Conrad Literature

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BA English Literature with History Melanie KonzettLondon, 2005

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Textual analysis of following paragraph in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

...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. For the rest, after

his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold

him the secret of a whole continent, and generally he find the secret not worth

knowing. The yarns of seaman have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of

which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow 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, in the likeness of one of these misty halos,

that sometimes, are made visibly by the spectral illumination of moonshine

(Conrad, 1988: 9).

This extract, which is to be found almost in the beginning of the novel, gives the

reader a theoretical insight into the exceptional way the story is being told. It informs

the reader that this tale will not develop to a simple narrative but a sequence of

impressions. Therefore these lines introduce an “adventure of writing, a self-

conscious articulation of the possibilities of telling stories” (Burden, 1991: 53).

The subject of the extract is the untypical person Marlow and his exceptional way

of telling a story. The first narrator, whose voice accompanies the reader in the

beginning and in the end of the novella, refers to Marlow’s story telling as opposed to

the direct simplicity of the notorious “yarns of seaman” (Conrad, 1988: 9). Although,

the used figurative terms such as “yarns of seaman” or the “shell of a cracked nut”

(Conrad, 1988: 9) are based on traditional narrative skills, the reader is not allowed to

expect a colourful, transparent tale with a beginning, ending and, most important, a

deeper point. Rather, the reader is asked to follow the narrator not to the kernel but


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to an outside understanding of the unseen, which can also be compared to the

vagueness of the sea sensed by the seaman. Thus, the reader will not find a clear

structure resulting in a revealing disclosure towards the end. Quite the contrary, in

the end the reader must try to understand that “the whole meaning…lies within the

shell of a cracked nut” and that Marlow’s tale is “not centred on, but surrounded by,

its meaning” (Watt, 1979: 312). Consequently it is the narration itself, which must be

seen as the meaning of the tale.

However, in his novella Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses two narrators who tell the

story in the first person. The language of the narrators is formal, suited to their class

and position with a lack of colloquialism and abbreviations. In this extract Conrad

uses long sentences with several sub clauses. This form complicates the meaning

and acts in the way of obscuring and producing a more complicate picture of reality.

This can be connected to the modernist way of looking at reality, where a clear point

of view is not desired. Kenneth Graham identifies Heart of Darkness standing

opposed to “the positivistic, mechanical view of the universe that saw meaning as

objective and single” (Graham, 1996: 213).

The tone in this extract is very vague and suggestive and produces a sense of

insecurity and indisposition in the reader. The first narrator is not telling facts but

using metaphors and figurative language to establish his point. Although the image of

the “misty halos, that sometimes, are made visibly by the spectral illumination of

moonshine” (Conrad, 1988: 9) is almost tangible, it is enclosed by vagueness and

indistinctness. Once more reality is embodied as indefinite, which becomes even

more vague when seen in an uncommonly light. This indefiniteness undermines the

traditional solidity of the world and let the story appear as a sequence of dream like

memories. For that reason the first narrator, who gives this account on Marlow’s

untypical way of story telling, is starting untypical himself. His voice, who frames the


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novella, links the past memories of Marlow to the present setting on the cruising yawl

Nellie in the same nebulous way as Marlow does. Apart from this framing and

narrative position, the first narrator is also a listener on the Nellie together with the

reader. Consequently he is in the same position as the reader and is also asked to

unravel Marlow’s tale.

However, another attribute of modernism is the doubtful, uncertain and suggestive

language. This style places Conrad in the “vanguard of impressionist and symbolist

writing” (Burden, 1991: 45). Ian Watt points out that the distinctive qualities of

storytelling are “suggested metaphorically, and maybe roughly categorised as

symbolist and impressionist” (1979: 312). For him the abstract metaphor of the

meaning of the story represented by the shell of the nut or the haze around the glow

is symbolist and larger whereas the quality of the metaphor the mist and the haze is

impressionist (Watt, 1979: 312). Therefore the impressionistic interpretation sees the

haze as a more realistic effect than the reality of the glow. This modernist technique

of impressionism and symbolism rather than realism is opposed to the simplicity of

the seaman’s yarns and the reader is asked to unravel the two narrators suggestive

and symbolic language.

Figurative phrases, such as describing the sea as the seamen’s mistress, refer

beyond a literal meaning of words and produce distorted images of reality. In the

chosen extract, words like haze, misty, fog, spectral have this attempt to obscure.

These words have the ability to guide the reader to a deeper symbolic landscape. For

Robert Baker it is this use of words, which he regards as Conrad’s essential subject.

For him Conrad sees words as “poetically exploitable, malleable and subtle” (Baker,

1981: 337). Thus words do not only have one single meaning but a variety of

possible interpretations and hidden senses.


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Although these words may veil a transparent meaning they at least offer various

different symbolic points of view. On the one hand the haze is seen as the symbol for

the tale, which embodies the kernel of the story. On the other hand the haze can be

seen as a symbol for the screen of moral values, prejudices and principles some

readers’ eyes may cover. For Conrad, the central point is not an objective meaning

but his essential aim is to evoke a subjective understanding. He sees his task as an

author “by the power of written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is,

before all, to make you see” (Conrad, 1997: Preface). Consequently, the first

narrator’s attempts to make the reader see, cannot be categorized as objective. He

demonstrates that personal experiences and prejudices change the way in which one

“sees the world as a whole“ (Watt, 1979: 316).

The text passage suggests that a traditional seaman can be compared to a

traditional reader. For both, “a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to

unfold the secret of a whole continent” (Conrad, 1988: 9). The traditional reader and

the seaman do not have the desire to obtain more than a glimpse of reality. Even this

is more than enough and sometimes not even worth knowing. Whereas in a

modernist point of view the reader is more interested in finding his whole personal

objective reality, which of course does not exist. This contradiction with its various

impressions starts in the chosen text passage and can be found in the whole story.

Consequently a fuzzy and alienating effect is introduced which opposes every

transparency.

In addition, the breaking down of traditional stylistic conventions can be

experienced in these lines. Conrad lets the reader jump, without any linking sentence

or visual distinction, from one thought to a different one. There is no division between

the thoughts of a seaman or a traditional reader and their superficial existence and

the theoretical effort to introduce a new experimental method of telling a story. Only


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this dreamlike story telling chains past impressions and nebulous facts together. The

revealing of the narrators’ memories and reflections is Conrad’s task for the reader.

In exercising this process the reader increasingly strives to reach the kernel of moral

and truth and can hardly accept the absence of it. This manipulation of the reader

through such alienations can be seen as another characteristic of modernist writing.

Although, with his account on Marlow’s story telling, the first narrator gives the

impression as if he has detected the right way of understanding and resolving the

tale, he himself is captured in its nebulous effects. His point of view does not detain

himself to seek an underlying moral understanding neither does it detain Marlow.

Marlow actually accepts the existence of a deeper connection between himself and

Kurtz, his shadowy other self. After all “Kurtz is the central focus and the motivation

for the storytelling” (Burden, 1991: 53). The reader and all listeners on the Nellie

including both narrators have to find out that in point of fact, Conrad’s narration

moves rather to final dissolution than to a universal revealing or resolution. This is an

important revolutionary characteristic of the novella and another distinguishing mark

that signifies modernism.

The chosen extract, which can be seen as a hint for the listener, should point

beyond these words of veiling to a way out of the darkness. Since every culture has

its traditions and moral attitudes also the non-traditional reader might have difficulties

to see. However, there is a chance of disguising Conrad’s haze and glow. Both

narrators themselves are captured within specific western and English perceptions.

This seeing as a challenge, it is only the reader, who seems attainable to accept just

the tale itself. The reader has the ability to see a tale, which is enveloped in

prejudices and western understanding of subjective narrators and thus far away from

any objectivity. Yet Marlow and the first narrator are not blameable to conceal

modernist ideas, as free words do not exist, not even for the untraditional. Therefore,


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the story is always challenging the idea of a single meaning, an objectivity, a

modernism.

The way Conrad treats ideas of reality requires a modern thinking and the courage

to deal with experimental methods. The play with words and reflections, the use of

the “dream sensation”, symbolism and suggestions produces this new feeling of

disillusionment and intended manipulation. Marlow’s complex montage of images,

symbols and series of events intensifies the reader’s world of feelings and

understanding and thus creates an apparent lack of structural coherence and

transparency of reality. The task of the passage right in the beginning is not to alert

the reader but to request his full open-minded interest and even his willingness to

overstep traditional boundaries. The text requires a reader, who accepts innovative

methods and is willing to delve into all its experimental ways of expression.

Textual Analysis

Winter term 2005

Mark: B


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References:

Baker S.R. (1981) ‘Watt’s Conrad’. An extract of Contemporary Literature 22.

In: Conrad J, Heart of Darkness: An authoritative Text,

Background and Sources, Criticism. Third Edition.

Kimbrough R. (ed). W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

New York.

Burden R. (1991) Heart of Darkness: An Introduction to the variety of

criticism. Macmillan Education ltd. Houndmills.

Conrad J. (1997) The Nigger of Narcissus. Penguin Classics. London.

Conrad J. (1988) Heart of Darkness: An authoritative Text, Background

and Sources, Criticism. Third Edition. Kimbrough R. (ed).

W.W. Norton & Company Inc. New York.

Graham K. (1996) ‘Conrad and Modernism’. Joseph Conrad .

Stape J.H (ed). Camebridge University Press.

Camebridge.

Watt I. (1979) ‘Impressionism and Symbolism in Heart of Darkness’. An

extract of Conrad in the Nineteenth Century. In:

Conrad J, Heart of Darkness: An authoritative Text,

Background and Sources, Criticism. Third Edition.

Kimbrough R. (ed). W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

New York.

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Conrad Literature