On Binary Oppositions In Heart Of Darkness

Joseph Conrad, a British novelist of Polish origin, occupies a prominent positionin the history of literature. He is widely regarded as a writer with contradictory andperplexing forms and values. Similar to other writers, Conrad was influenced by theideas of his day. Living in the transitional period from Victorian to Modernistliterature, Conrad is both conservative and subversive. His most famous novel, Heartof Darkness is one of the most controversial texts, and it is a tale full of ambivalenceand contradictions, which has attracted the attention of many critics to adopt variousapproaches to analyze it.Based on previous researches done on this work from such perspectives asnarrative techniques, psychological, colonialism, feminism and so on, this thesis takesthe approach of binary oppositions, and through contrasts of the narrativetechniques, colors, characters, and themes, Conrad’s ambivalent views to men andwomen, morality and western civilization become clear. On the one hand, as hisspecial identity, Conrad vindicates the male–dominated society, and defends for thewhites and their society. On the other hand, Conrad realizes women’s non–ignorablepower and the dark side of the whites and The Western Civilization. In spite ofConrad’s ambivalent ideas, compared with other writers at his time, he begins toawaken, and it can be concluded that Conrad stands in a just position. In addition,Conrad’s description of the blacks’ miserable condition implies his sympathy to theblacks and his disagreement with western civilization.Facing the consequences of The Western Civilization, Conrad begins tocontemplate the negative aspect of it, and moreover, his concern for civilizationarouses his worry of morality. Therefore, Conrad looks forward to a moralredemption. On the whole, Heart of Darkness reveals Conrad’s humanistic feelings,which is the greatness of this novel, and it is the reason why this novel comes to beranked as a classic.