Joseph Conrads Life

(1857-1924) Born Josef Teodore Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, in Poland (now in Ukraine), in 1857; a nobleman Conrad's father had studied law and languages at St Petersburg University and wrote radical poems and plays. His father and mother were political activists. They were imprisoned 7 months and eventually deported

 His father introduced him to the work of Dickens and Fenimore Cooper in either Polish or French translations. Her mother died of pneumonia; his father died of tuberculosis Conrad was raised by his uncle; attended school (he was disobedient) In 1874, Conrad went to Marseilles France and joined the Merchant Navy
In short, a political exile and then an expatriate, a homo duplex: a Pole, became a naturalised Englishman in 1886

Widely read, spoke French and Polish, then learnt English As a writer, used a language which wasnt his own His being a foreigner using a foreign language provided him with a double perspective ( inside + outside events)

 He travelled widely in the Far East , Australia, Africa (1890, Congo) Conrad retired from sailing and took up writing full time. Writing took a physical and emotional toll on him. The experience was draining

Everything here is repellent to me ... Men and things, but above all men

Inner Station

Congo in the 1890s

Kinsagani Stanleyville

The Roi des Belges, the ship Conrad used to travel up the Congo

Speaking I (first narrator) unnamed; it is through his point of view that we learn of Charlie Marlow and his journey. Marlow, second narrator On a yawl on the Thames waiting for the tide to come in

We learn about "reality" through other people's accounts of it, many of which are, themselves, twice-told tales.

= the filter of
memory might be biasing everything.

In the first station MARLOW meets the accountant who keeps track of the funds in Kurtzs company. The man is interesting to Marlow since hes been on the continent for three years, yet he keeps himself clean and well dressed. He is the exact picture of respectability and elegance. Marlow finds the blacks being poorly treated and ordered to do meaningless work by the whites.

Central Station - This is the station where Marlow meets where he meets the Manager, who for now will oversee his work. The Manager smiles in a manner that is very discomfiting. The ship that Marlow is supposed to sail is currently broken. While they await the delivery of rivets that is needed to fix it, Marlow frequently hears the name "Kurtz"

It is rumoured that Kurtz is ill. Soon the entire crew will depart for a trip to Kurtz's station.

The Manager's uncle arrives with his own expedition. Marlow overhears them saying that they would like to see Kurtz and his assistant hanged so that their station could be eliminated as ivory competition. After a day Marlow sets out for Kurtz's station with the Pilgrims, the cannibal crew, and the Manager.

The Inner Station was a Belgian outpost beside a series of cataracts called Stanley Falls. This natural obstacle marked the last navigable point on the Congo river.

This is the station where Kurtz works and where Marlow finds him being worshipped by the savages. Kurtz, having distinguished himself as a collector of rubber and ivory, loses his mind and ends up impaling human heads on fence posts around the Inner Station.

At the end of his journey, Marlow will return to civilization (London), where he will meet Kurtzs ffiance

. . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of ones existencethat which makes its truth, its meaningits subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dreamalone. . .

Heart of Darkness Language

English was alien to Conrad, and English was alien to this part of Africa. English therefore reveals him as an outsider. Marlow narrates the story in highly educated language (marking him as a member of civilization, rather than the "savagery" that defined Africa) and high figurative, symbolic language. This last reveals his subconscious and gives the story its tone and deeper meaning

Interrelated interpretative levels

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Purely narrative adventure story Conrads biography Contemporary history Wider historical perspective (explorers/journeys) Moral issues Psychological point of view Philosophical mythical or religious

Survey of various interpretations of Heart of Darkness

1. Realism the real journey Autobiography the Congo River expectation Brussels main office description of condition in the colony Stanleyville Inner Station Europes so-called civilising influence turned upside down culmination temptation, trial dnouement climax inner Sanctum of Hell, Inferno final step into the Id cleansing purification danger of the forbidden, nemesis punishment purgatory crisis Marlow (Conrad) close to dying return to civilisation

2. Anticolonialism journey Politics

do

absurd bureaucracy criticism of alienation colonialism

alienation inability to communicate return, mission accomplished homecoming

3. Myth (Arthurian)

quest

expectation

delegation of task departure

learning process

4. Mythology quest Classical, Norse 5. Christian Mythology 6. Psychology Psychiatry 7. War movie A Pilgrims Progress, Everyman analysis, introspection mission

Styx, Lethe ? journey Snake, temptation method

Nornes, Fates Hades, Hel descent into Hades the underworld tomb, descent memento mori first scary revelations lost souls limbo learning process desperation absurdity of the war, arsehole of the world

forgiveness salvation cure

circuit cable staff office, plugged into Kurtz bureaucracy

civilisation and Willard alive on morality dissolved Kurtz terms

mission accomplished, return

Level 2 Conrads biography

Letters from the Congo the experience very nearly robbed him of all taste for life and human kind Everything here is repellent to me ... Men and things, but above all men the reader has not got the right to equate Conrad, the writer, and Marlow, the protagonist and narrator.

Level 3 Contemporary history

Stanley's In Dark Africa was published the same year as Conrad went to the Congo
To Conrad's contemporaries, European expansion was seen as a biological necessity.

Level 4 Wider Historical Perspective

great explorers = brave dedicated men, who had set their minds to find truth, no matter the cost conquering a bit of truth here and a bit of truth there and they were sometimes swallowed up by the mystery their hearts were so persistently set on unveiling
very few names are mentioned; Conrad aims at universality

Level 5 Moral issues

culture and primitive/brutal instincts Conrad is pessimistic: temptations, evil, hate and disgust cannor be faught by means of what we call culture and civilization. Possibility of salvation, for the individual and for society: restraint. "What saves us is efficiency Marlow chooses to concentrate on the bearable and the superficial in order not to see and hear, not to become involved in something that would affect his personality in an extremely unpleasant and thorough manner.

Level 6 Psychological point of view

a journey towards self-knowledge and insight Jungian individuation process Jungian terminology: Kurtz = Marlow's "shadow", the dark side of his personality, his second self, the side that Marlow has to acknowledge in order to become a whole individual.

Level 7 Philosophical Mythical Religious

Buddhism, ancient myths +archetypal patterns, the notion of illumination, allusions to classical epic
journeys into the realm of death, to Hades and the underworld. allegory of a journey through the various circles of hell to meet Lucifer at the Inner Station. (Lucifer, the Light bringer) Virgil's Aeneid, particularly the Sixth Song dealing with Aeneas' descent into the realms of death.

 Faustus legend: Christopher Marlowe inspired the name of the narrator + Faustus and Kurtz = kindred souls, heroes challenging the unknown, seeking their own benefit and satisfaction, thereby bringing disaster to themselves and others Mythical heroes of the Grail legend looking for something symbolizing truth and the deepest insight a human being can achieve, illuminatio. The Grail legend speaks of a wounded King on the banks of a river who has to be saved by the knight in search of truth.

Marlow reminding us of Buddha, prepared to reach contact with his subconscious, apart from the others

Modernism
Heart of Darkness was published in the Late Victorian-Early Modern Era but exhibits mostly modern traits: 1. an interest in an exploration of the psychological 2. a belief in art as a separate and somewhat privileged kind of human experience

3. a desire for transcendence mingled with a feeling that transcendence cannot be achieved

4. an awareness of primitiveness and savagery as the condition upon which civilization is built, and therefore an interest in the experience and expressions of non-European peoples 5. skepticism that emerges from the notion that human ideas about the world seldom fit the complexity of the world itself. Consequently, a sense that multiplicity, ambiguity, and irony -in life and in art- are the necessary responses of the intelligent mind to the human condition.

 EUROPEAN
CIVILIZATION

vs

AFRICAN SAVAGERY

Use of deceitful violence Exchanging roles: civilized whites can be more savage than primitives loss of innocence as members of a civilization

Land of wilderness savagery and abomination

as individuals