Taylor Ladyman
English 105
Professor Timmons
September 27, 2010
“A Savage Sight”: A Life of No External Checks
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness poses the question of how life would be or how a person would act if there were no external checks or if society didn’t tell them what was right and wrong. Kurtz shows that he changes completely when he went to Africa, but Marlow, for the most part, stays about the same as he was before he left.The question is, if there were no external checks, would people be nihilistic, lack self-control, lack willpower, lack morals, and lack backbone, or would they keep their character and morals?
Life might be very chaotic if there was no societal structure and order placed on people. They could act however they wanted. They could also reject all the laws that they knew prior to going into the wild. People might do anything to get what they needed. One of the englishman said, “‘It is funny what some people will do for a few francs. I wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes up country?’”(15) This is foreshadowing the concerns of the people about those who were going into the wild. He too is questioning how people might change inwardly when nobody is there to tell them what to do.
Without laws and morals, individuals might lack self-control and willpower. They will take whatever they want without thinking twice about it. Marlow was talking about the Eldorado Exploring Expedition and said that, “It was reckless without hardiness, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage”(30). They were a band of pirates that went around and stole things from other people showing their lack of self-control and willpower.
Many of the people would have said that they were going to Africa to help the people there. In reality, they were going there just to make more money. The way that they made their money was through ivory. Marlow said that, “The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it”(23). The people going over there were very greedy; ivory and money were all they cared about and they would take it from anybody they saw.
Marlow mentions that it is hard to keep your composure when there are so many outside influences pressuring you to do the wrong thing. He said, “I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but by all the stars these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils that swayed and drove men-men, I tell you”(16). He is suggesting that with all these different “devils”-violence, greed, desire- there is no way that you won’t be tempted to do the wrong thing or act in the wrong way.
These “devils” wouldn’t just control men, they controlled women as well. Marlow went to say goodbye and visit with his aunt before he left on his boat for his trip to Africa. He said about her, “and the excellent woman living right in the rush of all that humbug got carried off her feet. She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways’”(12). She was under the same thinking that most everyone else was about the job that the Europeans were doing in Africa.
Once Kurtz would kill people, he would put their heads on sticks. When Marlow spoke about this, he said, “They [the heads] only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him-some small matter which when the pressing need arose could not be found under his magnificent eloquence”(57). Even though Kurtz could give a beautiful speech about all the good he was going to do, he was really only going to kill people. Mr.Kurtz showed a lack of restraint not only in his murderous ways, but also with the lies he was spreading about his work in Africa.
One way that Marlow described people was whether or not they had backbone. He talked about the accountant and said, “I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser’s dummy, but in the demoralisation of the land he kept up his appearance. That’s backbone”(18). Marlow spells out what he thought backbone was. He respected this man because he was in a dirty place and he could still keep his sanity and keep his appearance looking nice.
It would be hard to tell if a person had changed once they got into the wild if you were just looking at them from the outside. Before Marlow could leave for his trip, he had to go see the doctor. When Marlow got there, the doctor asked if he could measure his head so that when Marlow came back, he could measure again and record the differences, if there were any. Marlow asked why he did that and he said that is was “in the interests of science”(11). They talked about how people change from how they once were when they were civilized and then how they are once returning from the wild. The doctor was speaking to Marlow and said, “‘the changes take place inside, you know’”(11). He knew that you couldn’t notice the changes on the outside, all the changes that they had were inwardly, like their morals, their thinking, and the decisions that they made.
Prior to going to the native land, Kurtz had morals and a clear head on his shoulders. Thinking about Kurtz, Marlow said, “I was curious to see whether this man who had to come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort would climb to the top after all and how he would set about his work when there”(31). Marlow was wondering if there was a change that might take place within Mr.Kurtz whom he had heard was a man of high morals and a great work ethic. Marlow speculated that Mr.Kurtz may start to lose self-control, back bone, and restraint.
Once Kurtz had people listening to what he had to say, he could say whatever he wanted and people would still hang on every word. Marlow spoke about one of Kurtz’s speeches and said, “It was very simple and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment is blazed at you luminous and terrifying like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: ‘Exterminate all the brutes!’”(50) In this speech, Kurtz is showing that he is becoming savage. His main purpose prior to leaving was to get ivory, but that soon changed to killing the natives.
Marlow was against the way in which Kurtz was going about his job. Kurtz called what they were doing a “method.” The manager and Marlow had a discussion about the said “method”: “‘Because the method is unsound.’ ‘Do you,’ said I [Marlow]... ‘call it an ‘unsound method’?” ‘Without doubt,’ he [the manager] exclaimed hotly. ‘Don’t you?’... ‘No method at all,’ I [Marlow] murmured after a while”(62). Marlow knew that what the company was doing was wrong and he told the manager that. The manager wanted to reinforce to Marlow that Kurtz had to go. He said to Marlow, “there is no disguising the fact, Mr.Kurtz has done more harm than good to the company. He did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action”(61). Not only could Marlow see it, but so did the manager; Kurtz was becoming savage and needed to be stopped and to be taken out of the company.
On the other hand, Marlow still knew right from wrong. He didn’t like to lie and said, “You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies-which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world-what I want to forget”(27). He knew what was right and what was wrong and he knew that he would not lie.
Before Kurtz died, he realized all of the bad things that he had done. Every memory that he had about the recent things he had done came rushing back to his mind. Marlow said about him:
Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision-he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: ‘The horror! The horror!’(69)
Mr.Kurtz finally became aware that the “methods” that he used were not the ones he should have used. He realized all of the people he had hurt along the way and all of the things he shouldn’t have done and he now regrets everything he did.
In many situations, the way you act is determined by the different checks you have on your life. In college, people get wild when their parents are not there to tell them to do their homework, when to go to bed, what time to be home, etc. They start to lose their self-control and their restraint. Some of the students act more like Marlow and keep their morals and act as they should. It depends on the person and what “devils” are present in their life and which ones take hold of them.
Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. W.W. Norton: New York, 2005
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