Heart of Darkness

4 Pages 876 Words

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, there is a great
interpretation of the feelings of the characters and uncertainties of
the Congo. Although Africa, nor the Congo are ever really referred to,
the Thames river is mentioned as support. This intricate story reveals
much symbolism due to Conrad's theme based on the lies and good and
evil, which interact together in every man. Today, of course, the
situation has changed. Most literate people know that by probing into
the heart of the jungle Conrad was trying to convey an impression
about the heart of man, and his tale is universally read as one of the
first symbolic masterpieces of English prose (Graver,28). In any
event, this story recognizes primarily on Marlow, its narrator, not
about Kurtz or the brutality of Belgian officials. Conrad wrote a
brief statement of how he felt the reader should interpret this work:
"My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written
word, to make you hear, to make you feel-it is above all, to make
you see.(Conrad 1897) Knowing that Conrad was a novelist who lived in
his work, writing about the experiences were as if he were writing
about himself. "Every novel contains an element of autobiography-and
this can hardly be denied, since the creator can only explain himself
in his creations."(Kimbrough,158) The story is written as seen through
Marlow's eyes. Marlow is a follower of the sea. His voyage up the
Congo is his first experience in freshwater navigation. He is used as
a tool, so to speak, in order for Conrad to enter the story and tell
it out of his own philosophical mind. He longs to see Kurtz, in the
hope's of appreciating all that Kurtz finds endearing in the African
jungle. Marlow does not get the opportunity to see Kurtz until he is
so disease-stricken he looks more like death than a person. There are
no good looks or health. In the story Marlow remarks that Kurtz
resembles ...