书评the darkness of heart

人文社会科学学院07英语2班
071547057 杨雪芳Review of Heart of Darkness: the Horror
Heart of Darkness is the most distinguished and representative work of Joseph Conrad. Conrad was one of the grittiest and most realistic fiction authors of the late nineteen century. He was born in 1857, in Ukraine which was then part of the Russia Empire. Believing that a Russia citizen had limited opportunities, he joined the British merchant navy, which partly contributed to his becoming a British subject and which, more importantly, enabled him to travel widely, thus ensured the more realistic descriptions and characters in his novels. His other major works were the Nigger of Narcissus, Lord Jim, the Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, and Change.
In the short story Heart of Darkness, Conrad was mainly attempting to raise awareness of the harsh treatments that native Africans suffered from European colonists, with the exploration into the psychology disclosing the darkness of heart in that historic period.
The novel is a chilling tale of horror, a narrative done by Charlie Marlow who shares his experiences on the Congo River in the Dark Continent and what he learned about human behavior, set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century.
Before he leaves for his job as ship captain for a large trading company, he has a medical examination on mental stability and measures his head, as the physician deems psychological changes important to science. Just as the Dark Continent was a territory waiting to be explored, psychology was an unknown science to be studied, to understand and map the human soul well.
When Marlow prepares to board, he feels a moment of fear of leaving for the truly unknown, which is in fact a shadow for the darkness shown in his later experience. He arrives at his destination to find his steamer has sunk, thus salvage and repair is a must before he set about his job. During the time, he studies the people around. He admires a man who is always in decent manners and dress. He recognizes each individual's need for superiority over something. He tells of one black man, 'the reclaimed' overseeing and punishing other black prisoner workers.
After the repair, Marlow set out to find the mysterious hero/villain Kurtz, the most successful man employed by the trading company. When they meet finally, he realizes Kurtz has done evil with threat and violence to the natives and yet so brilliant as to get labor, ivory and even respect from the victims, despite his depravity. He dies with the words “The horror! The horror!” which is exactly the summary of the darkness of human and the exploitation of the colonists who claimed to explore.
The African continent resembles a heart on the map and this heart was at its darkest and toughest time during 19th century and 20th century, which may be implied by the Heart of Darkness, the name of the story. The blatant oppression and exploitation of the European colonists had turned the fertile and beautiful land into a hell. The author presents us his observation and description of Africa from this angle.
We can see clearly the heavy criticism the author held toward the colonialism as we follow Marlow’s description. The successive criticisms uncover themselves from the ignorance of the European administration in the stations to the misery of the local black people. All the actions serve only for illegal occupation and wealth. They tax on the people in wilderness, they have aimless explosions to build trains, and they plunder ivories in large numbers. All these are greedy and abnormal desires from people of depravity. They are dregs, shameless speculators who squeeze the African with banners of rescuing the Dark Continent. They go there in the name of exploration and happiness messenger and they conquer and pillage with the absurd “superiority “over the black people.
Furthermore, the journey through the tortuous and gloomy river signifies a journey into the brooding and secluded zone in human hearts with perfect strange circumstances challenging the existing value systems. The eerie scenes of Congo River are treacherous for the people and their mind also turn into the primeval world where the evil in hearts find the place to release. They glide like ghosts, on that primitive ground. It is like a tiresome pilgrimage with nightmares everywhere in which the existence of true heroes is doubted.
There is a contrast in Marlow and Kurtz. They both step on the unknown ground, but Marlow finishes his journey and returns with psychological change, with the acknowledgement of the darkness in human hearts. While Kurtz considers him a conqueror over the wilderness and has realized his dream, though in effect to the contrary, the wilderness occupies and takes the complete possession of him until his last breathe. Kurtz is of heroism with no ethics, he carries out the dark plan in the dark forest with his originally stern desire to wipe out his victims. Deeply and profoundly in his heart lurks the primitive lust for temporal and mendacious fame, wealth, success and the appearance of strength. And the resentment of the forests together with his inner darkness gives the final counterattack when he is dying. That is “the horror!”
After Heart of Darkness was written, the true meaning of darkness in the heart and human depravity was revealed in the horrors. Conrad's extensive description adds tension and period perspective to the classic internal and external struggles between good and evil. Kurtz's dying words, "The horror! The horror!" represents despair at the encounter with human depravity--the heart of darkness. Kurtz, civilized and enlightened, embarks on this harrowing journey only to find his soul dark and evil. Marlow finds Kurtz totally devoid of the European civilization but filled with lust for the ivories symbolizing material wealth. When unbound by the strictures of his own culture, he exchanges his soul for a bloody sovereignty, surrenders to the recklessly magnified and released desires that may have not be exposed when we are under normal social circumstances and only the mortal illness brings an end to his reign of terror. We, human beings, just like Kurtz, may fall to lust and evil and disprove our civilization. Each time we sacrifice human dignity, each time we devastate or kill for lust and benefits; heart of darkness bulges and reins us, purges us of the civilization and forces us to face the horror hidden in human.。