Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. Vol. 1. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 24)
Tibor Tóth: Conrad's 'Secret Garden'
It appeared, however, I was also one of the Workers, with a capital -you know. Something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle. 2 0 But clearly, a lower sort of apostle hasn't got the power to bring light into the darkness of the Congo, and this revelation makes him feel in a very short time a kind of imposter. When Marlow leaves Brussels for the Congo, he is witness to the real face of imperialism: Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast, there wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts [...] We gave her letters (I heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of fever at the rate of three a-day) and went on. We called at some more places with farcical names, where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an overrated catacomb There is an air of alienation and frightening absurdity surrounding the man-of-war and the colonies. In Heart of Darkness , realities outside Marlow are more important than his own reactions since he proves a deficient 'narrative filter'. Marlow, the governing narrative force, is hesitant because he is not sure that he can impart his impressions; what's more there are frequent instances when he doubts the validity of his own understanding. He is characterised by a kind of compulsive detachment, the role of which is to protect him against falling victim to the world he is trying to interpret. The distance is that between 'civilisation' and the 'primitive' world, and Marlow's is also the detachment of the present when investigating its own past. The different perspectives are used by Conrad to illustrate the complexity of the matter. Thus the realities outside Marlow become more important, and in some sense refuse the authority of the narrator over their existence (At times Marlow is refused the capacity of shaping the plot of the novella.). This explains why Marlow quite often finds it very difficult to translate what he sees. His detachment determined some critics to label the book as racist 2 0 Heart of Darkness , 21 : ' Heart of Darkness, 21 164
