HEART OF DARKNESS ANALYSIS

The jungles of the Congo in central Africa or The Heart of Dark Continent is the main setting for The
Heart of Darkness. The protagonist of the book, Marlow, sets off from Europe and heads to the Congo to
captain a steamboat on a journey up river into the darkest jungle. In this book, Conrad's criticism of
Colonialism is not concerned with the plight of the natives or the abuses of power which a modern critic
of the practice would be. Instead, The Heart of Darkness explores the effect these wilder, primitive lands
have on the ‘civilized’ people of the colonial powers. The colonial powers see themselves as a civilizing
force, but rather than the Europeans bringing the light of civilization to Africa, the darkness instead
seems to creep into them, or perhaps it has always been there and is just being reawakened. It is after
all only the thin veneer of civilization which separates the Europeans from the natives. The wildness and
distance from the civilizing forces over time can work to strip this away and change the Europeans,
rekindling their more primitive and savage selves. More generally though this can be true for anyone,
not just 19th century colonialists. How far is anyone in the modern world away from their animalistic
nature? I think Conrad would argue that we are not as far as we would like to believe. Would the
restraints of civilization prevent any of us from killing to protect ourselves or our children? What would
anyone do when driven to extremes? What would it take to fracture society’s fragile shell to release a
person’s inner savage? Starvation perhaps? Conrad says this about hunger:

No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger
is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze.
Don’t you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its
sombre and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly.
It’s really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one’s soul—than this kind of
prolonged hunger.

Conrad seems to suggest that by being distanced from civilization these restraints can also be worn
away over time as opposed to by extreme circumstances such as hunger or danger. Men who at home
may be genteel neighbors, upstanding citizens, caring fathers and husbands, when placed in a lawless,
uncivilized environment, may instead find themselves cruel and uncaring masters beating, enslaving,
and even murdering to get not only what they need but what they want. Without that façade of
civilization, the darkness at the heart of all men is laid bare. But what is it about the wilderness that
causes this? The temptation to indulge in one’s basest desires when freed from the restraints of
society’s laws, in effect becoming like the savages. Conrad further seems to posit that the vastness
surrounding people in these environs reminds them that for all of their achievements, for all of their
power, for all of their civilization they are all ultimately insignificant by comparison and all of their
efforts ultimately futile. In this way, The Heart of Darkness is like a sinister version of Ozymandias. I
would even compare it to the terror inspired by the insignificance of Man in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.
The realization that we are so small and insignificant compared with the vastness of the universe causes
us to realize that nothing we do, whether good or evil, matters. This in fact is what allows men to fall to
that temptation, to give in to our savage impulses, as there seems to be little cause to restrain one’s self.

-W. Whimpenny