Biography:
Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad in Berdichev, Poland, in 1857.  Typical for his works is deep pessimism; he writes stories of men in extreme situations.

 He first became familiar with English language at the age of eight when  is father translated works of Shakespeare. Conrad went to school in Cracow and Switzerland but what he really wanted to do was to go to the sea.  In 1874 he went to Marseilles to get a job on a ship. The following years he spent sailing around the world.  He gambled a lot, had huge debts and even attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest.  In 1878 he landed for the first time in England and spent the next 16 years in the British merchant navy.  In 1886 he became a British citizen. The experiences from his life as a sailor greatly influenced his writing.

However, since childhood he had always wanted to go to Africa.  In 1889 he traveled to Congo and became a captain of a Congo river steamboat.

"What he saw, did, and felt in the Congo are largely recorded in Heart of Darkness, his most famous, finest, and most enigmatic story, the title of which signifies not only the heart of Africa, the dark continent, but also the heart of evil--everything that is corrupt, nihilistic, malign--and perhaps the heart of man. The story is central to Conrad's work and vision, and it is difficult not to think of his Congo experiences as traumatic. He may have exaggerated when he said, "Before the Congo I was a mere animal," but in a real sense the dying Kurtz's cry, "The horror! The horror!" was Conrad's. He suffered psychological, spiritual, even metaphysical shock in the Congo, and his physical health was also damaged; for the rest of his life, he was racked by recurrent fever and gout."

Conrad married Jessie George in 1895 and had two sons with her. He lived in poor conditions, his health failed and he often got in trouble with his temperament.  Not until 1910 did he start to receive recognition for his work, and his financial situation improved.  In April 1924 he refused an offer of knighthood from Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.  Conrad died the same year .

Background:
In many ways Heart of Darkness is a transitional novel between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  The idea of a horror so terrible it cannot be named is a nineteenth century mentality, as is the idea of cannibalism as an unthinkable horror.

Another issue linking the novel to the nineteenth century is the issue of class.  According to Jared Campbell, a historian who has written extensively on the British class system, the origin of the class system is land.  Money accrued by any other means is common (i.e., middle class).  Thus class in Britain has less to do with wealth than property and ancestry.  Clothes, words, accent are all indicators of class.

Heart of Darkness functions as a lead in to the twentieth century for a number of reasons.  One of the most important aspects tied to twentieth-century sensibilities is the sense of cultural relativism, an awareness of the irrational and of the unconscious mind.  Visit my Modernism page for a brief discussion of the general points common to Modern literature.

Themes:
For many readers Heart of Darkness is about Marlowe's adventures sailing up the Congo River.  Notice, however, that the novel is actually a framed narrative.  The outer frame is told by an unnamed narrator as he, Marlowe and two other friends sit on board a boat at the mouth of the Thames (in England) and watch the sun set.  This frame is part of what makes Heart of Darkness more than an adventure story.

Racism:
Modern readers are often dismayed by the racist language in Heart of Darkness.  Apologists often argue that you have to remember that in 1890, when Conrad did his trip up the Congo River, things were different.  But were they?  How was the word "nigger" was perceived in 1890?

The word "nigger," like Negro, Niger, and the archaic slang word "neger," come from the Latin root for black.  According to Stuart Flexner, in his 1976 book I Hear America Talking:

. . . At any rate, "nigger" was a common word in both England and America by the 17th century; it was just considered a pronunciation of "Negro" until around 1825, when both abolitionists and Blacks began to object to it as disparaging. Then after the Civil War "nigger" became the most common contemptuous word for a Black.  (i)

No issue was taken with the word or its use at this time, though some in positions of administrative responsibility, clearly aware of its pejorative content, eschewed its use. In this connection it is noteworthy that [Sir Harry] Johnston [writing in the 1880s] occasionally lapses into using the word, but discreetly, hemmed in by quotation marks. Later, when he became Proconsul of British Empire in Africa, he did not use the term at all." (100)

But does this mean that Conrad was a racist? Not necessarily. Conrad is not Marlowe. Perhaps Conrad constructed Marlowe as a racist, at least in part, by having him use such words as "nigger" or savage in a few select places in the book. If you use a searchable index of Heart of Darkness and look for the word "nigger" (both the singular and the plural) to discover every case in which the term is used you may be surprised. Most of the times that Marlowe uses the word "nigger," it is when an African has been physically abused by somebody else, when the African has already been completely and totally dehumanized. Otherwise Marlowe uses "Negro," or "Black."

But even with this caveat, we need to be careful.  When we look at the racist language in the book, it is as though we are looking at the very surface of the story. It is important to remember that Conrad is a master at using irony and deception.   As professor Richard Yatzeck, of Lawrence University,  has pointed out, Heart of Darkness is full of irony and deception.  He suggests that light is used to indicate deceit in Heart of Darkness. For example, when something glitters, it does not glitter because it is beautiful or good, but because there is something hidden under the surface, and sometimes something dangerous. The river glitters, eyes glitter. The haze is translucent, still, eerie, as though the sky was covered with white gauze. This light is much like the parable that Conrad tells at the beginning of the novella:

The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlowe was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze . . .

On one level, then, Heart of Darkness is a scathing critique of colonialism.  It takes place at a time when there were mere hints that colonialism was not working as it should. It was a time that appeared on the surface perhaps to be the height of Empire, a time to be bullish about colonialism in Africa.

Imperialism is a central, underlying theme in this book, although it is not only about imperialism. Conrad stated so himself in various documents. In an 1899 letter, for example, Conrad wrote that the idea behind Heart of Darkness is "the criminality of efficiency and pure selfishness when tackling the civilizing work in Africa." In 1902 he lavished praise on a reviewer who wrote that Heart of Darkness is a "psychological masterpiece" relating "the sub-conscious life within us. . . to our conscious actions, feelings and outlook," offering an "analysis of the deterioration of the white man's morale, when he is let loose from European restraint, and planted down in the tropics as an emissary of light armed to the teeth, to make trade profits out of the subject races" (Murfin 97).

But in one of his letters, Conrad adds:  "The idea is so wrapped up in secondary notions that You -- even You! may miss it."

For an interesting comparison with another turn of the century writer dealing with the issue of imperialism, you might look at Jim Zwick's article "'The White Man's Burden' and Its Critics" examining Rudyard Kipling's poem, published in February 1899, and the public's response to the poem.

Colonialism:
Edward Said wrote in Culture and Imperialism that colonialism is mainly about political and economic relationships, some of which may or may not continue after a state gains independence. The postcolonial era, on the other hand, is about the intrusion and colonization of minds with ideas. Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o often speaks of "decolonizing the mind" -- that the colonizer and the colonized both carry colonialism in their minds long after the state has gained independence.

Although Marlowe is surrounded -- and horrified by -- by the accouterments (and inefficiencies) of colonialism as he travels up the river, his struggle is also (or perhaps more so) with the idea of colonialism. For this reason -- and because Conrad appears to be critical of colonialism in Heart of Darkness -- this book has much about it that is postcolonial. This struggle may explain the fascination with Heart of Darkness and other novels by Conrad among so many postcolonial and postmodern thinkers. These include Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, Frederic Jameson and a number of my colleagues in anthropology. Heart of Darkness has nearly become fetishized in the postmodern intellectual community.
(much of this information has come from Candice Bradley's "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"

On-Line Connections:
Some links of interest are:

• Mr. Kurtz home page -- website dedicated to Mr Kurtz.
• Heart of Darkness, White Lies and Joseph Conrad and the University Curriculum -- an excellent and thorough analysis of the novel by Karin Hansson at the University of Karlskrona. These are in PDF format, so you need Adobe Acrobat.
• Notes on Heart of Darkness -- At the Dalhousie University.
• Hypograms, Hypocrits, and Hippos:  Conrad's Heart of Darkness -- an analysis about light vs. dark, Conrad and racism in Heart of Darkness.
• Heart of Darkness -- The radio adaptation of the novel in real audio.
• Joseph Conrad Addlink page.
• Irene Navarro Berlanga's series of pages on theme and structure in Heart of Darkness.

Consider the significance of setting, both ship and land.  Why does Conrad not identify either the Congo or Africa by name?  Is the forest significant?  Is the time of day (in the frame) significant?

The lack of specific names also carries over to characters (other than Marlowe and Kurtz).  What is the effect?

Look at the scene when Marlowe is in the European office of the ivory company.  What is going on?  What is the significance of the people and their actions?  What is Conrad implying about European colonialism?

What is the importance of Kurtz' manuscript?  What is the significance of the postscript?

How does Conrad use light and dark imagery?  At what point do they become symbolic?

Why does Marlowe lie to Kurtz' intended?

What is the importance of Kurtz's manuscript?  What is the significance of the postscript?

Discuss the narrative framework.  What is the effect on the story?  on the reader?

Is Marlowe like Kurtz?  How?  Why do some people (e.g., the manager) think so?