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Joseph Conrad’s Style in Heart of Darkness: A Linguistic Analysis

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Conrad’s writing style, oft studied, debated, and celebrated, offers to readers of literature a window through which we can learn something about how our language works and how even we can use Conrad’s devices to improve our own writing.

Part 1:  Hyponyms on the “Edge of Darkness”

Conrad systematically employs lower-order hyponyms to create a text that appears semantically richer and literally has more meaning packed into each clause.  Hyponyms (a semantic phenomena found in all human languages at all levels of the lexicon) organize sets of synonyms hierarchically, synonyms that capture a semantic range from the general to the specific, from the abstract to the concrete.  Consider the following:

By using language with lower-order hyponyms — in other words using more concrete and specific vocabulary — each word carries more information. Compare for example the verbs went, walked, and staggered in the following sentences.

1. Dan went to the store Saturday night.
2. Dan walked to the store on Saturday night.
3. Dan staggered to the store on Saturday night.

Each sentence gives much more information to the reader, even though each sentence uses no additional words. The difference arises from the use of hyponyms — a special set of synonyms, in which the meaning of the more specific word includes the meaning of the more general words. For example, the word staggered (to walk with some difficulty, a temporary difficulty induced by a short-term chemical or physical cause) includes the idea of walked (locomotion on two feet) and the idea of went (to transport oneself in some manner). Thus, sentence (3) above allows the reader to "see" what Dan does in the mind's eye, whereas sentences (1) and (2) fail to do so as clearly simply because they seem more abstract.

So, when I say that Conrad’s sentences in the novel have "more meaning," I do mean that literally.  Compare the passage on the left from Conrad to my paraphrase on the right — a paraphrase that moves Conrad’s vocabulary up the levels of abstraction to a more general/abstract realization that I call the “Edge of Darkness.”

Clearly, lower order vocabulary adds significantly to the descriptive and emotive power of the language.  To discover how this technique can improve our own writing, I can imagine a couple of exercises that employ this phenomena.  In one exercise, we can take some passages from Conrad and “lighten” them in this way.  Such an exercise gives us a chance to feel the effect of this shift in vocabulary first hand.  In the next exercise, of course, we would take a passage or two from our own essays/writing and to “darken” our writing in a Conradian, lower-order hyponymic manner.  That will seem harder, but worthwhile.

Part 2:  E´´: E double prime

E´ (E prime) developed in the middle Twentieth Century through the work of a philosophical and linguistic movement called General Semantics.  E´ consists of English minus any form of the verb to be. General Semanticists wanted to avoid vague and sloppy thought by avoiding the vague and sloppy equivalencies, metaphors, and analogies  — all of which use of the verb to be in structure like War presidents are great presidents. Great presidents are great leaders, Therefore, Mr. Bush is a great leader and a great President.  General Semantics wanted to use language to examine everything explicitly, and such uses of the verb to be seemed to shortcut that examination, and hence grew General Semantic’s desire to eradicate the use of to be in the language.

The language of Conrad’s novel does not use E´ exactly.  However, he does not use the verb to be in any manner similar to ordinary texts in English or to other works of fiction either.  Instead, he seems to use what I call E´´: for the most part, he tends to avoid most uses of the verb (as an auxiliary verb for example) and employs the verb primarily in one structure alone – the subject + linking verb + complement (SVC) structure – allowing him to use predicate nominals and predicate adjectives.  Consider for example the first 40 of 650 total instances of was in HoD:

ut a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, t
. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound d
e river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the tu
in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and fart
h.   The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We f
ward. On the whole river there was nothing that looked half so na
rustworthiness personified. It was difficult to realize his work
 difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous
 the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug. The Acc
already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with th
ords lazily. Afterwards  there was silence on board the yacht. Fo
ng but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still
lly; the sky, without a speck, was a benign  immensity of unstain
e very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabri
he place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the
ark places of the earth."   He was the only man of us who still "
orst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his
id not represent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wandere
class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too, while most se
l of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity
 him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but o
not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accep
g. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence. No one to
ntly he said, very slow —   "I was thinking of very old times, wh
th keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the fe
e the darkness. And perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on
olonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing
could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery
sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, ag
 on, waiting patiently — there was nothing else to do till the en
l the end of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, whe
 I first met the poor chap. It was the farthest point of navigati
 me — and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough, too — and pitif
 East — six years or so, and I was loafing about, hindering you f
ly mission to civilize you. It was very fine for a time, but afte
 that game, too.   "Now when I was a little chap I had a passion
will go there.' The North Pole was one of these places, I remembe
n't talk about that. But there was one yet — the biggest, the mos
fter.   "True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. It
 place of  darkness. But there was in it one river especially, a

In the first 40 instances, we already see the dominance of the SVC structure, with only four tokens of the progressive auxiliary and two tokens of the passive voice auxiliary.  Thematically, this structure, specifically disallowed by E´, becomes highly significant in the novel, leading to some interesting discussions in class about the way people perceive others and act in accordance to perception.  However, as readers of literature, we can employ these language lessons to learn something about writing again.  In one exercise, we readers can ask ourselves to write a piece in E´.  That would mean that we would not have access to passive voice, nominalizations, progressive aspect in the verb, or to this one particular linking verb.  It would mean instead that we would have to find ways to write using only the active voice and seeking only verbs that describe activity clearly, writing clauses that have subjects functioning thematically as the agents of the clause.  It may seem impossible: yet I have written this paper in E´. 

Thus, as a second exercise, we might also try to imitate Conrad’s style – E´´.  In this exercise, we may use the verb to be but only as a linking verb (primarily to create unexamined equivalencies, as Conrad does), sprinkled with lower-order hyponyms if we wish to get really close to Conrad’s style. 

(I can already see a contest in the next grammar class to find the student who writes the best imitation of HoD.)

Part 3:  Speaking of adjectives (and of Conrad’s adjectival style) …

Lexical density and lexical sets tell a tale. As we know, adjectives serve primarily to give more description to the entities found in a text. So using more adjectives will result in semantic richness, whereas avoiding them may result in descriptive sparseness or thinness. Using adjectives in great numbers therefore tends to make the style of the text ornate (or flowery).  However, in HoD, Conrad has another goal with his adjectival style: to slow the action in the text, and to slow the reader as well, as one feels that one has to concentrate one's attention on the details.  Furthermore, Conrad does not distribute his adjectives equally throughout the text.  They cluster.  The novel has places that seem adjective rich – lexical density.  In those places, our reading slows, the demands on our attention increase, and Conrad delivers the points he wishes to make most subtly.  One exercise we might employ for ourselves here asks us to hunt for such “textual moments” and to see the patterns of ideas that Conrad strings together with this technique (and then to practice the technique for themselves in their own writing).

In another exercise analyzing adjectives, we might also ask ourselves to cluster adjectives into lexical sets:

• We can categorize adjectives in terms of certain features, such as adjectives describing color, shape, size, speed, etc.
• We might then also look at the lexical sets of the nouns, to observe the variation in the use of the adjectives in relation to the nouns: e.g., concrete or abstract nouns, animate / inanimate nouns, male / female, etc.
• We can also see that the notions of the abstract / concrete division apply to some of the adjectives as well; for example, hard or rectangular seem concrete, but resentful or hopeful seem abstract, and we find some telling patterns when we analyze them accordingly.

Conrad has a number of interesting collocations between the lexical sets grass and death, nightmare and dream, and words associated with light and vision (such as gleam, glisten, glitter, and glint). 

However, adjectives alone do not tell the whole story of Conrad’s use of description.  Adverbs play a role as well.  As a class, remember, adverbs or adverbial phrases indicate

• circumstance (time, place, manner etc.: yesterday, there, carefully, etc.);
• modality (possibility, duty, necessity, ability etc.: perhaps, obligatorily, essentially, dexterously, etc.); and
• quality (singularity, absoluteness, certainty etc.: only, certainly, obviously, etc.).

Examine the first 40 of 438 instances of -ly in HoD for example:

od had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the
g bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to an
n red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnish
our host. We four affectionately watched his back as he stood i
years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying
 deck, and was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brough
, and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cro
shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, broodin
 town was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom i
of the earth."   He was the only man of us who still "followed
nse of mystery but by a slightly disdainful  ignorance; for the
a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not worth
e tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, i
ble to grunt even; and presently he said, very slow —   "I was
Mediterranean, ordered  suddenly to the north run overland acro
 too — used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or
d, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is ef
 their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I
rors, and for that you want only brute force — nothing to boast
quest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from
different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves,
h other — then separating slowly or hastily. The traffic of the
 We looked on, waiting patiently — there was nothing else to do
nd of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, when he
t as though I had got a heavenly mission to civilize you. It wa
saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they al
ch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of
as a nake would a bird — a silly little  bird. Then I remembere
 more anxious to go. It was only months and months afterwards,
cause, you know, and he probably felt the need at last of asser
appointment, before I had fairly begun to hope for it.   "I fle
ouble doors standing ponderously ajar. I slipped through one of
ng with downcast eyes — and only just as I began to think of ge
e patch, to show where the jolly pioneers of progress drink the
eers of progress drink the jolly lager-beer. However, I wasn't
was there — fascinating — deadly — like a snake. Ough! A door o
 to.   "I began to feel slightly uneasy. You know I am not used
ducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scru
t in all my sorrows. Accordingly a young chap wearing his hat o
 boot. It was a little too early for the doctor, so I proposed

Only consumes fully 25% of the –ly adverbs.  Searches for other adverbs of quality, such as certainly, obviously, clearly, etc., reveal a pattern – a language of certitude – that speaks to the mind set of the narrative voice at the beginning of the novel.

Interestingly, however, the narrative voice differs later in the text:

after Stubbs (3)

By frame 4, the narrative voice seems most uncertain, and Conrad uses not just lexical items such as vague to express doubt, but also grammatical function words such as some, if, and might as well.  As Michael Stubbs (7-8) observes:

Literary critics tend to identify content words, such as fog and mist, vague and indistinct:

I saw vague forms of men.

Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent.

However, they tend to ignore the many grammatical words denoting extreme vagueness and uncertainty. ... The word something occurs over 50 times, in expressions such as

I don't know - something not quite right

something like a lower sort of apostle

reminded me of something I had seen - something funny.

There are over 200 occurrences of something, somebody, sometimes, somewhere, somehow and some , plus around 100 occurrences of like (as preposition), plus over 25 occurrences of kind of and sort of, all of these often collocated with other expressions of vagueness:

...the outlines of some sort of building...

...seemed somehow to throw a kind of light...

...I thought I could see a kind of motion...

...indistinct, like a vapour exhaled by the earth ... misty and silent...

While on the journey up river, the narrative voice seems quite uncertain, though it regains the stylistic markers of certainty again near the end of the novel.

Part 4:  Tools for conviviality

I made the concordancer I used in this handout available online for your use: http://papyr.com/applets/concordancer/ There you will also find a plain text copy of HoD so that you can explore Conrad’s language first hand.  Moreover, I have a file upload utility at that same address, so that you can use the concordance tool to explore your own texts.  See the complete directions at the web site. 

Using the concordancer, I explored some of the quotations and observations that many readers find compelling.  For example, oft mentioned is

"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." (Conrad 19)

along with

"I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here…" (Conrad 20),

as lines that strike readers early on, making a direct comparison of the Thames to the Congo River with both having savages in the forests along the banks and brave men on the ships seeking their fortunes.  And actually, the text itself bears out this observation in the collocations that we see for the words forest and ship:  compare the 25 instances of forest in the novel with the 20 instances of ship/s/*

ou like. Sand-banks, marshes, forests, savages, —¹ precious little
 wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the heart
e population cleared into the forest, expecting all kinds of calam
water surrounded by scrub and forest, with a pretty border of smel
th them. Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the mo
he high stillness of primeval forest  was before my eyes; there we
 of that hulk, and the virgin forest on the other bank of the cree
or a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the rive
ooked back at the edge of the forest, as though I had expected an
reat silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, hea
 and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across
he afternoon, the face of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip
d  disappeared. Of course the forest surrounded all that. The rive
arm. Examinig the edge of the forest above and below, I was almost
ccasion, when encamped in the forest, they had talked all night, o
one, far in the depths of the forest. 'Very often coming to this s
re, sweeping the limit of the forest at each side and at the back
ning. The long shadows of the forest had slipped downhill while we
by the dark-faced and pensive forest. The bushes shook, the grass
ovement of retreat, as if the forest that had ejected these beings
inst the gloomy border of the forest, and near the river two bronz
he ivory; but deep within the forest, red gleams that wavered, tha
f many voices issued from the forest. I had cut him off cleverly;
en him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gle
worshippers, the gloom of the forests, the glitter of the reach be

 

owded with memories of men and ships it had borne to the rest of
 the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels
ver returned. It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed
urers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on 'Cha
settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on 'Change; captains,
lat, shone strongly. Lights of ships moved in the fairway — a gre
home is always with them — the ship; and so is their country — th
s their country — the sea. One ship is very much like another, an
the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertin
ng. Then I began to look for a ship — I should think the hardest
hardest work on earth. But the ships wouldn't even look at me. An
ing a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an eni
I heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of fever at the ra
made me think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen firing into
fer him one of my good Swede's ship's biscuits I had in my pocket
ly into the breaking strain of ships' chains and tackle, and othe
gine a more deadly place for a shipwreck. Whether drowned at once
, had gone to sea in a Russian ship; ran away again; served some
n; served some time in English ships; was now reconciled with the
together unavoidably, like two ships becalmed near each other, an

Also, many literary critics cite “You can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence (42)” as an interesting passage, noting its literal and figurative applicability. Interestingly, the word existence collocates with words and phrases like inscrutable, don’t know, can’t tell, and deadened in addition to precarious:

 which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny
 of any given epoch of one's  existence — that which makes its truth,
e man of us out of his little existence. And it moved not. A deadened
ng not to know anything of my existence, turned back to the station.
where — far away — in another existence perhaps. There were moments w
 keep your precarious grip on existence.  Besides that, they had give
husiastic, fabulous. His very existence was improbable, inexplicable,
at lurk in the facts of human existence. I don't know. I can't tell.

Finally, a powerful passage from frame 3', the frame where the narrator transitions from the main story frame to the European point of view once again:

"I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams.  They trespassed upon my thoughts.  They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew.  Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend.  I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance."

Interestingly, note that words like folly and foolish collocate with cheery and confidence and flaunting:

-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was
ngs decent in themselves but that human folly made look like the spoils of thieving.
rivets. One's capacity for that kind of folly is more limited than you would suppose.
to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to

 that look troubled me. Two youths with foolish and cheery countenances were being pilo
, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! O
 and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotti
ack display of confidence. You know the foolish notions that come to one sometimes. The

Conversely, wisdom, truth, knowledge collocate with words and phrases like subtle, mystery, riddle, out of touch, toil, mournful, surface(-truth), inner (truth), glimpsed (truth), delicate, witchcraft, hidden, conceal, and irritating pretence.  The verb phrases in these clauses too undercut a sense of certainty, with verbs and adverbs such as seemed, perhaps, can’t say, I think, did not bear, and comes too late:

em the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about them and
ly. He nodded a nod full of mystery and wisdom. 'I tell you,' he cried, 'this man has
rsary. If such is the form of ultimate  wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than som
s the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are

ghtly. It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of thei
 coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournfu
hing great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away
y to see how he baffled himself, for in truth my body was full only of chills, and my
one's  existence — that which makes its truth, its meaning its subtle and penetrating
 reality, I tell you — fades. The inner truth is  hidden — luckily, luckily. But I fe
ion, valour, rage — who can tell? — but truth — truth stripped of its cloak of time.
our, rage — who can tell? — but truth — truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the
s these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff — with his own
by hook or by crook. There was surface- truth enough in these things to save a wiser
the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to give u
to steer whether or no. To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my sh
it had the appalling face of a glimpsed truth — the strange commingling of desire and
erence; perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed
ld have conveyed  the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features. She seemed

o strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge. He was useful because he had been inst
 — they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproacha
ciency himself I can't say. I think the knowledge came to him at last — only at the very
ut 'brother seaman — couldn't conceal — knowledge of matters that would affect Mr. Kurtz'
during that  supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, a
. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself — that comes too late — a c
my thoughts. They were intruders whose  knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretenc
 therefore —' I assured him Mr. Kurtz's knowledge, however extensive, did not bear upon t

To conclude, I feel that a close examination of a text’s lexical patterns offers a window into the thematic and stylistic patterns of an author in a very accessible way.  Tools like concordancers make such explorations easy (unlike the old-days when people used to do such analyses by parsing the whole text by hand).

However, we might ask “Why should we attend this closely to Conrad’s or anyone else’s language?”  Simple.  Lexical patterns betray cultural patterns.  And cultural patterns form the very essence of our whole adventure into the Heart of Darkness.

Note

¹ MS Word converts new line breaks in the concordancer’s output into the — (em dash) character.

Reference

Stubbs, Michael. "Conrad, concordance, collocation: heart of darkness or light at the end of the tunnel?" (The Third Sinclair Open Lecture, University of Birmingham.) Universität Trier: Michael Stubbs: selected publications online. 2003. <http://www.uni-trier.de/fileadmin/fb2/ANG/Linguistik/Stubbs/stubbs-2003-conrad-lecture.pdf>

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