The Themes And Motifs Of Conrad
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In writing the novella, Conrad drew heavily on his own experience in the Congo: eight and a half years before writing the book, he had served as the captain of a Congo steamer. On a single trip upriver, he had witnessed so many atrocities that he quit immediately after. Some of Conrads experiences in the Congo, and the storys historic background, including possible models for Kurtz, are recounted in Adam Hochschilds King Leopolds Ghost.
The story-within-a-story device that Conrad chose for Heart of Darkness — one in which an unnamed narrator recounts Marlows recounting of his journey — has many literary precedents. Emily Brontлs Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein used a similar device, but the best examples of the framed narrative include Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales and Samuel Taylor Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Motifs and themes
The motif of “darkness” from the title recurs throughout the book. It is used to reflect the unknown, the concept of the “darkness of barbarism” contrasted with the “light of civilization” and the ambiguity of both – the dark motives of civilization and the freedom of barbarism, as well as the “spiritual darkness” of several characters. This sense of darkness also lends itself to a related theme of obscurity — again, in various senses, reflecting the ambiguities in the work. Moral issues are not clear-cut; that which ought to be (in various senses) on the side of “light” is in fact mired in darkness, and vice versa.
To emphasize also the theme of darkness within all of mankind, Marlows narration takes place on a yacht in the Thames tidal estuary. Early in the novella, the narrator recounts how London, the largest, most populous and wealthiest city in the world at the time (where Conrad wrote and where a large part of his audience lived), was itself a “dark” place in Roman times. The theme of darkness lurking beneath the surface of even “civilized” persons is further explored through the character of Kurtz and through Marlows passing sense of understanding with the Africans.
Themes developed in the novellas later scenes include the naпvetй of Europeans — particularly women — regarding the various forms of darkness in the Congo; the British traders and Belgian colonialists abuse of the natives; and mans potential for duplicity. The symbolic levels of the book expand on all of these in terms of a struggle between good and evil, not so much between people as within every major characters soul.
Through the novel, Conrad stresses the importance of restraint; in his view a persons “primitive honour” against his or her basic impulses. From the