What might the title represent—the heart of darkness—what is this referring to?
Without any provided context, one could easily assume that Heart of
Darkness is a rather sinister and dark story. The heart is often noted as
the most vital organ in the human body, spreading and circulating blood
throughout the body. It can almost be inferred from the title alone that the
novella will provide a commentary on the nature of darkness. Upon reading the
novella, this is found to be especially true. However, I believe the title
serves two distinct meanings. Easily, simply, and extremely plainly spoken,
this book is about imperialism, and its dire consequences. Building upon this
idea, “heart of darkness” refers to the jungle in Africa. Taken at face level,
the jungle is literally dark. Previous explorers nicknamed the African
continent as “the dark continent.” Situated in this darkness are the
“savages”—the uncivilized and rogue people that live in the heart of the dark
jungle. At the time, it was customary for European nations to essentially
reform the native, uncivilized peoples of the world. Conrad communicates that this
type of attempted takeover can have horrid consequences. So basically, in the
heart of the dark continent in the dark jungles, men become handicapped from
their good judgment. They seem unable to understand the magnitude of the
situation. Their imperceptions cause feelings
of confusion, which clouds the definition between good and evil actions.
I like that concept that the heart of darkness is where these self-titled “civilized men” have their good judgment handicapped. It’s as if the heart of darkness is where the entity of evil exists, and it emanates into the souls of those who get too close to it, corrupting them. We can see that just about all the men that are working in Africa at the time have become corrupted in many ways, losing much of what makes them civilized. They lose their value of human life, seen by the pilgrims firing at the natives practically for sport, and the manager wanting to hang the Russian. Then there’s Kurtz, who has been living deep within this place of evil. He is lustful, taking on a mistress, he is prideful, and pretends he is a god to the natives to gain power over them.
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