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'

companies and the local authorities. The central station is a nest of 'pilgrims' who are only interested in one idol and that is ivory: There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it of course. It was unreal as everything else - as the philanthropic pretence of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. They intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on that account - but as to effectually lifting a little finger i "27 - oh, no. Ivory becomes a leitmotif; it is to the Congo what silver is to Costaguana in Nostromo. It is the actual raw wealth, but it also has a symbolic application. Ivory is dead matter which is still shiny, expressing the paradox of Western civilisation in that it is certainly more often worshipped and it affects the situation in the Congo more than the 'civilised' man's by now lost faith in the Almighty. The object of Marlow's 'pilgrimage' is Kurtz, who is put on a kind of pedestal by those referring to him, and during the three-month stay at the Central Station Marlow becomes a kind of disciple to a deity of his own making. Kurtz becomes the anticipation of spiritual comfort, but Marlow realises that the Adam he had hoped to find is, in fact, a • 28 Cain. Kurtz abandons his faith and 'civilisation' although his greed for power and material wealth stems from recent developments of that world's distorted sense of what is right and what is wrong. He may have been successful in the ivory trade, but he becomes a captive of the Congo. He is the victim of the psychological and cultural anxieties caused by his attempt to cross the shadow-line into a more 'primitive' culture. Marlow's admission that he had been robbed of belief is also a verdict on the civilisation of which Kurtz has been representative. It is a situation symptomatic of Conrad, since as we have already mentioned, Conrad remained aware all his life of the plight of the perpetual border-dweller, and he classified himself as 'homo duplex'. The psychological implications allow for the 2

7 Heart of Darkness, 39 2

i Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan, 100 167