Heart of Darkness-- Writing Style and Imagery

Heart of Darkness centers around the protagonist Charlie Marlow, a seemingly loquacious individual who talks about his past journey/travel(s) to his four friends, or rather, four anonymous listeners as they are seen through the point of view of the reader due to them being identified only by their said professions (an accountant, a director of companies, and a lawyer) during the beginning of the story; the main narrator being the only individual out of the five friends that is not identified at all. What makes this novel unique is the way it is told; Joseph Conrad chose to tell this story through the perspective of two different narrators. The nameless narrator -- who begins the story -- narrates what goes on during the story's main setting, which is set in a boat referred to as the "Nellie", located in the mouth of the Thames with the five friends on-board. Charlie Marlow as mentioned before, narrates his own stories, while the aforementioned narrator and the three other individuals listen.
The use of two separate narrators (both whom speak in first-person) not only provides for a unique reading experience that allows the reader to see the point of view of two different narrators in different (time/place) settings, but also allows for a unique style of imagery that breaks the boundary between Marlow's stories and the actual setting of the story through the narration of the unnamed narrator. For example, several times in Part 1, Marlow would pause from talking and the anonymous narrator would alert the reader of Marlow's pauses with such comments like: "He paused", "He broke off", "Marlow began again", etc. While these shifts between narrators might seem minor, they do or can allow the reader to picture Marlow telling his story while pausing at times, as a normal person would; something that not all books allow.
Imagery itself is a major literary element found in this book. This can be noted as soon as you begin reading the story because it immediately starts out with the unnamed narrator describing his surroundings, such as how he says, "A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth". With this quote alone, you can envision the gloomy or foggy atmosphere surrounding the narrator and the town of Gravesend. The use of imagery is also used a lot by Marlow, such as when he describes some Africans he sees by saying, "I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking". With this quote, you can easily picture the cadaverous appearance of these black prisoners and the way they are treated by picturing the chain and iron collars around them. Judging from Part 1 of the story, imagery will continue to be a major element later on.
posted by Anthony M.