Related Titles and Adaptations
His first novels, Almayer’s Folly (1895) and An Outcast of the Islands (1896), established Conrad as an observer of persons under stress, self-destructive aliens in a luxurious but decaying...
View ArticleIdeas for Reports and Papers
1. Critics have pointed out that Marlow’s journey is a descent to the underworld, similar to Dante’s in The Divine Comedy. Explain the critics’ position. 2. Watch the film Apocalypse Now and compare it...
View ArticleTopics for Discussion
1. Because of his experiences in Poland, Conrad hated totalitarianism. What evidence do you see of this hatred in Heart of Darkness? 2. Marlow opens his story by saying that, during Roman times,...
View ArticleSocial Sensitivity
The combined exploitative forces of capitalism and imperialism are the objects of Conrad’s social criticism in Heart of Darkness. Conrad focuses his moral irony on the hollow conventions through which...
View ArticleLiterary Qualities
Conrad uses a variety of techniques to advance his narrative and to imbue it, like a parable, with a quality of universality derived from specific experience. The technique of the narrative frame,...
View ArticleThemes and Characters
Heart of Darkness is a tale of many voyages. Charlie Marlow’s voyage into the depths of the “Dark Continent” parallels his voyage into the heart of an immense darkness, into the collective...
View ArticleOverview and Setting
Overview In 1890 Conrad sailed to the Belgian Congo. More than a decade later, he reworked his memories of this trip into his novella Heart of Darkness, a highly symbolic work that explores social and...
View ArticleAbout the Author
Joseph Conrad was born Teodor Jozef Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski near Berdyczew, Poland, on December 3, 1857. His father was an idealist-a poet, translator of Shakespeare, and Polish patriot whose...
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