Structure help!

[niamhy]

Hello people,

Im a higher student writing my personal essay on Conrad's amazin Heart of Darkness. My first paragraph should be on structure, but im struggling with what too write about it. The question i have created is What is the heart of darkness? I thought the structure of the book may give some insight into this, but as u can see im struggling. If anyone could post back with how they think i could tackle this of what in the structure leads them to think of a heart or of darkness i would appreciate it so much!


thank you

[whoaitsjazzy]

Just to let you know, Conrads title refers not to an actual heart of darkness so much, but Africa.

[Ilthigore]

I would probably write about how the reader is gradually detached and kept at length from the actual action.

Firstly, it opens with a narrator giving an account to the reader. Next, Marlow gives an account to the narrator. Later, Kurtz talks very briefly to Marlow, and the "Darkness" has only been experienced by Kurtz, so Conrad spends the meat of the novella distancing the reader from the "Darkness" that represents the primal, savage side of human nature, and concludes with the widow scene by essentially saying "It's good to stay at a distance from this fundamental dark truth, and live in ignorance, than to dig too deep and lose your sanity in the process (as Kurtz did, and Marlow nearly did).

I would also quote from early on about Marlow's viewing a story not as the kernel of a nut, but a mist which gradually precipitates, or something, explaining why the structure is overall in many ways quite vague and disorganised (along with the crucial fact that it is actually a spoken narrative).