Within Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, Conrad illustrates the madness of the imperialistic Belgian Trading Company by the false perception of insanity exhibited by its members. The Company’s madness is first illustrated when the Manager and his uncle discuss killing the Russian to defeat any opposition they have in the jungle: “‘Certainly,’ grunted the other [the uncle]; ‘get him [the Russian] hanged! Why not? Anything--anything can be done in this country” (104). The Pilgrims working for the Company show their madness when they fire aimlessly into the jungle trying to kill as many natives as possible, as if it were some sort of game: “A fusillade burst out under my feet. The Pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush” (121). When Marlow first hears
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He did me the honour to take me under the arm and lead me aside. ‘He [Kurtz] is very low, very low,’ he said,” (142). Over time, Marlow begins to see that it is the Company who is mad, not Kurtz as he had first assumed: “It seemed to me I [Marlow] had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief--positively for relief. ‘Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,’ I said with emphasis,” (144). Marlow’s allegiance to Kurtz and his ideals leads the men of the Company to blindly begin thinking he has gone insane, and they consequently start to discredit Marlow’s statements: “My hour of favour was over; I [Marlow] found myself lumped along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound!” (144). The madness of the Company culminates in the postscriptum to Kurtz’s report where he exalts his realization that the Belgian Trading Company and their imperialistic practices are mad: “It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene scene: ‘Exterminate all the brutes!’”
He did me the honour to take me under the arm and lead me aside. ‘He [Kurtz] is very low, very low,’ he said,” (142). Over time, Marlow begins to see that it is the Company who is mad, not Kurtz as he had first assumed: “It seemed to me I [Marlow] had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief--positively for relief. ‘Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,’ I said with emphasis,” (144). Marlow’s allegiance to Kurtz and his ideals leads the men of the Company to blindly begin thinking he has gone insane, and they consequently start to discredit Marlow’s statements: “My hour of favour was over; I [Marlow] found myself lumped along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound!” (144). The madness of the Company culminates in the postscriptum to Kurtz’s report where he exalts his realization that the Belgian Trading Company and their imperialistic practices are mad: “It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene scene: ‘Exterminate all the brutes!’”