Subverting the Civilising Mission in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) is often presented as one of the harshest indictments of the colonial entreprise in Africa. Yet, a large number of critics consider that it perpetuates the colonial discourse in several ways. The aim of this paper is to critically look at the colonial discourse in Conrad’s novella from a postcolonial and Marxist standpoint. To be specific, we demonstrate the limitations and contradictions of the theory of the civilising mission, which portrays Africa as the “heart of darkness” and Africans as uncivilised individuals who need to be enlightened by Europeans. The analysis concludes that, above their moral corruption, the colonists, through the atrocity of their actions and their greed, are a perfect reflection of a Western civilisation corrupted by the capitalist spirit that underpins it. In this sense, they are proof that the theory of the civilising mission is a fallacy. The real savages are those who think that they bear the light of civilisation. Black people are savages only in the Western imagination. In reality, they are the victims of the savagery, the darkness inherent in Western materialistic culture.