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'

Through Marlow, Conrad adopts a central observer, a first person narrator in the Jamesian mode. The perspective is intended to support the British, and the universal implications of imperialism and its dehumanising effects on the representatives of both the 'civilised' and the 'primitive' world. If on one level Heart of Darkness is a serious commentary on imperialism, on another level it is an exciting story providing a comprehensive, believable, yet unsettled exploration of the human soul. Marlow's tone sounds honest, because he quite often reminds us of his limits in understanding and interpreting the world he set to explore. He lies though in the course of the novel (when he intimidates the brickmaker, to Kurtz, to the Russian, and to Kurtz's fiancée), but he is trying to be as honest as possible when relating the story of the white man in dark Africa. It also should be noted that Marlow is an Englishman who finds a job with a Belgian imperial company in Africa providing the contemplation of the problems of racism, colonialism and nation extended to international, universal dimensions. The Thames becomes the symbol of this universal quality having strong British implications when at the opening of the novella, Marlow, the omniscient participant narrator, refers to the river crossing London by saying that: The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of the day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth.

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8 The tranquil dignity at the decline of the day could easily be associated with the state of the British Empire as inteipreted by many of the Victorians. The spatial extension suggested by the above lines is joined by an extension in time from present to past, as if anticipating the meanings of the story that follows. Marlow puts the imperialism of the British in line with that of the Romans, and he formulates quite a serious criticism of Roman colonialism and colonialism in general: 1

8 Heart of Darkness, 8 162