Heart of Darkness: Quotation Bank
Quote AO2 Analysis AO3 Context
The title ‘Heart of The title could represent Africa, which was This interpretation links to Prometheus’
Darkness’ dubbed the ‘Dark Continent’, and more torch – carrying civilisation into Africa etc.
specifically the Belgian Congo which Marlow
describes as the ‘centre of the earth’. The end Virgil's Chapter 6 of the Aeneid - Sisyphean
of the novel, however, is ambiguous as to tasks (‘the philanthropic desire of giving
whether Africa is the heart of darkness or them something to do’) - reflects hellscape
whether it is actually the colonial of this section - also, in the Aeneid, the
administration in London (darkness here would purpose of entering the underworld is to
suggest moral depravity). journey to meet his father and receive
answers to questions (including how the
The journey down the river to the ‘centre of the imperial Roman empire will be brought
earth’ symbolises Marlow’s introspective about); reflects the literal and metaphorical
journey to find truth about his identity and the journey to find Kurtz/ truth/ identity.
human condition. Ultimately, he does, to an Highlights possibly that there is no answer -
extent, achieve this – ‘it takes place in an the father-figure in this text is Kurtz
impalpable greyness’ – yet it is unfulfilling.
Conrad was a nihilist/pessimist – he wrote
Alternatively, the ‘Heart of Darkness’ could in a letter to his aunt ‘Everything is repellent
refer to humanity – Conrad is suggesting that to me. Men and things; but especially men’
man is intrinsically and irredeemably evil. and also wrote in another letter ‘Life knows
us not and we do not know life…beliefs shift
Thirdly, the ‘heart of darkness’ could reflect the like mists on the shore…the memory of
existential anxieties of the turn of the century. yesterday is as shadowy as the hope of
tomorrow’
Lord Kelvin’s Second Law of
Thermodynamics postulated that the sun
would eventually cool and render all life
extinct – the solar system would collapse
and would therefore become a ‘Heart of
Darkness’.
Heart of Darkness is in tune with the
apocalyptic note struck by other novelists of
the 1890s and early 1900s, not just Hardy
but the likes of H.G. Wells and Wilde in The
Picture of Dorian Gray, where Lord Henry
murmurs ‘Fin die siècle’ and his hostess
answers ‘Fin du globe’.
“The untamed wilderness functions as the
heart of darkness, and symbolizes both the
uncertain drives of man's subconscious and
the possible nothingness of man's
experience…Darkness may reside in man's
subconscious and shroud the primitive
drives, but the subconscious is by no means
empty. If only emptiness extended through
man's subconscious, all men would be
hollow like Kurtz and sink into identical
abominations.”
The focus shifted from the Victorian ‘social’
novel to modern dramas of alienation.
Modernist texts e.g. Ulysses sought to
, mimic the random flux of thought through
techniques e.g. ‘stream of consciousness’,
conveying the self as an exiled sensitivity, in
touch with, yet simultaneously detached
from, the surrounding world.
‘like the beginning of The adjective ‘interminable’ suggests there is This is a reflection of Conrad’s nihilism and
an interminable no end to the journey into the heart of man and pessimism. During Conrad’s own expedition
waterway’ the darkness contained within: redemption or to Africa, he wrote to his aunt ‘Everything is
morality can never be found. repellent to me. Men and things; but
especially men’.
The Thames is a “…the river Thames is described as loaded with
‘waterway leading to an essential, archetypal function. lt is "a
the uttermost ends of waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the
the earth earth" where it is easy "to evoke the great spirit
of the past; " as the Congo river, the Thames
"has (also) been one of the dark places of the
earth." The evocation of the remote forces that
brought civilization into England through the
Thames is the means by which both rivers are
associated. Nevertheless, it is not only the
Congo and the Thames that are deeply linked to
each other as bearers of a strange conscience
that runs along their waters, but also Africa and
England partake of that similar nature; as in the
jungle, in London ‘darkness was here
yesterday ... cold, fog, disease, exile and
death ... savagery, the utter savagery ... all hat
mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in
the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild
men.’ The narrator might be introducing a
premise here: what he is going to tell us does See more on the objective correlative here
not belong either to a particular period or to a
particular place. lt is an atemporal story about
human nature that happened then in Africa as
it formerly did in England, and as it might
happen at any time and in any place. The
journey through the river is a journey through
darkness, and darkness is everywhere since it is
the unknown, the subconscious, the mystery of
man's spiritual life. Sailing down the Congo river
is the objective correlative- to use Eliot's own
terms – of the spiritual initiation through
experience, an incursion into the innermost
nature and conscience of man which may result
in either emerging illuminated from it- as
Marlow- or definitely sinking into the shadows-
as Kurtz. Marlow's journey represents the
process of maturing through disillusion and
defeat towards a deeper and greater
understanding of man' s self.” (Natalia Fontan
Garcia-Boente).
‘the sun’ is ‘stricken to The darkness over London implies Conrad’s Contextually, this reflects the existential
death by the touch of moral judgement and condemnation of the anxieties of Victorian society; a society that
that gloom brooding British Empire: London was the centre of had been destabilised by Lord Kelvin’s
over a crowd of men’ Britain’s imperial endeavours. Semantic field of pioneering Second Law of Thermodynamics,
, decay – ‘stricken’, ‘death’, ‘gloom’ – reinforces which postulated the sun would eventually
Conrad’s judgement of the British Empire. That cool and render all of life extinct.
it is ‘brooding over a crowd of men’ further
makes clear Conrad’s nihilistic and pessimistic
beliefs.
‘The great knights- This quote is imbued with a cynical, bitter tone: Conrad’s bitter, ironic and cynical tone
errant’ ‘errant’ is a word of semantic multiplicity. reflects his own disillusionment as a child
Whilst it indicates the knights travel, it also when discovering the moral depravity and
insinuates that they are astray; they have selfish intentions. In his 1924 essay
diverged from the universal moral principles of Geography and Some Explorers, Conrad
the time through their morally dubious imperial describes the exploration of Africa as ‘the
endeavours. vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured
the history of human conscience and
geographical exploration’.
‘Hunters for gold’ The plural noun ‘hunters’ has predatory
connotations, reinforcing the moral
dubiousness of the knights. Suggests they are
doing it for personal wealth rather than
pursuing a philanthropic agenda.
‘bearing the sword, This suggests that conquest is a prerequisite to
and often the torch’ the civilising mission: they would conquer and
destroy before creating civilisation and
propagating altruistic ideals.
‘The yarns of seamen This passage announces that locating the This is reflective of modernism which
have a direct meaning of the story will be difficult. Rather sought to express the complexity of
simplicity, the whole than following a linear narrative, the reader experience through literature. Conrad is
meaning of which lies must navigate a multi-layered, temporally using the ‘objective correlative’ defined by
within the shell of a fractured story that is often equivocal in its TS Eliot. Fittingly, in the age of Freud,
cracked nut’ but to meaning. Indeed, the noun ‘haze’ encapsulates literature concentrated increasingly on
Marlowe, ‘the the intrinsic ambivalence of the narrative in representations of individual psychology,
meaning of an episode Heart of Darkness and the sense of simultaneously conveying the self as an
was not inside like a disorientation created from the elaborate, exiled sensitivity, in touch with, yet
kernel but outside, intricate story. simultaneously detached from, the outside
enveloping the tale world’. (here).
which brought it out The adjective ‘spectral’ reflects the multi-
only as a glow brings faceted nature of Heart of Darkness through its
out a haze in the semantic multiplicity. As well as evoking the This passage announces that locating the
likeness of one of hazy ambivalence and elusiveness of meaning, meaning of the story will be difficult. Rather
these misty halos that similar to a phantom, ‘spectral’ also suggests than following a linear narrative, the reader
sometimes are made the prismatic nature of the novel, reflecting the must navigate a multi-layered, temporally
visible by the spectral multiplicity of interpretations and deductions fractured story that is often equivocal in its
illumination of that can be formed. In turn, this reinforces the meaning. Indeed, the noun ‘haze’
moonshine.’ modernist aspects of Heart of Darkness: encapsulates the ambivalence of the
experience is not linear and straightforward but narrative in Heart of Darkness and the sense
is imbued with an intrinsic complexity. of disorientation stemming from Marlow as
an unreliable narrator. Moreover, the
The message this anonymous narrator appears adjective ‘spectral’ reflects the multi-
to be conveying, according to Watt, is that the faceted nature of Heart of Darkness through
meaning of the story, represented by the shell its semantic multiplicity. As well as evoking
of the nut, or the haze around the glow, “is the hazy ambivalence and elusiveness of
larger than the narrative vehicle” (312). meaning, similar to a phantom, ‘spectral’
Similarly, Ridley argues that “meaning is also suggests the prismatic nature of the
suspected rather than seen” (42). F.R. Leavis novel, reflecting the conflicting perceptions
would describe the narrative method employed and judgements caused by the unreliable
by Conrad as “objective correlative” (174), a narrator. For example, Marlow provides the
method defined by T.S. Eliot. Ridley expands on reader with information that later
, this by describing the method as one where the transpires to be false or misleading. Watt
author need not ‘explain’ but rather defines this ‘delayed decoding’ as the
“communicates over a bridge of response to a method by which the author gives ‘direct
given subject”. So, where Conrad has Marlow narrative expression to the way in which
report what he has experienced and seen, be it consciousness elicits meaning from its
a river, a human head, black figures moving perceptions’
across the glow of jungle fire, drainage pipes When the steamboat is under attack, he
cast aside wantonly or a “grove of death filled recalls ‘I saw my poleman give up the
with broken black men” (Ridley 43), what he is business suddenly, and stretch himself flat
doing is allowing the reader an opportunity to on the deck, without even taking the
react to the objects described. It is through the trouble to haul his pole in’. Initially, we are
reaction that the reader is able to “gradually led to believe that the crew are idle and
attain comprehension of Conrad’s central incompetent, as suggested by the phrase
meaning” (Ridley 44). Heart of Darkness, with ‘stretch himself flat’. However, the terse
its use of evocative, intangible and often elusive exclamatory sentence shortly after, ‘Arrows,
language demand that a reader “feel before he by Jove!’, undermines this implicit
(sic) understands” insinuation, establishing Marlow clearly as
an unreliable narrator. In turn, Conrad’s
“Conrad’s clearest expression of this doubt in emphasis on the subjectivity of experience
Heart of Darkness is through the character of through short clear examples allows him to
Kurtz. He ascribes to Kurtz the philanthropic comment more broadly on the moral
ideals of European civilization, with Marlow ambivalence of European colonial presence
saying that ‘All Europe contributed to the in Africa. Marlow asserts at the beginning of
making of Kurtz’13 . We are told that he is ‘an the novel ‘What saves us is efficiency – the
emissary of pity, and science, and progress’14, devotion to efficiency’; however, this claim
and that he ‘had come out equipped with moral is undermined throughout the text. The
ideas of some sort’15. Yet, despite the constant description of ‘decaying machinery’, ‘rusty
references to Kurtz, for most of the novella he rails’ and ‘objectless blasting’ shortly after
is notable only by his absence. Marlow refutes Marlow’s assertion, with the
concedes that ‘He was just a word for me. I did adjectives ‘decaying’ and ‘rusty’
not see the man in the name any more than emphasising the absence of infrastructural
you do.’16 The frequent references to Kurtz, progress alongside the adjective ‘objectless’
coupled with the extended deferral of his which reinforces the meaninglessness of
eventual appearance, comprise the most ‘the work’. Equally, there is a clear disparity
significant use of delayed decoding in Heart of between the ‘apple-pie order’ of the
Darkness. The discrepancy between Marlow’s accountant’s ‘books’ and the fact that
preconceptions of Kurtz and the reality of his ‘Everything else in the station was in a
appearance is the foundation upon which muddle – heads, things, buildings’. In
Conrad’s moral ambivalence lies.” placing these two descriptions in close
structural proximity, Conrad throws light on
“This is why Conrad builds such intense the stark inefficiency of the pilgrims’
anticipation around Kurtz. As Robert Hampson colonial endeavours, with the auxetic
comments, ‘there is a deliberate anti-climax in tricolon ‘heads, things, buildings’
relation to Kurtz that expresses the story’s highlighting how this disorder encapsulates
radical scepticism about ultimate values and all aspects of the environment.
the possibility of explanation. This anti-climax is
the consequence of Conrad’s use of delayed “This inscrutability, which haunts both
decoding, and again it is this distinction Marlow and the reader throughout the
between perception and cognition that is used novel, is no accident of authorship. As
to signify the shock of Kurtz’s moral abdication. Cedric Watts aptly notes, “Conrad took
This has universal consequences, for, as Marlow greater pains than did most users of the
says, ‘He had kicked himself loose of the earth. oblique narrative convention to preserve
Confound the man! He had kicked the very the possibility of” (Watts 55).”
earth to pieces.’18 As James Guetti notes, ‘in
releasing himself from this general morality,
Kurtz has illustrated not only the possibility of
