Joseph Conrad’s 1899 short novel Heart of Darkness tells the tale of a river voyage into the depths of the Congo jungle at the height of the European colonial ivory trade in Africa. The narrative is presented in a first person perspective by Marlow, the story detailing the experiences he had working as a steamboat captain on this particular journey. The tale itself focuses not only on the unknown of the jungle from the perspective of the European colonial worker, but also focuses on existential themes, such as power and madness, since the pinnacle of the journey into the unknown is Marlow’s encounter with the enigmatic and potentially insane Mr. Kurtz, who is an ivory trader with an apparently mysterious command over the indigenous population.
At the outset of the work, Marlow tells the story of his journey some years ago in the Congo to fellow sailors. Marlow also explains his reasons for wanting to become a sailor, these anecdotal bits of information foreshadowing some of the novel’s major themes. Thus, Marlow states that as a youth he often gazed in amazement at the map of the known world, “the many blank spaces on the earth.” (Conrad, 2017 p. 10) These blank spaces initiate in Marlow a sense of exploration and adventure, a sense of the unknown which is “inviting” (Conrad, 2017, p. 10). He is above all enthralled by the “biggest, most blank” space on the map, at the center of Africa. This establishes a key relation between Marlow’s actual physical journey and its symbolic meaning, an exploration of the unknown.
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It is clear throughout Marlow’s first person account that the fundamental meaning of this unknown is an existential meaning about the human being. This existential meaning is problematized by the horror Marlow experiences in the Congo. Thus, when on his ivory trading ship route into the depths of the African continent, a particular harrowing scene is Marlow’s description of African slave labor working for the colonial ivory project, those men who had been overworked simply left to die as though they were not even human beings. Marlow states “these moribund shapes were free as air – and nearly as thin.” (Conrad, 2017, p. 25) Marlow is struck by “horror” (Conrad, 2017, p. 25) at the scene which fundamentally questions the value of the human life.
The key point in his journey, something like a mystical magnet which draws him into the jungle, is the ivory trader Mr. Kurtz. Kurtz is renowned (Conrad, 2017, p. 34) a man of apparently great talents. Marlow is to journey to the heart of the jungle to Kurtz’s trading post. This slow journey draws closer to the mysterious Kurtz, who represents something at the heart of the jungle, perhaps something feral and brutal, as Marlow learns that Kurtz has penned a report with the phrase “exterminate all the brutes!” (Conrad, 2017, p. 83) Before actually encountering Kurtz, Marlow encounters a Russian who had been at Kurtz’s outpost, and is enthralled by Kurtz’s powers. Kurtz has “enlarged my mind!” (Conrad, 2017, p. 106) The mystery of who Kurtz is grows deeper, as Marlow learns of his brutal and sadistic methodology. This is confirmed by Marlow when he nears Kurtz’s station and sees the severed heads of natives. Kurtz himself is very ill and is transported onto Marlow’s steamboat, to be returned away from the jungle. Kurtz appears to be worshiped by the native population as a god-like figure.
He has been accused of having “unsound” (Conrad, 2017, p. 104) methods. Kurtz does not want to go on the boat, wishing to remain in his ivory center. Nevertheless, on the steam ship of Marlow Kurtz dies, his mysterious last words “The horror! The horror!” (Conrad, 2017, p. 104) Kurtz has been a brutal colonialist, but he has also seen something horrific in these “blank spaces of the map.” Perhaps, he has seen what little humanity truly means, the illusions that one likes to think about humanist values, and instead only sees a world of brutality and violence, which he himself has taken in. The unknown here is something beyond reason, something animalistic and this is the horror that lies underneath the surface of human existence.
