Term Papers on Interpretations Of Heart Of Darkness

Term Paper Title	Interpretations Of Heart Of Darkness
# of Words	907
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.63

Interpretations Of Heart Of Darkness

     In Joseph Conrad's  Heart of Darkness, there is a great interpretation of
the feelings of the characters and uncertainties of the Congo.  Although Africa,
nor the Congo are ever really referred to, the Thames river is mentioned as
support.  This intricate story reveals much symbolism due to Conrad's theme
based on the lies and good and evil, which interact together in every man.
     Today, of course, the situation has changed.  Most literate people know
that by probing into the heart of the jungle Conrad was trying to convey an
impression about the heart of man, and his tale is universally read as one of the
first symbolic  masterpieces of English prose (Graver,28).  In any event, this
story recognizes primarily on Marlow, its narrator, not about Kurtz or the
brutality of  Belgian officials.  Conrad wrote a brief statement of how he felt the
reader should interpret this work:
     "My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written
word, to make you hear, to
     make you feel-it is above all, to make you see.(Conrad 1897)
Knowing that Conrad was a novelist who lived in his work, writing about the
experiences were as if he were  writing about himself.  "Every novel contains an
element of autobiography-and this can hardly be denied, since the creator can
only explain himself in his creations."(Kimbrough,158)  The story is written as
seen through Marlow's eyes.  Marlow is a follower of the sea.  His voyage up
the Congo is his first experience in  freshwater navigation.  He is used as a tool,
so to speak, in order for Conrad to enter the story and tell it out of his own
philosophical mind.  He longs to see Kurtz, in the hope's of appreciating all that
Kurtz finds endearing  in the African jungle.  Marlow does not get the
opportunity to see Kurtz until he is so disease-stricken he looks more like death
than a person.  There are no good looks or health.  In the story Marlow remarks
that Kurtz resembles "an animated image of death carved out of old ivory."
Like Marlow,  Kurtz is seen as an honorable man to many admirers; but he is
also a thief, murderer, raider, persecutor, and above all he allows himself to be
worshipped as a god.  Both men had good intentions to seek, yet Kurtz seemed
a "universally genius" lacking basic integrity or a sense of responsibility
(Roberts,43).  In the end they form one symbolic unity.  Marlow and Kurtz are
the light and dark selves of a single person.  Meaning each one is what the other
might have been.
     Every person Marlow meets on his venture contributes something to the
plot as ...

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