The Unspeakable Rites and Cultural Ignorance inHeart of Darkness

Abstract

Heart of Darkness is a searing indictment of colonialism, a fictional double of the controversial and influential non-fiction work. It is based on a trip that Joseph Conrad took through modern-day Congo during his years as a sailor. Among the innovators in modern fiction, Joseph Conrad is in the front row. One of his innovations is the introduction of Marlow, the narrator, who becomes the mouthpiece of the novelist. This is a masterly technique invented by Conrad to bridge the gulf between the novelist and the reader in addition to leading the whole narrative a spirit of immediacy; the reader feels that he is participating in the narrative, and since it is so, the narrative appears to him much more realistic than the traditional novel where the novelist, usually, takes resort to impersonal form of communication. It may also be understood as a journey into the depths of one's psyche, if taken at a symbolic level. Another word that was in the air was Mr. Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz is rumoured to be ill and his station, far up the river in the interior, to be in jeopardy. He must be relieved. The story is a masterpiece – Marlow is a detective of the human soul. Kurtz ascends to the position of a man god in the story. This article is intended to highlight the identity of Kurtz as a man-god and how he had enslaved the natives and was free to practice upon them ‘unspeakable’ acts of lust and brutality. This article also focuses on how Kurtz wished to dominate the natives, and the natives also wished to be dominated by him; there was a tacit understanding on this question. This novella brilliantly reveals the appalling ways in which Europeans oppressed the Africans: physically, socially, economically and spiritually.