Gothic for You, Not for Me

     Instinctively, humans tend to associate danger with the unknown. At first, most outsiders would be cautious of the jungles, traditions, and people of Africa. But for those who were raised in this environment, such cultural elements only form the backdrop of everyday life. Many students and scholars appreciate Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a work that adheres to gothic conventions. In doing so, however, we lose sight of the adventure - one man's foray into the unknown. We follow Marlow every step into the Congo and we classify his experiences as horrific and eerie, rather than accept the cultural differences that separate us from the Africans. In the end, the elements that we perceive to be gothic are simply byproducts of our Western interpretation of this novel.

     No scene better illustrates culture shock than when Marlow observes a fence near Kurtz's residence. At first, he thinks the fence is simply decorated with ornaments. When he realizes what he is actually seeing, Marlow thinks, "They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. Only one, the first I had made out, was facing my way" (Conrad 112). As readers, we are simply repulsed by this sort of image, so we are comfortable calling it a gothic feature. Along with Marlow, readers are scared because decapitated heads are considered grotesque in our culture. However, preserving the heads of the dead is a symbolic practice of the local Congolese. This, of course, calls into question the objective nature of gothicism. In Western tradition, decapitation qualifies as gothic, yet in tribal Congolese tradition, this practice is commonplace. Thus, as cultural rules would dictate, gothicism rests in the eye of the beholder.

Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness.NY,NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1988.