In the song above,
Rachel Sermanni tells the story of a woman who is caught when the darkness of
her heart is at its most powerful moment.
“Mercy, mercy, I’ve
been caught lying with my darkest thought.” As I continue reading Heart of
Darkness, I have begun to discover what is behind the title of the novel, and
why this meaning is so crucial to the understanding of the book. One of the interpretations that can be given
to the title is literal: The Heart of Darkness is the center of the African
wilderness they are trying to penetrate. Darkness in this case, would mean
under-development, uncivilized people, wilderness, and literal darkness within
the forest. The second interpretation of the title is, to me, much more
important to the work. The Heart of Darkness is the heart of every single
person within the story; it is the heart of anyone reading the story as well. The
song Fog by Rachel Sermanni delves
into the same aspect of humanity and how each person reacts to different
circumstances. This song and the book are exploring the dark side of the human
heart, and what conditions are needed for us to act on its impulses rather than
on our lighter, rational thoughts.
“He’d be richer if he
just became a thief,” says Sermanni of a little boy that sings for money in the
streets of her neighborhood. At the beginning of Part 2 of Heart of Darkness,
Marlow eavesdrops on a conversation in which it is revealed that The Company
believes Kurtz is stealing Ivory. When we relate this conversation to the song,
a new question begins to form inside our heads: Is Kurtz and evil person, or are
his circumstances forcing him to act upon his darker impulses? Abandoned in the African country, it is
impossible to think that Kurtz would remain completely sane, and thus he cannot
be qualified as a “bad guy” in the book.
The African natives
are also in a situation in which they have been forced to attack colonizers because
of the damage they have done to their lives. As they become more and more human
to Marlow, the Africans become more “right” in the reader’s eyes. After all,
who would not fight back in that situation?
Furthermore, there is
no way to even understand who the “bad guys” are in the novel, mostly because
Conrad has made the line murky. Kurtz is evil to The Company and to the
natives, because of what he has done in Africa and the success he’s having. The
Company is evil to the African natives because it has conquered their land. The
natives are evil to The Company because they are rebelling against their rule
and attacking them from within the fog. Western civilization is evil to us as
we read the book because no one does anything about the brutality in Africa.
And on and on it goes.
How can right and
wrong be defined? In reality, it all depends on point of view. The only thing
we can be sure of as we continue to read this novel, is that there are certain
circumstances, like the one Kurtz is in; like the one of the oppressed natives;
and like the one of all the colonizers, in which acting on rational thoughts
and looking for the light within the human heart is impossible.
“The din creeps ‘neath
my skin and I can’t hear no goodness speak.”
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