Imperialism

INTRODUCTION One of the greatest novels of England. On surface it’s a tale of mystery and adventure

but if we go deeper in it, its a story of man’s symbolic journey into his own inner being.

It was written in 1899 and was initially published in serial form in Blackwood’s magazine.

It was first published as a book in 1902. Conrad had said about his novel to Blackwood: “The title I m thinking of is The Heart of

Darkness but the narrative is not gloomy. The criminality of inefficiency and pure selfishness when tackling the civilizing work in Africa is the justifiable idea. The subject is of our times distinctly ”

DEFINITIONS:

“The policy of extending a nation’s authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations ”

“The action of powerful country that tries to gain control and influence over the economic, political and social life of weaker countries.”

How Conrad has perceived Imperialism?

“sea and sky are welded together without a joint”

Conrad has used metaphors from industry to describe the natural world. It is a method of control, a way of reaching out to control the natural world. In the same way imperialism is presented as reaching out to control and dominate the world.

The comparison between two types of Imperialism

“What saves us is efficiency-the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps [Romans] were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising form the weakness of others. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder of a great scale, and men going at it blind.”

Then at other point when Marlow, his narrator, sees the map of Africa, he comments about some other imperialist power in these words: “There was a vast amount of red-good to see at any time because one knows that some real work is done in there.”

In these lines Conrad seems to oppose only selfish and wasteful imperialism like that of Roman’s while appears to justify the second imperialist power on grounds that it is “efficient” and conducted according to some unspecified “idea”.

•The word “efficiency” is directly linked with imperialism.

•Congo was ruled by King Leopold II of Belgium. He didn’t pay any attention to its development and instead of this he used his cruel system of forced labor to extract sources of wealth; ivory and wild rubber. So, his rule was inefficient.

THE MAJOR EXAMPLES OF INEFFICIENCY

BUILDING OF RAILWAY: While telling us about the building of railway, Conrad gives

us picture of death and decay. When Marlow arrived at first station he saw “a boiler wallowing in the grass…an undersized railway truck on its back with the wheels in air…the thing looked dead as the carcass of some animal…. Pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails” ad says about the work of building “objectless blasting was all the work going on. ”

INADEQUACY OF CURRENCY SYSTEM: Marlow tells us that the company “had given them [the

employees] every week three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long; and the theory was they were to buy their provisions with that currency in river-side valleys ”

This shows that they have no currency and the wages were paid in form of brass wires which they used as their currency.

GENERALIZED SATAEMENT OF MARLOW:

Conrad and has narrator Marlow both favored the second type of imperialism on the grounds that it was efficient. But Conrad doesn’t sanctioned them absolutely so he generalized his statement about imperialism as Marlow says:

“The conquest of earth, which mostly means taking it away form those who have a different complexion and slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.”

So, Conrad opposed imperialism in general, of whatever type, because in conquering foreign people, it violated their culture.

IDEA BEHIND IMPERILAISM The “idea” of European imperialism on Africa is

to civilize the NATIVES. The print media at that time was telling this lie

and affected by this, Conrad’s Aunt also says him that he will be “weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways”

Conrad during course of his story changed his view and rejected efficiency as standard of Heart of darkness. At least, in practice he subscribed moral values more fundamental than efficiency.

Kurtz came to Africa with the “idea” to “civilize the Africans.” Kurtz had came to Africa as an apostle of civilization, a member of “gang of virtue” and as an emissary of “pity, science and progress”, but his morality disappeared when his trade goods exhausted, he began to use a local tribe to ransack the country for ivory.

CONRAD’S COMMENTS ABOUT THE ELDORADO EXPLORING EXPEDITION

“To tear treasure out of the bowels of land was their desire, with no moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into the safe.”

This statement is also generalized. It is about the imperialist powers that they are only ruling Africa for the ivory and the moral or philanthropic concern (which they show to have) is only to betray the world.

As Conan Doyle, a writer, believed that “The most deadly of all the many evils which has arisen from Leopold’s mission to Africa, was that ‘the word of piety and philanthropy…cloaked…dreadful deeds.”

CONRAD’S COMMENTS ABOUT THE NIGGERS

Marlow responds to African drums and acclaims his kinship with them in lines:

“..the men were- No, they were not inhuman….They howled and leaped and spun and make horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity- like yours- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.”

Through this Conrad asks us to remember that the Africans are human being and not criminals, enemies or beasts. With this understanding Belgian exploitation would be seen for what it was, man’s inhumanity to man, not, as many believed to a sub-human species. It is the mark of maturity of Conrad’s art that he awakened readers to the horrors of Belgian imperialism on the basis of broad emotional feelings-portraying imperialism as inhumanity to man and as a quest for wealth which destroyed life.

CONRAD’S COMMENTS ABOUT PILGRIMS

Pilgrims went there to preach religion to natives and make them civilized but Marlow says that they never did their job. Instead they were also in search of ivory.

“There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came out of it, of course. It was unreal as everything else- as the philanthropic pretence of whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they would earn percentages.”

CONCLUSION This journey was physical as well as psychological for

Conrad. It causes “mental change of individual”, as the doctor said to Marlow when he told him of going to Congo.

The whole journey changed Conrad and Marlow’s point of view towards imperialism and in relation to this Jonah Raskin, minister of education at Yippies has expressed his point of view in The Mythology of Imperialism (1971). This book concludes that both Conrad and his narrator Marlow were so changed by that journey of Congo that they turned against imperialism, not only there, but everywhere.

Conrad was also a victim of imperialism and thus hated the occupying powers. That is why he is sympathetic to Africans, although using the language of his times, he calls them “niggers” and “savages”, but he feels that unlike the imperialists, “they wanted no excuse for being there”. He doesn’t view them as noble, but he finds that, in comparison with the wickedness of Kurtz, their “their pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist- obviously- in the sunshine.” He sees them as prehistoric but finds their “humanity- like yours.”