The Heart of Darkness
(Joseph Conrad)

Women

Women in the Heart of Darkness can best be described as ‘otherworldly.’ The two most prominent portrayals of this are Marlow’s aunt and Kurtz’s fiancee. When saying farewell to his aunt after having her get him the skipper job, Marlow notes that they are out of touch with truth and that if they were allowed to build society, men would knock it down due to their particular access to truth.

The women in the company’s waiting room who are knitting appear to Marlow as omniscient ushers, leading new employees onto a path that leads to inevitable death.

When meeting Kurtz’s fiancée, Marlow is angered- then pitiful- by how willing she is to believe that Kurtz was infallible and perfect. He perceives that the longer they talk, the more the darkness surrounds them and that the only illumination comes from the reflection of love and belief off of her.

But as one of the themes of the entire book is that of facades and the failing of assumed truths, Kurtz’s native lover from the jungle represents both the opposite of his fiancée and the possibility that women can be just as intimidating and authoritative as men.

Darkness

Darkness is the abstract idea that Marlow constantly harkens back to. Two of the key descriptors of the concept is how impenetrable and unknowable it is. The manager gives a glimpse of darkness but provides no knowledge. The darkness lurks in the jungle but remains a mystery despite its proximity. The darkness claims victory over Kurtz possessing him despite the fact that he believes himself possessor of many things. The symptoms of his possession result in his madness and delirium.

What the darkness is exactly is hard to describe, as the word is thrown around often- and intentionally- by Conrad to describe, not only the abstraction, but also the many environments the book visits.

Facades

Facades that are both convenient and necessary are constantly referred to throughout the book as concepts that are required to keep society going- keeping everybody from descending into the barbarism that Marlow perceives in the African natives. During the opening boat scene, Marlow says that it’s the European’s “devotion to efficiency” that keeps them going through the darkness. This is validated when the music is playing from the coast, Marlow notes that it was their attention to all the small workings of the ship that provided a superficial distraction that kept the crew from jumping off and joining the rituals.

Marlow describes how the newspapers in Europe propagate the idea that colonialism is completing charitable work in Africa though he doubts it from the precise beginning and knows it patently false when he finally gets down there. The pretense of charity gives just the right amount of moral justification for Europeans to continue to let companies exploit the territories.

Due to his interaction with many of Kurtz’s acquaintances, he realizes that the latter was himself composed of a series of facades. To the company, he was an ivory collector. To his cousin, he was a budding artist. To his journalistic colleague, an eloquent speaker. To his fiancée, the epitome of goodness.