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.