FREE ESSAY ON CONRAD'S NOVELLA THE HEART OF DARKNESS

CONRAD'S NOVELLA THE HEART OF DARKNESS

The Swimming Pool of Darkness
The three stations in Conrad's novella, The Heart of Darkness, serve as steps in a
descent. When Marlow's journey down the Congo is examined, it can be viewed as if it were
a descent into the pool that is Africa. The stations themselves are attempts at oases
within the harsh jungle, but, through exposure, have become corrupted by the darkness of
the land. With each station, Marlow comes closer and closer to his final goal, the inner
station where Kurtz waits for him. This final station represents a total and complete
immersion into the "darkness," and could thus be thought of as "the heart." At each
station Marlow is exposed to more and more of the savagery and chaos that is the essence
of the darkness. The steps, or evolution, to this darkness can be seen through the
characters and experiences that Marlow encounters at the stations.
At the Outer Station, the first stepping-stone into the pool, Marlow encounters the Chief
Accountant. The duality of this character becomes apparent to Marlow after he meets the
Accountant's assistant. The Accountant's personal dress is what one would expect from a
person in England, "I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in
the first moment I took him for a sort of vision," and, "He was amazing, and had a
penholder behind his ear" (20). All the bookkeeping is done at the Outer Station, and the
station itself is kept in such civil order that Marlow is amazed. But through the
character of the attendant, it can be construed that the Accountant is not nearly as
"elegant" as Marlow believes him to be. When Marlow asks the Accountant how he keeps his
clothes so nice in the jungle, the novel states, "[The Accountant] had just the faintest
blush, and said modestly, 'I've been teaching one of the native women about the station.
It was difficult. She had a distaste for the work'" (21). Here, with the character of the
Accountant, is a man who embodies what is important in Europe, the appearance of
civility, while he, in truth, is as much a savage, in the fact that he has forced a woman
to become his slave, as any African brute.
At the second stepping-stone, the Central station, Marlow meets the General Manager. This
encounter takes place following Marlow's discovery of the that the boat that he had
planned to continue on down the Congo in had been unaccountably sunk, lending further to
the sense of chaos and savagery that is intensifying during the trip down the river. The
General Manager is a perfect representative for the Central Station. He appears to be an
average, normal man, but upon closer examination, Marlow finds that there is something
wrong with him, something inside. Though Marlow hasn't come to understand it yet, what is
wrong with the Manager is that he is infected by the darkness. "He was a common trader,
from his youth up, employed in these parts-nothing more. He was obeyed, yet he inspired
neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. Not a definite
mistrust-just uneasiness-nothing more" (25). Everyone who goes to Africa eventually is
infected by the darkness. 
Kurtz is the exceptional chief of the Inner Station, the final and complete immersion
into the darkness of the story. Kurtz seems to be a man of great eloquence, but he lacks
a certain restraint, however, and in the wilderness he succumbs to the temptations of a
barbarous lifestyle. He has become, in some sense, a god to the natives. On approaching
Kurtz hut, Marlow gets his first idea of how far down the path of darkness Kurtz has
gone, "They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their
faces had not been turned to the house. Only one, the first I had made out, was facing my
way"(70). This is one of the ways in which Kurtz has come to embrace the "horror" or the
darkness, as truth. The heads face in towards Kurtz's hut as a reminder of that truth. It
is also important to note here how far along Marlow himself has come along the same path,
when he says in response to finding the heads on the poles, "I was not so shocked as you
may think" (70). The idea of the infectious nature of the darkness is exemplified best
with Kurtz, who the General Manager claims is the way he is due to having gotten sick
while in the jungle and not recovering well from the illness, as if it were the darkness
itself that made him sick. This idea of the corruptive and infectious nature of the
darkness is continued to the point of Kurtz death and to Marlow's own sickness, which
leads to his premature return home.
The three stations along the trip down the Congo, the three steps down to the pool, are
all represented by the managers of the stations. The Accountant seams to be a civilized
man by nature, but has begun to become corrupted by the darkness in that he has taken on
one of the native women as his slave and prostitute. The General Manager appears to be an
average fellow, but upon inspection, has an obvious darker side to him. Kurtz, managing
the Inner Station, in the center of the jungle, the heart of the darkness, has become
part of that darkness. He allowed himself to become completely enveloped by the waters of
that pool. And Marlow, even after returning home to Europe, will never completely recover
from his swim.