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Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

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Helmsman's Identity, Fate, and Symbolism in Heart of Darkness

Summary:

In Heart of Darkness, the helmsman, an unnamed African crew member, dies during a native attack when a spear pierces his side. His death is symbolic, highlighting themes of colonialism, the inscrutable dangers of the jungle, and the lack of restraint that ultimately leads to destruction. The helmsman represents both the perceived foolishness and the unrecognized humanity within the colonial narrative. His death foreshadows the chaos and moral ambiguity Marlow encounters at Kurtz's station, emphasizing the pervasive darkness within human nature.

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How does the helmsman die in Heart of Darkness?

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 crew begins hearing noises from the shore and the Natives begin shooting arrows and throwing spears towards the ship. Most of the white pilgrims panic and begin shooting their rifles towards the shore, even though they are unable to see their targets and are aiming too high to hit anyone. Interestingly, Marlow notes that the arrows are so small that they couldn't even kill a cat. During the attack, the helmsman grabs a rifle while Marlow attempts to steer the ship out of danger. While Marlow is steering the ship towards deeper water, he suddenly looks down and the helmsman is lying on his back attempting to pull out a spear that is lodged in his...

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side.Unfortunately, the helmsman dies after he is struck by a spear, which hits him directly in the ribs.

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When Marlow is on his way to see Kurtz, surrounding natives begin to fire arrows at his boat. The helmsman, who Marlow describes as "the most unstable kind of fool I had ever seen," has stopped steering the boat to open the shutter and fire a gun at the natives on shore. Marlow sees the helmsman drop the rifle, and then the helmsman falls at his feet. A spear has pierced the helmsman in his side, just below his ribs. The blade is so far inside his body that only the shaft of the spear is visible, and blood is leaking out of the dying man's body all over Marlow's feet.

As the helmsman is dying, Marlow thinks "he would presently put to us some question," but instead, the man dies without uttering a word or even moving a muscle. He frowns right before he dies, so he has a death mask with a somber expression. Marlow's shoes and socks have been covered with the helmsman's blood, so he decides to toss them overboard. He then heaves the body of the helmsman overboard as well. The helmsman's death is a foreshadowing of the destruction and death that awaits Marlow at Kurtz's station.

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In Heart of Darkness, what does the helmsman symbolize and signify?

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 hungry for some time, they manage to restrain themselves from eating the people on the boat. Earlier one of the cannibals had indicated they would eat any natives on the bank whom the boat had passed by had any of these people been killed. When they're actually hungry, however, this crew on the boat doesn't eat anybody. Marlow does, nevertheless, deposit the helmsman's body in the river so they won't be tempted to eat him.

Kurtz as well lacks restraint. He "had given in to his various lusts," according to Marlow, and sunk to utter depravity. Both he and the helmsman die, as ms-mcgregor has indicated, because of their actions.

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The helmsman who is responsible for steering Marlow's boat is disliked by Marlow because he would act as if he was very important in front of people but he would be very "passive when left alone". Marlow considers him a fool and he demonstrates this when the boat is attacked. He is becomes very scared and drops pole in order to get a rifle and in the process is hit by a spear.He dies and is buried when Marlow throws his body into the Congo. This mirrors the burial of Kurtz, whose body is thrown in to mud hole along the Congo. The author seems to be commenting that both characters were foolish and "dropped" their real purpose in order to grab something less important. Both end up dying because what they grasped for couldn't protect them. The rifle couldn't protect the helmsman from the spear and Kurtz' power couldn't protect him from the ravages of the jungle or his own insanity.

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How does the helmsman's death illuminate a theme in Heart of Darkness?

The attack on the boat that causes the helmsman's death highlights the idea of the jungle as a hostile and inscrutable place full of unknowable dangers. First, the attack comes suddenly, and it takes a while for Marlowe to notice it: the "little sticks" that fill the air are hardly recognizable as arrows and seem as if "they wouldn't kill a cat." It is as if the jungle itself is attacking them. Even though Marlowe is slow to apprehend danger, the Helmsman has an intense reaction, raising his feet up and down and frothing at the mouth. Marlowe orders him to be still, but his comment, "I might just as well have ordered a tree not to sway in the wind," suggests that the Helmsman's fear has more to do with nature than any adversary. In fact, the people on shore doing the shooting are not individuals but a collection of "naked breasts, arms, legs, [and] glaring eyes" that seem like features of the forest itself. When the helmsman is killed by the spear, it is another case of Marlowe not recognizing at first what has happened. It seems that the helmsman had "wrenched" a cane from the hands of someone on shore; the man grips the spear as if it were "something precious" that he feared Marlowe would try to take away. There is something about his death and the manner in which it happens that eludes Marlowe. He is able to use the steam whistle to scare off his attackers, but the technology of the steam boat seems irrelevant. One of the reasons he is so quick to get rid of his blood-soaked shoes is perhaps tied to his recognition that European customs and civilization are largely irrelevant in the jungle.

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During a native attack on the steamboat, the helmsman -- also a native -- is mortally wounded by a thrown spear. Marlow takes over the steering, and is shocked by the quiet acceptance of the helmsman in death:

I had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering.
[...]
'Can you steer?' I asked the agent eagerly. He looked very dubious; but I made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once I meant him to steer whether or no.
(Conrad, Heart of Darkness, eNotes eText)

Here, the effects of the jungle are seen in Marlow's actions; he is steering the steamboat out of necessity, but as soon as he is able, he gives the job over to someone else so he can change his shoes and not have to think about the dead helmsman. This is the blithe acceptance of death that slowly infects Marlow's mind; before the jungle, he would never treat a death with such disdain. By switching his focus from the reality of death to the pragmatism of steering the steamboat, Marlow shows that he jungle has already started to change his outlook, exposing the darkness that hides in his own heart.

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Who is the helmsman in Heart of Darkness?

The helmsman in Heart of Darkness is never named. He is an "athletic" Black man whom Marlow describes in terms that stress his otherness from European men: he wears "brass earrings" and is wrapped from his waist to his ankles in a blue cloth. He has a good deal of pride, which Marlow describes as thinking "the world of himself."

Marlow has ambivalent feelings about this helmsman, calling him a "fool" and "second-rate," but he also values him. Viewed from our twenty-first century perspective, it appears that learned racism causes Marlow to denigrate this figure, while his more rational, compassionate, and untainted impulses help him perceive the humanity and worth of this man.

In addition to speaking of him dismissively, after his helmsman is killed by one of the attacker's spears, Marlow says he misses him "awfully" (though whether or not he misses the man himself or his role as a helmsman is not clear). He goes so far as to say he is not sure finding Kurtz was worth the life of this man. Marlow states:

Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. Well, don't you see, he had done something, he had steered; for months I had him at my back—a help—an instrument. It was a kind of partnership.

This quote crystallizes much of Marlow's ambivalence about the helmsman. He knows that the social perception of his times means that he should think and speak dismissively about him, but his feelings of superiority to the man are complicated by his fondness for him. Regardless of the man's race and culture, he had a "partnership" with him and had developed a "bond" with him.

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