(open book/iPad, in class, 10-15 minutes max., on paper or email to jforman@buckley.org)
AStudent
Shedding some light on Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness allows the reader to join the narrator, Marlow, in his retelling of a journey through the Congo. Just as Marlow is captivated by the "darkness" of Africa and what secrets lay in its midst, we too find ourselves drawn to its mystique. Frederick Karl claims that, “what draws us as readers to a text is the secret expression of what we desire to hear, much as we protest we do not." He goes on to say that these repressed wishes and desires, ironically, become evident in the darkness—through its symbolism and through cryptic dreams. Indeed, Karl is correct in suggesting that just as Marlow enters the "heart of darkness," the reader cannot help but wonder about their own darkness, as though they are joining him on his journey.
The concept of darkness is, in itself, a paradox. Though Marlow fears the darkness, he still possesses an innate sense of awe and even an ironic attraction to it. As Marlow refers to a time before the Romans came to England, he remarks that explorers of the uncivilized and wild land were “men enough to face the darkness,” illustrating how darkness serves as a source of inspiration for him, as well as his eagerness to explore its depths (Conrad 4). As remembers his journey through the heart of darkness, he recounts his experiences with “men of darkness,” such as Kurtz, who are not constrained by civilization. Marlow projects his fear and awe of darkness onto Kurtz, who he becomes obsessed with. Indeed, the concept of complete dissociation from the restraints of society and its taboos elicits a guilty fascination in both Marlow and the reader, who consequently ponder their own inner darkness.
In his criticism of Conrad’s novella, Fredrick Karl recognizes the ironic influence darkness has on wishful dreaming. He states, “Both [Freud] and Conrad penetrated into the darkness, the darkness entered into when people sleep or when their consciences sleep, when they are free to pursue secret wishes, whether in dreams, like Freud’s analysands, or in actuality, like Kurtz and his followers” (124). While darkness is supposedly a visual barrier, it, ironically, becomes the source of inspiration for the dreams of Marlow. While the darkness may physically isolate Marlow from the surrounding world, it is the dreams found in this darkness that bring him back in to society. His repressed desires compose the “collective unconscious,” where his wishes manifest the greater repressed desires of a civilized human race. In venturing into the darkness of the jungle, Marlow sheds light onto himself.
