Conrad's Characterizations

         Heart of Darkness has a seemingly simple plot. After all, the novel chronicles a sailor who travels along the Congo River into the heart of Africa. As he does so, the sailor Marlow faces various tribulations, which include repairing his damaged ship and defending himself from fierce African natives. The novel is centered around finding–and meeting–Mr. Kurtz, who is supposedly a charismatic and skilled tradesman. While Marlow succeeds in completing this task, he is disappointed by the selfish, mad Mr. Kurtz he finds and he eventually returns to Europe in order to continue Mr. Kurtz’s legacy. Conrad’s novel does not contain elaborate family dramas and other backstories, as have other novels I have read. Yet the beauty and ingenuity of Conrad’s masterpiece lies not within his plot itself but within his descriptions. His prose is rich in imagery and characterization, and effectively conveys his purpose: to argue that colonization of Africa corrupts the human mind. The following excerpts are passages which I find to be particularly memorable, as they contain stunning imagery and establish the tone of the novel:

“The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that people its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivd flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories. And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, “followed the sea” with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames” (5).

        Conrad attaches a timeless quality to the river and sea. The Thames acts as servant to man, and its unchanging nature connects peoples and places of different eras. The sea itself is the home of sailors, and it provides camaraderie and identities to those who revere it. For Marlow, the sea is a vessel that allows him to satisfy his curiosity and sense of adventure.

“In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide pass, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself” (6).

Marlow is unlike his fellow sailors. Whereas other sailors are simple in thinking, Marlow is a “wanderer” and believes that truth cannot be learned through simple facts but rather through storytelling (6). This characterization suggests that Marlow has an almost gentle quality to him. Moreover, because he appreciates storytelling, his narration is profound and clear in his purpose. He does not exaggerate, but instead narrates truthfully and tries to find meaning his experiences.

“The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam” (18). 

This is hardly an Edenic description of Africa. The African wilderness is a living, breathing beast. The “creeping mist” signals a point of no return, an indication of no escape. The “glistening” land “dripping with steam” resembles a snarling, hostile animal ready to pounce on anyone who trespasses its territory. In short, this description provides a fitting setting for the events in Heart of Darkness: the longer characters inhabit Africa, the more they resemble its primal nature.