How Much Can be Determined?

People often have the misconception that you need to know every single fact in order to know everything. However, life teaches them otherwise.  Often times the most important things are those that go by unsaid, and such is the case with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. As you embark on the journey of attempting to read and understand this ironic novel, you often start to wonder just what exactly the author means to tell us. As a reader, you are left wondering whom exactly Marlow is, what his views on slavery are and what he is really trying to accomplish. By using irony as the literary device that steers this novel, he persuades his readers to second-guess every action and situation Marlow encounters, allowing them to make reflections upon their own lives.

One of the first surprises one encounters in this intriguing novel is that the original narrator is not the one actually telling the story. He is recounting a story told to him by the real narrator, Marlow. This use of expected vs. actual situation irony makes the reader start to question many elements of the novel. If we are not even aware of who the actual narrator is, what can we be sure of?

Marlow´s attitude towards the natives also raised a lot of questions. It is unclear whether Conrad is being ironic when he talks about the European’s ¨noble task¨ or when he says that the blacks are not all that different. One thing that is clear is that Marlow is shocked by the things he saw in Africa, and that is the reason why the story is being told in the first place. But, where is he going with it? What does he intend to show the others on the boat by retelling his own experiences? What should we, as readers, expect from the book? What are Conrad´s true intentions?