In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses a variety of techniques that provoke thought and feeling in the reader

#3In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses a variety of techniques that provoke thought and feeling in the reader. Two stylistic techniques that Conrad uses in the novel are diction and imagery, which allow the reader to see deeper into the novel. Conrad heavily uses diction and imagery in order to produce feelings of disquietude in the reader.

The most action-filled scene of the novel, when Marlow's boat is attacked, is teeming with imagery and heavily connotative diction. The fog that surrounds the boat is described as warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. As the ship heads into an immense, matted jungle, feelings of anxiety and disquietude are heightened and intensified. The crew hears cries "of infinite desolation," which turn into "excessive shrieking." The imagery of these sounds, along with the imagery of the blinding fog and the jungle, produce a sense of great disquietude and a need for release of explanation. The connotative diction adds to this sense, when words such as "savage discords," "dissolving," and "desolation" are used.

Feelings of disquietude are not only produced in specific action scenes, but throughout the entire novel itself. The imagery of the jungle and the words used to describe it produce a sense of anxiety and quiet fear, which is kept up through the journey up the Congo. In Marlow's description of his experience with the river, he described it as and "unrestful and noisy dream". The word "unrestful", connotes Marlow's feeling of disquietude. He also described the river as a "stillness of life that did not resemble peace...it was.. .an implacable force brooding over inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect." The words in this description are filled with plosives that slow the reader down so that he can fell the slowness and anxiety the river produces.

The heavy use of imagery and diction in this novel produce a sense of extreme disquietude in the reader, so that he can fell close to how Marlow does on his journey into the heart of Darkness.