In the film we encounter through stark cinematic images the depravity of Kurtz and his total lack of conventional moral integrity. In the book the horror of Kurtz is hinted at in lines such as the following: "His & #8230; nerves went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rights, which & #8230; were offered up to him" (Conrad, 208)
And we went insane. (McDonald, 2002) In other words, it is a film about human nature and the evil that lies hidden in the human heart -- no matter whether it is in the colonization of Africa or in Vietnam
He won't be forgotten. Whatever he was, he was not common" (Conrad 46)
Both Marlow and Kurtz betray each other, and show the consequences of betrayal on each other. Betrayal is a regular theme in Conrad's writing, as this critic says: "Conrad's thematics of coercion, isolation, and betrayal; the complicated relations among author, narrator, and character" (Wollaeger xiv)
Heart of Darkness Mr. Kurtz and the Absence of Method Before Kurtz went insane, he was not only the best ivory agent the never-named trading company of Heart of Darkness ever produced; he was considered "the emissary of pity and science and progress, and the devil knows what else" (Conrad 1902, p
126). Cut off in this way from censure (Gerrig, Zimbardo, Desmarais & Ivanco 2009, p
Otherwise, he notes, the ivory Kurtz collected is perfectly good. But in the face of months of strange rumors, the Company's refusal to check his activities earlier amounts to moral complicity; as Phil Zimbardo notes in a different context, management "effectively gave [Kurtz] permission to do these things, and [he] knew nobody was ever going to come [up the river]" to take that permission away (Zimbardo 2008)
Coppola, in fact, updated the narrative in a number of other ways -- namely in the shift of time and setting from the Congo at the turn of the century to the Mekong River in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. However, if Conrad is writing at one remove from the Age of Faith, writing as he says out of love for Fidelity as an ideal (Najder 204), Coppola is filming at one remove from Conrad, illustrating a world that has regressed even beyond the idea of Fidelity and fully embraced the "horror" that Kurtz sees within himself (Ebert)
Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now Comparing and Contrasting Coppola's Apocalypse with Conrad's Darkness While Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is framed by the music of The Doors, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, upon which the film is based, uses the narration of Marlow as a framing device for the murky tale of the "horror" that hides in the human heart. The difference in framing devices has more to do with the difference in medium and inspiration than it does in overall meaning (Greiff 188) -- and yet the music of The Doors provides a much bleaker context for the narrative that Coppola explores in Apocalypse Now than the stylishly literary and ultimately ironic narrative woven by Conrad
All of Conrad's works are like looking glasses into the soul; they ask the reader to strip away the illusions, the veneer, and boldly view themselves without pretension or false belief. As a boy in his native land of Poland, Conrad "had announce that he would go to the heart of Africa" (Jean-Aubry 153)
Coppola, in fact, updated the narrative in a number of other ways -- namely in the shift of time and setting from the Congo at the turn of the century to the Mekong River in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. However, if Conrad is writing at one remove from the Age of Faith, writing as he says out of love for Fidelity as an ideal (Najder 204), Coppola is filming at one remove from Conrad, illustrating a world that has regressed even beyond the idea of Fidelity and fully embraced the "horror" that Kurtz sees within himself (Ebert)
Some have said that the West views Africa a certain way because of Conrad. Chinua Achebe, for instance, called Conrad a "bloody racist," and told the audience that the famous novel, required still in a number of Middle and Upper Level Schools, demunized Africans, telling the world that Africa was little more than, "a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril" (Achebe, 1-20)
Of course, in Heart of Darkness, it is clear from the start that the trip into the "bowels" of Africa is not one of a positive or optimistic nature. "Mad terror scattered them [the natives], men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned" (Conrad, 21)
Men had the power, Queen Victoria the exception. In this culture, there were a "whole matrix of inter-male relationships involving competitiveness, desire, bonding, and the sharing and appropriation of power and knowledge" (Roberts, 458)
While this is certainly the case, Heart of Darkness not only taught generations about Africans, it also solidified a view of the Victorian woman that lasted well into the 20th century. One scholar notes that the gender idology of Heart of Darkness depends on his focus on Afrian and European women "as sites where anxieites of gender and empire are played out" (Smith, 202)
There was a precise order of things -- middle class men worked and provided income while their wives managed the house and children. Women were responsible for limited aspects of society, even though the Queen was venerated (Swisher)
There are many places in the novel that back up this understanding of what Conrad meant by his title. For example, early in the book another character says of Kurtz and his purpose, "for the guidance of the cause intrusted [sic] to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose" (Conrad)
This theme shows up from the very beginning of the novel, even before Marlow leaves for Africa. Conrad writes, "They [the early Belgians who took over] were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising form the weakness of others" (Conrad 4)
His purpose in writing this novel is to show Europeans just what was happening in Africa in the name of commerce and capitalism, and make them more aware of the inequities of the system. Critic Benita Parry writes on the theme of imperialism in the book and how "the book's concrete references to the social locations and functions of protagonists converging as a criticism 'of the material structures of imperial capitalism'" (Parry 42), continue this theme throughout the novel
Conrad infuses the novel with this theme of evil, and just about every chapter references the Belgians, the natives, and their struggles with each other. Critic Bloom continues, "Imperialist corruption is anatomized in sharp, visual images, and a clear moral viewpoint is presented, a scheme of values preserved by Marlow in his devotion to the work ethic" (Bloom 35)