Moral Conditions for Genocide in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness1, The

College Literature, Winter 2005 by Lackey, Michael

More specifically, Conrad, again like Graham, understands that the theological mentality makes genocide not just permissible, but, under certain conditions, a moral obligation. But Conrad's analysis of the dangers of the theological mentality is more comprehensive than Graham's, and as a consequence, his critique is much more convincing. The task at this point is to demonstrate how the theological mentality functions to legitimate genocide as a moral obligation in Heart of Darkness.

IV.

"it is the highest importance to know whether we are not duped by morality." (Emmanuel Levinas, 1969, 21)

Establishing epistemological superiority is the first step toward justifying genocide as moral. As Marlow claims, "[t]he inner truth is hidden" (Conrad 1996, 50), so a person must have cultivated a superior epistemological faculty in order to access the hidden truth.13 The average person will look but not see, listen but not hear, for the material world looks at us with an "air of hidden knowledge" (73).14 But for those who are in possession of a "higher intelligence" (40), the secret truth can be known. At this point, I want to examine specifically how Marlow and Kurtz construct an invulnerable and impenetrable epistemology similar to Paul's, one that they can use to ontologize themselves as superior and others as inferior.15

As Paul claims, to see spiritual things, one must be spiritual. Consequently, the spiritual person can appraise everything, including the non-spiritual person's life, whereas the spiritual person's life can be appraised by no one. Significantly, a spiritual discourse is frequently used throughout Heart of Darkness to illustrate white European superiority and black African inferiority. For instance, in his report, Kurtz claims that white Europeans must appear to "savage" Africans as "supernatural beings," individuals who could wield the might "of a deity" (Conrad 1996, 66). Given Kurtz's uncanny power to influence people's minds, it should come as no surprise that Marlow adopts his rhetoric when he describes Fresleven, the mild-mannered Dane who was killed: "The supernatural being had not been touched after he fell" (24). For Marlow, Kurtz is an incarnational bridge to the highest realities, for it is through Kurtz's "burning noble words" (66) that Marlow gets "the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence" (66). The reason why Kurtz can supposedly access higher realities is because he is specifically chosen. Marlow indicates exactly this when he asks Kurtz if he understands the "roaring chorus" of natives shouting. Notice how Kurtz and then Marlow replies: "'Do I not?' he said slowly, gasping, as if the words had been torn out of him by a supernatural power" (84). Kurtz can see what others cannot, and this is the case, Marlow suggests, because a "supernatural power" has been assisting him, tearing the words out of him like Jeremiah's God in the Old Testament and Paul's God in the New Testament. In essence, Kurtz is in the same epistemological position as Paul's spiritual man.