Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad - 1251 Words

The novella ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad, published in 1899 is considered to be one of the most influential texts of its time. Although on the surface it seems as though Conrad is praising the white people, with further analysis it is seen that he is being ironic, and is in fact criticising the way they try to civilise the people who do not want to be civilised. English Professor Mark Dintenfass describes Heart of Darkness as: â€Å"You can see Heart of Darkness as a depiction of, and an attack upon, colonialism in general, and, more specifically, the particular brutal form colonialism took in the Belgian Congo.† Throughout the text Conrad uses both the narration of the main character Marlow, characterisation and irony to criticise the†¦show more content†¦Colonisation is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: ‘to take control of (an area) and send people to live there.’ Marlow now understands that the white Europeans are doing what they think is right, but do not think of the people they are doing it to. He realises that that the strength and superiority that the white Europeans have is purely based on the way they treat the natives as being weaker than them. Marlow is also showing the reader that what the Europeans call ‘colonisation’ is truly just robbery and murder. They are taking the resources from the native’s country and are not giving them anything worthy back. They are essentially robbing them and using violence and brutal force to do it. They treat the natives as slaves and torture and kill them if they do not to the ‘right’ thing. This is how they get their respect, and this is how they show them that they are superior to them. They use force to try and appear better than the natives. Marlow realises this and during his narration of the novel he criticises the society and the colonisation that was happening. Conrad uses Marlow to show the reader his negative r elationship with the society of that time. It is shown that he thinks the colonisation of the natives is morally wrong and is just murder and robbery with pride attached to it. Using Marlow made it easier for Conrad to show the