Throughout Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he illustrates the theme of nature versus man by contrasting the white European man’s idea of civilization with that of the primitive natives in the Congo. I am utilizing the theme of nature versus man in the sense of how a civilized and cultured man can revert to the savagery of his natural primal roots when put in situations such as what Marlow and Kurtz experienced. The character of Marlow is used as a conduit to which these two worlds can be seen through his eyes. He witnesses the morbid treatment of the natives as a wrongful act by his own people, the whites, who see the natives as filthy and savage. He then sees Kurtz, a seemingly civilized man, in a state of near madness and acting as a savage. The story would make you think that Kurtz went mad, but in actuality he is merely reverting to what is natural for someone when they are taken away from the cultured world and put into a savage, intolerable and uncivilized society. Marlow comments that “you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once….in another existence perhaps”(2.34). The jungle with its natural darkness and mysteries are a prime location for cultured men to lose their civilized self. It is indeed another existence.
When Marlow is traveling on the river toward the Inner Station he sees and hears the natives and he feels sort of a connection with the natives as he comments “but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-like yours- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar” (2.36). He sees the natives as a primordial adaptation of his own self, but he stops short of saying that they can be equal to the modern cultured man. The white man in Heart of Darkness feels he is doing the correct thing to civilize the natives, but in reality the white man is being de-civilized by the natives as well. The dilemma of Heart of Darkness is that we all have a form of a primal man inside of us that can be stressed out of us if we are put in an isolationist and savage situation.
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Great post! I think it is interesting that you bring up the point about a white man that is being de-civilized. It is so true! It's amazing what man will resort to when shook to his core.
ReplyDeleteWow, really impressive analysis. Your closing about the instincts inside man that can be seen when provoked is great.
ReplyDeleteNicely said. The question of what it means to be truly civilized is a difficult one, and the contrasts in HoD just blur the lines.
ReplyDeleteRead from the perspective of your post, Huxley's Brave New World might seem like a mirror version of HoD, with the Savage lost in civilization instead.
It is true and sad that civilzed men can behave in such manner when they have the higher power.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above post, it is sad. While the analysis of nature v. man is impressive and correct, I think it is partially a copout for man to resort to savage behavior in particular surroundings; while you have to defend yourself, you don't have to give in to pressure, especially when you know it's wrong.
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