Conrad as I have already mentioned, forsakes his authorial privelege of imposing his own philosophy upon the colonial and post-colonial era. To strengthen this cinematic technique, he also attempts to structurally concretize the narrative which in turn strengthens his theory of visual concretization and subsequent perspectivistic approach so dear to all cinema experts. An analysis of the form of the "Heart of Darkness" shows the strength of its cinematic approach. For one thing , he divides the novella into three distinct sections, the first taking the reader up the Congo to the 'outer station', the second taking the reader through the experiences of the 'inner station' and the third section taking the reader through the experience of the depravity, inhuman corruption and savagery of Kurtz who had " kicked himself loose of the earth.....had kicked the very earth to pieces". This pattern of threes, is further elaborated in the narrative structure, where Conrad reverts back to the 'outside narrator' only thrice in his novel- once in Section I, twice in Section II and not at all in Section III of the novel. In Section III, his renunciation of the omniscient author/Outside narrator is complete. In his form, infact, Conrad makes use of the Russian doll effect where every traditional Russian doll opened up into another doll inside till you are down to a nubbin of a thing. At the centre of the narrative of 'Heart of Darkness' we have the story of Kurtz, around that the story of Marlow, around that the story of the 'outside narrator' and around that still another story of the reader sharing the experience of the book. So as in a movie with various perspectives dependent upon various camera angles we have a story within a story, a perspective within a perspective, a narrator within a narrator. In keeping with his cinematic leanings, even the characterization of Kurtz is achieved with cinematic elan. Kurtz's characteristics are at no point in the novel described by the god-like narrator but are strung together as the truncated perspectives of the various characters that form the warp and weave of the structural narrative. The first thumb-nail sketch of Kurtz comes from the Accountant of the 'outer station' with his "starched collars" and " got-up shirt fronts". The eye of the 'accountant-seer' describes Kurtz as : One day he remarked without lifting his head " In the interior you will no doubt meet Mr Kurtz."On my asking who Mr Kurtz was , he said he was a first-class agent and seeing my disappointment at this information , he added slowly laying down his pen , " He is a very remarkable person". Further questions elicited from him that Mr Kurtz was at present in charge of a trading post, a very important one , in the true ivory country, at the very bottom of there...sends in as much ivory as all the others put together...(p.27).
Part of the Dream Weave Walk 1999-2010