Realism in Heart of Darkness

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Course | COML1053: CTC: Fictions & Visual Narrati | Course School/Level | HU/UG | Coursework | Essay Two | Assessment Weight | 45.00% | Tutor | ED Jones | Submission Deadline | 22/02/2013 |

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2. ‘Those who read me know my conviction that the world, the temporal world, rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests notably, among others, on the idea of Fidelity’ (Joseph Conrad). How is ‘realism’ problematized by any one of the texts in this block? You must make reference to at least one definition of literary terms (for instance, Baldick’s definition in the course reader.)

Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart Of Darkness’ bases itself around the theme of the hypocrisy of Imperialism and thus how this relates around the story of the main character, Charlie Marlow (Marlow). Marlow himself is thrust into a world that turns his previous beliefs of what is considered ‘civilised’ on its head. Is this itself a problem of realism in the novel? Quite possibly, the novel takes us far away from the drab European cities Marlow would usually situate himself in and transports us to the Congo and its surrounding areas. Realism is described as:
‘A mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or ‘reflecting’ faithfully an actual way of life. […] [A]s a dominant literary trend it is associated chiefly with the 19th-century novel of middle- or lower-class life, in which the problems of ordinary people in unremarkable circumstances are rendered with close attention to the details of social setting and to the complexities of social life. ‘
(Chris Baldick, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford: OUP, 2001)) It provides us with a real insight into what the ideals of Imperialism contradict and therefore how this affects Marlow. The seemingly opposite character of Marlow is presented as Kurtz, or rather ‘Mr. Kurtz’. Never given a first name purposely by Conrad, possibly to mock the status he demands amongst the native tribes people, eventually leading to one saying, ‘Mistah Kurtz, he dead’ when Kurtz eventually meets his end. Edward Garnett provides an interesting quote in his response to the novel that appears to mirror the deterioration of Kurtz himself; ‘the acutest analysis of the deterioration of the white man’s morale, when he is let loose from European restraint, and planted down as an ‘emissary of light’ armed to the teeth, to make trade profits out of the subject races’. This being that if Kurtz had remained in Europe, restrained by its religious and governed ideals he would not have ‘deteriorated’ to such a state, whereas he leaves and almost becomes a figurehead of a religion in himself (represented in part by the worship of Ivory). Conrad himself uses Marlow and his character to utilize his own thoughts and perceptions of the people in the Congo. Marlow can be seen as the personification of a voice of reason whereas Kurtz is one of destruction and evil, only out to gain recognition for himself as he collects as much ivory as the other traders put together. It’s therefore ironic that the natives eventually worship Kurtz as a God, this therefore also presents the reader with a twisted view of realism in the novel; how can a character labelled as a sort of Devil be worshipped? I doubt too, that it is Conrad through Marlow mocking the ideals of the natives as he provides quotes to contradict this throughout the novel that show respect for what he calls the ‘cannibals’.
‘You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies – which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world – what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick like biting something rotten would do. Temperament, I suppose.’
Marlow says this in the novel itself, and thus to consider the issue of realism we must consider the story itself and how it is told. Marlow himself is not the primary narrator, he provides dialogue that is the makeup of most of the story but the narrator himself is never named and for that matter rarely tells the reader much. It is told as a recollection of his memories in the Congo but the actual presentation of Marlow as a story teller makes us question his reliability. He is almost presented as an ‘Eastern’ story teller of a very ‘Western’ story; framed around the ideals of Imperialism that draw him to the Congo in the first place. I say ‘Eastern’ because of how he is repeatedly described as a ‘Buddha’ at one point as one in ‘European clothes’ and another in a Buddha like stance with his palm facing outwards. This suggests a very different idea to the Imperialists around him; rather that Marlow is a peaceful figure. However, from a pro-colonialist perspective this makes his telling of the story untrustworthy. Marlow is presented as alien to the Eastern others he is thrown beside; it’s true to say that he appears to more enjoy the company of the ‘Cannibals’. This pro-colonialist attitude of the times that the characters should supposedly follow suggests and highlights a religious undertone of the whole novel further distorting the ‘realism’ presented in the novel. This issue of religion is something I shall return to later in the essay.
The issue of realism can also relate towards reality itself. In the novel one of the main themes is that of reality versus dark or rather the ‘Darkness’. This problematizes reality for the reader as the conflict existing throughout the novel distorts realism. This in turn leads to the idea of restraint, the Western morals of containing our inner desires provoking a subject of realism but also that of whether it is necessary as Marlow ponders whilst he encounters the native peoples. Reality itself in the novel is therefore defined as that which is civilised and therefore of the norm to the Colonialists, which in turn refers to the normality of their ‘civilised’ societies who exert restraint as a religious device in modernity. The citizens from more modern countries who employ governments are expected to practice religious restraint and this desire becomes a sin. The repeated uses of opposition in the novel show the conflicting ideas. The ideas of the modern world conflict with the ‘Cannibals’ with their imposture of clothing to cover sex organs, the restraint from gluttony and the major reliance on mechanical devices such as the clock. It’s ironic that the vessel that transports the story is a steam boat, an ultimately modern design thrust into a world of ‘Darkness’. Reality therefore for Marlow is progress and efficiency. He says:
‘You wonder I didn’t go ashore for a howl and a dance? Well, no- I didn’t… I had no time. I had to mess about with white-lead and strips of woollen blanket helping to put bandages on those leaky steam-pipes.’
Marlow elicits curiosity at these natives antics and this could possibly be a method by Conrad to suggest that far from being ‘hostiles’ the natives are just producing natural primitive human behaviour and even though it is frowned upon by the Western world it is present in every man, even Marlow. It differs however in the way that religion and modern technology and morals entrap Marlow to hide such primitive thoughts (something echoed in other novels such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula). It thus makes us question who really is the slave, is it the natives enslaved to live a jungle life supposedly ‘trapped’ in the jungle and ready to be ruled by the West or is it in fact the Colonists themselves, slaves to the Imperialist machine that traps their true tendencies? As Marlow states about the ‘Cannibals’: ‘Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear or some kind of primitive honor? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out.’ This view of the ‘Cannibals’ suggests a very Westernised one, it’s therefore interesting to see how his views change later on. Yet in either way this metaphorical use of slavery distorts the idea of realism in the novel further, we thus question what Marlow really thinks, whether he truly believes in the current European methods of slavery or is he just another tool in the drive to make profit?
Another contrast that problematizes realism in the novel is that between Marlow and Kurtz themselves. As I have already briefly touched upon, the two are posed as if to be on opposite sides of a far more meaningful battle than that which runs throughout the novel itself. It’s the restraint that Marlow shows that makes him appear so different to Kurtz who does not. Kurtz, possibly influenced by his time in the Congo has no actuality in his life at all. ‘But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.’ Marlow reflects upon Kurtz, the quote speaks volumes for Kurtz. He appears to do as he wants, even the trade companies do not control him, The Harlequin tells Marlow that you don’t talk to Kurtz you just ‘listen to him’. Marlow thus becomes a representative of the civilized world at its limit, coursing through the very ‘Heart of Darkness’ entrapped by the forest that surrounds him. It is him being away from civilization for so long that has apparently caused Kurtz to swap restraint for lust and his gratification of it. It is therefore ironic that the natives chose to worship this image of Kurtz as more of a savage than they themselves appear, in his report for the’ International Society for the Suppression of Savage customs’ he proposes that rather than instead of some sort of ‘civilized’ diplomacy existing between the Colonialists and the natives, to 'Exterminate all the brutes! '. This release of any primitive tendencies ironically makes Kurtz the savage himself. It is not the ‘Cannibals’ that cause any harm to the ship and yet he wishes to exterminate their kind after it is the Colonialists that have invaded their lands. ‘The flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly’ is what Marlow describes the Colonists as in the end, thus placing Kurtz at the top of this, as himself a corrupted, evil, devil-like figurehead of Colonialism.
This religious imagery leads me onto my next point. It is this ever present battle of religious metaphoric ideas throughout the novel that also makes the idea of realism seem harder to grasp for a reader. This places greater emphasis on the irony imposed by Conrad through Marlow’s opinions and views of what happens during his journey. Religion shrouds the realism in this novel. The repeated use of the devil and suggestions of evil suggests the hypocrisy of the West imposing Colonialism when they apparently bring ‘God’ with their deeply religious ideals of the time. The ‘Devil’ therefore is foolish in its destruction and unaware of what it is doing, or apparently so. Marlow being suggested as a ‘Buddha’ figure allows Conrad to distance him from the colonialist others he travels with. The peaceful nature of Buddha and Buddhism suggests what the West is trying to impose with its civilization and yet this religious figure is of Eastern origin. Thus contracting this, once again showing irony that Conrad clearly wishes to be noticed; making us pose the question is the West therefore as civilized as it claims to be? The Imperialism suggests it’s not, for example the instance where they blindly fire cannons into the forest. It’s also ironic that Marlow is described as an idol something contradictory to Christianity, the religion of the colonialists. Idols were seen as blasphemous such as in the story of when Moses travelled to get the Ten Commandments and the people created idols to worship whilst he was gone, throwing them into chaos. This could be a suggestion that Marlow is the chaos amongst the Colonialists as he seems to be the only one to question what is happening and doubt it allowing the reader to question further whether his supposed opposition of the Colonialists is actually negative.
Religion is drawn upon by Marlow too, ‘They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. The word “ivory” rang out in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it.’ Marlow mentions it twice in the passage about the pilgrims. ‘Faithless’ is what he describes them as and yet they also ‘pray to the ivory’. The contradiction of a religious nature creates a paradox in itself and causes the realism and reality to be questioned further; drawing further upon the idea of false idols as they worship the ivory itself. The use of religion here almost contradicts itself causing another paradox in the novel. Is religion of that much importance to Conrad for him to draw upon two contradictory statements about both Marlow and now the Pilgrims? Or could it simply reflect the confused and torn nature of Marlow’s thoughts at the time? It is true that in any case it distorts the idea of realism to the greatest effect; religion was supposedly a key factor of life in the time the novel was set in and questioning this, questions the very reality of the situation.
It is therefore the very irony running throughout the novel used by Conrad that makes realism problematized.
“It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend. And why not?”
It is the very contradictions that make realism so hard to grasp in the novel even in the above quote Marlow cannot seem to grasp a true idea about the natives. He has been taught otherwise to what he witnesses. It is the use of appearance, thus, that Conrad chooses to show that they can be deceptive throughout the novel. The white pilgrims are described as far worse than the black native ‘Cannibals’ as Marlow eventually says, ‘Fine fellows – cannibals – in their place. They were men one could work with and I am grateful to them.’ He offers not even close to such thanks towards any of the colonialists and appears to visit Kurtz’s mistress just out of respect and yet he lies to her. This in itself may show where his loyalties lie, he owes nothing to the Mistress and yet he chooses to make her hear what she wants to. The reflection of reality is that Marlow has found something that should not have been found, a supposed ‘kinship’ with these men that should have been ‘exterminated’ because they are savages and yet the only true savage actions come from the Colonialists, driven by greed and by what Conrad suggests is evil. It’s therefore ironic that Marlow tells of what is necessary for survival and yet he continues to wear clothes when he makes the accusation that the natives ‘petty rags’ would come off ‘at the first shake’. It is clear to see the restraint that Marlow has embedded into him by the nature of his morals and what his society has thrust upon him, of course he will continue to be Westernized when he leaves the Congo whether he doubts the colonists intentions or not. Yet it is the fact he doubts it that sets him apart rather than him indulging in ‘the Horror’.

Bibliography
Edward Garnett’s review from Academy and Literature (6th December 1902: 606-pp.307-8) Heart of Darkness (Norton Edition)

Bibliography: Edward Garnett’s review from Academy and Literature (6th December 1902: 606-pp.307-8) Heart of Darkness (Norton Edition)