Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad has presented very dark picture of Africa in The Heart of Darkness.Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by novelist Joseph Conrad , about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State , in the heart of Africa. Narrator of the story is Marlow. Marlow tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames, London, England.

 

This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz , which enables Conrad to create a parallel between London and Africa as places of darkness.

When you listen to a story or read a book, most of the time you'll come away with some kind of impression of the general feel of the story. Maybe it was happy or sad, light or dark, or funny. This general feel is the tone of the story, and it is one of the literary devices authors use to give character to their works.

Another device is point of view, or how the narrator is related to the story itself. Every story you've ever read has some point of view, whether it was first, third, or second person. Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness is no exception. Throughout the novel, Conrad uses point of view and tone to add to its overall character.

Heart of Darkness takes place entirely in first person. What is particularly interesting about this novel, though, is that there are two different first person narrators.

The first is the narrator that opens the novel and describes the scene on the Thames river. He narrates the beginning and end of the novel, and a few small points where there are breaks in Marlow's story. We are never given any name or information about this character, except that he serves on the ship that Marlow is currently on when he tells his story. Essentially, this narrator is there to tell us about Marlow. Having a separate narrator allows Conrad to describe Marlow in detail for the reader, and give an outsider's impression of him, as opposed to Marlow's impression of himself. 

 

The second point of view, also first person, comes from Marlow, once he starts telling his tale. The majority of the novel comes from Marlow's point of view. It's from him that we get the main plot, the descriptions of the Congo and Marlow's journey there, and all the impressions and opinions of that trip and what he experienced. Marlow is the primary narrator and point of view of Heart of Darkness, even though he isn't the only one.