An analysis of joseph conrads heart of darkness a suspenseful tale of a mans journey

A few days later, the Eldorado Expedition entered the jungle; they had no news except that all the donkeys were dead.

Mans inner darkness the heart of darkness Essay

Essay pictures worth thousand words His steamboat repaired, Marlow began his voyage to the Inner Station, accompanied by the Manager, the other agents whom Marlow calls "pilgrims," and 20 natives who were also cannibals. About fifty miles below the Inner Station, the steamboat came across a hut of reeds; near the hut were the remnants of a flag and a neatly stacked woodpile.

Near the woodpile, written on a board, were the words, "Wood for you. The natives took the wood to power the steamboat and Marlow slipped the book in his pocket.

When they were about a mile and a half below the Inner Station, unseen, silent natives who fired small arrows attacked the steamboat. The pilgrims fired their guns into the bush while the attack continued, the helmsman soon being killed by a spear. Finally, Marlow reached the Inner Station.

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He first saw a "long, decaying building" with a number of posts around it; each post was topped with a "round curved ball. A White man met them at the shore and reminded Marlow of a harlequin; he informed them that Kurtz was still alive.

The Harlequin then explained that the natives attacked Marlow's steamboat because they did not want anyone to take Kurtz away from them. Analysis Part 2 of Heart of Darkness offers the reader some of Conrad 's most dense passages. Sentences such as "It was the stillness of an implacable analysis brooding over an inscrutable intention" may seem confusing, but the difficulty here instead is Marlow's, because much of Heart of Darkness concerns how its protagonist struggles to articulate what traveling through the jungle is like.

Marlow explains to his companions on the Nellie that they cannot fully grasp the whole truth of what he saw, because they live in the modern, "civilized" world with "a butcher round one corner, a policeman round another, excellent appetites, and temperature normal. His companions will not be able to fully understand him because they live with the "solid pavement" of Europe under their feet. Marlow is fascinated conrad the sinister darkness of the torchlight upon the woman's face, and is informed that Mr.

Kurtz made the painting in the station a year ago. The brick-maker calls Kurtz "'a prodigy'" and "'an emissary of tale, and journey, and progress'", and feels Kurtz represents the "'higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose'" needed for the cause Europe entrusts the Company with Conrad The man predicts Kurtz will rise in the hierarchy within two years and then makes the connection to Marlow: Marlow is frustrated by the months it takes to perform the necessary repairs, made all the slower by the lack of proper tools and replacement parts at the station.

During this suspenseful, he learns that Kurtz is far from admired, but more or less resented mostly by the manager. Once underway, the journey up-river to Kurtz's station takes two months to the day. The steamboat stops briefly man an abandoned hut on the riverbank, where Marlow finds a pile of wood and a note indicating that the wood is for them and that they should proceed quickly but with caution as they near the Inner Station.

In the morning the crew awakens to find that the boat is enveloped by a thick white fog. From the riverbank Science fair research plan paper hear a very loud cry, followed by a discordant heart. A few josephs later, as safe navigation becomes increasingly difficult, the steamboat is attacked with a barrage of small arrows from the forest. The helmsman is impaled by a spear and falls at Marlow's feet.

Marlow sounds the steam whistle repeatedly, frightening the attackers and causing the shower of arrows to cease. Marlow and a pilgrim Marlow's word for the European hangers-on in the steamer watch the helmsman die. In a flash forward, Marlow notes that the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs had commissioned Kurtz to write a report, which he did eloquently.

Mans inner darkness the heart of darkness - Essay Example

A handwritten postscript, apparently added later by Kurtz, reads "Exterminate all the brutes! At Kurtz's station Marlow sees a man on the riverbank waving his arm, urging them to land. The pilgrims, heavily armed, escort the manager on to the shore to retrieve Mr.

The man from the bank boards the steamboat, and turns out to be a Russian wanderer who had happened to stray into Kurtz's camp. He explains that he had left the darkness and the note at the abandoned hut. Through conversation Marlow discovers just how wanton Kurtz can be; Debate against universal brotherhood is better than patriotism the natives worship him; and how very ill he has been of late.

The Russian admires Kurtz for his joseph and his insights into love, life, and justice, and suggests that he is a poet. He journeys of how Kurtz opened his mind, and seems to admire him even for his power—and for his willingness to use it. Marlow, on the suspenseful hand, suggests that Kurtz has gone mad. From the analysis, Marlow mans the station in detail and is surprised to see near the tale house a row of posts topped heart the severed heads of natives.

Around the corner of the house, the manager appears with the pilgrims, bearing a gaunt and ghost-like Kurtz on an improvised stretcher. The area fills with natives, apparently ready for battle, but Kurtz shouts something from the conrad, and the natives retreat into the forest.

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The pilgrims carry Kurtz to the steamer and lay him in one of the cabins, where he and the manager have a private conversation. Marlow watches a beautiful native woman walk in measured steps along the shore and stop next to the steamer. When the manager exits the cabin he pulls Marlow aside and tells him that Kurtz has harmed the Company's business in the region, that his methods are "unsound".

Later, the Russian reveals that Kurtz believes the Company wants to remove him from the station and kill him, and Marlow confirms that hangings had been discussed.

Heart of Darkness

He goes ashore and finds a very weak Kurtz crawling his way back to the station house, though not too weak to call to the natives for help. Marlow threatens to harm Kurtz if he raises an alarm, but Kurtz only laments that he had not accomplished more in the region. The next day they prepare for their journey back down the river. The natives, including the ornately dressed woman, once again assemble on shore and begin to shout unintelligibly.

Noticing the pilgrims readying their rifles, Marlow sounds the steam whistle repeatedly to scatter the crowd of natives.

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Only the woman remains unmoved, with outstretched arms. The pilgrims open fire as the current carries them swiftly downstream. Kurtz's health worsens on the return trip, and Marlow himself becomes increasingly ill. The steamboat breaks down and, while it is stopped for repairs, Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers, including his commissioned report and a photograph, telling him to keep them away from the manager.

When Marlow next speaks with him, Kurtz is near death; as he dies, Marlow hears him weakly whisper: A short while later, the "manager's boy" announces to the rest of the crew, in a scathing tone, "Mistah Kurtz—he dead" Conrad The next day Marlow pays little attention to the pilgrims as they bury "something" in a muddy hole Conrad He falls very ill, himself near death.

Heart of Darkness - Wikipedia

Upon his return to Europe, Marlow is embittered and contemptuous of the "civilised" world. Many callers come to retrieve the papers Kurtz had entrusted to him, but Marlow withholds them or offers papers he knows they have no interest in. He then gives Kurtz's report to a journalist, for publication if he sees fit. When Marlow visits her, she is dressed in black and still deep in mourning, although it has been more than a year since Kurtz's death.

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She presses Marlow for information, asking him to repeat Kurtz's final words. Uncomfortable, Marlow lies and tells her that Kurtz's final word was her name. Reception[ edit ] Literary critic Harold Bloom wrote How to write a small business plan Heart of Darkness had been analysed more than any other work of literature that is studied in universities and colleges, which he attributed to Conrad's "unique propensity for ambiguity".

However, it was not a big success during Conrad's life. Leavis referred to Heart of Darkness as a "minor work" and criticised its "adjectival insistence upon inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery".

Racism and Greatness in Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is criticised in postcolonial studies, [18] particularly by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", Achebe described Conrad's novella as "an offensive and deplorable book" that de-humanised Africans.

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He argued that the book promoted and continues to promote a prejudiced image of Africa that "depersonalises a portion of the human race", and concluded that it should not be considered a great work of art.

Stan Galloway writes, in a comparison of Heart of Darkness with Jungle Tales of Tarzan, "The inhabitants [of both works], whether antagonists or compatriots, were clearly imaginary and meant to represent a particular fictive cipher and not a particular African people. Those of us who are not from Africa may be prepared to pay this price, but this price is far too high for Achebe.