Depiction Of Colonialism In The Heart Of Darkness

1350 Words6 Pages
The Ironic Depiction of Colonialism in The Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad extensively used irony in the Heart of Darkness. To comprehend how saturated this novel is with irony one has to have an understanding of the concept of irony. Merriam-Webster defines verbal irony as “the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning,” situational irony as “incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result” and Socratic irony as “a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the others' false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning” (“irony”). All forms of irony involve two opposing points. Conrad uses situational, verbal, Socratic, and other forms of irony in his portrayal of colonialism in order to expose the hypocrisy and motives of the pilgrims and colonialism itself and the dehumanization of peoples based on race. He does this while balancing conflicting points in his use of irony to remain neither in favor nor against colonialism. In order to justify colonialism, Europeans professed that their goal was to spread civilization and Christianity, but the underlying motives behind colonialism were primarily commercial. The Company in the novel is purely a business operation. The Company outwardly adopts the same goals most colonial powers and companies do, but like all of others it doesn’t fulfill them. Instead they reap massive profits off of trading and selling goods, while relying off of the free labor that they violently forced the natives into doing. Marlow had romanticized the idea of adventure and exploration, and eagerly took up a job at the company, only to later admit that: “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than
Open Document