Urgent Answer

[wabulin]

To a large extent, the tempers and concerns of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness reflects the changing attitude of the English writers toward Afica in the modernist period

[Marka]

um...yes?

it should also be taken to note that Joseph Conrad was a white Polish Immigrant, who could speak French, Polish, English fluently, and was a captain of a ship...think on it.

extrapolate on your question and we may be able to help

[quasimodo1]

You like Conrad. What is your take on "Nostromo".

[laffnmedusa]

Consider the central concern for the Modernists: they were white knuckling a stable sense of meaning that was quickly being stripped away by horrors of the world - an increased awareness of the reality of colonialism (or in the Belgian Congo, more correctly imperialism) was an aspect that Conrad confronts directly in HoD.
It was possible in the past to believe that the practices of colonialism of European nations were driven by morals and universal truths that framed "civilization". At some point, people who went into Africa from Europe (for example) believed that they were doing something important - they were bringing "light" to this place of "darkness". It can be argued that Kurtz's allure was due to the fact that he held to these ideals of bringing civilization - he was a man of vision and purpose. His great fall was because he believed in these ideas - when he realizes the "truth" of the project he has been involved in he questions where the darkness resides - outside of or within? Was he representative of an antidote to darkness or was he a carrier as much as any human being?
But Kurtz had at least believed in something, he had made choices and taken action - no matter how vile. For Eliot, a central modernist figure, Kurtz was emblematic of the man who could no longer exist in the modern world. See Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men". If the ideals that guided action in the past are no longer viable - given what is known that contradicts the belief in the humanity of our "civilized" projects - then what will we be guided by? HoD offers no alternatives - this may be why Marlow lies to the Intended. We can hold on to the myth of our certainty a little longer if we deny the "truth". But Conrad, and other Modernist writers and thinkers are writing through this uncertainty. And, of course, feminist, marxist and postcolonial frameworks were/are instrumental to offering a hopeful critique to the blinkered despondancy of the modernist position.

[mcvv09]

Quite right,
It is as if Kurtz was born out of Europe, and is therefore symbolic of the Western Civilization. And what happens in the Congo? It is simply one mass of imperialist corruption. One could criticize Conrad for not offering the reader a thourough and complete answer, such as faith, but the uncertainty contributes to the level of unconscious and psychology that permeates the novella.

[ennison]

Well there is no reason why Conrad should offer an 'answer'. The narrator tells us clearly near the beginning that Marlowe's stories tend to be 'inconclusive'. As a technical device Conrad uses Marlowe to create the idea of one who has lived a certain experience but is uncertain what to make of it. Conrad's own public statements on Belgian behaviour were unambiguous. It's clear in the novel that Marlowe finds Kurtz both repellent and charismatic. There is an implied irony in the contrast between the fluent statements of idealism that Kurtz writes about compared to the reality of his behaviour. Marlowe despises what Kurtz has become and seems to despise even more the Company for whom he worked and yet Marlowe sees how Kurtz could be attractive. Why else do we do evil but because it is attractive? Marlowe seems to think that Kurtz was 'hollow' within and therefore could be easily corrupted. In that sense he feels the fine words about spreading civilisation amongst warring and witch-doctor-oppressed tribes was not truly at the heart of Kurtz's motives Conrad is not a Christian writer and the ideals he tends to applaud are manly duty, straightforward honesty (especially about oneself) and so on. Marlowe to some extent is an embodiment of these and of their limitations.
Some of the writing in 'Heart of Darkness' is overdone but that can be explained by Conrad's desperate desire to be taken seriously as a writer of English Literature and not just sea stories