Question+11

bOne of the obvious decisions Conrad has made in this story is to keep people, places, and events as anonymous and ambiguous as possible. Most places and characters in the story are unnamed, and the few who are named are given only one name. What effect does this have on the story and what effect does it have on the reader?

Few people in Joseph Conrad's //Heart of Darkness// have names; most places and characters are anonymous and ambiguous. For example, Marlow joins "The Company" in an ambiguous European city. The reason for this is to show the reader that this cruelty and greed existed in many cities and companies. Colonization of Africa was happening all over, not in a specific place that the reader could place the blame. Unnamed places present the story with a universal lesson that readers from all areas should apply to their own lives. Most of the people of the novel are also unnamed. They are given stereotypic identities such as "The Accountant", "The Director of Companies", "The Lawyer", and "The Manager". These characters show the upper-middle class people that Conrad is trying to reach in his story. His characters have no name so that the reader can easily see himself in that position. This gives the reader the same feeling of ambiguity as the anonymous places. It reinforces the idea that the story is meant to give the reader a retrospective look at the hypocrisy of his times. // Heart of Darkness //shows how the Europeans come to Africa to “bring the natives civilization” all while enslaving the people and taking all their precious goods. --J.P.

In addition to what Jessica has said, the one-name-only characters also add to the sense of ambiguity but in a slightly different way. While the the unnamed characters such as "The Accountant", "The Lawyer", and "The Manager" create blanks for the reader to fill in their own name, some of the named characters are symbolic of human ideologies that the reader can follow. "Kurtz" means short in German but this is ironic because Kurtz is rather tall. In fact, Marlow describes him, "Kurtz -- Kurtz -- that means short in German -- don't it? Well, the name was as true as everything else in his life -- and death. He looked at least seven feet long. His covering had fallen off, and his body emerged from it pitiful and appalling as from a winding-sheet. I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze." This plays into the fact that Kurtz represents what humanity becomes when it falls into the darkness, the darkness that Conrad believes is eternally threatening us all. On the other hand, although not immune, Marlow represents humanity when it breaks through the darkness, (and possibly into the light). For example, Marlow indicates this when he says, "Of course you may be too much of a fool to go wrong -- too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness. I take it, no fool ever made a bargain for his soul with the devil; the fool is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil -- I don't know which. Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. Then the earth for you is only a standing place -- and whether to be like this is your loss or your gain I won't pretend to say. But most of us are neither one nor the other. The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too, by Jove! -- breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated. And there, don't you see? Your strength comes in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in -- your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business." -- Niko M

Joseph Conrad keeps much of the characters and settings ambiguous in his novel Heart of Darkness. Many characters are only given names based on their professions. These anonymous characters and places contribute to the story. It gives the story an overall feeling of generality, the result being that the reader can then apply the same situations to their own world, no matter what time, place, or people by which he is surrounded. The audience is able to see how the darkness of humanity exists all around them. -Liz

Names are rarely used in Jospeh Conrad's novella, "Heart of Darkness". For example people in the novella are referred to by monikers such as: "The Helmsman", "The Russian", and "The Manager." This makes the story and the characters seem more distant. It also allows readers to form their own opinions. Feelings and images can be attatched to names. The name Dasiy makes people think of Spring and youth while the name Lucifer conjures up pictures of the Devil and Hell. Conrad did not want people associating any feelings or notions with his characters; he wanted the audience to form thier opinions based on his story. Therefore, he used few names. -Madi Lunnen

In accord with the thoughts aforementioned, Conrad's deliberate ambiguity serves to distance the reader from the novel and let the book serve as [I WILL FINISH THIS LATER]