When Silence Screams

When I saw this 1994 film of Heart of Darkness, I was surprised by the scene of Mr Kurtz's death. I pictured it swifter and louder. Also, I was somewhat disappointed by Mr Kurtz's renowned voice. Maybe I imagined an impossible scene of a dying mortal.

I believe modern references to the scene transfigured my perception. Conrad does describe Mr Kurtz's final statement as "a cry that was no more than a breath" (130), which is exactly what we see in the film. I imagined a scene with a volume closer to that used in this video. Maybe this is the type of influences I should flee. This made me question myself: What other faulty influences have I allowed to corrupt my perception of literature's scenes?

Unnecessary Cravings, Satiated Forever

Buddhism preaches many ideals. It claims that cravings beget suffering. Since Marlow ends his speech "indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha" (146), we must not overlook the theme. In his journey of illumination, Marlow transforms himself. At first, he personifies the western thought pattern of expectation-disappointment-depression-repeat, as we see when he considers never meeting Mr Kurtz alive. "For the moment that was the dominant thought. There was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving after something altogether without a substance. I couldn't have been more disgusted if I had travelled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with Mr Kurtz [. . .] We are too late; he has vanished—the gift has vanished, by means of some spear, arrow, or club. I will never hear that chap speak after all,—and my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such as I had noticed in the howling sorrow of these savages in the bush. I couldn't have felt more lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life. . . ." (86-87).

Here we see a man wounded by the possibility of dissapointment. He has not yet experienced it, and feels grief already. The man who lies to Mr Kurtz's woman after his journey is not this same man. By telling her that "the last word he pronounced was—your name" (145), he embraces Buddhism and regrets its absence. She was not ready to hear the truth. Apparently, Marlow depicts an illuminated man who overcomes the tempting fruits of action.

Light-Dark-Light-Dark. Oh! The Horror! The Strobe-Induced Seizure!

One dichotomy Conrad depicts throughout his novel, is that of darkness and light. By the end, he convinced me of the death of all primary colors, and nearly managed to induce an imaginary seizure in my imaginary blackboard of imagination.

Typically, darkness represents bad, and light represents good. Conrad would never attempt to convey such a bland message,

especially when depicting a predominant theme in his work. Thus, he applies it with flexibility.

When Marlow describes Mr Kutz's darkness as "an impenetrable darkness" (129), we relate it to Mr Kurt'z hopelessness as he dies. At the moment of his passing, when Marlow "was considered brutally callous" (131) for proceeding with his meal, "there was a lamp in there—light, don't you know—and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark" (131). Here, Conrad depicts light as a symbol of progress, of intellect, and lack of secrecy the beastly darkness conveys. If he were to remain in Africa, he would meet nothing but an uninviting environment. His path is clear.

When Marlow "blew the candle out and left the room" (130) after hearing Mr Kurtz's final words, he marks the silence of an illuminated mind as nature extinguishes its fragile vessel. Conrad illustrates life and death, further employing the dichotomy, when he describes death as an "unexciting contest" that "takes place in an impalpable grayness" (131). Death always triumphs against a struggling opponent. The grayness represents a state of vagueness where the person is neither illuminated by life, nor overshadowed by death.

The lighted home of Mr Kurtz's grieving woman contrasts with her darkened appearance, and, by extension, soul. Marlow "had to wait in a lofty drawing-room with three long windows from floor to ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns. The bent gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in indistinct curves. The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness. A grand piano stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus" (139). "She came forward, all in black" (139). Here, we see happiness and unhappiness contrasted. A simple joyous surrounding is not enough to enlighten a dark heart. "But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love" (141). Belief and love kindle the remnants of light within her. Why does Conrad place this illumination on her forehead? Why not her eyes? Why not her mouth? Why not her hands?

Conrad mentions light and darkness each time with a different connotation. With each description, the dichotomy represents something new. We must also note that in each page where the word 'darkness' is written, so is the word 'light', and vice versa. They go hand in hand in the illustration of some of Conrad's contrasting themes such as hope and hopelessness, knowledge and secrecy, nature and its destruction, construction and destruction, life and death.

Nature, The Sensuous Theme

One predominant theme of Conrad's Heart of Darkness is nature. More specifically, Conrad personifies nature with an ominous, and sombre depiction. One woman, who I believe symbolizes mother nature, earns an emphasized illustration. "She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul" (113). She represents a powerful, wise, and sorrowful nature in a state of pain and grieving acknowledgement. Conrad further personifies nature when he writes how "the wilderness had found him [, Mr Kurtz,] out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating" (108).

So we have a wilderness that whispers, and a powerful woman to represent nature. With a life of its own, the setting contains movement, and responds to the intrusion of ivory merchants. Even though the woman never speaks, she commands a certain sageness that pities its enemies.

I write in a more rural location than the "sepulchral city" that is Bogota, and cannot help but realize the sad perception of nature I willingly falsify. Conrad's setting, a savage and unlatered Africa, represents an environment I do not perceive in La Pradera, and one that I hope to find in my upcoming trip to Africa. I wish to acquaint myself with the remains of a crude land.

The Unbearable Humour

Firstly, I would like to say that the book's title, Heart of Darkness, presents a variety of interpretations. Either the author wishes to depict a heart, filled with darkness, or the core of darkness itself. One way or another, the vague meaning gives it an eerie mysteriousness I find appealing. This title's duality compares to a simple test designed to identify one's dominant brain hemisphere. Click Here. Whichever interpretation of the title the reader's subconscious chooses defines a part of that person I have yet to uncover. I take pride in defying both tests. I can both control the direction of the dancer's motion, as well as which of two messages I select within one clever title.

We see some humor in the apparently depressing narrative as well. Saved from the bitterness of texts like that of The Road, Conrad unleashes precious trickles of bitter humor to entertain the reader, and give him some darkness to laugh at. We see some satire with the display of irony at the end of chapter 1, when Marlow describes the attitude of the "sordid buccaneers" (54) who "...tear treasure out of the bowels of the land [...] with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe" (54). Marlow's job to help the company pump ivory from the veins of the land, using the native population as fuel, establishes the irony in Marlow's shocked reaction to the buccaneers.

Another instance where humor arrives as an old friend, instantly cherished, and surprisingly missed, arrives when Marlow depicts his cannibalistic crewmen. He notes the "fine fellows—cannibals—in their place" (62). Here, we can choose our own interpretation as we did with the title. This time, the fun lies in deciding whether this exemplifies blunt sarcasm or implied irony. Either Marlow does not believe the cannibals to be "fine fellows ... in their place" (62), but rather the exact opposite, or he trusts the reader to take his comment sincerely, and laugh at the inconcievable concept of a cannibalistic friendship/harmless and positive relationship.

This type of apparent contradiction repeats itself with Marlow's absurd comment regarding how he "perceived—in a new light, as it were—how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and I hoped, yes, I positively hoped, that my aspect was not so—what shall I say?—so—unappetising..." (75). This dark humor takes advantage of a bleak topic to entertain the reader's morbosity at its weakest. Such innovative cases of self-perception interest the reader. The psychology involved in leading someone to calculate how appetizing they are fascinates me.

One more instance of Conrad's humor lies when he depicts one of Marlow's vessels as a "cripple of a steamboat" (81). This personification exemplifies a type of sadly humorous, and extremely vivid description. Why I find it comical, I will probably never know, but this is exactly the type of slightly uncensored humor encrusted in Conrad's novel that is proving so indispensable in the survival of such grim scenes.