Religious aspects of Heart Of
Darkness
by Anna
1. Possible reasons, why J. Conrad brought in religious aspects:
The core issue of “Heart Of Darkness” is insanity and how easily a person
can change with the growing distance to his society. It’s about losing
social identity, and unmasking that this as an incredible fake.
I think, for Joseph Conrad, the belief in divinities is a sign for a less
developed culture. It is a symbol for decay and craziness and this is the
reason, why he brought in so many metaphors and similes.
 Maybe, people need something to believe in when the situation is
unbearable , because otherwise they’d get mad. The impenetrable wilderness
of the Congo made them doubt everything they thought that is important in
their lives. They saw awful and cruel things happening to them.
In “Heart Of Darkness” “civilized” people (like Kurtz seemed to be at
first) are loosing their ideals, their belief. They begin to build up a
new society, a hierarchy. This is why J. Conrad often compares Kurtz with
Jove: The megalomaniac Kurtz is the new god, he is Jove. All the blacks
and even some whites adore him. For them, he is a divine genius, but in
fact, he is insane and sick because of the madness of the jungle.
2. There are a lot of other examples for other religions:
The knitting women:
At the beginning (page 74), there were two women sitting in front of the
office, one small the other fat. They were sitting on straw bottomed
chairs and knitting black wool. I think, they represent the norns from the
nordic myth “Edda”: There, these women are sitting under the World tree
Ydrassil. By knitting wool, they create human lives and their destiny. In
this point of view, the Nordic and the Greek myths have lots of parallels:
The old Greeks believed in the three goddesses of destiny, “Tyche”,
“Moira” and ”Heimarmene”.
It seems like if they know Marlow’s fate and remind him of the significant
role he will have to play, when he enters the room.
A pitiful Jupiter:
On page 135, Conrad compars Kurtz with a pitiful Jupiter: “Some of the
pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms, two shot-guns, a heavy
rifle and a light revolver- carbine - the thunderbolts of that pitiful
Jupiter”
Kurtz is a megalomaniac: He appointes himself to be a god who rules the
jungle. In fact, it must have been very easy for him to impress the
blacks. They don’t know guns and their whole technology, so they might
believe that he is a god, because of his superiority.
Kurtz is a cruel and merciless god, he rages, kills, and exploits the
blacks, but they nevertheless obey him, because they are fascinated by his
magnificent attitude. Hardly anyone can resist him, even when he’s almost
dead and emaciated, his voice is clear as a cristal.
The pilgrims:
Page 93: “The pilgrims could be seen in knots gesticulating,
discussing. Several had still their staves in their hands. I verily
believe they took these sticks to bed with them.”
The pilgrims are the slave – drivers: They hit them with their long
sticks, humilate them and treat them like animals, which of course is
totally against the Catholic commandments! For me, they represent the
untruthfulness of imperialism and religion. They pretend to be
missionaries, to help them finding god, but in fact, they just exploit
them.
They represent the arrogance of the whites, the violation of human rights
and the injustice and the sheer greed of the imperialists.
“In my opinion, all he wants to say is, that religion starts where reason
fails and that believing is the last thing you can do, if you don’t know
what is going on.”
by Anna
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