Conrad, Joseph - Origin of “Heart of Darkness” and the River Congo

Origin of “Heart of Darkness” and the River Congo

Out of many journeys Conrad took, two were the most crucial to his works. In 1888, he received his first assignment and promotion as captain of the Otago, a small ship sailing from Bangkok. The journey, although, was not successful. The crew suffered with fevers and it became very time consuming because of the lack of wind. In the middle of the trip Conrad decided to turn back. The aggravating claims of the voyage, and the anxious uncomfortable position as a first-time captain inspired the secret sharer.

On the next voyage he was sent to the Congo river. However, once her got there, he was disgusted and disappointed by what he saw: maltreatment of blacks, “scramble for loot”, etc. He contracted malaria malaria during this voyage. This trip inspired his most renowned tale: “Heart of Darkness”. When he returned back to England, hi was traumatized. His outlook on life was darker then it had already been.

We can say that Congo river is the start of the book. The River Congo is compared to the river Thames in the book because Marlow is telling the story while they are sitting at the bottom of the Thames, yet his story takes place on the Congo. Right off, there is a comparison between two different rivers. The Thames is suggested as a peaceful, tranquil river while the Congo, considered the antithesis of the Thames, has quite a different atmosphere. Chinua Achebe, who is considered the father of modern African literature in the English language, suggests that “ The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that “Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world.” He goes on to say that Conrad worries not about the differentness of the two rivers, but about their common ancestry. “And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.” The Tames has conquered its darkness and now it’s peaceful. Unfortunately, in saying this, Achebe is missing the point. Africa is the darkness, on the outside, but it is an irony in that Englishmen who go to Africa and are colonizing there are the ones who are dark and barbarous. They are greedy and have become dark, like the appearance of the Africans. Perhaps the “darkness” of the Congo has brought out that animalistic instinct, but the pagan rites and savage dances are not only done by the Africans, but ironically and hypocritically, by the English as well. C.P. Sarvan states that, “As for pagan rites and savage dances, the Europeans with imbecile rapacity were praying to ivory, that is, to materialism, and one red-haired man positively danced, blood thirsty at the thought that he and the others must have made a glorious slaughter of the Africans in the bush”