Heart of Darkness Illustration Analysis #2

“I pulled myself together and spoke slowly.

“‘The last word he pronounced was—your name.’

“I heard a light sigh and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. ‘I knew it—I was sure!’... She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn’t he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark—too dark altogether....” (71).

I believe that this illustration perfectly resembles the interaction between Marlow and Kurtz’s fiancée. The woman illustrated was “all in black, with a pale head”. She was wearing black, because she was in mourning. And even though it was more than a year since Kurtz’s death, for her “he had died only yesterday” (69). Even though, Kurtz’s fiancée does not look like a normal human being, she still looks very attractive with the feminine body shape, long eyelashes and beautiful lips. Kurtz’s intended has just one eye and it happens to be closed. I believe that it was intentional, because she does not want to see the fact that maybe she was not so important to Kurtz. “He needed me! Me!” she says to Marlow and this is where out protagonist decided to lie and agree with her, even though he “detests, and can’t bear a lie”.

The illustrator has two separated clouds around Marlow. The first one is the truth that he knows and the second one is the lie about Kurtz’s last words. Kurtz’s fiancée would simply not be able to handle the truth.

Marlow’s eyes are also very interesting. They are empty and full of darkness. Clearly, Marlow is very depressed and disappointed in life.

Marlow’s body is turned towards Kurtz’s fiancée; however she doesn’t even look at him. She seems to have this “I’m better than you look” on her face. She likes to live in her own little world, where Kurtz loves and cares about her. However, Marlow fights his beliefs not to break her heart; he does that to help Kurtz. 

"Heads on the Stakes"

Our group was inspired by a passage on page 53: “I had no idea of the conditions, he said: these heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing. Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers – and these were rebels.”

This is a very crucial part in Heart of Darkness, because the protagonist realizes that Kurtz is not that perfect as he was described earlier in the book. Marlow says that Kurtz had “heads on the stakes” right in front of his house (52). Even though our picture looks very unreal with the snow with a bunch of leaves and sticks on top, it is still really creepy and terrifying. Obviously, it would have been even scarier with actual human heads on sticks. This barbaric action just proves one more time that Kurtz is mentally unstable. 

Kurtz's Voice

When Kurtz says "My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river"(44), he almost sounds like the Gollum from Lord of the Rings, when he holds that ring. The ivory is very “precious” for Kurtz. He is controlled by these material objects. I believe that he will start on a hysterical note and then he will calm down and almost whisper. 

Making Narrative Predictions: Kurtz's Station

     The reader first finds out about Mr. Kurtz on page 15. He is “a first-class agent” and he is in charge of an important “trading post” (16). Marlow doesn’t understand how Mr. Kurtz has so much ivory.  The business is quite sketchy, and something is wrong. However, people respect Mr. Kurtz a lot.

     The accountant believes that Mr. Kurtz “will go far” (16).  He also seems to be quite afraid of the boss; he asks Marlow to tell Mr. Kurtz that “everything here is very satisfactory” (16). The accountant is not the only one who is afraid of Mr. Kurtz. On page 19 the reader gets to know the manager. The manager “fidgeted on his chair a good deal” and then later “he broke the stick of stealing wax”, which means that he is very nervous about this subject (19).  This interaction was indeed very futile, because the manager was afraid to say something wrong about Mr. Kurtz.  However, Marlow believes every single word and he starts to like this ambitious man. People almost seem to be obligated to give a good feedback about Mr. Kurtz.

     Mr. Kurtz knows and understands people really well. The Europeans want the power and the wealth, which is why everyone really wants to work for Mr. Kurtz. He gives people an opportunity to earn money, however he is the one who dictates the rules.

     I think that Mr. Kurtz treats the natives quite well, because they do so much work for him. The painting is also very self-explanatory. He basically painted “Lady Justice”. I believe that Mr. Kurtz gives the natives some hope and freedom, and then he uses them to get even richer. I don’t think that Mr. Kurtz is very sincere in his actions. I believe that he had good intentions at the beginning, but later he got the “gold fever” and his "nerves went wrong" (45). He became really paranoid about his achievments, he repeats again and again "my intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my - " (44). Everyone really believed that Mr. Kurtz was the future, but sadly he lost control over his actions.

Heart of Darkness Illustration

    “It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea. All their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (13).

     The image is black and white to convey the tone of the book. Indeed, it would not be appropriate to use any colors. This is a perfect illustration for Heart of Darkness because Joseph Conrad really focuses on the black color in this book: “A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long black arms.”

     Even though, the illustration is very detailed, when it comes to the natives’ faces - it is really hard to see their facial features, especially the eyes. If you look closely, you can see that the artist did not bother to paint the actual eyes, instead he has a few blurry dark circles. Even though, the eyes are the windows to your soul, we can’t actually see anything in their eyes but the darkness.  

     The pain and sorrow are killing the “unhappy savages” from the inside. They are not only suffering from the emotional pain, but they also had to deal with the diseases and the starvation. Even though, the people on this image have weapons, “these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies”. They are so vulnerable, sick and depressed that they would not be able to harm you in any way. They don’t live; they just exist and wait for the end.