An interospective English sailor, Marlow, Joseph Conrad's alter ego, sets a voyage up the river congo to meet Kurtz, a rouge ivory trader, a man whom he idealizes by his description from others before actually meeting him. Throughout his search Marlow encounters the brutality of the dark continent, the filth and evil it and its people are encompassed in and in the end an greatly ironical fact that makes us question the darkness that lies within ourselves.
Heart Of Darkness is yet another novella which keeps the imperial enterprise of Europe at the centre of the world and treats others as squalor devoid of any good, lost in inpenetrable darkness. Marlow quotes, “The biggest, the most blank, so to speak - that I had a hankering after.”
Conrad through Marlow's account completely dehumanizes native Africans and treats them as objects and treats them with bitter cruelty, which is justified as benevolent project of "civilization" though ironically heavily curtained in racism. This immorailty acts as a background for sympathy towards the white men for having to live in wilderness surrounded by unearthly devil and darkness.
As Marlow moves up the river, in search of Mr. Kurtz whose reputation precedes him, he comes across the savegery and corruption of his own IDEALISTIC men whom he represents and as he gets closer to Kurtz he starts sympathizing with him and blaming the company for his misfortune, while at the same time their is a growing suspicion that Kurtz himself has descended to savagery and corruption.
Finally when he meets Kurtz on his deathbed, not much left of a description he was vaguely projected to. A man so idealistic, strong, ambitious seemed to have been engulfed by the darkness and ends up being a bitter part of it and it was the case. The dying Kurtz finally gives up on his way back exclaiming "The Horror! The Horror!". The horror of having underwent a change so profound in those savage surroundings.
The novella interprets it self as a tale of human nature questioning its instability when subjected to the adverse conditions which might leave even the most inflentail and dynamic beings lost in the ever existing darkness. The theme of DRAKNESS simply disconnects each being and modifies them to what their dark insides demands of. This parable offers us a glimpse into the horrific human consequences and does ironiaclly question the Imperial Boundaries of Sanity.
This compelling work of Joseph Conrad is a poetically woven story which makes it more beautiful where we behold everything from the narraators perspective. This novella might not be a particularly "easy read" but once read leaves a deep impression and a question for the readers, Are we Stable Enough??
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