The Circle. Heart of Darkness. The Inferno.

The Circle and literary juxtaposition

I can't help but note some intense parallels between Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Dante's Inferno and The Circle. Is it any coincidence that the Circle is both the word for the major company central to The Circle and a part of Dante's hell? It's very possible, but I can't help but note such striking parallels between the three texts. Surely, one can argue that any two texts are related...but how distanced can that "relation" be before we're really just stretching reality? So, before I start examining these parallels, I want to emphasize that The Circle is not necessarily a rewrite of The Inferno. It can be seen as one though, as Dante's hell has become a sort of paradigm for "hell" in Western society since he wrote it. 

The Circle and Heart of Darkness

We've only read a bit of Heart of Darkness thus far, but I already see various connections with The Circle. The first is the premise that what the people (with "people" referring to the Company in Heart of Darkness or The Circle in The Circle) is right. They truly believe that what they are doing is best for humanity. In Heart of Darkness, in which the ethics are quite different than those of our contemporary society, the Belgians believe that colonization of the Congo is a beneficial process: the Congolese peoples will experience the fruitfully glorious presence of Christianity and civilization while the first world benefits from material resources. The Circle attempts to improve humanity through great technologies, specifically transparency. The Circle has great power over government and many individuals, and thus society as a whole. The Circle has control over society. Belgium has control over the Congo. Society has no choice (take a look at the politicians who are caught in "scandals" immediately after denouncing The Circle). The Congolese peoples have no choice. Mercer protests transparency and socio-centralization led by the Circle. He dies. We don't yet see an explicit parallel in Heart of Darkness, but it is nearly guaranteed that some Congolese protested at some point and was subsequently killed. There's a great parallel of irony too: the Congo was called, officially, the Congo Free State, and The Circle strives to expand freedom.

So how would the characters line up? This isn't as easy, but here's what I see:

• The Three Wise Men (the founders of The Circle) are very closely parallel to King Leopold II. They're not nearly as harsh, but they're the leaders of this movement that is believed to be good, but to us is not.
• Mae may be Mr. Kurtz. We haven't seen too much of Mr. Kurtz yet, so this is quite premature, but Mae represents what the Circle stands for. Does Kurtz?
• Mercer, he's like a disobedient Congolese. This results in his death.
• Annie and Ty (Kalden) are much like Marlow, as they question the ideals, future, and effects of The Circle.

Of course more parallels can be drawn, specifically within the plot, but that would require an entire book to explain.

The Circle and The Inferno

In class, we discussed Heart of Darkness and The Inferno. Logically, then, it's fairly easy to relate The Circle to The Inferno. So what makes Circular society so hellish? I think it's the utter lack of control people have over themselves, the true lack of independence. A number of the cons that Sanjukta discussed in her previous post can be connected to The Inferno. I may explore these connections more in depth later on.

Composed by Seth