Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Essays

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Essays Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Essay Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Essay Essay Topic: Heart Of Darkness Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is first and foremost blanketed with visual representations. One can’t appreciate the light without knowing what it’s like to be stuck in the darkness. It’s very similar with sound. It isn’t understood how soothing noise can be until caught in the silence. The accepted idea behind silence is that it is supposed to be relaxing, and noise should thus usually be a nuisance. Approaching Conrad’s Heart of Darkness from an acoustic point of view helps to enhance the juxtaposed comforts of the sounds and restlessness of the silence. The civilized areas of the world have a sense of silence in the beginning of the novella. Silence is also thought to be relaxing, whereas noise always has the potential to become a gadfly (Magnus). As the story opens, when Marlow is talking about the town of London, he describes the city as â€Å"a dead silence† and also talks about how â€Å"the wind was nearly calm† and that the â€Å"airseemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth† (Conrad 65). While this gives off the sense of a tranquil and somewhat dark city, the reality is that the city would have been filled with vibrant sounds due to its urban area. This sense of silence illustrates how the city is quite civilized, and also that it has always seemed a bit ominous to Marlow, which explains why he felt â€Å"a queer feeling . . . that [he] was an imposter† (77) when he was being seen off to the Congo by his Aunt. Marlow is attempting to maintain the idea that the silent, if not mysterious city of London, is the most civilized. The silence of the civilized also occurs during Marlow’s â€Å"quiet chat† (76) with his Aunt prior to leaving. Things seem significantly calmer before Marlow ventures off than they do when he arrives in Africa. Silence, at this point in the story, is not only a model of Western civilization, but is also used to show the matu