earticle

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This is to study the social commitment and ideology realized through Conrad's ambiguity, analysing discourse of colonialism and imperialist ideology reflected in Heart of Darkness. Conrad showed clearly that in both colonialism and imperialism, the goal is only a splendid enrichment of the conquering power at the expense of the subjugated nation or race, but the only practical effect of the rhetoric of civilization is to delude people or race in the nation. Therefore Conrad's ambivalence said to be only a muffled protest in his fiction made a great contribution to reveal imperial pretenses. To Marlow, Kurtz's cry is a moral victory since it demonstrated a recognition of the betrayal of his imperialists' ideals. Marlow feels that Kurtz is vindicated by an emotional realization of the horror of his experience just before he dies. Consequently, despite his severe of criticism of imperialism, Conrad could not conclude that imperialism had to end so that the natives could lead lives free from European domination. The tales Marlow can't tell, the truths he cannot utter, that is, the 'unspeakable' life story of Kurtz, lurk in the interstices of narrative ensuring that Marlow's colonialist apologetics can be read at once and the same time as postcolonial critique.