Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness
British Colonization, Expansion and Imperialism in Africa
The Imperial mission was not without its critics in Victorian Britain but the general public may not have been ready for explicit dissent and so hence there was a need for subtle narrative strategies. Conrad uses an outer narrator who patriotically celebrates British achievements with memories of 'men of whom the nation is proud' (Heart of Darkness p.104).
The imperialistic rhetoric and multi-layered narrative may also have blurred political understanding for the Victorian reader. Criticism of the Roman conquest 'they grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got' (Heart of Darkness p.107) is qualified by sympathetic admiration. British Imperialism is being paralleled with Roman colonization.
Conrad and Imperialism
From the perspective of the twenty first century Heart of Darkness is a tale of exploitation of the white European in an imperialistic world. Novels do not always endorse the beliefs and prejudices of their day and authors may have had fears and anxieties about readers' reactions.
The Victorian age was the heyday of British imperialism and patriotism. Conrad's scepticism of European policies of colonization, expansion and imperialism was unhistorical in its intensity. Conrad, although fully aware of the oppression of the natives by the forces of imperialism could not imagine their freedom from European dominance and so fails to take the story one step further as might be expected by the modern day author.
Conrad and Racism
By contemporary standards, Conrad would have been considered radical in his approach to racism even if by modern standards Heart of Darkness could be considered a racist book. Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, believes that the blacks 'are dehumanized and degraded' (Heart of Darkness - preface p.xxi) by Conrad. Conrad's expression 'a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara' (Heart of Darkness p. 156) when referring to a valued helmsman would not be one of a modern novelist.
However although Conrad alienates the natives from the whites, 'it was very curious to see the contrast of expressions of the white men and the black fellows of our crew' (Heart of Darkness p. 144), he does not regard them as a separate species. Whereas Conrad's language would not be considered politically correct nowadays, the term 'nigger' was used by the whites in the 1890s and so is historically correct.
Conrad's Own Travels up the Congo River
Marlowe's fictional journey up the Congo River, set in an atmosphere of mystery and menace, mirrors Conrad's own travels to Africa. He experienced first hand the way political maps were changing as European countries competed to control Africa. The significant moral dimension of this awareness is disguised by the illusion of the genre of an adventure story in Heart of Darkness.
Heart of Darkness and Other Tales (1899) 2002 Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Cedric Watts. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192801724
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