steamer departs at noon the next day,and a thousand natives line the shore to watchthe ‘‘splashing, thumping, fierce river-demonbeating the water with its terrible tail and breath-ing black smoke into the air’’ as it carries Kurtzaway. Kurtz is moved into the pilothouse, whichis better ventilated than his previous cabin. Thenative woman appears along the shore, and theentire tribe lets loose a chorus of cries. The pil-grims aboard the ship ready their guns, soMarlow blasts the steam whistle to disperse thenatives before the pilgrims can start trouble.

Traveling with the river’s current, their paceaway from Kurtz’s camp is twice as fast as it wason their trip there, but Kurtz’s condition quicklyworsens. The ship breaks down and must stopfor repairs. Kurtz, sensing his end might be near,gives Marlow his personal papers and a photo-graph of his intended bride back in Europe. Onenight, when Marlow checks in on him, Kurtztells him he is waiting to die. Marlow dismissesthe remark, but Kurtz, seemingly lost in somevision, softly cries, ‘‘The horror! The horror!’’Marlow leaves him alone and joins the otherpilgrims in the mess-room for dinner. Soonafter, the manager’s assistant enters and informsthem that Kurtz is dead. The pilgrims rush tosee, but Marlow stays in the mess-room. Thepilgrims bury Kurtz the next day in a muddyhole.

Marlow keeps Kurtz’s documents with himall the way back to Europe, despite the man-ager’s attempts to confiscate them as propertyof the Company. He meets with several people,including Kurtz’s cousin—to whom he givessome of Kurtz’s family letters—and a journalistwho considers himself one of Kurtz’s colleagues.

The journalist remarks that Kurtz would havemade a great leader for an extremist politicalparty. WhenMarlow asks which party, the jour-nalist responds, ‘‘Any party.’’ Marlow gives theman one of Kurtz’s reports intended for publica-tion, and the journalist departs, satisfied.

The last of Kurtz’s belongings are meant forhis fiancee, and Marlow visits her to deliverthem. Although by this time it has been a fullyear since Kurtz’s death, she still wears blackand appears to be in mourning. The two discussKurtz’s best qualities, and his intended bridecalls his death a loss to all the world. Thewoman begs Marlow to tell her Kurtz’s lastwords. Knowing she seeks comfort more thantruth, Marlow lies and says, ‘‘The last word hepronounced was—your name.’’ The womanbreaks down, claiming that she knew this allalong.

Marlow ends his tale. The narrator looksout over the Thames, which, under a dark andforeboding sky, appears to flow ‘‘into the heartof an immense darkness.’’

THEMES

Imperialism and OppressionHeart of Darkness directly addresses the issue ofimperialism, or the practice of taking control ofother lands and people to extend the territoryunder a nation’s rule. In the novel, Marlow’semployer—known only as the Company—seems to operate with the approval of theBelgian rulers. The agents of the Companyenslave and murder the native people of theCongo and seize control of any area they seefit. Imperialism is sometimes justified with theargument that civilized nations are morally obli-gated to look after ‘‘savage’’ nations and showthem how to improve themselves. This idea isoften referred to as the White Man’s Burden,after a Rudyard Kipling poem of the same title.The poem, published in the United States in1899, was meant to rally Americans to supporttheir government’s takeover of the Philippines.In the name of progress, these less-industrializedcountries are often robbed of their naturalresources, and their citizens are oppressed orenslaved.

On his way to the mouth of the Congo,Marlow encounters a gunship firing into thejungle in an attempt to subdue a native tribe,

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referred to for some unknown reason as ‘‘ene-mies.’’ Once he reaches the Congo, Marlow seesa group of nativemen conscripted as prisoners todo the menial work the Company agents require.Some natives are treated as ‘‘employees,’’ andpaid with bits of wire and other useless decora-tive items. Often, though, the natives are simplyseen as an impediment to progress and are killed.

InHeart of Darkness, it is clear that themainreason for the Company’s presence in the Congois to obtain ivory. The agents at the CentralStation spend their days plotting ways to get it,and envy Kurtz not just for his cleverness, butalso for his ability to retrieve more ivory thananyone else in the region. For all his notions oflifting up the native people through education,Kurtz seems more obsessed with finding ivorythan with any of his other grand plans.

Although Marlow often implies that thenatives are in many ways inferior to the whitemen of the Company, he also seems to disap-prove of the despicable treatment of the nativepeople. When he sails away from the InnerStation with Kurtz, for example, he blasts hissteam whistle in an attempt to keep the whitepilgrims aboard from shooting the natives on theshore.

DehumanizationThroughout the novel, Marlow describes thenative people of the Congo in ways that makethem seem less than human. At the firstCompany station, he sees black people movingabout ‘‘like ants.’’ The men of a chain gang haverags around their waists ‘‘and the short endsbehind waggled to and fro like tails;’’ thesesame men also have joints ‘‘like knots in arope.’’ The dying men he encounters at the sta-tion are nothing more than ‘‘black shapes’’ and‘‘bundles of acute angles.’’ He often describesgroups of natives by collectively referring to aspecific body part: the whites of their eyeballs,the flaring of their nostrils, the whirling of theirlimbs. The natives who attack the steamboat asthe pilgrims near the Inner Station are seen onlyas ‘‘naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes.’’ Theeffect is to cause the reader to never picture thenatives as fully human.

Some critics argue that Marlow’s descrip-tions are meant to reflect his ultimate inabilityto understand the native people as his peers.Although he clearly acknowledges that they areindeed human, he quickly notes that ‘‘that was

the worst of it—this suspicion of their not beinginhuman.’’ It takes a true man, he argues, to evenadmit to feeling a ‘‘remote kinship’’ with thenatives. Viewing them as peers is simply notconceivable. This was a fairly common feelingin nineteenth-century Europe. In the words ofphilanthropist Albert Schweitzer, as quoted byauthor Chinua Achebe in ‘‘An Image of Africa:Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’’: ‘‘TheAfrican is indeed my brother but my juniorbrother.’’

PrejudiceIn Heart of Darkness, Marlow makes manyassumptions about the native people of theCongo. Although he admits their basic human-ness, he often ascribes to them superstitions thathe does not know exist. He describes his firemanas believing an evil spirit lurks inside the boiler ofthe ship; later, he begins to wonder if thatdescription, meant to illustrate a native’s lackof scientific understanding, might not be accu-rate after all. Marlow also takes for granted thefact that native workers are good only so far asthey have been instructed—but even this is unna-tural, and he muses that the fireman ‘‘ought tohave been clapping his hands and stamping hisfeet on the bank’’ with the other natives. Hisprejudices extend beyond Africa, however:when he finds a book on seamanship withunreadable notes in the margins, he assumesthem to be the ciphers of a madman—nevereven considering the possibility that they mightjust be written in another alphabet, like the oneused by Russians.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Imperialism in AfricaHeart of Darkness was published at the height ofBritain’s second great push to expand its world-wide colonies, popularly known as the ‘‘NewImperialism.’’ One of the main targets ofEuropean colonial growth during this periodwas Africa. Until the mid-nineteenth century,all but the northernmost and southernmostparts of the continent had remained free of for-eign interest due to its harsh and mysteriousenvironment. However, the explorations ofDavid Livingstone affirmed Africa’s potentialwealth of resources and the real possibility ofobtaining that wealth.

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The nations of Europe moved to stake theirown claims, with England and France ignoringmuch of central Africa in favor of mineral-richsouthern areas and important trade ports in thenorth. This left King Leopold II of Belgium toclaim nearly one million square miles of theCongo as part of his domain. A conference washeld in Berlin in 1884–1885 so that Europeancountries could lay down ground rules for divid-ing up the great continent of Africa with a mini-mum of conflict among them.

These African territories were plagued bydecades of abuse and exploitation on the partof their occupying nations. As European publicopinion turned against the notion of imperial-ism, many of these territories were eventuallyallowed to form their own independent govern-ments. Today, most African countries—eventhose who have broken free from colonialrule—are still defined by those boundaries setforth by the empires of Europe. The loss ofresources and other damages inflicted uponAfrica by colonial rule have been responsible,at least in part, for the continent’s relativelyslow economic development.

The Congo Free StateWhen the nations of Europe met in Berlin in1884–1885 to discuss the colonization ofAfrica, King Leopold II of Belgium was grantedprivate control of the region he had already‘‘bought’’ through trade with tribal chiefs. Asprivately held land, the area—which wasseventy-five times larger than Belgium itself—was not under the direct control of the Belgiangovernment. This was allowed because Leopoldwas believed to be a humanitarian, and he pro-mised to hand control of the territory over to itsown people as soon as they demonstrated theability to govern themselves. The area wasnamed the Congo Free State.

Leopold offered leases that allowed differ-ent companies to control certain markets in anarea. One lease, for example, would allow acompany exclusive rights to all ivory within aspecified region. The lack of an official govern-ment and the institution of a commission systemof payment for district officials that was tieddirectly to profits meant that company agentscould use whatever means necessary to extractriches from a region, including slavery, torture,and murder. It was not uncommon for agentswho had not met profit goals to provide baskets

of severed hands of Congolese natives in anattempt to make up for the shortfall.

This situation continued into the first yearsof the twentieth century, with the true nature ofthe atrocities finally coming to light in Europe atabout the same timeHeart of Darkness was pub-lished in book form.With public opinion againsthim, Leopold turned over control of the CongoFree State to the Belgian government. Belgiummaintained control of the region for over fiftyyears, until it gained independent rule in 1960.The ensuing decades saw numerous internal con-flicts, culminating in the current TransitionalGovernment of the Democratic Republic of theCongo, which is attempting to establish a trulydemocratic, constitution-based government forthe region.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW

Heart of Darkness was first published in bookform in 1902 as one-third of a story collectiontitled Youth. The critical response to the bookwas uniformly favorable, with many consideringthe book one of Joseph Conrad’s finest works.Most critics recognizedHeart of Darkness as thestandout piece of the book. Edward Garnett,in a review for Academy and Literature titled‘‘Mr. Conrad’s New Book,’’ refers to the story as‘‘the high-water mark of the author’s talent,’’ anda ‘‘psychological masterpiece.’’ Hugh Clifford, in‘‘The Art of Mr. Joseph Conrad’’ for TheSpectator, also notes that the story seems ‘‘torepresent Mr. Conrad at his very best.’’ Anunsigned reviewer for Athenaeum also singlesout Heart of Darkness as ‘‘a big and thoughtfulconception.’’ Clifford also offers general praisefor the author, stating that his talent ‘‘is surelynot far removed from genius,’’ while an unsignedreviewer for the Manchester Guardian refers toConrad as ‘‘one of the greatest of sea-writers.’’

Some of these reviews by the author’s con-temporaries, viewed with modern eyes, provideinsight into the culture in which Conrad livedand wrote. For example, despite the story’s see-mingly clear condemnation of the horrors thataccompany imperialism, the aforementionedreviewer for the Manchester Guardian warnsthe reader, ‘‘It must not be supposed thatMr. Conrad makes attack upon colonisation,expansion, even upon Imperialism.’’ In addition,despite modern views of Conrad’s treatment of

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native Congolese people in the story, Garnett’sreview in Academy and Literature notes ‘‘no pre-judice one way or the other’’ on the part of theauthor. However, seventy-five years later,Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author of ThingsFall Apart, writes in ‘‘An Image of Africa:Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness thatConrad’s ‘‘obvious racism’’ has not beenaddressed by past reviews and needs to be con-fronted: ‘‘the question is whether a novel whichcelebrates this dehumanization, which deperso-nalizes a portion of the human race, can be calleda great work of art.My answer is: No, it cannot.’’

While Heart of Darkness was frequentlysingled out as the jewel of the Youth collection,many reviewers also felt that its grimness andharsh subject matter might put off some readers.While Garnett lavishes his highest praise onHeart of Darkness, he acknowledges that theother two stories in the collection ‘‘will be morepopular.’’ The reviewer for the ManchesterGuardian makes this comment about the story:‘‘Even to those who are most impressed an exci-tement so sustained and prolonged, in which weare braced to encounter so much that menacesand appals [sic], must be something of a strain.’’

An unsigned reviewer for The MonthlyReview shares similar feelings, but applies themto the whole collection by calling Youth a ‘‘mostdepressing book.’’ The anonymous reviewer forthe Times Literary Supplement (London) con-cludes a brief review of the stories by asserting,‘‘‘The End of the Tether,’ the last of the three, isthe longest and best.’’ Though his first assertionmay be factual (the story ‘‘The End of the Tether’’is indeed the longest), history has shown his finalclaim to be an opinion squarely in the minority.

CRITICISM

Chinua AchebeIn the following essay excerpt, Nigerian author

Chinua Achebe asserts that Conrad’s Heart of

Darkness, due to the objectionable attitude it con-

veys about black people, is an offensive book not

worthy of its ‘‘classic’’ status among literary scho-

lars or readers.

Heart of Darkness projects the image of

Africa as ‘‘the other world,’’ the antithesis of

Europe and therefore of civilization, a place

whereman’s vaunted intelligence and refinement

are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality. The

book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, rest-

ing peacefully ‘‘at the decline of day after ages of

good service done to the race that peopled its

banks.’’ But the actual story will take place on

the River Congo, the very antithesis of the

Thames. The River Congo is quite decidedly

not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service

and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that

‘‘going up that river was like travelling back to

the earliest beginning of the world.’’

Is Conrad saying then that these two riversare very different, one good, the other bad? Yes,

MEDIAADAPTATIONS

Two electronic versions of the book, compatiblewith Adobe Acrobat Reader and MicrosoftReader, were released by Amazon Press in 2000.Both are available from www.amazon.com.

An unabridged audio version of the bookwas released on CD by Tantor Media in 2002. Itis narrated by Scott Brick.

An unabridged audio version of the book,narrated by Richard Thomas, was released byDove Audio in 1993. This version is currentlyavailable as a digital download through www.audible.com.

Director Francis Ford Coppola updated thestory and locale of Heart of Darkness for his1979 movie masterpiece, Apocalypse Now.Coppola’s film is set in Southeast Asia duringthe Vietnam War, but follows the basic plot ofthe book closely. It stars Marlon Brando asColonel Kurtz and Martin Sheen as CaptainWillard. It is available on DVD and VHS fromParamount Home Entertainment.

A direct film adaptation of the novel wasmade for television in 1994 by director NicholasRoeg. The movie stars John Malkovich and TimRoth and was released on VHS from TurnerHome Entertainment.

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but that is not the real point. It is not the differ-entness that worries Conrad but the lurking hintof kinship, of common ancestry. For the Thamestoo ‘‘has been one of the dark places of theearth.’’ It conquered its darkness, of course,and is now in daylight and at peace. But if itwere to visit its primordial relative, the Congo,it would run the terrible risk of hearing gro-tesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness,and falling victim to an avenging recrudescenceof the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings.

The most interesting and revealing passagesinHeart of Darkness are, however, about people.

It is clearly not part of Conrad’s purpose toconfer language on the ‘‘rudimentary souls’’ ofAfrica. In place of speech they made ‘‘a violentbabble of uncouth sounds.’’ They ‘‘exchangedshort grunting phrases’’ even among themselves.But most of the time they were too busy withtheir frenzy. There are two occasions in thebook, however, when Conrad departs somewhatfrom his practice and confers speech, evenEnglish speech, on the savages. The first occurswhen cannibalism gets the better of them:

‘‘Catch ’im,’’ he snapped, with a bloodshot

widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp

white teeth—‘‘catch ’im. Give ’im to us.’’ ‘‘To

you, eh?’’ I asked; ‘‘what would you do with

them?’’ ‘‘Eat ’im!’’ he said curtly.

The other occasionwas the famous announce-ment: ‘‘Mistah Kurtz—he dead.’’

At first sight these instances might be mis-taken for unexpected acts of generosity fromConrad. In reality they constitute some of hisbest assaults. In the case of the cannibals theincomprehensible grunts that had thus far servedthem for speech suddenly proved inadequate forConrad’s purpose of letting the Europeanglimpse the unspeakable craving in their hearts.Weighing the necessity for consistency in theportrayal of the dumb brutes against the sensa-tional advantages of securing their conviction byclear, unambiguous evidence issuing out of theirown mouths, Conrad chose the latter. As for theannouncement of Mr. Kurtz’s death by the‘‘insolent black head in the doorway,’’ what bet-ter or more appropriate finis could be written tothe horror story of that wayward child of civili-zation who wilfully had given his soul to thepowers of darkness and ‘‘taken a high seatamongst the devils of the land’’ than the procla-mation of his physical death by the forces he hadjoined?

It might be contended, of course, that theattitude to the African in Heart of Darkness isnot Conrad’s but that of his fictional narrator,Marlow, and that far from endorsing it Conradmight indeed be holding it up to irony and criti-cism. Certainly, Conrad appears to go to con-siderable pains to set up layers of insulationbetween himself and the moral universe of hisstory. He has, for example, a narrator behind anarrator. The primary narrator is Marlow, buthis account is given to us through the filter of asecond, shadowy person. But if Conrad’s inten-tion is to draw a cordon sanitaire between him-self and the moral and psychological malaise ofhis narrator, his care seems to me totally wastedbecause he neglects to hint, clearly and ade-quately, at an alternative frame of reference bywhich we may judge the actions and opinions ofhis characters. It would not have been beyondConrad’s power to make that provision if he hadthought it necessary. Conrad seems to me toapprove of Marlow, with only minor reserva-tions—a fact reinforced by the similaritiesbetween their two careers.

Marlow comes through to us not only as awitness of truth, but one holding those advancedand humane views appropriate to the Englishliberal tradition which required all Englishmenof decency to be deeply shocked by atrocities inBulgaria or the Congo of King Leopold of theBelgians or wherever.

Thus, Marlow is able to toss out such bleed-ing-heart sentiments as these:

They were all dying slowly—it was very clear.

They were not enemies, they were not crim-

inals, they were nothing earthly now—nothing

but black shadows of disease and starvation,

lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. Brought

from all the recesses of the coast in all the

legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial

surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they

sickened, became inefficient, and were then

allowed to crawl away and rest.

The kind of liberalism espoused here byMarlow/Conrad touched all the best minds ofthe age in England, Europe and America. It tookdifferent forms in the minds of different peoplebut almost always managed to sidestep the ulti-mate question of equality between white peopleand black people.

When Marlow’s African helmsman fallsdown with a spear in his heart he gives hiswhite master one final disquieting look:

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And the intimate profundity of that look he

gave me when he received his hurt remains to

this day in my memory—like a claim of distant

kinship affirmed in a supreme moment.

It is important to note that Conrad, carefulas ever with his words, is concerned not so muchabout ‘‘distant kinship’’ as about someone layinga claim on it. The black man lays a claim on thewhite man which is well-nigh intolerable. It is thelaying of this claim which frightens and at thesame time fascinates Conrad, ‘‘the thought oftheir humanity—like yours . . . Ugly.’’

The point of my observations should bequite clear by now, namely that Joseph Conradwas a thoroughgoing racist. That this simpletruth is glossed over in criticisms of his work isdue to the fact that white racism against Africa issuch a normal way of thinking that its manifes-tations go completely unremarked. Students ofHeart of Darknesswill often tell you that Conradis concerned not so much with Africa as with thedeterioration of one European mind caused bysolitude and sickness. They will point out to youthat Conrad is, if anything, less charitable to theEuropeans in the story than he is to the natives,that the point of the story is to ridicule Europe’scivilizing mission in Africa. A Conrad studentinformed me in Scotland that Africa is merely asetting for the disintegration of the mind ofMr. Kurtz.

Which is partly the point. Africa as settingand backdrop which eliminates the African ashuman factor. Africa as a metaphysical battle-field devoid of all recognizable humanity, intowhich the wandering European enters at hisperil. Can nobody see the preposterous and per-verse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to therole of props for the break-up of one pettyEuropean mind? But that is not even the point.The real question is the dehumanization ofAfrica and Africans which this age-long attitudehas fostered and continues to foster in the world.And the question is whether a novel which cele-brates this dehumanization, which depersona-lizes a portion of the human race, can be calleda great work of art. My answer is: No, it cannot.I do not doubt Conrad’s great talents. EvenHeart of Darkness has its memorably good pas-sages and moments:

The reaches opened before us and closed

behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely

across the water to bar the way for our return.

Its exploration of the minds of the Europeancharacters is often penetrating and full of

insight. But all that has been more than fullydiscussed in the last fifty years. His obviousracism has, however, not been addressed. Andit is high time it was!

Whatever Conrad’s problems were, youmight say he is now safely dead. Quite true.Unfortunately, his heart of darkness plagues usstill. Which is why an offensive and deplorablebook can be described by a serious scholar as‘‘among the half-dozen greatest short novels inthe English language.’’ And why it is today per-haps the most commonly prescribed novel intwentieth-century literature courses in Englishdepartments of American universities.

There are two probable grounds on whichwhat I have said so far may be contested. Thefirst is that it is no concern of fiction to pleasepeople about whom it is written. I will go alongwith that. But I am not talking about pleasingpeople. I am talking about a book which paradesin the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insultsfrom which a section of mankind has suffereduntold agonies and atrocities in the past andcontinues to do so in many ways and manyplaces today. I am talking about a story inwhich the very humanity of black people is calledin question.

Secondly, I may be challenged on thegrounds of actuality. Conrad, after all, did saildown the Congo in 1890 when my own fatherwas still a babe in arms. How could I stand upmore than fifty years after his death and purportto contradict him? My answer is that as a sensi-ble man I will not accept just any traveller’s talessolely on the grounds that I have not made thejourney myself. I will not trust the evidence evenof a man’s very eyes when I suspect them to be asjaundiced as Conrad’s. And we also happen toknow that Conrad was, in the words of his bio-grapher, Bernard C. Meyer, ‘‘notoriously inac-curate in the rendering of his own history.’’

As I said earlier Conrad did not originatethe image of Africa which we find in his book.It was and is the dominant image of Africa inthe Western imagination and Conrad merelybrought the peculiar gifts of his own mind tobear on it. For reasons which can certainly useclose psychological inquiry, the West seems tosuffer deep anxieties about the precariousness ofits civilization and to have a need for constantreassurance by comparison with Africa. IfEurope, advancing in civilization, could cast abackward glance periodically at Africa trapped

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in primordial barbarity it could say with faithand feeling: There go I but for the grace of God.Africa is to Europe as the picture is to DorianGray—a carrier on to whom the master unloadshis physical and moral deformities so that hemay go forward, erect and immaculate. Conse-quently, Africa is something to be avoided just asthe picture has to be hidden away to safeguardthe man’s jeopardous integrity. Keep away fromAfrica, or else! Mr. Kurtz of Heart of Darknessshould have heeded that warning and the prowl-ing horror in his heart would have kept its place,chained to its lair. But he foolishly exposed him-self to the wild irresistible allure of the jungle andlo! the darkness found him out.

In my original conception of this essay I hadthought to conclude it nicely on an appropriatelypositive note in which I would suggest from myprivileged position in African and Western cul-tures some advantages the West might derivefrom Africa once it rid its mind of old prejudicesand began to look at Africa not through a hazeof distortions and cheap mystifications but quitesimply as a continent of people—not angels, butnot rudimentary souls either—just people, oftenhighly gifted people and often strikingly success-ful in their enterprise with life and society. But asI thought more about the stereotype image,about its grip and pervasiveness, about the wilfultenacity with which theWest holds it to its heart;when I thought of the West’s television andcinema and newspapers, about books read inits schools and out of school, of churches preach-ing to empty pews about the need to send help tothe heathen in Africa, I realized that no easyoptimism was possible. And there was in anycase something totally wrong in offering bribesto the West in return for its good opinion ofAfrica. Ultimately the abandonment of unwho-lesome thoughts must be its own and onlyreward. Although I have used the word ‘‘wilful’’a few times here to characterize the West’s viewof Africa, it may well be that what is happeningat this stage is more akin to reflex action thancalculated malice. Which does not make thesituation more but less hopeful.

Although the work of redressing whichneeds to be done may appear too daunting,I believe it is not one day too soon to begin.

Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperialexploitation but was strangely unaware of theracism on which it sharpened its iron tooth.But the victims of racist slander who for centu-ries have had to live with the inhumanity itmakes them heir to have always known betterthan any casual visitor, even when he comesloaded with the gifts of a Conrad.

Source: Chinua Achebe, ‘‘An Image of Africa: Racism in

Conrad’sHeart of Darkness,’’ inHopes and Impediments:

Selected Essays, 1989.

SOURCES

Achebe, Chinua, ‘‘An Image of Africa: Racism in

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,’’ in Hopes and Impediments:

Selected Essays, Doubleday, 1989, pp. 1–20.

Clifford, Hugh, ‘‘The Art of Mr. Joseph Conrad,’’ in

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, edited by

D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke, Broadview Press, 1999,

pp. 164–68, originally published in The Spectator,

November 29, 1902, pp. 827–828.

Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, from Vol. 2 of

the Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th edition,

edited by M. H. Abrams, W. W. Norton, 1993,

pp. 1759–1817.

Garnett, Edward, ‘‘Mr. Conrad’s NewBook,’’ inHeart of

Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, edited by D.C.R.A.

Goonetilleke, Broadview Press, 1999, pp. 163–64, origin-

ally published in Academy and Literature, December 6,

1902, pp. 606–607.

‘‘Mr. Conrad’s New Book,’’ in Heart of Darkness, by

Joseph Conrad, edited by D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke,

Broadview Press, 1999, pp. 168–69, originally published

in the Manchester Guardian, December 10, 1902, p. 3.

Review of Youth, in Heart of Darkness, edited by

D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke, Broadview Press, 1999, pp. 170–

71; originally published inAthenaeum, December 20, 1902,

p. 824.

Review of Youth, in Heart of Darkness, by Joseph

Conrad, edited by D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke, Broadview

Press, 1999, p. 173, originally published in The Monthly

Review, April 7, 1903, pp. 21–22.

Review ofYouth, inHeart of Darkness, by JosephConrad,

edited by D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke, Broadview Press, 1999,

pp. 169–70, originally published in the Times Literary

Supplement (London), No. 48, December 12, 1902, p. 372.

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