Heart of Darkness

A detailed Summary of Heart of Darkness

In Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness it is the white invaders, who

are, almost without exception, embodiments of blindness, selfishness, and

cruelty. Even in the cognitive domain, where such positive phrases as to

enlighten, for instance, are conventionally opposed to negative ones such as

to be in the dark, the traditional expectations are reversed. In Kurtz's dark

sketch painting of a woman, as we have seen, "the effect of the torch light on

the face was sinister." (55) The destruction set upon the Congo by Europeans

led to the cry of Kurtz's last words, "The horror! The horror!" (137) The horror

in Heart of Darkness has been represented in a different aspects of a

variety of situations in the book. However, Kurtz's last words "The horror!

The horror!" (137) are intended to underline three major aspects of this horror.

One of these aspects are the horror of Kurtz's own in capacity for self-restraint, the

second situation represents the colonizers' greed for ivory does to them, and the third is the Europe's darkness, its deep ignorance of the moral dimensions of its expansion.

Kurtz comes to the Congo with noble intentions. He thought that "each

some devilish initiation." (86) The unredeemable horror in the tale is the

ivory ball; it had caressed him, and - lo! - he had withered; it had taken him,

absorbed in, it as the woman is a absorbed into the darkness of the painting.

on the black workers was a consequence of the white man's mad and greedy

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1792
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Heart of Darkness

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