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Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

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Major conflicts in Heart of Darkness

Summary:

The major conflicts in Heart of Darkness include the clash between civilization and savagery, as well as the internal struggle within Marlow as he grapples with the darkness within himself and the horrors he witnesses in the Congo. Additionally, there's the conflict between European imperialism and the exploitation of African natives.

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What are the external and internal conflicts in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad?

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 job is to travel deep into the Belgian Congo to bring Kurtz home.

Marlow experiences external conflict when he witnesses how horribly the Congolese slaves are treated by white traders, who call those they have enslaved "enemies" and "criminals." His compassion for these poor souls is evident as he observes that they walk chained together at the neck. 

Marlow characterizes the captors as devils:

...but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you.

The quote infers that the whites do not treat those under their charge as human beings, as "men." Marlow struggles with this. He also reacts to the sight of wretched men who are clustered together to rest...

...scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of massacre or pestilence...I stood horror-struck...

In these instances, the external conflict for Marlow is man vs. man and man vs. society.

The reader may infer that Marlow experiences internal conflict in these situations in that in his disbelief, he realizes that there is nothing he can do but silently witness the atrocities against the people of the Congo.

At the Lower Station, Marlow notes:

The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it.

This sense of worship in this observation is echoed when Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, the novel's second prominent character. Kurtz has abandoned his civility—his humanity—putting his greed before civilized behavior. He has adopted the behaviors of the natives and allowed himself to be "converted by them to savagery." He has become like a god to these people. He has been a party to enslaving innocent men, and has even condoned murder by those who follow him.

It is in Kurtz's character that the reader witnesses internal conflict. When Marlow reaches Kurtz, he finds the other man has gone mad. Inexplicably, he seems to have simultaneously embraced but also in that moment rejects the horrific mindset that has encompassed him and altered how he sees and interacts with the "powers of darkness" around him.

Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror—of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: “The horror! The horror!”

Marlow also notes...

But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.

This quote demonstrates the inner struggle that has haunted Kurtz. This internal conflict, Marlow believes, has driven Kurtz mad, something that temporarily subsides as he finally experiences a moment of clarity and reflection as he faces the horror of his life, of what he has done and what he has condoned.

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What is the major conflict in the novel Heart of Darkness?

Personally, I like to read this book as being similar to Crime & Punishment. Concerned with a central figure who attempts to create his own morality and leave the rest of humanity behind to become something different and better - a new creature, an uber-man.

According to this reading, the central conflict of this novel is found in the struggle against moral limits and social structure. As Marlowe moves deeper into the jungle, he moves further away from society with its norms and its agreed upon modes of conduct. There are no rules in Kurtz world.

Maybe the conflict can be summed up in the question: What happens when society no longer exists in the mind of a person, when a man is faced with the chaos of an un-ordered world?

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What is the major conflict in the novel Heart of Darkness?

In a broad sense, the most important conflict to me in this novel is man vs man or man's inhumanity to man. If you read the themes section here on enotes (see the link below), you will see that the major themes all have to do with man and his relationship to his fellow man. Deception and hypocrisy, for example. The Belgians have colonized the Congo and under the guise of trying to improve conditions for the natives, have exploited the indigenous people for their own benefit. When this novel was written, Britain had an extensive world-wide empire that included many under-developed nations that were exploited in similar ways. This novel shows that when man is after riches (gold, ivory), his heart can turn dark and he becomes consumed by evil. This is what happens to Kurtz. There is also racism involved, another example of man's inhumanity to man or the man vs man conflict. Violence and cruelty are also examples of this conflict.

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What is the external conflict in Heart of Darkness?

There are a number of external conflicts in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. A primary one is the conflict between the traders from The Company and the people in the Congo. The Congolese people are brutally forced into slavery by The Company, and they rebel in turn, mounting attacks against their colonizers. These physical manifestations of colonial violence are a clear example of external conflict.

Another example is that Marlowe comes into conflict with The Company in a number of ways, resulting in his refusal to hand over Kurtz's papers after his death. This action is an external expression of Marlowe's conflict with The Company and the ways that The Company's practices of brutal enslavement ultimately functioned to rob everyone involved, colonizer and colonized, of their humanity.

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