Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad - 944 Words

The novella Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, ultimately refers not to the impenetrable wilderness of the African Congo with which the European colonists are confronted, but rather to the primal and insurmountable darkness of the human heart. In the â€Å"civilized† world of the Europeans, man has driven this darkness back into his subconscious, and instead presents a faà §ade of virtue and good intentions. Africa, on the other hand, which is seen as a â€Å"primeval† environment, its people a less evolved version of their white counterparts, is fully in touch with this darker, more elementary dimension of human nature. In many ways, since the African natives are often portrayed as a living extension of the wilderness itself, it symbolically is the†¦show more content†¦Understanding the statement presented about the true nature of man hinges on acknowledging the nature of the portrayal of the African natives in the novella. Conrad uses them largely as a dev ice, in many ways an extension of the wilderness of the Congo, which itself is a representation of the inner wilderness of the human heart. When Marlow notes, â€Å"The utter savagery, had closed round him, -all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.† (7), he introduces this parallel, and indicates its importance in the events that transpire. Additionally, the beliefs of the time, which Marlow shares, include the perspective of blacks as an earlier â€Å"version† of the white European, and therefore more primitive, and less civilized or evolved, as Marlow suggests when he refers to them as â€Å"prehistoric man† or â€Å"raw matter†. This is a crucial element in the understanding of their purpose in the story. They, with their physically â€Å"dark† appearance, which connects them to the â€Å"darkness† of their surroundings, are made a literal depiction of the shadow livi ng in the heart of the European- he too is truly a â€Å"savage† on the inside, but has suppressed or cloaked it in some way. Significant textual evidence also supports this