In Joseph Conrad’s passage from Heart of Darkness, the narrator, Marlow, uses colorful language to help readers understand his view of nature. “ The air was warm, thick heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine.” These few sentences can help the reader easily understand what the surroundings are like and what the narrator feels through the negative words he uses such as, “warm,” and “sluggish. Not only does the author of this passage give us a clear view of what Marlow is seeing and by the detailed language, but he also uses diction and figurative language to express the attitude of Marlow.
Personification is one type of figurative language that Conrad uses to really give readers a clear image of the darkness of the surrounding plant life. At one point Marlow describes how the nature he is surrounded by brings back memories from the past and says that, “It looked at you with a vengeful aspect…” This personification does not bring a sense of tranquility or joy, rather , it’s an unnerving sentence that gives a very different view of nature than what is usually portrayed in most stories. The entire landscape as a whole seems to be haunting. It seems to be the hunter and Marlow the prey.
Conrad also uses similes to show what Marlow feels during his trek inside the maze of thick foliage. He starts by describing the vast amount of tall trees that are, “…hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico.” He goes on to say that, “ It made you feel very small, very lost…” Although he describes the boat being like a beetle, he starts describe how he feels as though he also is the beetle. This is not altogether a bad thing because small creatures can easily pass by without much harm done to them. While feeling lost and small he says, “ yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling.”
