Complicity in Heart of Darkness

Résumé du document

On November 15 1884, the representatives of fourteen European powers and a plethora of ambassadors gathered in Berlin to decide the fate of colonial Africa. From 1884 to 1909, 5 to 21 million Africans (about 50% of the population of the Congo Basin) perished. Such collective palliation of the crimes of humanity was called by some "a whitewashed official complicity in political spheres". Along with this, it is important to note that Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, serialized in 1899, holds a central position in what is defined as "colonial literature", developing on a number of different themes, European imperialism and shared complicity in particular. The hushed complicity we can observe in Heart of Darkness involves the protection of a common secret, leading to the covering up of a joint guilt. However, to properly understand the complicity, we should bear in mind that it is rooted in a complex relationship of proximity and mutual understanding.

Extraits

[...] He has now, a “choice of horrors”. Once, that stage attained, he is ready to accept Kurtz as someone like him in spite of the distance between them. Understanding Kurtz removes the need to be entirely like him in order to be his accomplice. Thus, Marlow's remark seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust I also was part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings” is in a way proleptic about what happens between him and Kurtz at the end Complicity, organized hypocrisy, guilt: 1. [...]

[...] Negative factors of unity are numerous greet, hatred, fear. Thus, the only possible connector between Marlow and the others is what Marlow witnesses in Africa. He sees that, he cannot accept this “isolation amongst all these men with whom had no point of contact for it “seemed to keep [him] away from the truth of things In that sense, to discover the truth and complete his initiatory voyage, he has to take his share of participation in a crime against humanity, in that “aggravated murder on a great scale” about which no one talks. [...]

[...] Thus, we all have the guilty complicity of an involved observer who discovers the truth; we are thrown into the “extremity of an impotent despair”. We all knit together the black narrative of guilt; knowing where the true “heart of darkness” lies, we, the readers, are made unwilling accomplices of past crimes. We are constantly haunted by Marlow's narrative. We become part of the community of those who can not call themselves guilty of a crime which cannot be confessed but those who feel the weight of a murky heritage. [...]

[...] We should not ignore the similarities between the experiences of Marlow and Conrad the fascination for maps, the voyage along the Congo, the slow progress through the jungle, sharing the same profession, etc Marlow's rhetoric: a master story-teller, eloquent and able to draw listeners into his tale. His tone is familiar. He uses colloquial expressions stopped you tell and instantly establishes a relationship between the and which may stand for characters and readers alike “Imagine live The reader has the impression that Marlow thinks in the same way at first, only to be given later another version of reality and perplex. In spite of this hesitation however, the reader is caught in the narrative and is willing to bear with Marlow The nature of complicity 1. [...]

[...] The “whited sepulchre” is the center of complicity and the two women seem to be its guardians, knitting human fate but never revealing it. They too are guilty of the crime of hiding, hiding it under appellations like cause of progress”, “emissary of light”, they even gather evidence for the hypocrisy of imperialism and for what happens in Africa Shared guilt and the impossibility of relief: what causes this complicity is the understanding of the other. Marlow knows why the other Europeans feel as they do. [...]