White Lies and Whited Sepulchres in Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Literature review Example

Joseph Conrad, born Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski in Russian-controlled Poland in 1857, wrote Heart of Darkness as a novel that would unite his interest in and work on the sea with the insights that he gained throughout his life as the subject of an almost enslaved territory. Conrad, as a seaman who worked for the British merchant marines, often journeyed into the so-called uncivilized parts of the world. One interpretation of the heart of darkness is represented by these dark places of which men of the outside knew little—especially the continent of Africa, which was known as the Dark Continent. Yet Conrad, as a man who had endured many hardships in his life even before his eleventh birthday (Papke, 2000), was also aware of the hidden aspect of the hearts of men. Motives ranging from good to evil reside in the human heart, yet are not always visible on their faces. Hearts are very private and hidden places, and the heart of a continent is shown to be often as dark as the heart of the humans who seek to penetrate it. Work is essential to life, and people spend so much time performing the actions of their life’s work that they are often inextricably tied to the job. Marlow shows the lengths to which people will go to get employed when he relates that after asking men for a job and they “said 'My dear fellow,' and did nothing. Then—would you believe it?—I tried the women. I, Charlie Marlow, set the women to work—to get a job” (Conrad, 72). His subsequent job with the Company demonstrates the power that Work can have over persons. It is depicted as a one-dimensional and overarching presence to which the men of the tale answer. It is connected with not just the men who travel on the steamers into the African territory, but also with the hearers of the tale, whose jobs are intimately connected with the operation of the Company’s machine. Work may also be seen as a machine that drives the darkness of the ivory business. The fact that so many persons must provide for both themselves and families makes popular what is essentially an inhumane practice of de-tusking elephants. The natives who work with the whites engage in this practice for the sake of having the income that work provides. This they do, though it encroaches upon the sanctity of animal life much in the same way that slavery has encroached upon the sanctity of human life. Yet, for the sake of work the natives become a party to something of an inhumanity that is similar to those their kinsmen have faced within the past century. For seamen, the sea is synonymous with work, and Conrad has been quoted by Papke (2000) as saying, “men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak--the sea entering the life of most men and the men knowing something or everything about the sea.” The work enters every part of a seaman’s life and is connected somehow with his actions, whether honorable or dark. In Africa, the work that is done by the Europeans who enter the territory is as dark as the continent as it has been described throughout history. Though theft is frowned upon in European society, robbery is essentially the goal of these “reputable” merchants who enter that territory. Of this double standard Conrad writes, “By heavens! there is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look at a halter” (98-99). The truth of these men’s dishonesty is substantiated in the text. As Marlow travels along the coast and then within the continent, he comes upon several instances in which the continent and its inhabitants are being robbed of their possessions. The animals whose tusks provide the ivory are in danger because the greed of those robbing seamen who want their tusks and would see them die in order to have the boon that they desire. Not only do the European seamen rob the elephants of their lives, but they also rob the Africans of the riches of their own territory. This type of robbery is especially perceptible in the character Kurtz, who under the guise of entering the African territory for trading purposes has resorted to underhand means to gain his ivory. This extreme form of theft, however, is not the only way in which stealing is done. The mere fact that the Europeans have entered the territory and have enlisted the natives to work in almost slave-like conditions (while firing needlessly on some tribes of the territory) demonstrates underhandedness in even the most honorable of the actions that take place there. The deception represented by the seamen becomes evident as “enthralled by their own money lust […] the Europeans disregard both the natives' interests and their own moral well-being as they monopolize the ivory trade” (Allingham, 2000). They are not the friends and saviors of the natives that they pretend to be, but under that guise seek to rob them of the spoils of their own territory. The hearts of humans are indicted by the events of the novel and proven to be places of darkness, as shrouded in mystery and evil as the center of the Dark Continent has been purported to be according to history. The narrator speaks of the mysterious continent of which as a child he had dreamed to explore. He says, “It had become a place of darkness. But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked at the map of it in a shop-window, it fascinated me as a snake would a bird—a silly little bird” (Conrad, 71). The darkness of the continent has in a serpentine manner entered his soul so that his own invasion of the territory consumes him as the serpent and bird might consume each other if one or the other were caught. Furthermore, the greed that the continent represents is mirrored in the heart of the men there, who are involved in robbery. The men of Company demonstrate this in their inherent mistrust of each other. Mr. Kurtz is both feared and disliked by several of the men in the narrative, and even they resort to underhand means of gaining information about him, showing themselves too to possess hearts of darkness. Marlow describes the brickmaker who aspires to become assistant manager as a “papier-mache Mephistopheles” (100). This underlines the fact that evil lay at the heart of this intruder in the African territory, who after pressing Marlow for information threatens his life before leaving. In light of the treatment of these characters, “the fragile veneer of western civilisation, the great white lie of the White Man's Burden with its implicit, pseudo-altruism, must be accepted” (Allingham, 2000). The people in the text represent the dark intentions of imperialism, to rule and dominate, and such objectives are often corrupting as they are best carried out through deceit and robbery. A contrast between the natives and the European explorers has also been effected by the writer of Heart of Darkness. The natives have been described by the Europeans throughout the text as “savages” and “cannibals.” The Europeans claim that they are uncivilized because of the primitive nature of their weapons, homes, etc. The skins of the Africans are black, yet as a collective race they have been proven to be less savage than the portion of Europeans that have taken the journey into Africa to relieve it of its treasures. These white Europeans (who are admittedly demonstrating only a small part of the character of their race) are in this case showing the evil that resides in that character. They are really white-washed and hypocritical in their assertion that their advancement in to African territory is merely for the civilization of a backward race (Allingham, 2000). Their true motive is an avaricious attempt to grab the riches of the land. The dark-skinned Africans, however, prove to be sympathetic people who are still willing to help the whites with their expedition, though they are often mistreated and called names (cannibals). They even demonstrate an ability to be jovial and forgiving about the unkind words spoken of them. Their use sarcasm shows a much more civilized and developed sense of humor than they have been given credit for, as they joke to the Europeans that they want to eat some of members of tribes whose voices can be heard inside the bushes. Though these people are not saintly, they do demonstrate that the differences between people as heralded by skin color are often exaggerated. The story shows that the “whitest” man can have a black heart, while the “blackest” man can have a white heart. And that all in-between shades are also possible. The portrayal of the principal woman in the novella is also of interest. Kurtz’s Intended is given a role that is similar to the one that has been granted women by society. She depicts an ingenuousness that is pitiable, but that mirrors the human condition in the way that people interact with each other. This woman’s separation from her man is demonstrative of the darkness that lies at the heart of humans. However, this time the darkness is in reference to an ultimate unknowable quality that people possess. It is epitomized in the character of Kurtz’ intended, as she is hopelessly errant in all her conceptions of him. She describes him in ways that portray him as a mystery even to this woman who has been so very close to him. She is to be married to him, yet the character of whom she speaks has not been seen in the man that the reader has come to know through the different stages of the novel. Critics have made similar arguments, declaring “the jungle teaches […] Marlow that the world and the individuals who inhabit it are ultimately unknowable, and it shows them that language can neither fully represent nor comprehend truth or reality” (Crouch, 2002, p. 8). The final paragraph of the scene in which Marlow speaks to Kurtz’s Intended is a telling one. Conrad writes, She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark—too dark altogether (184). There is irony in this speech. The reader knows that the certainty of the Intended is merely delusion, as Kurtz has proven to be a hard-hearted swindler. The darkness of her ignorance is highlighted in this scene, though it is being contrasted with the darkness of Kurtz’s soul, which the light of knowledge would unload upon his Intended. Darkness is therefore purported to be contained in light, though it is also a large part of the ignorance that is demonstrated by the woman. In the final analysis, it appears that darkness is ubiquitous in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It is first introduced in the form of something as noble as the bread-winning work that men engage in for the purpose of supporting themselves and families. It is also present in the heart of unknown territory, the Dark Continent of Africa. It resides on the surface of skins, within the homes of the influential men who work for the Company and also within the hearts of those who pretend to do good things. Evil is represented by this darkness, yet it also leaves room for hypocrisy and ignorance. Darkness is even said to reside at the heart of knowledge, as the complete knowledge of any human being would reveal his heart of darkness. Works Cited Allingham, Phillip V. White Lies and Whited Sepulchres in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The Victorian Web: Literature, History and Culture in the Age of Victoria. 2000. . June 4, 2006. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Pocket Books, 2004. Crouch, Patricia A. “Gender in the Jungle: The Voyage Out as a Response to Heart of Darkness.” Women Writers: AZine. Editor Kim Wells. Online Journal. Published: January 7, 2002. 22 pages. Available at: . June 4, 2006. Papke, David Ray. “Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Literary Critique of Imperialism.” Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce. Vol. 31(4), 2000. Read More