Heart of Darkness as a Psychological Novel | Psychological Journey

In this video, we'll explore Heart of Darkness as a psychological novel, diving into the inner journey of its characters and its themes of imperialism and madness. As a postcolonial novel, Heart of Darkness offers a unique perspective on the effects of imperialism on the human psyche. Through our analysis, we'll reveal the deeper psychological implications of Conrad's masterpiece. Join us on this journey through the heart of darkness. It is better to know about this specific genre of literature i.e. Psychological Novel before making a decision whether “Heart of Darkness” fits in this genre or not. Every novel has an importance of its own as per its subcategory. The psychological novel is not entirely dissimilar from the remaining subcategories of novels, however, from some perspectives, it is definitely different from the remaining ones. Psychological novel totally focuses on the internal qualities of characters, hence, it is more about emotions and less about what practically a person does. Suffice it to say that psychological novel depicts innersole of characters, hence, what they think is more important than what they do if we give a proper definition to “Psychological Novels”. In view of the definition of a psychological novel, critics have regarded Heart of Darkness as a masterpiece of art. A group of critics is of the view that among the postcolonial novels, “Heart of Darkness” has a place of its own, however, that does not make it actionless from any perspective. Readers always consider that psychological novels often become actionless when a writer tries to portray inner conflicts alongside outer issues. Nonetheless, this is not the case with “Heart of Darkness”. Firstly, it is the requirement that a psychological novel must give detailed descriptions of memories from the past; therefore, Joseph Conrad creates a character who narrates a story as he remembers when he once visited the Congo River and its nearby places. He has also witnessed the barbaric and savage attitude of whitemen towards the Africans due to which there are some complexities in his mind. The novel is based on the mental pictures of the novelist and the images that he observed in Africa. Marlow and Kurtz are two main characters that may seem parallel to the audience but in fact, they are different from each other as there is a lot of difference in their thinking and ethical values. Needless to mention everything in this novel is obvious only through its symbols; there is no direct attack on any nation. Both the people either they are whitemen or African have issues with the psyche presented in “Heart of Darkness” so far as the psychological definition of the novel is concerned. Read more at: https://askliterature.com/novel/heart-of-darkness-as-a-psychological-novel-psychological-journey/