Heart Of Darkness Meaning

Student name: David Mier Zhang
Student ID: ZHMJD13

Every Coin Has Two Sides

The title Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, suggests the endless darkness, however, the foundation of the darkness is light. Also, May Day by F. Scott Fitzgerald, literal meaning of the title is opposite from the meaning of the story. When most people hear the phrase "May Day", the first thought cross mind is the French Word M’aider, which means help, however, during the story, mayday is not the help; it is a helplessness and hopelessness. In a word, the literal meaning of Heart of Darkness tells the reader is about darkness, but in the story the resource of darkness is love, which is from light side. And May Day in general meaning is help, however,
the motion from this story is helpless and hopeless. In Heart of Darkness, in lots of readers’ opinion Mr. Kurtz is an evil man, because he is a disaster for natives. The Harlequin offers this comment to Marlow about Kurtz, “You can not judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man” (56) Mr. Kurtz killed natives to get the ivory to sell, Mr. Kurtz “was not afraid of the natives”(58) because Mr. Kurtz’s “ascendancy was extraordinary. The camps of these people surrounded the place and the chiefs came every day to see him. They would crawl.”(58) And the station is not as Mr. Kurtz said it is “a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.” (32) The truth about the station is a station of death. Even the in Harlequins’ opinion Kurtz “has enlarged my mind” (54). And Kurtz’s action also shows the reader that “the conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much” (7). Because of Kurtz’s behavior, most of people think he is evil, because of his bloodiness and ambitious, he was so temerarious to get the ivory even killed the natives. However, Mr.
Kurtz is “a remarkable man”(70). The reason why Mr. Kurtz, a star agency of Company who works in true ivory country, went to Africa and killed natives to get ivories to pleasure his fiancée. In a word, Mr. Kurtz kill people because of love. Mr. Kurtz was an ambitious and charismatic person, which because Mr. Kurtz “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz, and by and by I learned that most appropriately the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs had entrusted him with the making of a report for its future guidance.”(49) Somehow, in Mr. Kurtz’s deep heart, he “struggled with a soul”(66) and “being alone in the wilderness” (66). In Mr. Kurtz’s heart “the night did not seem to last an hour, everything! Everything! Of love too!”(55) Before Mr. Kurtz die, it is obvious that Mr. Kurtz felt regret about killing people, at least we know Mr. Kurtz’s “soul was mad” (66). Mr. Kurtz kept saying “horror, horror”(69). After all, Mr. Kurtz “was the expression of some sort of belief”(70). In Mr. Kurtz’s deep heart, he knew he was doing the wrong thing to kill people, and he struggled with his soul, he did everything for love, and the love is pure and divine. In another hand Mr. Kurtz is remarkable man, the reason he got into darkness is love. Therefore, the Heart of Darkness is not darkness, but light side
actually. According to the situation of the centre station and the behavior of Kurtz’s, we can say Mr. Kurtz was an evil man, because he killed lots of natives to get the ivory; he caused death and it just like “exterminate all the brutes” (50), it is horrible, therefore, the title is heart of darkness. However, in my opinion, Mr. Kurtz was a remarkable man, Kurtz did not want to kill people, however, there is no another choice, Kurtz got the ivory for pleasuring his fiancée, in another word, the basic reason to kill natives is the “unextinguishable light of belief and love” (74), and the love is took the most part in Mr. Kurtz 's mind, so it is the light side, therefore, the foundation of darkness is light. The title May Day from F. Scott Fitzgerald, have some different meanings, however, most people hear the phrase “May Day”, the first thought cross mind is French word M’aider, which means help. In Fitzgerald’s book, Gordon Sterrett, an insolvent man, wanted get help from his old friend Dean Phil who is the “only man he can turn to in a matter like this” (11) frankly. However, unexpectedly, Dean turned Gordon down. Also, Mr. Gordon would rather to kill himself than face his marriage with a low-class woman. Mr. Gordon had nothing but “the dusky gray shadows in the corner of the room and at a raw place on a large leather chair in the corner where it had long been in use” (93). Therefore, Mr. Gordon has not get help from others, and all the things in front of him are endless darkness, hopelessness and helplessness. Because Mr. Gordon did not get any help from others, Mr. Gordon choose suicide to end of his helpless, hopeless and dark life. When Gordon thought Dean was “the only man I can trust” (9), however, Dean even did “not want to hear” (11).
From the situation, the only friend that Gordon had did not want to hear his experience. That was the first time that Gordon felt the helplessness. And the second time, that Dean “took a five-dollar bill from his wallet and tossed it over to Gordon” (16). At this point, two of friends, Gordon and Dean, “quite suddenly and definitely hated each other” (17), in Gordon’s mind, a person who tosses money over you is not called friend. Even Gordon faced his low-class wife, Gordon thought he was a “damn miserable” and “awful mess”, and Gordon told his wife “the best thing you can do is to pretend not to know” (46) him. In Gordon’s mind, even “love is fragile” (48), and “perhaps the pieces are saved, the things that hovered on lips, that might have been said. The new love words, the tendernesses learned, are treasured up for the next lover” (48). This time Gordon not just felt the helplessness, and he can felt the extreme hopelessness led on him. For Gordon, sometimes maybe the death is the best way to solute all the problems, but death is not the only way to go, if he get some help. Before Gordon suicide he knew “the wealthy, happy sun glittered in transient gold though the thick windows of the smart shops, lighting upon mesh bags and purses and strings of pearls in gray velvet cases; upon gaudy feather fans of many colors; upon the laces and silks of expensive dresses; upon
the bad paintings and the fine period furniture in the elaborate show rooms of interior decorators” (19) are not for him, compare those fantastic things Gordon is nothing. That time Gordon felt is endless hopelessness and darkness, and then he choose to suicide to end his hopeless and dark life. Mayday as an international distress sign means help, also in this book, Mr. Gordon wanted to get some help from his friend and the society, however, the friend and society all let him down. Therefore, Gordon’s life was worse than “dizzy with the extreme maudlin happiness that the morning had awakened in their glowing souls. Indeed, so fresh and vigorous was their pleasure in living that they felt it should be expressed by loud cries” (84). No one can image how hopeless that life can be when you use laugh to instead sorrow. So in this moment, mayday is not for help, it means helplessness and hopelessness, so Gordon ended his own life. From the two books, May Day and Heart of Darkness, they both show the reader that the literal meaning are opposite to the real meaning in the story, May Day is not help in the story, it is a sign of helplessness and hopelessness, and the Heart of Darkness is not come from the darkness but light side, Heart of Darkness is based on the pure love, belief and light. And the titles like a coin, because every coin has two sides, so does the title, at the literal side, they suggest the help or darkness, on the another side, the meaning of titles are represent to helplessness or pure love, belief and light side.

Works Cited
Corad, J. Heart of Darkness, edited by Paul B. Armstrong, forth edition, University of Wisconsin, 1990.
Fitzgerald, F.S., May Day, Melville House Publishing, 1920.