Heart of darkness

 

Heart of darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad and it was published in 1899. The main theme of the novella is colonialism. The character of Kurtz mainly remains in the center.
     The narrator of the novella is Marlow. Who tells the whole story.  It criticizes the so-called idea of civilization.  For that writer has used the symbols of the river Thames and Congo.
       It seems that they are so civilized but it is not so,  as we have seen in the novel that how cruel and cunning Kurtz is.  In the end, we can see the situation becomes that much worst that he couldn't get out from the "station." The last words of Kurtz suggest a deep meaning..." The Horror,  The Horror!

Heart of Darkness tells a story within a story. The novel begins with a group of passengers aboard a boat floating on the River Thames. One of them, Charlie Marlowe, has an experience with his fellow seafarers, which happened together on another river-the Congo River in Africa. Marlowe's story begins with what he calls a "secular city" somewhere in Europe. There the "company" - an anonymous organization operating a colonial enterprise in the Belgian Congo - would make him captain of the river steamer. He is optimistic about what Africa will get.

But his expectations are rapidly rising. From the moment he arrived, he was exposed to the evils of imperialism, witnessing the violence that falls on the African people he exploits. As he moves on, he begins to hear about a man named Kurtz - a colonial agent who doesn't match his ability to get ivory from the interior of the room. Kurtz is rumored to have fallen ill (and perhaps even mad), thus putting Congo's entire venture in the company at risk.

Marlowe is ordered on his steamer and allowed to enjoy it by a crew of Europeans and Africans, after which Conrad brutally called the re-experiments "cannibals." As he enters the jungle, it becomes clear that the people around him are affecting him mentally: his journey not only in the geographical "heart of darkness", but in his own mental interior - and perhaps the dark psyche of Western culture. Also in the interior. Good.

After encountering several obstacles along the way, Marlowe's steamer finally takes him to Kurtz. Kurtz has taken over the reins of a tribe of natives, who now employ him to raid the surrounding areas. The man is clearly ill, physically and mentally. Marlowe has threatened to go with him, so Kurtz is going to run his "plenty of plans." Returning to the way the steamer arrived, Marlowa's crew previously fired on a group of indigenous people under Kurtz's influence, including the queen-figure described by Conrad with a great deal of eroticism and eccentricity.

Kurtz died on a backup trip to the river, but it wasn't long before he revealed to Marlowe a horrible glimpse of human evil. “This horror! Horror! ”He tells Merlo before he dies. Marlowe almost dies, but he brings her back to the cemetery town. He is disgusted with the petty calamities of Western culture that everyone around him feels. When he heals, he is visited by various characters from Kurtz's pre-life - the life he led before finding his dark interior in Africa.

A year after returning to Europe, Marlowe visits Kurtz's partner. She is represented - as there are many female characters in Hart Df Darkness - a naive refuge from the horrors of the world, a state that Marlowe hopes to maintain. When he asks about Kurtz's final words, Marlowe lies: "Your name," she said. That’s where Marlowe’s story ends. The Heart of Darkness itself ends up as the narrator, one of Marlowe's audience, gathering a mass of brooding clouds on the horizon, which he feels is the "heart of abundant darkness."