Personal Reading of Stephen A. Reids Article The...

Reids article brings the Unspeakable Rites in Conrads Heart of darkness into focus. It mainly raises the question of whether critics should examine Kurtzs rites or leave them unexamined. These rites are so horrible and terrible to the extent that critics have refused to examine them. These critics take such a stand as they tend to associate the ambiguity centring around Kurtzs rites with Conrads desire to leave them shrouded in uncertainty. They, thus, see no reason for examining them. However, determined as he is, Reid stands against this view; he believes that these rites are to be examined. He says, We must try to understand what those rites were. Arguing that the critical function should not stop where Conrad does, Reid†¦show more content†¦He sees that Kurtzs unspeakable rites are means to an end- exploitation. Kurtz, Reid argues, is aware of his exploitation of the natives. The latter, however, deem Kurtzs rites necessary for their own security. Without them, their ver y existence is at stake. Reid does not deny that Kurtz gains sadistic satisfaction from these rites; hadnt the rite involved great relish Kurtz would not have carried them out. Simultaneously, however, Reid tells us that Kurtz might have been forced into the rites regardless of whatever spiritual enjoyment Kurtz gains. Reid, hereby, does not approve of attributing Kurtzs rites to uncontrolled lusts. He writes, The simple giving in to uncontrolled lusts- the usual explanation of Kurtzs disintegration seems to me a psychologically unsound way of describing the case especially when a more precise explanation is available. According to Reid, Kurtzs problem of maintaining his rule underlies his constituting the rite of sacrifice and the attendant cannibalism whereby he carries out these rites. Reid here draws on determinism in claiming that Kurtzs descent into bestiality is inevitable; according to him, should there be anybody in Kurtzs shoes, he will have to act just as Kurtz did. It is this inevitability which accounts for critics refusal to examine these rites. Now that I have done with the first part of my essay, I would like to