Nature Has No Boundaries
In ‘Heart of Darkness’, by
Joseph Conrad, we see the mysterious and mighty Kurtz pass away in a boat
running away from the Congo natives. His career there comes to an end with a
cryptic whisper: “The horror, the horror”
(Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, pg. 154). Marlow listens to these words, but
decides not to tell Kurtz’s intended the truth about them despite stating
several times throughout the book that he hated lying. Marlow’s lying to Kurtz’s
intended proves that the Congo, a symbol for European Colonialism, corrupted
every bit of a man’s integrity, to the point in which he renounces to his principles.
The common interpretation
of Marlow’s lying to Kurtz’s intended is the one that the book itself proposes.
When deliberating whether or not to tell the intended the truth about Kurtz’s
last words, he reflects upon the young lady to whom he is talking. Marlow
observes the desperation of this woman caused by the death of Kurtz, who she
hadn’t met in person, and decides not to tell her what Kurtz’s last words
really were. Instead he tells her that the last words he pronounced were her
name. Throughout this conversation we are aware of Marlow’s inner conflict, and
can infer the reason for his lying, convenience and pity, as shown by Marlow’s
final reflection: “But I couldn’t. I
could not tell her. It would have been too dark—too dark altogether…”
(Conrad, 164).
Throughout the whole novel
we observe numerous different characters arrive and go to the Congo, most of
them just there for a short period of time. But independently of the length of
the stay, it changed them. Through Conrad’s writing we can see how the Congo’s
dark nature and vast savagery altered Europeans’ personality and beliefs.
Marlow is no exception. We see him change through the novel and ultimately
abandon the Congo in order to not become ‘one of them’, deeply concerned about
his own change of personality. Marlow’s experiences in the Congo affect his
values and morals, and ultimately lead up to his lying to Kurtz’s intended,
something he would have never done before going to the Congo.
All through the novel
Marlow repeats that he deeply hates lying, but he was calm after lying to Kurtz’s
intended. The Congo’s darkness and nature affected Marlow’s morals, which was
ultimately challenged by the intended begging him to tell her the truth about
Kurtz’s last words. In his article “Lying as Dying in Heart of Darkness”,
Garrett Stewart develops the point that a lie, that of Marlow to the intended,
doesn’t respect anything or anyone, not even the integrity of “a man’s deathbed integrity.” He proposes
that Marlow’s trip up the river and through the jungle to meet Kurtz symbolizes
the process of moral corruption, which culminates in the meeting of perhaps,
the men that was most changed by the Congo. Furthermore, he suggests that the
Congo is a place unknown to those European colonizers who arrive for there for
the first time, and are then exposed to the nature of humanity without the
protection from civilization, as Stewart explains: “a naked exposure (for the European colonizer) of the human ego, unshielded by civilization and its self-contents, to a
world of savagery presumed to be far beneath it is, in the long evolutionary
run, only a baring of the soul to the most primally rooted human impulses.” (Stewart,
319). This free-of-intermediaries, unprotected exposure is what Stewart argues
changes men’s moralities, and he makes and emphasis on their integrities, which
are challenged by the different values they are unprecedentedly forced to
confront.
Another similar, yet
different, view on the issue of how the Congo changed Marlow is offered by
Richard J. Arneson in his article “Marlow’s Skepticism in Heart of Darkness”.
Arneson argues that Marlow’s principles and ideas were of no use and didn’t fit
in whatsoever in the Congo once he arrived “piloting
a steamboat up the Congo”. He offers and interesting perspective by which he
argues Marlow felt some kind of attraction by the savagery and “fascination of the abomination”, which shows
how the Congo first trapped the European colonizers in its vast nature and
savagery, and then proceeded to let this nature change them, their values,
their morals, and their personality. Arneson arrives at the conclusion that,
though Marlow did change during his stay in the Congo, he was the most reasonable,
logical, and skeptical mind in the novel. He observed others in more of a
critical view, and through his skepticism and conservation of reason, we are
able to observe the true essence of the Congo and the people there. This
article contributes to the analysis of Marlow’s lying to the intended because,
though Marlow did treason his values, he did it from a deliberate point of
view. He was able to make the conscious choice to lie to the intended, knowing
that she wouldn’t comprehend Marlow’s true final words since she was
innocent-minded and hadn’t been to the Congo. This deliberate choice shows how
Marlow was able to maintain his reason by leaving the Congo before changing completely
and losing the totality of his moral integrity.
Throughout Joseph Conrad’s “Heart
of Darkness” we observe a variety of European characters arrive at the Congo
and be changed by the abominable darkness there. Marlow, our protagonist, is
the only character able to keep a logical, reasonable, and critical mind all through
the novel, and through his story we are able to observe the true nature of the
Congo and its people. Even though Marlow kept his reason and remained skeptical
of the Congo, he was able to understand it, and make the conscious decision to
abandon it before it was too late. We see this understanding not only in his
leaving of the Congo, but also when he lies to Kurtz’s intended about his last
words. Instead of telling her the truth, he lets her think that Kurtz died
saying her name, which calms her desperation. Marlow here shows his
comprehension of the situation by discerning how the intended wouldn’t
understand the meaning of Marlow’s last words because she was too innocent and
had never learnt the barbarities that happened in the Congo.
Works Cited
-
Stewart, Garrett. “Lying as Dying in Heart of Darkness.” PMLA,
vol. 95, no. 3, 1980, pp. 319–331., www.jstor.org/stable/461876.
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Arneson, Richard J. “Marlow's Skepticism in Heart of Darkness.” Ethics,
vol. 94, no. 3, 1984, pp. 420–440., www.jstor.org/stable/2380816.
