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Cards In This Set
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But the wilderness had found him out early, and he had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating.
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The personification of the wilderness as a being, which can whisper to Kurtz, serves to illustrate how wilderness influences man’s humanity. The wilderness not only has a physical effect –providing a home, influencing a person’s temperature, but an emotional/moral influence (like a person) The physical characteristic of the wilderness as desolate allows man to delve deep inside himself. The isolation helped Kurtz reach his savage conclusion.
The desire for evil intrigues the "civilized" man because he has been discouraged by society not to indulge in that part of him. The evil voice can be heard because it has not been smothered by society's voices. Once the evil voice has been heard and understood it becomes hard for man to resist because it's attractive - it whispers fascinating things to encourage and excite man so that evil becomes a lust - a requirement to satiate the natural appetite. Evil becomes a food which nourishes the basest part of him
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[He had] started for the interior with a light heart, and no more idea of what would happen to him than a baby. He had been wandering about that river for nearly two years alone, cut off from everybody and everything. “I am not so young as I look. I am twenty-five,” he said…”I went a little farther,” he said, “then still a little father—till I got so far that I don’t know how I’ll ever get back.
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This quote is important because it serves to illustrate how man goes from innocence to corruption. The word, ‘light’, to describe the heart serves to juxtapose against Conrad’s reference to the ‘dark’ heart, which symbolizes man’s innate evilness. ‘Light’ therefore represents naivety, especially in connection to the Russian’s departure into the interior, which symbolizes man’s journey from his civilized exterior into his savage interior. Conrad’s emphasis on the Russian’s isolation is utilized to demonstrate how man becomes savage – The Russian has no laws, government or society to assist his moral conduct.
Furthermore, Conrad characterizes the isolation as stealing youth away from man. The Russian's comment that he is younger than he looks serves to illustrate how isolation ages man, because it takes away his innocence by whispering evil things to him.
Once man goes into the heart of his existence (savagery) it is impossible for man to return back to civilization because he gets lost and forgets what civilized means.
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This was the unbounded power of eloquence – of words – of burning noble words…at the very end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightening in a serene sky: ‘Exterminate all the brutes!’
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The quote deals with the duality of man – how man can appear benevolent and eloquent when he is internally savage and selfish. The purpose of the quote is to prove how even the most “civilized” of us can be savage. Savagery does not only apply to the natives, but to everyone. The natives embody savagery physically, but Kurtz embodies savagery emotionally and mentally.
The use of fire imagery serves to illustrate how the light of education and knowledge can quickly turn into a fire, which can consume and destory or create fear as symbolized in the lightening flash in the serene sky. The savagery is unexpectant - just like a flash of lightening. Kurtz's desire to spread "light" to the people (education) ends up illuminating his savage nature.
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The red-haired pilgrim was beside himself with the thought that at last this poor Kurtz had been properly revenged. ‘Say! We must have made a glorious slaughter of them in the bush. Eh? What do you think? Say?’ He positively danced, the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar. And he had nearly fainted when he saw the wounded man! I could not help saying, ‘You made a glorious lot of smoke, anyhow.’ I had seen, from the way the tops of the bushes rustled and flew, that almost all the shots had gone too high. You can’t hit anything unless you take aim and fire from the shoulder; but these chaps fired from the hip with their eyes shut.
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This quote is important to the theme because it reveals the paradoxical nature of the colonists. The red-haired pilgrim delights in the “bloody” defeat of the natives, but Marlow points out how the same man almost fainted when he saw a wounded man. Conrad’s purpose is to expose how what the civilized man says and actually feels are two separate things. Intellectually, the colonist delights in the defeat but mentally and emotionally the brutality of the actual defeat makes the man sick. Furthermore, Marlow’s observation that the men shot at the natives with their eyes shut and guns improperly aimed symbolizes the intellectual/moral blindness of the colonists – they don’t know/understand what they are doing.
Their improper shooting also represents how the colonists are being inefficient. They want to civilize the natives but their method (as symbolized by their shooting style) does not do anything. It looks effective, but does not actually accomplish the goal.
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All the pilgrims and the manager congregated on the awning-deck about the pilot-house, chattering at each other like a flock of excited magpies, there was a scandalized murmur at my heartless promptitude. What they wanted to keep that body hanging about for I can’t guess. Embalm it, maybe. But I had also heard another, and a very ominous, murmur on the deck below…I had made up my mind that if my late helmsman was to be eaten, the fishes along should have him.
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This quote is to prove how the civilized man is a hypocrite. He frowns upon others whom he deems are being savage, but fails to recognize his own savage appetite. He is blind to his heart of darkness.
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