Ambiguity in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

John Stoffer
Mrs. KK
English Literature AP
11 March 2013
The Role of Ambiguity in Heart of Darkness
In the world of art, a piece is hardly admired solely for accurately representing a subject, rather, the best works of art are appreciated for their creative, unique, symbolic depiction of reality. The photo of a group soldiers standing dirty in the aftermath of a battle is not significant for the identity of the individuals but for the horror, sacrifice, and brotherhood emphasized in their situation. The beauty of such an image is in its ambiguity – in the way that one sees his very own image in the blank, unknown faces of the picture. This feature allows the observer to directly relate the content of the image with his or her own life. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad utilizes strategic ambiguity in his characters and setting to impact the reader on the deepest, personal level. Conrad structures his setting in a way that removes its identity and emphasizes its essence. Better said, as one journeys with Marlow deeper into the dense jungle, the setting becomes less of a Belgian-colonized Congo and more of a savage, chaotic, murky labyrinth. In an art gallery, Conrad’s setting would more likely be represented as obscure modern art than a realistic portrait of Victorian Age exploration. Upon his vast canvas, Conrad splashes a messy array of black, white, and grey rather than deep, vibrant, organized colors. Likewise, in Marlow’s travels, his vision of the jungle obscures itself into a bleak blur of dark shades contrasted by the bright white of imperialism. Marlow himself describes the landscape as having “a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart.” Conrad doesn’t have Marlow speak explicitly against the people, dangers, and perils of the jungle but merely characterizes its darkness. Contrarily, behind this dark arboreal curtain, the ivory trade stands out in full contrast. This juxtaposition of setting elements makes the reader consider the ironic concept of pure, white ivory coming forth from the deep dark depths of the dense forest. With this subliminal ambiguity, the reader is left with the startling, contrasting essence of the setting rather than the particular details of it all. Similarly, at the end of Marlow’s quest, as he contemplates Kurtz’s decease, Marlow admits a resounding, general, ambiguous depiction of death being an “impalpable grayness.” Out of all the dynamics of death he could have expounded - its agony, its glory, or its meaning – Conrad decides to leave the reader with death depicted as an unidentifiable “grayness.” Moreover, the obscurity of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is further intensified in his characters, as within the muddy splotches of Conrad’s setting, one can deduce the faintest trace of human faces.
Taking a closer look at these visages, it appears that Conrad left them just as indistinguishable as his setting. Conrad’s depiction of his characters likens to that of portraits of faceless individuals. This is seen in Marlow’s first experience of the inland Congo when he describes the natives as, “nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom, “ and nothing more than “acute angles” silhouetted in the forest atmosphere. Shortly afterward, he describes his encounter with a “miracle” man starkly clad in all white – the manager of the station. He offers no description outside of his brilliant whiteness. Conrad never discloses the identities of these people, and the reader is left with a nameless picture of Conrad’s Congo. However, Conrad’s the most profound effect of ambiguity presents itself as Marlow stumbles on Kurtz’s oil sketch depicting “a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch” imposed upon a black background. Though Marlow never identifies or draws any connections with this art piece, it is obvious that the image depicts a nameless Lady Liberty, blindly extending her virtues to unreached lands. However, underlying the scene is the blinding reality that this proposition of liberty yields no fruition in the Congo wilderness, as the natives become enchained and nature becomes tainted by imperialistic efforts.
At first, the reader might be tempted to dismiss the observations of Marlow as the criticism of a time long ago. However, through Conrad’s brilliant ambiguity, the reader realizes that the entire story lends itself eerily to his or her own existence. Conrad substitutes the obscure, black atmosphere with the concrete setting of one’s own life. He fills in the undeterminable faces with ones recognizable to the reader. As the narrator sailor finds his world suddenly dimmed into darkness after hearing Marlow’s account, the reader also truly finds his or her own “heart of darkness” as inspired by Marlow’s tale. By the end of Marlow’s quest, the pictures painted in the novel become a depiction not only Victorian age life, but life in general, and with one cry, Conrad, Kurtz, and the reader share the same, final, desperate summarization of the entirety their own lives: “The horror! The horror!” As you take one final glance at the murky, black, white, and gray mural of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, you realize that it’s not a mural at all, it’s merely a mirror.