Conrad, Joseph – Heart of Darknesss

Heart of Darknesss

The wilderness is a very significant symbol in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It is not only the backdrop against which the action of the story takes place, but also a character of the story in and of itself. The vastness and savagery of the wilderness contrast with the pettiness and foolishness of the pilgrims, and the wilderness also shows the greed and brutality that lie under the noblest of ideals.
The wilderness is not a person as such, but rather an ominous, brooding, and omnipotent force that continually watches the “fantastic invasion” of the white man. The activities of the white people are viewed throughout the book as insane and pointless. They spend their existence grubbing for ivory or plotting against each other for position and status within their own environment. Their whole lives seems to have an air of unreality about it. It is as if they are building their whole lives on nothing more substantial than a morning mist, easily blown away by the merest pouf of wind. The wilderness is not just an impersonal force that is unconcerned with anything else but itself. It is, rather, a mirror in which one can see clearly the darkness hidden in one’s heart. The force of the wilderness is only malevolent towards pretense. The natives, who are too simple to have false motives and pretenses, live perfectly at peace with it. In fact, in many places in the story, their voices can be considered the voices of the wilderness. The environment of the jungle, in contrast with the European society from which the white men have come, imposes no restraints upon the behaviour of an individual. It is a harsh environment that tests one’s ability to hold onto sanity without the structure of society. The people who are successful in fighting the wilderness are those who create their own structured environments. As long as they keep themselves busy with surface activities, they cannot hear the whisperings of the wilderness, and the darkness in their hearts remains buried. Marlow himself must also face the truth that the wilderness reveals to him. He sees the wild dancing and chanting of their natives, and though he says at first that the spectacle is utterly incomprehensible to him, upon reflection he admits that he feels a remote kinship to the “passionate uproar”. But, like the chief accountant’s clothes, Marlow’s work piloting and repairing the steamboat distracts him from such thoughts.

On the whole, the white men are successful in fighting the influence of the wilderness. They are either too greedy and stupid to realize that they are under attack, such as the pilgrims who are hunting for ivory, or they have managed to insulate themselves through work, such as the accountant. There is, however, one notable exception. Kurtz, the fabulously successful chief of the Inner Station who has come from Europe to civilize the natives, succumbs to the savagery of the wilderness. He gives his high aspirations, and the wilderness brings out the darkness and brutality in his heart. All the principles and aspirations of European society are stripped from him, and the abominable passions and freed of his true nature are revealed. He collects a following of loyal natives who worship him as an idol, and they raid surrounding villages and collect huge amounts of ivory. The chiefs must use ceremonies so horrible in approaching Kurtz that Marlow cannot bear to have them described. The full significance of the wilderness can be seen only through Kurtz, because it is he who most succumbs to its powers. Through the influence of the wilderness, basic human nature is revealed in him. The degradation of Kurtz has implications for more than himself. It is a commentary on all of humanity. At his death, he sees the true state of mankind.
His gaze is “piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness”. His final statement of “The horror! The horror!” is his judgement on all of life. The wilderness brings Kurtz to the point where he has a full awareness of himself, and from there he makes his pronouncement about all mankind.
Thus, in the story, the wilderness is more than a backdrop for the plot. Il is a relentless force that continually beckons the characters to shed the restraints of civilization and to gratify the abominable desires of their hearts. The wilderness destroys man’s pretensions and shows him the truth about himself.