What effect does conrad achieve by alluding to the pirates francis drake and john franklin?
replied to: kettapooh
Replied to: What effect does conrad achieve by alluding to the pirates francis...
Francis Drake was a slaver and explorer, among other things. By pairing him with John Franklin, he adds a sense of the tragic. Franklin perished while searching for the northwest passage. He and his crew froze, starved, and died of lead poisoning while stuck in the arctic ice. It was several years before his fate was even known. That sense of being swallowed up in the wilderness is one of the themes in Heart of Darkness.