Civilizing Europe: Joseph Conrad’s Exposure of Imperialism Through Criticism and Education
An essay arguing that Joseph Conrad is more critical of Whites than Blacks in Heart of Darkness
To the vast majority of Europeans of the 19th century, colonization was a noble cause that brought civilization, Christianity and culture to underdeveloped civilizations. Many Europeans believed that they were welcomed abroad and were improving societies in the name of God. Far ahead of his time, Joseph Conrad saw the hypocrisy with this thinking. In his novella Heart of Darkness Conrad is much more critical of the European characters than the native African characters. Conrad shows this in four different ways. First, he shows he is more critical of the Europeans than the Africans by negatively portraying the European Pilgrims and praising the African Cannibals. Secondly, Conrad attaches many negative traits to the European women of the novel while glorifying the African woman he portrays in the novel. Thirdly, the relationship between Africans and Europeans shows Conrad is more critical of Europeans than Africans. Finally, by portraying the Europeans as aggressors and the Africans as victims, Conrad shows he is more critical of Europeans than Africans.
The first reason why Conrad is more critical of Europeans than Africans in his novella is because of how Conrad negatively portrays the European Pilgrims and praises the African Cannibals by depicting the Pilgrims as evil, ruthless and cruel aggressors who terrorize the Cannibals and Africans. An example of this is when Marlow, the Pilgrims and the Cannibals are ambushed by a group of Africans who attack them possibly on Kurtz’s behalf or because they want to protect Kurtz. Using their superior weaponry, the Pilgrims inflict great casualties on the Africans, which lead one Pilgrim to say “ Say! We must have made a glorious slaughter of them in the bush. Eh?” (87).
The Essay on Europeans and Africans
The two stages of contact between Europeans and Africans in the modern era, according to Morel, were the slave trade and the “power of modern capitalistic exploitation”. In the first he describes the horrors of the African slave trade that had occurred in the 1700-1800’s, the way the slaves were captured from their homes and transported in terrible, torturous conditions to their ...
This is ironic because the Europeans of Marlow’s time most likely saw Africans are a warlike, savage people. However, Conrad shows that it is the European pilgrims carrying out and celebrating a massacre, which proves they are acting more warlike and more like barbarians than the Africans. The Pilgrims also show their cruelty when they make sure the Africans starve by throwing the Africans’ hippo meat off Marlow’s ship. Already starving and suffering due to their lack of food, the Cannibals could have eaten the five white men onboard because according to Marlow they outnumbered the Europeans thirty to five and were described as large, powerful men. However, Marlow is surprised by the Cannibals ability to deal with their extreme hunger and claims they show great restraint by not eating the Europeans. Marlow compliments the Cannibals when he says that the Cannibals were “Fine fellows…They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them.” (57).
It is clear that Conrad is more critical of the European Pilgrims than the African Cannibals during the ambush. It is logical that the average European during Conrad’s time, who would like most Europeans see Africans as a barbaric, cruel and undeveloped people, would have to reconsider his or her prejudice towards Africans after examining Conrad’s criticism of Europeans and praise of the Cannibals.
A second demonstration why Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is more critical of Europeans than Africans is shown when Conrad glorifies the African woman in the novella while attaching many negative traits to the European women. Conrad praises the only African woman of the novella, Kurtz’s apparent mistress, and uses the following paragraph to describe her:
“She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress.” (102-103)
The Essay on Kurtz Marlow Station River
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is based on Conrad's firsthand experience of the Congo region of West Africa. Conrad was actually sent up the Congo River to an inner station to rescue a company agent who died a few days later aboard ship. The story is told by a seaman named Charlie Marlow and is rearranged through the thoughts of an unidentified listening narrator. This story, on level, is ...
With that description, the reader is left with an image of an elegant, confident, strong and important African woman. Conrad creates a woman who solely possesses positive attributes, and it would be illogical for somebody to claim that Conrad attaches any negative qualities to this woman. However, the positive description of the African woman contrasts with the negative qualities Conrad gives to each of the European women in the novel. Concerning Marlow’s aunt, Conrad portrays her as judgmental, arrogant and naïve. This is shown when she is happy to hear that Marlow, in her opinion, will be “weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways” (18).
By admitting this, she shows her lack of intelligence and lack of ability to think for herself because she makes it clear that she foolishly accepts the claims used by most European governments at the time to justify imperialism in Africa; that is to “civilize” the native Africans and replace their culture with European culture. She also shows that she is extremely judgmental by calling millions of Africans ignorant and by calling their culture horrid, and by assuming that European culture is superior to the culture of the Africans. Conrad also portrays the Intended as naïve and attaches negative qualities to her. Her naïveté shows when she claims to have known Kurtz better than anyone else, yet she is completely unaware of the life that Kurtz lived when he worked in Africa. She was unaware of the relationship that Kurtz had with his African mistress and claims that Kurtz was liked by his coworkers in Africa, even though in reality he had many enemies such as the General manager. She claims his “goodness shone in every act” (129), which hardly can be said about Kurtz, a man whose cruelty and greed caused terrible suffering to the Africans. It is therefore ironic that the Intended has been in mourning for over a year, since she would most likely disapprove of Kurtz if she knew what he had been doing in Africa, and as such Conrad portrays her as a naïve woman who is out of touch with reality. With his positive portrayal of Kurtz’s mistress and his negative illustrations of the European women, Conrad is clearly more critical of Europeans than Africans.
The Essay on Heart Of Darkness Kurtz Marlow Remarkable
Each person has a different definition of what the term 'remarkable' means; each unique definition, holds a significant link to the other. This link is that the term is always given to a person that holds certain characteristics that are superior to the average individual. The set of characteristics that are observed tend to subscribe to the specific set of values of the person issuing the remark. ...
A third illustration of how Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is more critical of Europeans than Africans is because of how Conrad presents the relationship between Africans and Europeans. Conrad presents the Africans as loyal, courageous and caring towards the Europeans, qualities that are highly valued by every civilization and in this way he clearly empathizes with the Africans. On the contrary, Conrad shows he is critical of the Europeans by portraying them as selfish, deceitful supremacists. An example of Africans acting loyal, courageous and caring towards Europeans is how the Africans treat Kurtz. To the Africans, Kurtz is a god-like figure, and the Africans care more for Kurtz’s wellbeing than do his European comrades. This is shown when the Africans carry the seriously ill Kurtz around on a stretcher. The Africans attack Marlow’s boat either on Kurtz’s orders or they might have attacked Marlow’s boat fearing that Marlow and his crew might take Kurtz away from them. Both scenarios show that the Africans are incredibly loyal to Kurtz and want Kurtz to remain with them. The Africans on Marlow’s boat also show their good nature towards Europeans when they courageously fight their fellow brethren aboard Marlow’s ship.
This shows their extreme loyalty towards the Europeans because rather than side with fellow Africans and attack Marlow and the Pilgrims, they side with the Europeans aboard the ship during the ambush. On the other hand, Europeans do not show any kindness or goodwill towards the Africans. In fact, most Europeans in the novella saw the Africans as animals and inhuman, or at least less human that Europeans. Even Marlow, a man who unlike his comrades does sometimes sympathize with the Africans, has trouble seeing the Africans as equals to Europeans and sees them as primitive humans. He is judgmental of African physical features, claiming that a group of Africans “had faces like grotesque masks” (21).
The Essay on Heart Of Darkness Conrad People Marlow
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Polish-born author who wrote in English. He became famous for the novels and short stories that he wrote about the sea. Conrad left Poland at the age of 16 and arrived in England at the age of 20, unable to speak English. During the next 16 years he worked his way up from deckhand to captain in the British Merchant Navy and so mastered his adopted ...
Marlow’s inability to see Africans as equals with Europeans is shown when Marlow states:
“It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend. And why not?” (59-60)
Kurtz’s relationship towards Africans is extremely ironic and he is the prime example of a deceitful, selfish European supremacist. Although the Africans see him as a god, Kurtz sees Africans as subhuman animals, and uses them as tools to collect more ivory. Conrad’s depiction of the relationship between Africans and Europeans clearly shows that he is more critical of Europeans than Africans.
The last way Conrad shows he is more critical of Europeans than Africans is because a recurring theme of the novella is how Europeans are the cause of suffering and how Africans are those who suffer. The popular European ideology of the time stated that Europe’s adventures in Africa were justified because they were doing the Africans a favour by replacing their traditional beliefs, culture and societies with modern European based ones. However, Conrad shows that he is clearly critical of this idea by exposing the immense suffering that this imperialism caused Africans. An example of suffering caused by the Europeans towards the Africans is how Europeans force Africans into slavery and provide inadequate living conditions for them. Early on in the novella, Marlow sees six Africans with iron collars around their necks, bony with every rib showing. He also comments that, concerning some African labourers, “They were dying slowly-it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now-nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. (26).
The Essay on Human Nature Kurtz Marlow Evil
The Horror! The Horror! In the classic novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad takes us on a journey into the soul of man. When the character of Marlow travels into the jungle of Africa to find Kurtz, he realizes that he is in a place where the rules of society no longer constrain human nature, and the frightening truths about human beings can be observed first hand. Marlow finds that human nature ...
This is in contrast with the Africans whom Marlow saw paddling a boat during the beginning of the novella, whom Marlow described as “…they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast.” (21).
Clearly there is a difference between the strong, healthy, independent Africans Marlow sees paddling a boat and the suffering, sick Africans who are slaves to the Europeans. Another example of how Europeans are the cause of suffering in the novella can be seen when Marlow’s boat is ambushed by natives. It is likely that Kurtz, a European, selfishly ordered Marlow and the crew aboard Marlow’s ship to be attacked by an African tribe because Kurtz did not want to leave where he was stationed. By ordering this, Kurtz brings great suffering upon the Africans because in the ensuing battle, many Africans are slaughtered, including the African helmsman who died a painful death after he was pierced by a spear. This leads Marlow to say that he does not believe arriving at Kurtz’s place was worth the death of the helmsman. Lastly, Conrad portrays European characters as the cause of suffering towards Africans through Kurtz’s report published for the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs. Although Conrad does not use Marlow to criticize the text directly, it is obvious that Conrad disapproves of the European supremacist and anti-African content in the letter, which says that Europeans should rule over Africans and appear to Africans as gods.
This is because Kurtz is seen as a cruel man throughout the entire novella, and the reader is turned away from the imperialist ideology Kurtz and many other Europeans believed in because of all the violence and evil Kurtz commits in the name of imperialism. Conrad then makes it very clear that he is critical of European imperialism when Kurtz finishes the letter by writing “Exterminate all the brutes!”. By having Kurtz write this, Conrad hints at one of the main causes of European imperialism in Africa : racism. By having Kurtz call for the extermination of Africans, Conrad exposes and criticizes the racist, selfish and European supremacist thinking prevalent in the minds of many Europeans of the time, and many of the Europeans in the novella. By categorizing the Europeans as the aggressors, and the Africans as the oppressed, Conrad is clearly more critical of the Europeans than the Africans in his novella.
The Essay on Kurtz Marlow Tells Manager
Marlow stands on the Thames River and remarks that the land he and his comrades is standing on was once a place of darkness and an uncivilized wilderness. Through nostalgia he remembers an incident from his past when he commanded a steamboat on the Congo River... He talks about the Company's chief accountant who first mentions Kurtz to him... The accountant tells him that Kurtz supplies more ivory ...
In conclusion, in his work Heart of Darkness, Conrad is clearly more critical of the Europeans than the Africans. Conrad shows this in four different ways. By applauding the African Cannibals and negatively characterizing the European Pilgrims, Conrad shows that he is more critical of the Europeans than the Africans. Secondly, Conrad praises the African woman of the novella while attributing negative qualities to the European women. Thirdly, the relationship between Africans and Europeans in Heart of Darkness demonstrates that Conrad is more critical of Europeans than Africans. Lastly, Conrad presents the Europeans as the oppressors and Africans as the oppressed, which makes it clear that Conrad is more critical of the Europeans than Africans. Throughout history there have been many men and women who have voiced their opposition to popular injustice. Conrad proves to be one of these people. Thanks to him many Europeans of his day realized the atrocities that their governments were committing through colonization, and even today his message remains a powerful reminder of the insanity and hypocrisy of imperialism.