Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness is essentially the story of Charles Marlow’s journey into the center of Africa. The first person narration, however, is not provided by Marlow; an unidentified fourth person traveling on the cruising yawl Nellie provides background information and infrequent commentary as the group of friends waits for the tides to turn so they may embark on a journey down the Thames to the sea.
Marlow tells his story in the first person, describing the events that he witnessed and experienced on his journey. As a storyteller, Marlow is straightforward and descriptive. As he tells his tale, he refrains from making judgments about the people he meets. Rather, he tells his story in a way that allows the reader to draw his own conclusions about the characters Marlow meets and the situations that he encounters.
With Marlow on the boat are the Lawyer, the Accountant, the Director of Companies who was also the captain, and the unnamed narrator. The narrator provides us with context – the scenery on the Thames, the lights of London (light
being a recurring motif), a bit of background information on each traveler, and their physical positions on the boat. He also speaks, in the first few pages, of the nature of those who follow the sea. He is not negative in his comments, but actually seems a bit romantic when he describes those “hunters for gold or pursuers of fame…bearers of a spark from the sacred fire.” The narrator speaks of the greatness that has flowed from the Thames to the sea, toward the “mystery of an unknown earth.” The narrator’s comments parallel Marlow’s story, with the Thames and the Congo rivers both serving as mechanisms for the development of civilization and human progress. The narrator’s musings regarding “the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires” (Conrad 5) are interrupted when Marlow begins his story.
The story that is The Heart of Darkness is told by Marlow in the first person, yet Marlow himself is referred to in the third person by this anonymous narrator. Because there are very few interruptions in Marlow’s story, the reader almost forgets that another narrator exists. We learn of the events that occurred in Africa directly from Marlow, which allows us to develop a characterization of him that we cannot develop on the true narrator because we know so little about him. All we know is that he regards Marlow as the kind of storyteller that sees meaning not just inside but also outside of the story, “as a glow brings out a haze” (Conrad 6). With these comments we can get a sense that Marlow is probably reliable, and we can open ourselves up to not only the facts of his story, but the greater sense that the heart of darkness is not a physical place, but a shadow that exists in all of us.
Hemingway also uses first person narration in The Sun Also Rises, with Jake Barnes providing his observations in mostly simple sentences. He is an objective narrator who doesn’t dictate to the reader, but provides the facts in a way that allows the reader to develop their own characterizations without being colored by Jake’s opinions. We make the decisions about how to put the facts together, to determine whether a specific character is important, threatening, corrupt, or something else. As the characters move in and out of Jake’s life, we begin to make judgments based on their actions and how they relate to Jake and to each other. Robert Cohn, for example, is noted to be a Jew, but we don’t get a sense of whether Jake is anti-Semitic or not. Jake notes the comments made by other characters regarding Cohn’s Judaism, but he makes no such remarks about it himself. At the end of the story we are relatively certain that Jake disliked Cohn because of his actions, but we are left wondering if Cohn’s heritage factored into Jake’s opinion at all.
Jake seems to live in a kind of infinite present; he doesn’t mention future plans but rather small diversions from his daily life.
The trip to Spain to fish and attend the bullfights are the only real plans he makes, but even those plans have a certain quality of happenstance. Mostly he just goes about his day to day life in an aimless sort of way. This “take each day as it comes” quality of his is both appealing and frustrating, but his voice is so objective that you cannot fault him for it. Rather, the reader learns to appreciate the serendipity that Jake finds in his days – he seems to take pleasure in the simple things in life, noticing small details like “the flower-women…coming up from the market and arranging their daily stock” (Hemingway 43). Jake is truly present in his daily life, unlike many of us who are constantly chasing whatever comes next, and that is one of his most admirable
qualities.
It is also important to note that Jake never complains. Despite his war injury, relative poverty, and the fact that Brett flaunts her sexual conquests around him, his temperament remains even. He mentions all of these things, but in such a way that you can never pity him, for he doesn’t pity himself. He finds and takes pleasure where he can, and is pragmatic about it. He is a discerning observer, always seeming to be aware of people’s motives, but never judging them. His comments when he meets Mike, Brett and Robert in Spain are straightforward: “Brett was happy. Mike had a way of getting an intensity of feeling into shaking hands. Robert Cohn shook hands because we were back” (Hemingway 138). The author brings a unique and subtle coloring to Jake’s impressions, allowing the reader to work through how he feels about each character. Why was Brett happy? Was she glad to see Jake, or did she like Spain, or was she pleased to be surrounded by men? What feeling did Mike bring that was intense – jealousy, hatred, friendship, warmth? In the line regarding Robert, Hemingway seems to suggest that Robert is shallow, only doing something because it’s appropriate or expected. Yet, any of these and more possibilities could be true of Jake’s feelings at this moment – his voice tells the facts, but hides even more with its dispassionate simplicity.
Ultimately, both Conrad and Hemingway are telling stories that look deeply into the hearts and motivations of men. Marlow’s voice, though objective, is much more richly detailed and complexly written than Jake’s, and it takes on a tone that implies that everyone is trying to sublimate their own inborn bad intent. Jake’s voice is direct but subtle and full of implications for the reader. Rather than making a judgment about whether one man’s actions are good or evil, Hemingway suggests that each member of his “lost generation” is searching, within and outside of themselves, for some elusive element or emotion that will make life purposeful and complete.