A Brief Summary of “The Failure of Metaphysics”

“The Failure of Metaphysics” by Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan

~ Marlow assumes responsibility for Kurtz, a rejected and failed ‘other’ who becomes effectively a ‘twin’ or a ‘double.’ In this sense Marlow denies one of the underlying predicament of the modernist outlook: the separation of one man from another, of man from nature, and of language from the world. (See last point)

~ Marlow’s journey is characterized by a spiritual detachment that is rooted in a desire to truly understand the world around him. He is essentially searching for “lost vitality” and “the essential wholeness man has lost in the course of his material progress” in the context of the intellectual pessimism of modernism.

~ Marlow’s journey begins as a pilgrimage, but his skeptical and pessimistic discourse signals the collapse of metaphysics within his tale and therefore the rejection of the concept of the journey as a pilgrimage.

~ Any illuminating significance within the metaphysical concept of the journey as a pilgrimage is further atrophied by the perennial absence of any object that would present a positive meaning to ‘the heart of darkness’ in the text. Conrad’s presentation of the failure of language and his use of language in the text, with nebulous adjectives and abstract nouns, indicates this absence within the “ultimately undecipherable nature of reality.” Essentially, the metaphysical journey has the spiritual drive, but lacks the object with which to find meaning. (This again links to the pessimism of the modern style)

~ Kurtz was established at the beginning of Marlow’s journey as a symbol of great ideals; however, just like all the other characters that Marlow meets in his story, Kurtz is in actuality “a paragon of the blind omnivorous greed” the drove the conquest of Africa. Kurtz is dethroned as a “sham idol” as the “metaphysical aura is stripped off” and collapses.

~ Marlow, with his story telling, subverts the idea of authority by denying the power of the teller’s voice (“there was nothing behind me,” pg. 28). The metaphysical transcendence of the artist is therefore nullified.

~ Marlow assimilates Kurtz’s ‘Voice’ and ‘Word’ in order to redeem the ‘other’ and his ideals through himself.