Joseph
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness certainly
fits within the constraints of gothic literature. The short novel contains many
of the elements in traditional gothic literature, such as ghosts and a gloomy
and horrid setting. Marlow creates visions of Kurtz’s ghost, and he often
depicts Kurtz as a nightmare that haunts him. The ghostly and controlling
nature of Kurtz are classic elements of other gothic novels such as Weathering Heights in which ghosts and
the controlling Heathcliff are present.
Marlow describes Kurtz in nightmarish and
ghostly manners after his death: “I had a vision of him on the stretcher,
opening his mouth voraciously, as if to devour all the earth with all its
mankind. He lived then before me; he lived as much as he had ever lived—a shadow
insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow darker
than the shadow of the night…” (Conrad 68). Marlow describes seeing Kurtz as
some nightmarish figure that devours the Earth and all of the people on it, a
vision that would certainly scare most people. Moreover, Marlow says that Kurtz
is ghost because he lives in him as a shadow even after his death. Kurtz may
not be a ghost in the traditional sense of a specter that haunts a house, but
he does haunt Kurtz for the rest of his life as a dark shadow. The dead Kurtz
is a reminder of the darkness of that resides in some places of the world.
Marlow has a knowledge that haunts him, unlike the other men on the boat who
are ignorant of the horrors that Marlow has experienced, because Kurtz is a
dark ghost that haunts Marlow.
The
novel’s setting is frequently illustrated as dark and foggy, which creates an
eerie feeling present in most gothic literature. The boat, before the native
people attack it, is covered in an immense fog while traveling on the Congo.
The fog creates a suspenseful feeling that is common among gothic literature.
The exotic setting of Africa is also gothic in that most gothic novels do
contain a setting that the protagonist is unfamiliar with.
Heart
of Darkness contains
many gothic elements such as references to ghosts, nightmares, and eerie
settings, which can lead a reader to classify the novel as gothic.
Work Cited
Conrad,
Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York:
Dover Publications, 1902. Print.
I agree too, Cade, that Heart of Darkness is a gothic novel. I mentioned in my post too that many of the descriptions and imagery that the author provides gives the book a haunting feeling to it. I thought your text examples were very good for the claims that you made in your post. I especially like the quote about Kurtz's death and how you pointed out that he is described as ghostly. Good job on this post :)
ReplyDeleteCompelling analysis. I would have to disagree with you, however, when you claim that the novel is gothic just because the setting makes it so. The unfamiliar environment of Africa is more a result of Conrad's desire to tell an epic adventure story rather than author a piece of gothic fiction. We tend to equate the unfamiliar with the eerie, but that is to be ignorant of other cultures. I believe that gothic archetypes exist that span many cultures like ghosts and other phenomena, none of which Conrad makes explicit use of in "Heart of Darkness."
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