Stylistic and Formal Innovations in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
- Sinead Crowley
Conrad’s stylistic innovations in Heart of Darkness reflect epistemological doubt, act as a commentary on colonisation, and is formed through a subjective male perspective who judges identity based on gender, race and class. My paper will highlight how these issues reflect the “crisis of belief that pervades twentieth-century culture” (Stanford Friedman 97). Additionally, it will argue how Conrad’s formal innovations in Heart of Darkness are a reaction to emerging ideas that revolutionised the way in which humans understand the world around them. For example, Conrad experiments with psychological time by delving into Marlow’s mind-set and only briefly reminds the reader of the chronological sense of time as imposed by a clock over the minds measure of it. Therefore, Conrad readjusted the framework of the novel itself to emphasise to the complexities of the interior self, more particularly the self’s response to modernity. Finally, my essay will discuss how Heart of Darkness reflects the rationalism of new scientific theories challenges stereotypical gender roles and demonstrates the effects of mass urbanization, industrialization and imperialism and how they ultimately foster “despair, hopelessness, paralysis, angst, and a sense of meaninglessness, chaos, and fragmentation of material reality” (Stanford Friedman 97).
The repeated use of light and darkness in Conrad’s novel is the most striking and complex use of symbolism in the text. As Marlow travels up the Congo River he states that he is going “deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” whilst feeling “very small, very lost” (Conrad 35). Thus darkness suggests a sense of inferiority and uncertainty. Marlow describes how both his crew’s and his own physical existence seems to fade into the darkness by stating “we glided like phantoms” and his very surroundings become “unknown” (Conrad 35). This description creates a clear epistemological uncertainty suggested through the use of darkness which is linked to personal confusion and self-doubt. In contrast, light is portrayed as an enlightening experience. Marlow comments the Roman colonisation of Britain as being akin to a “Light” coming out of the river (Conrad 5). Whilst the darkness lead to Marlowe feeling inferior, the mention of light is like a “flash of lightening in the clouds”, which suggests light indicates momentary clarity or knowledge (Conrad 6). Additionally, Marlow links this particularly reference to light with colonisation, thus overall hinting it is a positive epistemological experience. However, Chinua Achebe argues that the light Marlow speaks of only occurs when Britain has emerged from its colonisers grasp (Achebe 338). Thus Achebe believes light can only occur when there is no colonisation of one nation over another.
Achebe’s argument highlights how Conrad’s experimentation with light and dark symbolism acts as a subtle commentary about Africa and Europe. Achebe argues that Africa is equated with darkness in the text whilst Europe is equated with light (Achebe 338). He states that because of this, Africa is portrayed as “the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization” (Achebe 328). However, this is a too simplified interpretation of the text which can be proven inaccurate upon a closer reading of the texts opening scene. As Marlow leaves London, he comments that there was a “haze” surrounding him, that the air was “dark” above him and when looking back at London he comments there is “mournful gloom brooding motionless” over the city (Conrad 3). Thus, this luminous epistemological place is clouded by a fixed gloomy dark haze, which suggests that the knowledge of this alleged civilised and technologically progressive European capital is clouded, obscured and inert. Arguably Conrad is hinting at how technological progression obscures personal growth during this period. Marlow’s later description of the European city, Brussels, as being a “whited sepulchre” further suggests that Europe is not only clouded in knowledge but has become a stagnant decaying place (Conrad 9). Again, this is possibly because technological advancement in cities such as Brussels and London has