Guy Tiphane
Dr. Davaran
EN 216
May 29, 2002

The Double Standard of Restraint in Heart of Darkness

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the protagonist and narrator Marlow describes situations in the heart of Africa where the concept of “restraint” is challenged several times not only as the ultimate sin of Kurtz in the performance of his work for the company, but also in the readers’ expectations about the natives. By describing the absurd situations created by the colonization, Conrad challenges the “civilized” view of the “savage.”

When Marlow’s steamer is stopped in the dense fog and strange sounds are heard, he is surprised at the fact that his crew of hungry cannibals did not eat him and the pilgrims. He first tries to attribute it to how unappetizing they look, but then develops a theory of restraint among the natives:

Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear -or some kind of primitive honor? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its somber and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's soul -than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true. And these chaps, too, had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. (1988)

When we look at this passage in its context and ignore the inherent racism, we can understand that Marlow is observing firsthand some little known facts about the African tribe on board. They are cannibals, and the expectation would be that they would eat human flesh, dead or alive, as soon as they would be hungry. Marlow thinks there is some kind of restraint at play, whereas a simpler explanation could be that these cannibals do not kill to get their meat (in fact, they are upset when Marlow throws the helmsman’s body overboard instead of giving it to them). The expectation is important to the story and should not be missed because it comes in contrast with the need for restraint among the colonizers. Until that point in Marlow’s story, the natives have not been aggressive at all to him: on the contrary, the white men have been using them for work, have bombed them, calling them “enemies” and “criminals.” The pilgrims on board Marlow’s steamer have no restraint in shooting at the natives whether or not they are a menace: the white man is the menace.

Marlow’s observations of the people and events in his travels lead us to understand that “restraint” becomes necessary in the modern world but is not applied at the right level. Talking about the Manager on board his steamer, Marlow notes: “He was just the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances. That was his restraint.” (1989). This “restraint” seems almost farcical in context, because everyone on board is worried about being under attack by the forces beyond the dense fog. The employees of the Company exercise restraint by keeping up appearances and using the forces of colonization to their benefit. The Manager would not hesitate to hang the Russian to keep up appearances with the Company. The purpose of the trip is to find Kurtz, but his exploitation of the people of the jungle becomes problematic to the Company, as the ivory would no longer be delivered outside the heart of darkness. Kurtz controls the natives and stages the attack against the Company’s steamer. He has lost all sense of restraint and has allowed himself to become a deity:

They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him -some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew of his deficiency himself I can't say. (2001)

…
He struggled with himself, too. I saw it -I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself. (2008)

Kurtz’s role for the Company was to get as much ivory as possible. In the process, his lack of restraint lets him discover his dark side, his ability to dominate. The interest of the Company in Kurtz’s papers after his death shows that it would not mind discovering such new ways of exploiting Africa. “Restraint” in the white man and its institutions is artificial and its standards will be moved to different thresholds whenever and wherever it is convenient. Perhaps this reveals the true Heart of Darkness in us and in our modern civilization, the one that exercises restraint only when it is within itself, and becomes reckless and savage outside of it, in the unknown and in the untold.