Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The Display of Victorian Values in a Context of Crisis

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2015 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Literatur, Note: 1,3, Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), Veranstaltung: Victorian Cities, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In the "Scramble for Africa" of the colonial era the British nation justified their expansion, in which they took other people's land, by claiming "a civilizing mission based on its own moral, racial, and national superiority" (The Norton Anthology of British Literature: Victorian Imperialism). In practice, however, this 'superiority' was constantly challenged. The colonial officers, who were sent to the colonies, struggled with the new environment which was different from Europe in many ways. They had difficulties in adopting to the new setting which they perceived as a "nowhere" place, a place far off from civilization where people live after their own rules. Being in the wilderness, the colonial rulers were not subjected to supervision and judicial authority like in Europe. The paper at hand seeks to explore the influence of the African setting on the colonial masters with reference to the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. The claim is that exposed to the African environment, Victorian values no longer prove valid. This thesis will be discussed with reference to the novel's protagonist Mr. Kurtz, who is depicted as a colonial agent working in the Congo for a British trading company.