Joseph Conrad’ ın Karanlığın Kalbi adlı Eserinde Batı İdeallerinin ve Değerlerinin Bozulması ve Ayrışması

Abstract

The turn of the twentieth century was a time of tremendous progress in several different fields. Yet, this progression brought about the destruction of established norms and systems without offering a feasible alternative. It created a devastating effect on modern man causing a sense of dislocation, a loss of faith, a chaotic and meaningless life, and total disorder throughout Europe. Joseph Conrad explored this decay and decomposition of values and ideals in his novella Heart of Darkness. A thorough analytical examination of this work can provide valuable insight into its revolutionary contribution to literature. The purpose of the present paper is to bring an analytical approach to the gradual decay and decomposition of Western Society in Conrad's fiction. The novel will bring the alienation and dehumanization into the open. Therefore, as will be seen, Conrad's literary work suggests that western ideals and values are deceptive. The study also argues that, as an attempt to bring morality, the "civilizing mission" brutalizes both colonizers and colonized alike due to its essential hypocrisy.

Subverting the Civilising Mission in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

“…By suggesting that the brutal European colonisers and mainly Kurtz are pathological cases, Marlow merely points out an anomaly of colonisation but does not fundamentally question the validity of the colonial discourse. Many critics 4 of Heart of Darkness fall into the trap of Marlow's Eurocentric view, as they repeat the simplistic idea that the story of Kurtz is "about how a civilised man can change to savagery when there is no restriction" (Moore 127). This standpoint relativises the savagery of Kurtz.…”