Index IntroductionHeart of Darkness and ModernismConclusionIntroductionHeart of Darkness, written by the Polish-British author Joseph Conrad was published in Blackwood magazine in three parts and was released in February and March and April of 1899. The novel follows Marlow, a sailor, who embarks on a journey up the Congo River to see Kurtz, a well-known ivory trader. As Marlow travels through the Congo, he is confronted with widespread inefficiency and brutality at the Company's stations. The natives of the region have been forced into service with the Company and suffer from excessive workload and harsh treatment. The literature of modernism has been described as when writers “free themselves from the constraints and polite conventions of Victorianism.” Victorianism refers to a period of writing in England during the reign of Queen Victoria. Victorianism focuses on themes such as working class struggle and the triumph of right over wrong. By comparison, modernist literature began in the late 1800s primarily in Europe and North America and is typically characterized by a break with traditional modes of writing, whether in poetry or prose. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness certainly deserves its place in modernist literature due to Conrad's stylistic choices such as the extensive use of symbolism throughout the novel, his use of a first-person narrative point of view, the use of very few main characters and the non-linear plot of the novel. Furthermore, Heart of Darkness represents modernist literature through the ideas it conveys, such as the focus on the inner workings of the characters, as well as the recurring themes of absurdism throughout the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Heart of Darkness and Modernism Modernist writers incorporated symbolism into their texts because they believed that reality was multilayered and that everyday objects had hidden meanings and representations. Conrad's frequent stylistic use of symbolism is in line with this characteristic of modernist literature. Before leaving for the Congo, Marlow notices that the city he finds himself in reminds him of a “whitewashed tomb,” which is a structure or monument in which a person is buried. The phrase "whitewashed tomb" is a reference to the Book of Matthew of the Bible in which Matthew describes whitewashed tombs as a structure that is beautiful on the outside but contains horrors on the inside. Therefore, this image is symbolic and represents the deceptive imperial project of Belgium which presented a front of peaceful expansion for the betterment of the colonized while in reality the colonized were hunted, enslaved and tortured for years. The symbolism is again implemented by Conrad when Marlow arrives at the company offices, he meets two elderly women knitting: "Two women, one fat and the other thin, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting of black wool". These two women symbolize the mythological Greek Moira who spun, measured and cut the thread of someone's life. These women standing in the company headquarters represent how the company is now measuring Marlow's life and can cut it off at any time; they have a mystical and sinister control over his life as he travels to the Congo. Marlow also describes the women as "guarding the door of darkness" and includes the phrase "Morituri te salutant". This literally translates to we who are about to die salute you. This phrase, combined with the symbolic image of the door of darkness, foreshadows the danger, both physical and emotional, that Marlowcould meet in Africa. Another key symbol in the novel is the river that Marlow travels as he goes deeper into the jungle towards Kurtz. The journey along the Congo River represents the archetypal descent into hell similar to that of Dante's hell, symbolizing the transition from Western civilization to the unknown of the jungle as well as representing Marlow's difficult transition from naivety to knowing the truth of the imperial project and its effects on both the colonizer and the colonized. This effect is further accentuated by the fact that the river is difficult to travel up towards the internal station and towards Kurtz: “But the obstacles were large, the water was treacherous and shallow”. This difficulty in traveling to Kurtz symbolizes Marlow's difficulty in understanding the situation around him. This is in contrast to the relative ease with which he travels back up the river as he has now reached an understanding of the events he experienced after meeting Kurtz. This is demonstrated in the way Marlow now resembles what the narrator of the frame describes as Buddha: "Marlow stopped and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha." This shows that Marlow has reached an understanding of his experiences in the Congo and the imperial project as the word Buddha means enlightened or awakened. Conrad's frequent implementation of symbolism throughout his novel is a common stylistic feature even in the subgenre of modernist literature which shows that Conrad's novel is similar in nature to modernist writing. Modernist literature is also largely written from the first-person narrative point of view, and it was also common practice to write a first-person story with multiple characters to add further meaning to a story by offering a variety of points of view. Conrad adheres to this stylistic choice in Heart of Darkness by also using two first-person narrators, Marlow who tells the story from Nellie, and the narrator Frame who tells the reader the story told by Marlow. All first-person narration is unreliable by nature because the first-person narrator speaks exclusively from his or her subjective point of view. Because of this, Marlow as a narrator is unreliable, yet the reader is inclined to believe most of the things he describes to him because Marlow does not add excessive details or far-fetched events to his story and even Marlow admits to the narrator that he lied. to Kurtz's intentions regarding Kurtz's last words: “I collected myself and spoke slowly. 'The last word he spoke was: your name.'” This confession to the narrator adds credibility to Marlow as a narrator since he has already said before how much he dislikes lies and liars: “You know I hate, I detest, and I can 'I can't stand a lie, not because I'm straighter than any of us, but simply because it scares me. Although it appears that Marlow is sincere in telling his story, as a narrator he is also unreliable in that he does not seem to understand what he experienced in the Congo and as he tells the story the narrator appears to be still trying to make sense of what he he had seen there. In the first narrative digression to Nellie Marlow asks the narrator: “Do you see it? Do you see the story? Do you see anything?" In this quote, Marlow has a poignant tone and seems to ask his listeners to help him understand and asks them if they can make sense of what happened in the Congo while he seemingly can't, this effect is furthered from the triad of rhetorical questions that Marlow asks framed narrator also tells the story in the first person, however, since he tells Marlow's story with only a few sections of his own voice and opinion, there is no reason to believe that he is nottelling the truth or that he is unreliable as a narrator. Conrad's choice to use a first-person narrative point of view for both of his narrators makes them slightly unreliable by nature, yet the reader is inclined to believe Marlow and the framed narrator due to the inclusion of his lie by Marlow and does not add unlikely events. to his story. Another feature of modernist literature was the experimentation with several new writing techniques such as the implementation of non-linear and interrupted narratives. Conrad uses a broken non-linear narrative structure as a stylistic feature within Heart of Darkness, created by the use of narrative omissions and digressions. The first narrative omission occurs when Marlow travels two hundred miles upriver to the central station: "On the fifteenth day I again came in sight of the great river, and limped to the central station." In telling his story Marlow abbreviated a fortnight's excursion into a few short descriptions and admitted a large length of time. Another narrative omission occurs when Marlow arrives at Central Station and has to spend about three months rebuilding and repairing the boat: "That, and the repairs when I took the parts to the station, took a few months." These narrative omissions interrupt the narrative and contribute to a dreamlike aesthetic within the novel that can confuse the reader by ignoring large periods of time and also creating an overall feeling of darkness in the narrative that is another characteristic of modernist literature. Another contribution to the non-linear plot are the narrative digressions from Marlow's story to Nellie. Heart of Darkness was published in three parts over three months in Blackwood magazine, which is perhaps the reason for the narrative digressions that would help readers remember what had happened in the previous section of the narrative. The narrative digressions within the novel are both leaps in time and space as they are digressions from the past in Congo to the present on Nellie in London which interrupts the flow of the narrative and contributes to the non-linear plot of the narrative. A stylistic feature of modern literature may be the use of an interrupted or non-linear plot. Conrad follows this format in the novel by including omissions and narrative digressions that work to create jumps in time and place of the novel, as well as contributing to the overall darkness and dreamlike aesthetic. One of Conrad's most notable stylistic choices in Heart of Darkness is his frequent use of minor characters, which is why Conrad has very few main characters which allows him to focus on the inner workings of these few main characters in more detail. The idea of ​​focusing on the inner workings of the individual and the development of his or her subconscious instead of focusing on a large group of people within a society is a frequent idea in modernist literature. In Heart of Darkness only two characters are named, Marlow and Kurtz, all other characters are named based on occupation, culture or family relationship, all of these characters outside of Marlow and Kurtz are unnamed and act as minor characters and include characters such as Frame's narrator, the aunt, the general manager, the brickmaker, the pilgrims, the cannibals, the wild mistress, and the intention. Since Conrad only has two main characters, he focuses deeply on them and their internal, subconscious development as characters, and achieves this by comparing them. Marlow represents an intermediary between the extremes of Kurtz and company and complete anti-colonialism since as a character he is still racially..