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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that analyzes Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as to how it incorporates aspects of preceding periods of British literature. The writer argues that it has aspects of the epic (the hero's journey), humanism, romanticism, but that the novel is primarily modern because of its psychological orientation. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khconrep.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
In so doing, it naturally incorporates the new with the old. This truism also applies to literature. Joseph Conrads highly psychological novel Heart of Darkness is one of
the first great works of English literature in the twentieth century, yet there are aspects of this novel that are suggestive of English literatures earliest roots. Furthermore, the content
of the novel, dealing as it does with issues of British colonial imperialism, also incorporates elements of the perspective of previous periods. An examination of Conrads narrative reveals how all
of these elements are blended into a work that is distinctly psychological; and, therefore, distinctly modern. The first period of British literature is best represented by the Old English
Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. Epic literature pictures a hero embarking on a quest and encountering obstacles, trials, that he must overcome. In overcoming all obstacles and achieving his goal, the epic
hero also discovers aspects of his own character, as he has to confront his own dark side in order to emerge completely victorious. Looking at Heart of Darkness from this
perspective turns Marlow, the narrator of the tale, into a sort of modern epic hero. Arriving in the Congo, Marlow embarks on a journey up the river to find Kurtz,
an employee of the Company who has become erratic, and bring him home. In so doing, Marlow has to face his own "heart of darkness" and he, unlike Kurtz, survives
the experience, although he emerges psychologically scarred by his confrontation with savagery. However, the heroic epic structure provides only the bare bones of this multi-layered narrative structure. It
also contains elements of humanism that would have never appeared in Old English heroic epic. The sixteenth century saw the decline of medieval values in England and the rise
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