Joseph Conrads Novel Heart of Darkness - Essay Example

Heart of Darkness In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, the concept of imperialism and the effects it has on all who are involved with it are fully explored. It is important to understand this in order to appreciate the closing dialogue of the story, when Marlowe discusses Kurtz’s death with Kurtz’s once Intended. Looking at this final dialogue with this tortured woman reveals a great deal of information about the story itself, serving to help characterize not only the speaker, Marlow, but the man spoken of as well. Although the woman is only an incidental character in the novel, her words further help to bring depth to both of these characters that might not have been understood previously as the two men are revealed through her relationship to them. Through various stylistic mechanisms, this dialogue also serves to explain the significance of Marlow’s journey into Africa and presents the reader with a great deal of helpful hints as to how to interpret the story just read. Even with just a basic understanding of the plot of the story just told, this small two-page interaction between Marlow and Kurtz’s Intended brings the story into sharp focus, piercingly defining the character of Marlow himself while also shedding light on the true nature of Kurtz through the use of various stylistic tools and the employment of dramatic irony when set against the backdrop of the previous pages. Repetition provides a great deal of the drama and emphasis of this particular scene. Immediately following the Intended’s request that Marlow repeat the final words he heard coming out of Kurtz’s mouth, this repetition of words and phrases begins, emphasizing the importance of this passage as well as the importance to the lady of hearing the words and the importance to Marlowe that she never know them. She murmurs to him in a heartbroken tone, “I want – I want – something – something – to – to live with” (123). Almost every word in the sentence is repeated with the exceptions of ‘live with’, placing these two words in stark juxtaposition with the others. One gets the impression that living is not the lady’s main concern now or ever as well as the sense that she is still experiencing immediate grief at the loss of the one man she loved. Although this sort of repetition is often associated in novels of this sort with the stuttering cries of people as they sob their hearts out, this scene does not give us this impression as the reason for the lady’s repeated words. Instead, they seem to be struggling out of her almost of their own volition, almost as if she finds it difficult to place them together on their own, to admit that she must continue living despite the fact she has nothing left of her beloved. Insisting that she be told these words, she then repeats three times that she “loved him”, the only time in the passage in which something is repeated more than twice, bringing its own kind of emphasis to the statement and again illustrating the depth of her grief as she reveals the true passion she still has for Kurtz. Although she barely speaks again and does not repeat herself again, the statements she makes are then repeated by Marlow himself, adding his own sense of emphasis to her words. As the lady finally breaks down into tears following Marlow’s assurance that it was her name that Kurtz left on his lips, Marlow repeats the idea that “She knew. She was sure” (123). This repetition on the part of Marlow has the effect of exposing the lie for what it is, at least to the reader, and infecting the passage with a degree of the philosophical reflection that Marlow has expressed throughout the story. Almost unconsciously it seems, Marlow takes up the repetition of the lady’s spoken words in his thoughts as he listens to her sobbing. After reflecting, twice, whether he had done Kurtz justice by telling his lady a lie, Marlow thinks, “But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark – too dark altogether …” (124). More than simply underscoring the turmoil that is happening in Marlow’s own mind regarding his decision to falsify Kurtz’s words, this repetition serves to remind the reader once again of what those words actually were, another repetition of ‘The horror!’ – almost forcing agreement with Marlow that to have told this distressed woman, still suffering her strong feelings of grief, of the doomed realization of the man in assessing his own life would have been ‘too dark altogether’. Although the repetition alone serves to convey the dramatic effect of this passage, the interplay between direct and indirect speech brings the drama out to its fullest effect. Through the vast difference in tone between what is spoken aloud and what is thought by Marlow points out the vastness of the ice existing below the water’s surface as compared to the iceberg heard of audible speech. While the lady begs Marlow to tell her of Kurtz’s last words, Marlow himself can be seen to be begging her to understand these words will continue to haunt him until his dying day with such intensity that they must surely be heard by all within sight. “I was on the point of crying at her, Don’t you hear them? The dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly like the first whisper of a rising wind” (123). As she breaks down quietly on the couch following his lie, Marlow’s repetition of the woman’s words, as has been discussed, heighten the contrast between what she hears and what he understands to be the truth. This understanding is taken still further with a little extra reflection on Marlow’s part as he remembers how he felt at that moment, after he’d lied to the woman regarding something as important to her as this: “It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head” (123). Yet nothing happens and Marlow is left free to continue reflecting on what this lie means to the woman, himself and to Kurtz, whom he has wronged perhaps in keeping his final words secret. These words have the effect of bringing the reader to a point of reflection as well. While the woman sobs, presumably thinking of Kurtz as the brilliant, faithful lover of her dreams, Marlow reminds the reader of the truth of the matter, of the extreme darkness that existed in his heart and of the harsh judgment Kurtz himself placed on his own actions in life. This makes Marlow wonder if the truth itself was the thing that should have been avoided at all costs, if speaking it would have caused the divine act of retribution he half expected upon telling the lady his lie. As can be seen in both the discussion regarding repetition in this passage as well as the discussion regarding the interplay between spoken and unspoken language, this passage has the effect of conveying a great deal of information regarding Marlow’s character as it has been experienced in the novel as well as shaped by the experiences of his journey. While the lady is shaken by her grief and her loss, Marlow can be seen to be shaken by his experiences, which is highlighted as soon as he tells her he heard Kurtz’s last words, “I stopped in a fright” (123). Because the reader has been there with him, it is understood that Marlow is not stopping out of some wish to spare the lady, as might be considered from an outside perspective listening to the spoken conversation, but rather out of fear of the words that were uttered by Kurtz upon his deathbed. The idea that these words will continue to haunt Marlow throughout the remainder of his life are then expressed as he debates what he should tell the woman on her request. These words float around him, whispered on the wind “in a persistent whisper” (123) to such an extent that he is almost certain she could hear them, too, if she simply listened. Additionally, as he hears her plea, Marlow imagines these words to “swell menacingly”, suggesting danger and dread that rise up around him on all sides. Despite this, Marlow shows courage in the face of his memories by telling the lady what he knows she wants to hear, that Kurtz’s last words were nothing more or less than a whisper of her name. His superstitious side is given voice as he waits almost breathlessly for the heavens to fall upon him for so altering the dying words of the man he had grown to admire, however darkly. “But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle” (123). This is not surprising given his current setting, in a dark house, facing a dark lady who’s weeping, discussing dark things such as death and reflecting upon the dark way in which this death came about. However, Marlow’s philosophical nature soon grabs hold of him as he begins to think of what the greater injustice would be – to tell the truth of Kurtz’s death or to give the lady what small comfort he can by not inflicting upon her the nightmares he himself knows he will continue to experience. In this passage, it is also possible to discover some of the character of the man being discussed, Kurtz. As Kurtz’s Intended laments that there was “Nobody near to understand him as I would have understood” (123), she utters the thought of many young ladies who assume that they know all there is to know about a person. However, she has been introduced as no young maiden, easily deceived by her own impressions. Additionally, who has known Kurtz completely? Throughout the novel, it has been shown that no one has a clear concept of the man, who instead seems comprised of a series of impressions imposed upon him by others. He is considered dangerous and fearful by the Manager, a brilliant poet by the Russian Trader, was early thought of as a painter by Marlow, a wonderful musician by a cousin who meets with Marlow following his return and an excellent elocutionist and politician by the journalist. The scene at his cottage in the jungle depicts a man of almost inhuman brutality and the sight of his African mistress instills a deep sense of dread every time she is seen standing upon the shore. The conversation with the Intended reveals her belief in Kurtz as a tremendous humanitarian with a genius mind while the Company official seems to believe he has every right to have expected more out of the man than what he’s been given, both in terms of material profit and scientific undertaking. Marlow’s own experiences of him portrays him as an empty shell of a man who nevertheless deserves tremendous respect and honor because of his ability, at the end, to face his own reality in the final words he utters, “The horror! The horror!” The depth of this utterance strikes so deep that Marlow is convinced the lady must hear it as it continues to whisper its message on the wind, yet remains concerned that the lie he gave the lady was not justice to the man he watched die: “Hadn’t he said he wanted only justice?” (123). This concern for justice done, despite the deepest darkness of the truth, indicates yet another aspect of the man who was Kurtz as a man who valued truth above all things, finally revealing the motive for all of his undertakings and the final self-pronouncement of his own eternity. Through its various methods of conveying information, this passage finally introduces a deep sense of dramatic irony in that the lady is able to continue to believe in Kurtz as the wonderful man she envisions even as Marlow and the reader realize the deep extent of his depravity and his own harsh reflection upon it as he lay dying. While she believes Marlow is reticent about these words as a token of gallant respect for her feelings, the knowledge of what these words were imbues the scene with its own brand of darkness. While she believes Kurtz’s last words will provide her with something to live with, it is known by the reader and by Marlow that these last words are instead something to terrify and torment. While she believes she knew her lover better than anyone else, it has become abundantly clear that she did not know anything about his life in the African jungle. And while she weeps at his tragic loss, it remains for Marlow and the reader to feel the haunting memory of a man consumed by the imperialistic desires of his age. Works Cited Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness. New York: Penguin, 2004. Read More