heart of darkness di Joseph Conrad, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica heart of darkness di Joseph Conrad e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad BIOGRAPHY Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski in 1857, in Russian- dominated Ukraine, of Polish parents, both of whom died when he was quite young. In 1874 he went to Marseilles to fulfil his long-standing passion to go to sea. After four years in the French Merchant Navy, he joined the British Merchant Navy, in which he served for 16 years. He sailed all over the world, but mainly to the Far East, which was to become the setting of many of his novels and stories. In 1886 he became a British subject. In 1894 he retired from the sea, settled in England and devoted himself to writing. In 1895 he married Jessie George by whom he had two sons. His first novel, Almayer’s Folly, was published in 1895 under the pen name of Conrad. It was followed by many other novels. His major works include: Lord Jim (1900), Youth (1898), Heart of Darkness (1902), Nostromo (1904) and The Secret Agent (1907). Heart of Darkness was the result of a first-hand experience when Conrad went to Africa in 1890 to command a trading vessel on the Congo River for a Belgian company. At that time that area was known as the Congo Free State and it was the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium, who allowed the companies to which he had granted concessions to exploit the natives brutally. Conrad’s experience was traumatic. There was no boat for him to command, he fell ill with malaria, and his nerves were severely affected by both the climate and the sense of isolation he felt while living among the Company people. Though admired by fellow writers like Henry James, his novels were not popular. His first great public success came towards the end of his writing career, in 1913, with Chance. This was followed by The Shadow Line in 1917. Conrad died in 1924. He is considered one of the major 20th century writers in English literature although his depiction of Africa has also more recently come under severe criticism from African writers. Heart of Darkness, which was intended to denounce imperialism and which was considered anti-racist in his times, has been criticised more recently by writers such as Nobel Prize winner Chinua Achebe as reinforcing racist stereotypes. CHARACTERS Charlie Marlow He is the protagonist and narrator of this novella. He tells a small group of friends about the time he captained a steamboat up the Congo River. This journey exposes Marlow to the brutality and hypocrisy of imperialism, and he meets the other main character of the story, the depraved and dying Kurtz, who has been unhinged by greed and the solitude of the jungle. Marlow both admires and abhors Kurtz and remains loyal to him once he returns to Europe. Kurtz He is the chief agent of the company’s Inner station. Though we’re first only introduced to him through rumours of illness and madness, the company considers Kurtz a gifted and eloquent man, committed to the company’s stated goals of educating and enhancing the lives of the Congolese people. Lower-level officials want to relieve Kurtz of duty, annoyed by his successes obtaining more ivory than all the other agents combined. Kurtz is adored by the natives but this methods are as barbarous as the worst company agents. Jungle The jungle acts as the antagonist of the novel; it’s a living force that corrupts Kurtz and comes close to corrupting Marlow. Marlow says it’s as if nature itself is trying to ward off intruders. Manager The manager of the central station is a cold, calculating man who has enslaved a great many native people and is completely indifferent to their suffering. He forces them to work in mines and to extract ivory, he keeps them chained up, fails to feed them or care for their illnesses and he works them to exhaustion and death. He’s jealous of Kurtz because Kurtz sends down more ivory than he does and he makes plans to get Kurtz relieved of his post. His motivations are greed an power. The Russian He is a young man who journeys to Africa in the spirit of adventure and for the need to exist. Marlow calls him gallantly, thoughtlessly alive. When he encounters Kurtz at the inter station, the Russian becomes devoted to him, sitting at his feet absorbing Kurtz’s words and ideas. His hero- worship contrasts with Marlow’s more balanced with as Marlow sees Kurtz as an eloquent man who has lost his moral compass. The helmsman The helmsman is a proud, athletic African belonging to a coastal tribe. Marlow calls him an unstable fool yet misses him when he’s killed. They developed a partnership or at least an interdependency and Marlow feels a certain respect for him; although his comments about the helmsman are patently racist. SYMBOLS Symbolism operates throughout Heart of Darkness to create an ethical context for the work. Darkness Darkness as a symbol of human origins opens the novella when Marlow is on the yacht on the Thames. He says an England also has been one of the dark places on earth, he means that the land and its peoples were primitive before the Roman conquest, a parallel to European colonial control of Africa. Light and peace is here now Marlow implies but darkness was here yesterday. There is literal darkness in the jungle and the waters of the river but he also says that the suffering of the indigenous people and the evil in the hearts of the company agents is a metaphoric darkness. A darkness of the unknown, of difference and of blindness; the most important metaphoric darkness is that revealed in Kurtz’s heart and symbolised by the decapitated heads of native men displayed like decorative knobs on his fence posts. These headstand is enduring symbols of Kurtz’s depravity and so Kurtz himself symbolises the darkness of the colonisers lost morality. Ivory Ivory symbolises the greed and color of the Europeans. It’s a consuming passion for them the lure that draws them to Africa it has become like a religion to them. The word irony rang in the air Marlow says when he’s at the outer station it was whispered aside you would think they were paying to it. Ivory which is white, is the one thing of value that the Europeans of this novella find in Africa but ivory is also equated with the dark evil and corruption of white colonialists. Kurtz’s head is described as bald like an ivory ball; at his death, Marlow notes his ivory face. Harlequin When Marlow arrives the inner station, he’s greeted by a young Russian man dressed in colourful patchwork clothes. The young man looks as if he’s escaped from a troupe of mimes; Marlow compares him to a harlequin, something that doesn’t fit in the African jungle. The harlequins presence emphasises the absurdity of the situation and suggests another literary convention: the wise, fool. Although the Russian seems more naïve than wise THEMES Racism Literary critics were once divided regarding whether Marlow and the other white characters in the novella are racist or whether the central racism of the story comes from Conrad himself. In any case, Heart of Darkness reflects the racism of the time and racism becomes the primary aspect of the novella. Marlow shows more sympathy for the plight of the native people than he does for the company people who pilfer the land but he clearly doesn’t feel that they are his equals. They are human he says and that was the worst of it, this suspicion of their not being inhuman. Marlow calls the native people savages and cannibals, the jungle is alive with parts flailing limbs, rolling eyes, stomping feet and inarticulate noises and these kinds of recurring images deny individuality and humanity to the congolese. Greed and imperialism While the stated goal of the company is to civilise native people, its true goal is plunder Africa’s resources for profit. Greed, however, isn’t just about money, Kurtz has an insatiable greed for