On Morbid Writing In Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

As an enduringly popular work in literary history, Heart of Darkness has its distinctive narrative techniques which help to arouse tremendous interest of readers and scholars across the world. This thesis aims to make a study of its morbid narrative methods which give rise to the force of clash and tension to this novel and help to advance the plots. This novel is also endowed with strong vitality by its special narrative techniques.Morbidness in Heart of Darkness can find its root in many aspects. In the first place, it lies in the characters whose characteristics and behaviors are quite eccentric and further results in physical illness or mental disorder. Under the pressure of their illness and disorder, the characters behave very inappropriately and end up with miserable outcomes. Some of them are sensitive, suspicious and restless, and tend to share a paranoid personality showing hostility and distrust to their surroundings; others are unsociable and isolated to outside world, and are likely to indulge themselves in illusion and also lack of strong feelings and passion, belonging to the group of disintegrated personality; some others possess the character of narcissistic personality carrying the feature of jealousy, arrogance and non-sympathy while sticking to success, power, money and fame; there are also some other people who have dependent personality, making a request for occupation and ownership excessively, unquestioningly or even irrationally.In addition, morbidness has marked the character with fragmentation, dispersibility and unreliability. Two different narrative voices are created by Conrad in Heart of Darkness, stirring up great conflicts and confrontations which happen to build up the personal interaction making his narrative more attractive and trustworthy. In this way, the frame narrator and the inner narrator can hold each other up, which also offers many readers enough room for imagination and creative thinking.Thirdly, the portrayal of abnormal characters and the choosing of fragmentary narrative strategies contribute to the presentation of the dark themes involving death and evil. In brief, there is no normal and sound person in this work, being sick or paranoid ending up with a tragic destiny. However, the shattered narration given by two different narrators provides readers not only with a fragmentary but also with a complementary story which happens in a setting surrounded by the sea and the jungle, full of horror and mystery. All these factors serve to uncover the dark side of human nature which is under the mask of enlightenment and instruction, and also serve to question the so-called western civilization. The success of Heart of Darkness is that it invites a variety of interpretations of clashing opinions within a web of incompatible impressions and prevents the reader from closing the debate on the meaning presented within the narration by Marlow.