Heart of Darkness

Conrad's use of a frame narrative in Heart of Darkness—a story within a story, as it were—enables the author to distance himself from the horrors of colonial exploitation while at the same time...

One of the beautiful elements of Kurtz's final words are the multiple levels on which they work. Not only is Kurtz reflecting on his own life and experiences, but he is also commenting on misguided...

As Marlow and his crew approach Kurtz's Central Station, he compares the behavior and stoic personalities of the cannibals with the terrified white pilgrims. While the cannibals have the awful...

The Eldorado Exploring Expedition is a group of five white men who come downriver to seek treasure, one of whom is the Station Manager's uncle. Their purpose is to find treasure and exploit African...

As was mentioned in the previous post, the two women Marlow interacts with during his doctor's visit symbolize two of the three Fates found in Greek mythology. The Fates were personified as three...

When Marlow finally makes it to Kurtz in the depths of the rainforest, he finds a disturbing site. The poles outside Kurtz' home are not merely decorative balls. They are human heads. The full...

The frame story of Heart of Darkness is important in a couple of ways. Conrad tells us the story of the novel through his created middleman, Marlow. In the frame story, Marlow is telling of his...

There are only three female characters in Heart of Darkness of any note: Marlow's aunt, Kurtz's mistress/concubine, and Kurtz's fiance. It would not be unfair to describe the role of all as...

It's important to state from the outset that there's no definitive answer to this question. As a previous contributor has rightly noted, Kurtz is an enigmatic character, and so, inevitably, many of...

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the pilgrims are not missionaries. They are called pilgrims, it seems, because they carry long staves or poles. They are agents, employed at the Central...

Marlow wants to go to the Congo because he has always been obsessed with the river. When he was little, he used to peer at maps, and the Congo, which resembled a snake that had uncoiled itself, was...

Marlow recalls reading Kurtz's report to the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs and begins by commenting on the paper's eloquence. As Marlow reiterates the first paragraph,...

In addition, the helmsman lacks restraint, a quality Marlow very much admires. The cannibals, oddly enough, do have restraint, for even when they exhaust their food supply of hippo meat and go...

Initially, Marlow doesn't really think much about indigenous Africans. He's going to the Congo for purely selfish reasons—to make money exploiting the natives—so he doesn't regard them as anything...

To answer this, we need to come to an understanding of the Western attitude of Conrad's period regarding the colonial empires that had been established. One often hears Africa described in the...

Marlow makes this statement in the opening of the novel, the frame section in which another first-person narrator introduces us to him and allows him to launch into his long story. This narrator...

Marlow changes his position in relationship to imperialism, developing a more critical stance. This change involves his attitude toward The Company, as he comes to reject his previous endorsement...

In the frame story that opens the novel, a sailor records what Marlow says as they sit on a boat on the Thames, the river that flows past London to the sea. Marlow muses about the Romans who first...

Kurtz’s last words, “The horror! The horror!” have been widely debated by critics and could have multiple meanings. On the surface, it seems that he is referring to the horrors he has witnessed...

Kurtz's black mistress serves to emphasize the extent to which Kurtz has gone native, so to speak. He's been out in Africa for so long that he's started to become more African and decidedly less...

I don't think the "pilgrims"—not actual pilgrims, but company men, looking to go upriver in quest of ivory—"represent" slaves; for Conrad, the actual slaves are more than capable of representing...

There are a great deal of differences between Kurtz and Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, most of which stem from the fact that Marlow functions primarily as a narrator, while Kurtz...

Conrad's Heart of Darkness is without question a damning critique of the horrendous suffering inflicted on the populations of colonized nations by their rulers, both sovereign and corporate. Yet...

This statement is part of Conrad's backlash against Enlightenment thinking. Proponents of the ideology believed all questions could be eventually be answered by science; Conrad casts some serious...

Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness is a serious indictment of the consequences, both physical and moral, of European colonialism, with the "natives" depicted as the pathetic, beaten-down...

Marlow grows in awareness of imperialism's evil as he travels into the Belgian Congo. Notably, it is his aunt, a female, who helps him get the job. She believes Europeans are doing good by going to...

Both Marlow and Kurtz are symbols of the mechanism by which colonization took place and was sustained. A trope of much colonialist literature and of representations of the European experience in...

The company in this novel is the root of evil—it is the dark stain that corrupts the hearts of the men in the novel as well as ravaging the unspoiled lands of Africa. The company is greed and...

Conrad's title, Heart of Darkness, refers most obviously to the interior of what was once known as the Congo in Africa—that had for many years, been a non-navigable source of mystery. The Congo was...

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness introduces the reader to Marlow, who dreamt his whole life of traveling into Africa. He is given a chance in the form of a rescue mission to locate Kurtz, the...

Joseph Conrad uses a framing device to set up the story that Marlow will tell. The narrator is a fellow traveler or boatman aboard the Nellie; the author never gives this person's name. Using this...

Kurtz's report for the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs is a seventeen-page treatise written in "eloquent" but "high-strung" language. It is, Marlow...

Before beginning his own story about his experience in the Congo, Marlow muses about the "old times" when the Romans first traveled to Britain. Marlow initially mentions that currently the men on...

In Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, foreshadowing can be found in many places, not obvious until the story is finished and we can look back at the clues left for the reader. I sense...

The Harlequin/Russian trader acts as a means of characterizing Kurtz. We gain most of our information about Kurtz through him. The harlequin gives us a rather warped view of Kurtz. He speaks of him...

When Marlow arrives at the Company's Outer Station, he is appalled by the despicable conditions and disorganization of the entire operation. Marlow witnesses decaying machinery, inefficient work...

As Marlow narrates his journey up the river, each stop represents a change in his perspective on the colonial society into which he progresses. This is a literally journey between the stations, but...

Marlow’s feelings about Kurtz begin with mild interest about the missing Company agent, supposedly the best agent in the Company’s entire territory. He gleans from other people’s opinions of Kurtz...

Marlow's conception of the meaning of life is that it lies in maintaining illusions, even against logic and reality. When he goes to the Congo, Marlow wants fervently to believe in Kurtz, the...

A short distance from Kurtz's Inner Station, Marlow's crew is forced to remain anchored because the extremely thick fog prevents them from traveling further down the river. All of a sudden, the...

Both race (or even racism) and imperialism are treated as the common attitudes of white people at the time the book takes place. This book is set on the river Thames around the turn of the 20th...

Your question clearly points to four of the most well-known words in the English language when we think of literature! I think it is important to discuss what Marlow thinks of what Kurtz says and...

Even as a child Marlow was fascinated by the "blank spaces" on maps, areas that hadn't been explored. He yearned to visit those exotic lands. As the blank places are explored and mapped,...

Conrad's Heart of Darkness includes numerous examples of internal and external conflict. Marlow is hired by the company that also employs Kurtz, their most successful harvester of ivory. Marlow’s...

If something is unearthly it is not of this earth; it is something strange, weird, unusual, even frightening. On the face of it, it may seem somewhat bizarre for Marlow to describe the earth in...

In Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, there are three stations that Marlow visits on his trip through the Congo. The second station is called the Central Station. It is at this location that...

Marlow, from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is not a typical seaman and has a philosophical edge to him which is what allows this journey to become so much more than a physical trip. Kurtz is...

The book Marlowe finds in the hit is a book about seamanship: An Inquiry Into Some Points of Seamanship, by an author whose name he cannot quite make out—perhaps Towson, or Tower. Marlowe is amazed...

The "Heart of Darkness" which pervades the story is not a place or a thing; it is a feeling that comes from looking inside one's self without the constraints of conscience, morals, or societal...

In Heart of Darkness, Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) draws from his own experience in Africa; he once piloted a Belgian steamboat on a trading mission that took him through...