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The Heart of Darkness


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Heart of Darkness(Novel)
                                                                         Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad Nalecz Korzenoiwski was born in 1857 in a novel Polish family. Heart of Darkness is a masterpiece of Joseph Conrad. It is a famous novel of Conrad. Through this novel the writer has wanted to focus the human nature. It is a severe attack on the evil designs of Western colonization. Ivory is the only asset of Congo. This asset has been looted by the Europeans.Heart of Darkness is a severe protest against this robbery. The writer has depicted the clash of the two cultures the Europeans and the black natives. Marlow hears the name of Kurtz from the company chief accountant who describes Kurtz as a 'remarkable man' and that he is sending more ivory than all the other agents. Kurtz is the protagonist of the novel. Actually he is a devil character symbolizes greed, cruelty, inhumanity, unkindness, savagery and ruthlessness. The critics have compared him to Satan, Faust, giant and inferior creature. He is a fake though he is regarded as a great man. He has lust for ivory.

It is ivory that motivates the white men to come over the dark region of Congo. It is symbolical of white men's monstrous greed, on account of that they become ready to kill even each other. The manager and Brick-maker have informed Manlow about Kurtz that he has become popular because of the large collection. The characters of Manger and Brick-maker symbolize cunningness  and deceitfulness. The brick-maker admires Kurtz by describing him as a "universal genius". Heart of Darkness has contained so many autobiographical elements and its narrator, Marlow, is considered as the mouth piece of Joseph Conrad. Conrad has tried to show white man's  hostile, unsympathetic and inhuman relationship with the backward natives of dark Africa. Marlow has observed the exploitation of the backwards by white-men, their cruelty and deceitful attitude towards them.
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This novel is not just the story of Marlow's voyage to Congo region but also reflection of Conrad's own experience  that he had felt during his own journey to Congo. Marlow has gathered some experiences about white men through Congo visit. During his stay in Congo he has found that there are numerous white men who call themselves agents, but they really have no work to do. Ivory is the main subject of interest to them. Moreover, they are spending their time in bad-mouthing and intriguing. To Marlow, they look like "faithless pilgrims" Conrad has shown the inferior nature of Kurtz. Kurtz comes to Congo to enlighten the African barbarian/ uncivilized African. Yet he himself becomes uncivilized because of worldly temptation specially the greed for ivory. At the end of his life he has left a message for the future generation. He has warned others.
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Conrad has criticized the moral side of evolution theory through the character of station manager. The manager laughs at the people who have become unable to adjust themselves with unsuitable atmosphere of Africa. At the end of the novel the inferior Manager survives at Kurtz who is considered universal genius and maker of culture and civilization, cannot survive himself. His collapse indicates the collapse of whole Europe. So it is a bitter criticism for them who support colonization. The collapse of Kurtz has proved false the theory "Survival of the fittest" Kurtz is more fit than the Manager.
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 Despite this, he has to accept his collapse. He has to fall down because of his heart of darkness. He is victim of his own dark soul. At the end of the novel, we see the abject death of Kurtz. On the other hand, the Manager who possesses only physical strength gets all worldly success and does not made the collapse like Kurtz. In this novel, Kartz has proved himself inferior to the African uncivilized people. Creating pressure he has wanted to be almighty in the eyes of the African. But his efforts become vain through his collapse. Kurtz is a man of civilized society. But Conrad has considered European civilized as a fake civilization. Comparatively Africans are more civilized than Europeans. However, Africans are not fake/cunning. they express their weak points nakedly. Conrad's criticism of white men's economic exploitation of the natives of Congo is the basic feature of the Heart of Darkness. 

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