Conrad, as promised

Warning: If you have never experienced Joseph Conrad, this essay has the potential of boring you to tears. More interesting posts to come.

A Storyteller’s Lies

In the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Charlie Marlow is telling a story. The twisting and intricate tale recounts his experiences as a steam ferryboat captain on a river in Africa and what he observed there. His methods of storytelling bring into question the truthfulness of his account. Marlow has common storytelling quirks: he’s often absentminded and confuses fact and fiction in his story. But his narrative also makes him untrustworthy and full of clashing ideas. The evil he encountered in Africa made an impact on him, and possibly his impression of the truth. He may no longer know what is fact or fiction about his experience.

When Marlow tells his story, he seems distracted and preoccupied with other thoughts. This is seen in the way he pauses continually while he’s talking. At one point, Marlow speaks about London in the time when the Romans conquered Britain. He says, “I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day… Light came out of this river since—you say the Knights?” (Conrad 6). The dashes show where Marlow has paused. The dash between “years ago” and “the other day” is significant because he seems to be thinking about more recent times, instead of past centuries. He says later on, “Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine—what d’ye call ‘em—trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of on these craft the legionaries—a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been too—used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read” (6). Marlow is inserting his own commentary (“a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been”) and adding details (“used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two”) to tell a story. The pauses interrupt his current thought, making him seem busy with other ideas.

Marlow also confuses his own story with Kurtz’s, as if he doesn’t know or remember all the correct facts. At the beginning, he tells an allegorical story about a young Roman citizen. He says, “Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga—perhaps too much dice, you know—coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gather, or trader even—to mend his fortunes” (6). The “young citizen” could be Kurtz or Marlow because of the similar way they came into the Company. Then Marlow goes on to vaguely describe the circumstances this “young citizen” has to live in, again creating a situation that could be applied to Kurtz’s story or his. He says, “The utter savagery had closed round him” (6). This is the only sentence in past tense, while the rest of the description is in the present tense. For example, the phrases “to mend his fortune,” “feel the savagery,” “he has to live,” and “and it has a fascination too” are all in present tense (6). The one sentence in past tense could be Marlow’s error; he’s trying to tell an unconnected story, but his past slips in.

Absentmindedness and distraction can be forgiven in a storyteller; but Marlow also appears untrustworthy. To explain why he lets a group of Africans pass him by at the Central Station he says, “I’ve had to resist and to attack sometimes—that’s only one way of resisting—without counting the exact cost—according to the demands to such sort of life as I had blundered into” (16). The pauses make it seem like he is continually interrupting himself and rethinking what he’s telling his listeners. This lessens his trustworthiness because he could be changing the details of what happened or may be confused about the details. Also, the pauses obscure his meaning, like in the last example. Only Marlow can know when he’s “had to resist and to attack sometimes” and what it means to resist “without counting the exact cost” (16). Through the dashes Marlow comes across as either slightly addled or deceitful.

Adding to his untrustworthiness, Marlow constantly contradicts himself. He uses figurative language involving light; this presents a contrasting image to the reoccurring theme of darkness. At the beginning of the novella, Marlow mentions that London “has been one of the darkest places of the earth” (Conrad 5). Then he goes on to use similes to describe the “light [that] came out of the [Thames] river” (6). He says it’s “like a running blaze on a plain” and “a flash of lightning in the clouds” and that “we live in the flicker” (6). The similes show how the light is not substantial; instead it is fleeting (“a flash” and “a flicker”), in contrast with the past darkness (6). When Marlow arrives at the Company’s station, he observes a troupe of Africans chained together going up the same trail as him. He says that he was standing “in the blinding sunshine of that land,” the same land he commonly refers to as the “heart of darkness” (16, 67). Once again, there is another contradiction between what Marlow sees in the land and how he thinks about the land. When introducing his story to his listeners, he says “It [his experience in Africa] seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me—and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough too—and pitiful—not extraordinary in any way—not very clear either. No. Not very clear. And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light” (7). The phrase “to throw a light” refers to “mental illumination and elucidation” (Oxford English Dictionary). There is a contrast between this figurative phrase and the other words in the sentence like “sombre,” “pitiful,” and “not very clear” (7). This is contradictory because if something is “not very clear” it does not usually “throw a kind of light,” on everything (7). The “light” could be Marlow’s mistaken understanding about what happened on the trip (7).

Marlow did not escape the influence of the evils in the jungles; the residue of his experiences lingers in his words and shapes the entire story. In hindsight to his experience with the Company and Kurtz, Marlow personifies evils he encountered there as “devils,” giving them more sway over men, including himself (Conrad 16). He uses the term “devil” to describe the folly of the Company. He tells about a moment when he “foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land [he] would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly” (16). The words “flabby” and “weak-eyed devil” give form and create a picture of the “folly” Marlow finds in the jungle (16). Marlow meets Kurtz towards the end of the story and he remarks that the jungle had “sealed [Kurtz’s] soul to its own by the inconceivable of some devilish initiation” (48). He uses a form of the word “devil” again and this time in reference to Kurtz and the jungle. Earlier on in his narrative Marlow says, “I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but by all the stars these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils that swayed and drove men” (16). Once again Marlow personifies the evils as devils using words like “strong,” “lusty,” and “red-eyed.” Kurtz was overtaken by the evils of the jungle and the “devils” that resided there. Both the Company and Kurtz were swayed by the various “devils” and Marlow is no different (16). At first it seems like he excludes himself from the influence of the “devils.” He’s seen them but they supposedly haven’t affected him. Later in the story though, he says, “I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night” (16, 62). In the phrase “unseen presence of victorious corruption” Marlow is again giving a body to an idea by using the word “presence” and the word “corruption” could be another sort of influential “devil” (62, 16).

There is no way of knowing whether Marlow’s story is true. For all his listeners know, he could just be a fanciful storyteller. But the way Marlow relates his experiences shows that what he believes about the truth has changed. Through the pauses, he is rethinking what he says, as he says it. His figurative language present contradictory images that create division between the way he speaks and the way he thinks. The jungle left a permanent mark on him. Marlow may be crazy. He might be a liar. But he’s telling a story – a story expected to contain truth. If he’s lying, if he’s crazy, then his tale leaves his listeners without a light in the middle of the “heart of darkness” (Conrad 67).