Comparing Shakespeare's Hamlet and Marlowe of Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Comparing Shakespeare's Hamlet and Marlowe of Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Prince Hamlet, of Shakespeare's famed tragedy, and Marlowe of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, are similarly situated characters. Despite superficially different settings and plots, there is a remarkably similar thematic element shared between both works. Prince Hamlet and Marlowe are brought to the very brink of insanity by their immersion in worlds gone mad, yet still succeed. At their roots, the similarities of the environments they are immersed in are remarkable. Whether their environment is a “too too sullied” (1057) Royal Danish court, or the dark madness of a murderous Congolese jungle, the relationship between a sane man’s mind, and a man’s insane world is openly explored.

In Hamlet: Prince of Denmark and in Heart of Darkness many similarities exist between the madness that both stories are surrounded in. Despite the obvious differences of the Congo and Copenhagen, both worlds are places where evil abounds and territory where man has brought on that evil. The destructive greed and lust for power that drove Hamlet’s uncle, Cladius, to murder his own brother, have tainted and steeped the Danish court in corruption. In Heart of Darkness, the madness stems from the desire for power in the form of valuable ivory. The power of ivory in Heart of Darkness is not only apparent because it drives “civilized” men like, Mr. Kurtz to commit his savage acts, but also because how quickly Marlowe becomes aware of its power. Upon Marlowe’s arrival to the Central Station he observes, "The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it.” (1639). In Hamlet and Heart of Darkness, the ultimate...

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...s when he avenges his father’s murder and restores the upright and dignified nature of the Danish throne (to Fortinbras), and Marlowe succeeds when he retrieves the brutal Kurtz from “the heart of darkness”. More importantly however, Hamlet and Marlowe within themselves struggle against insanity, the evil that tries to pour into them from their madness-drenched worlds, and both men succeed.

Bibliography:

Angus, Mitchell. “New Light on the Heart of Darkness” http://www.britannica.com/magazine/article?content_id=145991. January 9, 2007

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Lecture XII.” Hamlet. Ed. Edward Hubler. New York: Signet Classics, 1987.

Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 2000.

Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 2000.