Heart of Darkness is pretty much the story of the author, Joseph Conrad, himself. He went to the heart of Africa in 1890 through the Congo river.
It’s a story like no other about what happened deep in the jungle of Africa. Many readers find this book rather offensive and said that the author was racist.
It’s perhaps still a great topic about imperialism and colonialism. Many people think this book should be taught in high schools.
Therefore, students can get a better look to Africa from many different perspectives. It can save you from the danger of viewing single-sided point of view when it comes to talking about people and their cultures.
Table of Contents
About Heart of Darkness Book
Heart of Darkness is a journey of the captain of a steamboat named Charles Marlow. He is, the protagonist and narrator, with his crews, a lawyer, an accountant.
They work for Belgian company for trading ivory in Africa. He sets a journey from England to Africa, to meet Kurtz. Kurtz is a gifted man and is considered a god by Africans.
They travelled through the Congo river and they were attacked by spears and arrows by some group of Africans. They fought them back and blew the steam whistle and apparently it was effective to scare them.
Marlow arrived at the inner station, he met a Russian man. The Russian man told Marlow that his ship was attacked by Kurtz.
Why Should Read Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness, heart refers to the “center” and Darkness refers to the “jungle.” You’ll know more about Africa and its people not only just from the news or movies.
It’ll break the stereotype thoughts about what you often see on TV. Marlow’s opinions about imperialism and colonialism are reasons why this book can draw attention from many readers.
Heart of Darkness Quotes
Quotes from heart of darkness
We live as we dream–alone….
Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires
It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.
To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe. Who paid the expenses of the noble enterprise I don’t know; but the uncle of our manager was leader of that lot.
Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
Heart of darkness important quotes
One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.
No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence–that which makes its truth, its meaning–its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone
He originated nothing, he could keep the routine going — that’s all. But he was great. He was great by this little thing that it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. He never gave that secret away.
Droll thing life is — that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself — that comes too late — a crop of inextinguishable regrets.
Harkest dungeon heart of darkness quotes
I don’t like work — no man does — but I like what is in work — the chance to find yourself. Your own reality — for yourself, not for others — what no other man can ever know.
He struggled with himself, too. I saw it — I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.
No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze.
But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.
perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.
I think the knowledge came to him at last — only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude — and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating.
We live in the flicker — may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.
Heart of Darkness Trivia/Interesting Fact
English wasn’t the author’s mother tongue. In fact, it was his third language. Heart of Darkness starts and ends in the same place, England.
Heart of Darkness is a short novella it’s easy to read, compelling and it’s quite short. Although it was written over 100 years ago, it still grasps a great deal of significance until today.