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Unit 31: Joseph Conrad — Heart of Darkness

This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he Notes
recounts from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the
Thames Estuary, his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during
the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallel the atmosphere of the story.

31.1 Joseph Conrad—Heart of Darkness: Introduction to the Author and
to the Text

31.1.1 Introduction to the Author

Joseph Conrad grew up in the Polish Ukraine, a large, fertile plain between Poland and
Russia. It was a divided nation, with four languages, four religions, and a number of different
social classes. A fraction of the Polish-speaking inhabitants, including Conrad’s family, belonged
to the szlachta, a hereditary class in the aristocracy on the social hierarchy, combining qualities
of gentry and nobility. They had political power, despite their impoverished state. Conrad’s
father, Apollo Korzeniowski, studied for six years at St. Petersburg University, which he left
before earning a degree. Conrad’s mother, Eva Bobrowska, was thirteen years younger than
Apollo and the only surviving daughter in a family of six sons. After she met him in 1847, Eva
was drawn to Apollo’s poetic temperament and passionate patriotism, while he admired her
lively imagination. Although Eva’s family disapproved of the courtship, the two were married
in 1856.
Instead of devoting himself to the management of his wife’s agricultural estates, Apollo pursued
literary and political activities, which brought in little money. He wrote a variety of plays and
social satires. Although his works were little known, they would have tremendous influence
on his son.

A year into the marriage, Eva became pregnant with Joseph, who was born in 1857. The
Crimean War had just ended, and hopes were high for Polish independence. Joseph’s family
moved quite a bit, and he never formed close friendships in Poland.
After Apollo was arrested on suspicion of involvement in revolutionary activities, the family
was thrown into exile. Eva developed tuberculosis, and she gradually declined until she died
in 1865. The seven-year-old Conrad, who witnessed her decline, was absolutely devastated.
He also developed health problems, migraines and lung inflammation, which persisted throughout
his life. Apollo too fell into decline, and he died of tuberculosis in 1869. At age eleven, Joseph
became an orphan.
The young boy became the ward of his uncle, who loved him dearly. Thus began Joseph’s
Krakow years, which ended when he left Poland as a teenager in 1874. This move was a
complex decision, resulting from what he saw as the intolerably oppressive atmosphere of the
Russian garrison.
He spent the next few years in France, mastering his second language and the fundamentals
of seamanship. The author made acquaintances in many circles, but his “bohemian” friends
were the ones who introduced him to drama, opera, and theater. In the meantime, he was
strengthening his maritime contacts, and he soon became an observer on pilot boats. The
workers he met on the ship, together with all the experiences they recounted to him, laid the
groundwork for much of the vivid detail in his novels.
By 1878, Joseph had made his way to England with the intention of becoming an officer on
a British ship. He ended up spending twenty years at sea. Conrad interspersed long voyages
with time spent resting on land.

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