Theme and Setting in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness essays

Theme and Setting in Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is a novella that is one story being told by Marlow within the actual story by Joseph Conrad. The novella is set on a boat, the Nellie, on the Thames river in England, but the story that Marlow tells is set in the Belgian Congo. When relating the theme of this novella to the setting it has to be looked at from both the Thames and Congo rivers. Heart of Darkness shows the superiority of whites over blacks in a context where the blacks are considered to be savages and whites are supposed to be civilized. Marlow is telling the story to his friends in the dark of night on the Thames river. As he begins the day is just ending "in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance." It is a very sombre and dull atmosphere and as the calmness begins to fade it becomes more profound. At one point Marlow stops and is interrupted by the unknown narrator who describes the setting on the Nellie. "It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hardly see one another. For a long time already he, sitting apart, had been no more to us than a voice....I listened, I listened on the watch for the sentence, for the word, that would give me the clew to the faint uneasiness inspired by this narrative that seemed to shape itself without human lips in the heavy nightair of the river." As the story ends the setting on the Thames river is once again described by the unseen narrator. "The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky-seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." The superiority of whites over blacks in the novella faces the harsh reality that the whites are there not to colonize the Congo but to conquer it. As Marlow puts it "They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. Theme and Setting in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness essays Theme and Setting in Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is a novella that is one story being told by Marlow within the actual story by Joseph Conrad. The novella is set on a boat, the Nellie, on the Thames river in England, but the story that Marlow tells is set in the Belgian Congo. When relating the theme of this novella to the setting it has to be looked at from both the Thames and Congo rivers. Heart of Darkness shows the superiority of whites over blacks in a context where the blacks are considered to be savages and whites are supposed to be civilized. Marlow is telling the story to his friends in the dark of night on the Thames river. As he begins the day is just ending "in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance." It is a very sombre and dull atmosphere and as the calmness begins to fade it becomes more profound. At one point Marlow stops and is interrupted by the unknown narrator who describes the setting on the Nellie. "It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hardly see one another. For a long time already he, sitting apart, had been no more to us than a voice....I listened, I listened on the watch for the sentence, for the word, that would give me the clew to the faint uneasiness inspired by this narrative that seemed to shape itself without human lips in the heavy nightair of the river." As the story ends the setting on the Thames river is once again described by the unseen narrator. "The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky-seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." The superiority of whites over blacks in the novella faces the harsh reality that the whites are there not to colonize the Congo but to conquer it. As Marlow puts it "They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.