"Heart of Darkness": A Novella of Obsession and Ivory Trading in Congo - Paper Example

Introduction

The “Heart of Darkness” is a short story published in 1889 by the Polish-English renown author, Joseph Conrad regarding a narrated journeying in Congo River into the Congo Country in Africa's heart. Marlow narrates his story to friends aboard the boat on anchor on the River Thames. This particular novella setting offers the framework for Marlow’s narrative of his obsession with the successful ivory trader Kurtz (Kimmel et al., pg.200). He provides the difference between London, the most significant town on earth, and Africa as darkness. Concerning this particular novella plot, Conrad strictly followed various steps of the story structure like exposition, rise in action, climax, fall in action, and resolution. This paper clearly illustrates how Conrad strictly followed various steps of the narrative structure.

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The Heart of Darkness structure shows Marlow's journey into the heart of Africa and the darkness of the human soul. At the start of the book, Marlow is on the Thames and retells his journey down to Congo. An unnamed listener narrates the rest of his story. He narrates various types of evils that he encounters on his journey in Congo, Africa, through several narrative plot structures.

Exposition

At the start of the novel, the book's setting occurred at sea in London, England. Conrad introduces Marlow, one of the main characters sitting peacefully on the boat. “Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast (Stone et al., pg. 221). "Between us, there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea."(Page 1 and 2). Marlow starts his narrative regarding his past adventures in a foreign country, Congo, in Africa's continent.

Further, on page 16, paragraph 27, "...furthermore, changes occur inside..." This aspect indicates that Marlow desires to delete all of Kurtz's letters (Achebe, pg. 16). Besides, he goes after Kurtz’s intentions and the Company to let them understand that he cannot provide them with anything.

Rise in Action

Whilst in the African Continent, Marlow overhears other individuals on boat rumors on how the Europeans are breaking down psychologically. In page 20, Marlow hears individuals conversing, as well as they, said complete savagery had closed round him-all that strange life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men," " Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this.” On page 55, Marlow also says that he does not like Kurtz as he said, "I had plenty of time for the medication, and now and then I would give some thought to Kurtz (Stone et al., pg. 222). I was not very interested in him.

Climax

Marlow's discovery, upon at the Inner Station, that Kurtz has completely abandoned European morals and norms of behavior (Achebe, pg. 25). Marlow is told from the start that he is mad. Nevertheless, as Marlow and the reader start to form a complete picture of Kurtz, it becomes apparent that his madness is only relative. In the context of the Company, insanity is challenging to define. Hence, both Marlow and the reader sympathize with Kurtz and view the Company with suspicion (Alaei et al., pg.205). Marlow, to the extent that for Kurtz or the Company, Africans in the book are mostly objects: Marlow refers to his helmsman as a piece of machinery. Kurtz's African mistress is, at best, a piece of statutory (Stone et al., pg. 226). On page 20, paragraph 41, it is climax as Marlow sees the cruelty to the natives, "They were dying slowly- it was obvious. They were not enemies, and they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now..."

Falling Action

On page 112 of the book, after Marlow bashing Kurtz in Congo and them witnessing everything together, Kurtz falls sick, and he became seriously sick, and finally, Kurtz dies, "he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath-"The horror! The horror! I blew the candle out and left the cabin." Generally, Marlow had a strong bond with Kurtz until he becomes obsessed with him and what he does (Kimmel et al., pg.210). He claims, “However, as you see, I did not go to join Kurtz there, and then, I did not. I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end and portray my loyalty to Kurtz once more."

Resolution/Denouement

Marlow narrates to Kurtz’s widow about Kurtz’s death, and the knowledge of evil and consuming insanity was left with Kurtz’s existence (Alaei et al., pg.212). The truth was mistakenly becoming a societal value that was not conquered towards gaining, not justified in imperialism's paradox account.

Conclusion

Typically, a narrative structure enables authors like Conrad to include their character's reflection and their own opinions into a given story. The short story Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad applied a frame structure to narrate Marlow's story, a European seaman, as he journeys into Congo, Africa, to trade Ivory. This novella is one of the best books narrated about nature and how inter-racial communities interacted with each other during the colonization period.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. "An image of Africa: racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." The Massachusetts Review 57.1 (2016): 14-27.

Alaei, Madhya, and Saeideh Ahangari. "A Study of Ideational Metafunction in Joseph Conrad's" Heart of Darkness": A Critical Discourse Analysis." English Language Teaching, 9.4 (2016): 203-213.

Kimmel, Michael. "From Metaphor to the" Mental Sketchpad": Literary Macrostructure and Compound Image Schemas in the Heart of Darkness." Metaphor and Symbol 20.3 (2005): 199-238.

Stone, Carole, and Fawzia Afzal-Khan. "GENDER, RACE AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: A REAPPRAISAL OF JOSEPH CONRAD'S" HEART OF DARKNESS." Conradian 29.3 (1997): 221-234.