Something I wrote when I was in High School. I won something or other for it. Keep in mind that 1) this was high school and 2) this was my first draft as I wrote it the morning it was due and never rewrote it. Typos are unique to this version, as I had to transcribe from dead-tree to digital.
The theme of Darkness is one that has been presented in many works of literature through the ages. From the darkness of evil and madness in MACBETH to the darkness of war in JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN, Darkness has been a major focus of writers.
Conrad, in his novel HEART OF DARKNESS creates a new type of Darkness, one that is far more intangible, ethereal, and terrifying than that of previous writers; a darkness of not just a man or a madness, but rather of an entire society. The illness of Victorian (or in a larger sense Western) Society is displayed in a carefully shadowed network of definitions. Conrad’s definitions are very vague, though, and the thrust is always oblique. The meaning of his work becomes clear only after careful consideration, as with most great works of literature.
Conrad’s fictional character (Marlow) is a Victorian, numbed by society to the illness and evil that is occurring. Here is the real reason that Conrad is not telling the story, but has invented Marlow to tell it for him. Conrad wants to disassociate himself from the events while retaining enough presence to react to the story as it is told. Marlow is Conrad’s shield from the horror and evil of Kurtz; he is the shield to protect Conrad from the depictions of the Victorian English in Africa. Marlow is a Victorian character trapped in the inconstant world: Africa. He cannot accept the horror and evil of society, so he passes it by, ignoring it.
To preserve the integrity of his character Conrad shows the evil to him. Marlow does have the compassion and humanity to notice the plight of Africa, but lacks the potency to act for a cause.
Coppola’s cinema depiction of HEART OF DARKNESS made a brilliant adaptation for contemporary Americans: Coppola moved the setting to Vietnam.
Americans are familiar enough with Vietnam to understand that the horrors that are shown are truly evil, much as the turn of the century Englishman would react to the horror of Africa. The point doesn’t change, it is merely adapted to fit the time.
Realizing the power of film, Coppola made APOCALYPSE NOW a vivid depiction of the horrors of war. Unlike the Victorians, Americans knew the horrors of war, so the force Coppola used was much greater than anything Conrad would dream of. Coppola used the Marlow character as a hero, representing the individual American, not a filter or a shield. Both Marlows exist for the purpose of examining the putrid wounds of the contemporary society, but Conrad’s Marlow represents society while Coppola’s represents each individual within the society.
Society, as a unit, is slow to recognize and dispel evil; often it is even the society itself that creates the evil. The individual, however, is quick to act. The individual can, with a single cut, amputate evil. Conrad’s Kurtz dies a slow, lingering death brought on over time by the illness of his society while Coppola’s Kurtz is cut down with Marlow’s blade. Coppola’s Marlow is like a High Priest of an ancient cult making a sacrifice to the blood-thirsty gods. In the case of APOCALYPSE NOW the gods are the military organization that replaced Conrad’s “company”.
Here is the focus of the Horror that Kurtz sees at death, and that Conrad’s Marlow can only guess at. the Victorian Marlow looked over the line of life and death and saw nothing. While Kurtz and Coppola’s Marlow saw the fetid carcass of a slowly decomposing social structure. Coppoal’s Marlow saw that the evil was not within Kurtz, but that he was the result of the evil within society. Kurtz was the sacrifice for the temporary preservation of society, but by a unit within society.
Society cannot move quickly enough to actually kill Kurtz; society can only allow his Horror to overwhelm him. This is why Conrad’s Kurtz dies from the jungle while Coppola’s dies by Marlow’s hand. Kurtz, to Coppola, is the “Beast of feast”, struck down by the society that nurtured and raised him, all the while knowing that in the end he would become only meat for their collective stomachs.
In either case, the real evil is not Kurtz; it is the society that created him.