Heart Of Darkness
(JOSEPH CONRAD)
Ambiguity in Conrad?s Heart Of Darkness If one tries to perform the outrageous effort of summing up the ?meaning? of Conrad?s novella ?Heart of Darkness? in a word it would be ambiguity. To achieve the ambiguity Conrad applies various literary & psychological techniques like delayed decoding, combined use of Impressionism & Symbolism, the framed narrative and the thematic concern of Colonialism adds to this. The term delayed decoding was coined by Ian Watt in which identifies Conrad?s technique of hinting at an event or thing but avoiding naming or explaining it then & there and doing it when the same surfaces later in the text. This technique teases the imagination of the reader and makes him/her guess at possibilities which are various and sometimes contradictory. Thus the ambiguity remains until it is disclosed by Conrad later. Another important device which lends to the text its ?opaline haze? is the combined use of Impressionism & Symbolism by the author. Ian Watt sees ?Heart of Darkness? as impressionist in a very special way. He says that the novella calls for individual subjective interpretations and because the understanding expected is of an experiential kind, it is subjective. He calls this ?subjective moral impressionism?. Impressionism is also present in Conrad?s approach to the visual in the text. Things are often obscured by ?layers of mist and fog? and the reader is required to look through it. Conrad has often been seen by critics as related to French Symbolists. Heart of Darkness is highly symbolist in its use of ?darkness? signifying savagery, pre-civilization Africa; ?darkness? as a symbol of negative energies and ?white, fair? as signifying the ?cultured, pure Europe?. But these categories and symbols are often questioned, inverted and their conventional meanings displaced- another cause whose effect is ambiguity. Conrad?s novella is also an example of a framed narrative- Marlow dictating a story to the un-named narrator who dictates it to us. As readers we are both made confidantes to the experience and once removed from it. This method creates an atmosphere which is conducive for receiving a bizarre tale of Marlow?s journey but there remains a doubt about its authenticity due to the story-telling. A discussion of the ?ambiguity? of the text leads us to the reason behind it. The text clearly resists and complicates a simple, unilateral reading of it. Various approaches need to be combine din order to obtain the meaning or the ?truth? of the text and while trying to reach that meaning there is an overwhelming sense of- does the meaning or truth even matter? Conrad?s theme-Colonialism is an experience which is constituted by the opposing forces of civilizing and plundering. Kurtz?s painting of the blindfolded woman holding a lighted torch aptly represents the ?civilizing? mission of Europe with the torch of religion and Christianity in the hand of Colonialism who themselves are ?blind? to its meaning and missionary ?blinded? by greed and pride of discovery. To express this theme of Colonialism with a ?torch and a sword?, Conrad could not give us a clear meaning of the experience which he wanted us to feel and think about, not pass judgments on or rather not only pass judgments on. To look at it materially, the times when Conrad was writing in where they themselves were perplexed with the effects and purpose of the ?Empire?. The civilizing mission was being debated Conrad was insightful enough to see the ?horror? of the Empire and its activities in the colonies; we should not expect him to give us a clear comprehension of this very horror. The ?layers of mist? which take in Kurtz and Marlow, the reader and the unnamed narrator; therefore, hold the meaning of the text- not in the kernel but in the haze that surrounds the glow. Thus the correct way of approaching ?Heart of Darkness? is to find meaning of the text in the process of implication itself. It would be useless to look for the meaning in the ?implied?.
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