Heart of Darkness and Modernist Narrative
- Zeynep Irmak Aggül
- Sep 29, 2024
- 5 min read
Introduction
In time there has been a variety of movements. Modernism is one of those movements that occurred between the 1900s and 1940s. The effects of movements may be seen in every area of art like music, sculpture, painting, and also in literature. Therefore, the effects of modernism may be seen in every area of art. But what is modernism? As it can be understood by its name, modernism looks for to find new ways of expression and rejects traditional or acknowledged thoughts (Cambridge University Press, 2023). While modernism rejects traditional ways, that rejection creates the need for innovations. Apart from other branches of art, in literature features of modernism can be observed in aspects of characters, time, plot, narrative, themes, etc. According to the Childs (2017: 2), Modernism is most easily comprehended through the pieces of avant-garde authors who wrote in the decades that came before and after the turn of the twentieth century. One of those modernist authors is Joseph Conrad. Joseph Conrad is frequently associated with the modernist literary movement. While his works come before the official rise of modernism as a literary style, they share many features with modernist ideas. While he has a modernist tendency to explore the dream-like destruction of reality, he also has a realist connection. Conrad captures the conflict between consciousness and the resistive environment by emphasizing action and the veracity of human sensations. His works powerfully portray humans in a visible world, emphasizing their vulnerabilities and deep experiences. One may identify the innovative features of Conrad’s works as well as modernist features. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is seen as a significant modernist work with innovative aspects, but it can be identified with the features of narrative.
Body
While traditional narrators are objective, narrators in modernism are subjective. Due to that reason, the concept of reliable narrators has changed. In traditional literature readers easily trust the narrator as it is objective, thus the reader who is reading modernist work cannot trust the narrator as it is subjective. Those subjective narrators mostly use ironies. The purpose of using ironies may make the readers think and realize some problems. Narrators in modernism may have thoughts that are not true or may have preconceptions. Apart from narrators being subjective, modernism may include multiple narrators and narrators may shift between other points of view. Those different points of view mean different thoughts, different storytelling styles, different cultures, and different usage of language as well. Apart from the narrators, in modernist literature linguistics and the use of language of the narrator also have a significant role like figurative language specifically irony.
In the beginning of Heart of Darkness readers do not know who the narrator is. There is an unknown narrator. That narrator can see everything from outside and portrays the situation. Even though the unknown narrator does not have a big role, it helps visualize the situation. That unknown narrator also makes a bridge between the story and the main narrator Marlow. Marlow is the main narrative of the story. Readers can see situations from Marlow’s eyes directly with his biases, and his thoughts from his sight. This means that those observations of him may be unreliable, as readers only can perceive things from his expressions. He is not only a narrator, but he is also a character from the story. Because of that, readers may feel closer to the narrator. Discovering everything with the character who is also a narrator may bring another level of connection between the reader and the narrator. When portraying the Congo, Marlow avoids using the language of a fresh awareness that overcomes the limitations of Western interaction with Africa. Conrad's anxiety regarding the radical nature of modernist identity and its complexity when confronted with cultural variations is reflected in this. With the multiple narrators and the switch between them also, Marlow’s unreliableness it may be said that Heart of Darkness is a modernist novel. Because of the change of the narrator readers perceive the situations easily while looking at the story from 2 different people’s points of view.
In the novella narrator mostly uses irony in order to make readers think about situations. Ravshanovna (2022: 334) states there are three types of irony which are situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony. Situational irony is the difference between what occurs and what is predicted. Dramatic irony is when a writer tells their reader something which the character does not know. Last but not least verbal irony is a declaration in which the person who speaks means something completely different than what he or she is expressing. In Heart of Darkness, the narrator uses irony lots of times. As an example of verbal irony, in the novella, Marlow mentions “civilization” in an ironic way. Europeans want to civilize native people by treating them like they are not human, not in a civilized way. This is the main example of verbal irony in the novella. Then there is a situational irony as well. One of the main examples of situational irony is the transformation of Kurtz. At the beginning of the story, he is a noble man, but then he goes through big changes and becomes someone savage and cruel. Lastly dramatic irony, readers can perceive the change of Kurtz before the narrator Marlow. To sum up, in modernist literature narrators use irony. In the Heart of Darkness there is every type of irony.
In Heart of Darkness, readers may identify plenty of inner dialogues of the narrator. Inner dialogues make deeper connections between the readers and the novella. Readers can comprehend the thoughts, emotions, and observations of the narrator easily. These inner dialogues help readers to relate to the narrator’s inner world. However, those thoughts, emotions, and observations may not be reliable as they are subjective. In the novella, Joseph Conrad uses the inner dialogue technique a lot. Marlow transfers his feelings about inhuman behaviors to native people through inner dialogues. Readers understand he feels scared while walking through the forest because of the narrator’s inner dialogue. Readers understand that Marlow tries to understand the captain when he is sad and disappointed, readers also understand that he is concerned about the captain, and he would do the same thing because of the narrator’s inner dialogue. Apart from his feelings, he is also questioning himself and the situations happening around him. He is questioning the whole humanity and all of their behaviors. With those inner dialogues of the narrator Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a modernist novella.
Conclusion
To sum up, there have been a variety of movements in literature. Modernism is one of those movements that is against traditionalism. Modernist authors also reject traditional narrators. One of those Modernist authors is Joseph Conrad. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be a good example of a modernist feature. It also features a subjective narrator and has multiple points of view, multiple narrators, every type of irony, and inner dialogues. Multiple narrators provide different points of view and help readers to see situations from another perspective. Figurative language is another feature of modernism. Figurative language involves irony. In Heart of Darkness, there are plenty of ironies and every type of irony. These features create a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty, in which it pushes the readers to think more critically about Heart of Darkness. The inner dialogue is used to create a deeper understanding of each character. Throughout the story, the reader is left to wonder about how the characters are thinking and feeling. Overall, Heart of Darkness is an innovative modernist novella when it is analyzed with the aspect of narrator.
References
Cambridge Dictionary | English Dictionary, Translations & Thesaurus. (2023).
Childs, P. (2017). Modernism. Routledge.
Ravshanovna, T. M. (2022). Different Types of Irony in Literature. Web of Scientist: International Scientific Researc Journal, 3(4), 331-337.
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