Analytical essay about (Heart of Darkness 4th edition ) Research Paper

Analytical essay about (Heart of Darkness 4th edition ) - Research Paper Example The main character of the book is Marlow, who sits on the deck of a ship becalmed on the Thames until the tide should turn within these early pages. The time setting is just at sunset and the imagery that presents itself to the men on the boat seems to naturally put them into a reflective state of mind. The narrator of this early section, identified only by the reflective pronoun 'I', even points out that each of the men were too involved in their own thoughts to be interested in playing a game of dominoes that one of them had brought out. The scene as it presents itself to Marlow calls to mind the deep and disturbing memories and ideas that he gained as a fresh-water sailor working in the Congo. Thus, the imagery of this opening scene does a great deal to inform the reader of the ideas Conrad is trying to convey regarding imperial conquest. As can be seen in the above quote, the scene painted for the reader is not the peaceful image one might expect a writer to create given the calm scene. The men are lying about on a ship's deck with nothing to do. The ship itself is described as calm, "without a flutter of her sails" (Conrad, 1). Within this scene, "the water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds" (Conrad, 2). Even the barges moving upstream are seen as standing relatively motionless by the narrator. "The tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished spirits" (Conrad, 2). Imagining this kind of scene, there seems no room for anything that isn't peaceful and calming. The narrator's words illustrate an almost magical timelessness, a place where nothing unpleasant might harm you. However, there are hints at a darkness lying at the heart of this pleasant scene. These ar e found as the narrator describes the change in color of the sunlight from a "glowing white" to a "dull red without rays and without heat" (Conrad, 2). What this imagery indicates is a place once full of hope and light and an ability to warm others has changed to something incapable of reaching out, cold and sullen. It is so close to lifelessness that it is even threatening to " go out suddenly, stricken to death" (Conrad, 2). Even more of the metaphor is exposed when the narrator identifies the cause of the sun's sudden ailment as "the gloom brooding over a crowd of men" (Conrad, 2). This gloom is present in physical form as the narrator describes the dark gathering in the west, "brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun" (Conrad, 2). Thus, the scene is lovely and peaceful as long as one only chooses to look in specific directions as one direction suggests something ominous. The imagery of light and dark is also broug ht out in direct relation to man and his activities throughout history. As this opening scene is presented, the narrator describes his reverence for the Thames because of the history and greatness that have been carried out with its assistance. "We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs forever, but in the august light of abiding memories" (Conrad, 2). These