More handpicked essays just for you.
The theme of darkness in the heart of darkness
Themes of the novel Heart of Darkness
Themes of the novel Heart of Darkness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The child’s game had ended. After I nearly ran Kurtz over, we stood facing each other. He was unsteady on his feet, swaying like the trees that surrounded us. What stood before me was a ghost. Each layer of him had been carved away by the jungle, until nothing remained. Despite this, his strength still exceeded that of my own. With the tribal fires burning so close, one shout from him would unleash his natives on me. But in that same realization, I felt my own strength kindle inside me. I could just as easily muffle his command and overtake him. The scene flashed past my eyes as though I was remembering not imagining. The stick that lay two feet from me was beating down on the ghost, as my bloodied hand strangled his cries. My mind abruptly reeled backwards as I realized what unspeakable dark thoughts I had let in. Kurtz seemed to understand where my mind had wandered; it was as though the jungle’s wind has whispered my internal struggles to him. His face twisted into a smile. He seemed to gloat and enjoy standing by to watch my soul begin to destroy itself. “You’re just like me. You don’t realize it yet, but one of these days you won’t be able to deny your hunger anymore.” I looked up to meet his gaze and was again caught by his demeanor. The shadows cut harsh designs on his hollow face. Darkness trailed behind him like a king’s robe as he paced where the light could not reach him. “You don’t know me.” My voice sounded as unsteady as his stance. He shrugged as he chuckled; the laughter turned my blood cold. He seemed to know something I did not. “It doesn’t matter because neither do you.” At first I didn’t understand. Neither did I what? But after a moment the impact of his statement hit me. Kurtz was su... ... middle of paper ... ...know myself. I had buried the truth deep within my soul, and it took a ghost, a jungle, and my hunger to tear it out and expose the truth.” While he murmured on, Marlow didn’t realize that tears had begun to slide down his cheeks. His very soul was weeping for the loss. “At least everything is behind you now. The evil is thousands of kilometers away, so it can’t touch you.” Marlow met the eyes of the accountant, who noticed how is eyes appeared vacant. He wondered if the vacancy led straight down Marlow’s core. “Oh no, the evil resides in the darkest part of each soul. Evil tendrils slither around this very boat, because you can never escape yourself.” The utterance carved through the night air, leaving their hearts encircled with darkness, taunting the hunger inside. Works Cited Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.
In the following passage, Marlow states his attitude towards the human limitations implied by the act of lying. In order to reach an understanding of the significance of lies to Marlow it is important to note how he finds in lies “a taint of death”:
While forging into the unknown forests along the Congo River, Marlow notes that the farther they go, the more sinister everything seems. He comments that nature itself, “‘…seemed to beckon with a dishonouring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart’” (Conrad 65). This passage hints that there are perhaps deeper, more malicious evils hiding within the jungle. The sunlight does not even seem to penetrate the incomprehensible dark, and Marlow feels the anxiousness of the unknown creeping upon him. As the Company continues on the river, they face a fog that disorients them for days. Marlow narrates the journey: “‘The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. Gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind’” (81). Through all the abnormal and frightening sounds that pervade the endlessly dense mist, Marlow senses they are approaching something that does not wish to be uncovered because the world disappears in the face of it. Demonstrating this concept, he says a few pages later, “‘The woods were unmoved, like a mask—heavy, like the closed door of a prison...’” (118). The so-called mask of the jungle hides what Marlow wants to find most: the elusive Mr. Kurtz, who later shows that the natural darkness in which he lives
Without personal access to authors, readers are left to themselves to interpret literature. This can become challenging with more difficult texts, such as Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Fortunately, literary audiences are not abandoned to flounder in pieces such as this; active readers may look through many different lenses to see possible meanings in a work. For example, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be deciphered with a post-colonial, feminist, or archetypal mindset, or analyzed with Freudian psycho-analytic theory. The latter two would effectively reveal the greater roles of Kurtz and Marlow as the id and the ego, respectively, and offer the opportunity to draw a conclusion about the work as a whole.
Friedrich Nietzsche once provided one of the truest opinions on power that the world has ever heard when he said, “All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth”. The promises and truths that those who gain power spread to their people are not always for the greater good. The worst leaders of people are the ones that put more effort and thought into jerking off their own ego rather than putting any real heartfelt effort into helping their people. These sociopathic evil dictators use their power to try and brainwash the minds of people who have to live under them with their own beliefs and hidden agendas, foolishly believing that they are a “savior”. There has yet to be a situation with a leader of a community who has this type of unchecked power and influence with a happy ending. Perhaps the greatest story ever written about good vs. evil, madness, abuse of power along with influence, and nature just might be Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad tells the story of an agent named Marlow, who experiences hellish conditions and behaviors whilst trying to rescue a man named Kurtz, who turns out to be quite a handful. Throughout this journey the moral ramifications of both Kurtz and Marlow’s actions are left to be interpreted by the audience after Kurtz goes mad and becomes the catalyst of the events that transpire throughout the plot. Conrad uses his real life events along with themes of greed, power, and obsession to show what causes Kurtz who acts a symbol for the leaders of the real world to go mad and abuse power.
Marlow’s thoughts are so consumed by Kurtz, that he is built up to be much more of a man than he truly is. In turn, Marlow is setting himself up for a let down. He says at one point, “I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time...the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home...towards his empty and desolate station”(P.32). When Marlow reaches Kurtz’s station, he begins to become disillusioned. He begins to hear about, and even see, the acts that Kurtz is committing, and becomes afraid of him. He sees in Kurtz, what he could become, and wants nothing to do with it. He does not want people to know he has any type of relationship with him, and says in response to the Russian, “I suppose that it had not occurred to him that Mr. Kurtz was no idol of mine.” (P.59). It is at this point that he begins to discover the darkness in his heart.
Throughout its entirety, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness utilizes many contrasts and paradoxes in an attempt to teach readers about the complexities of both human nature and the world. Some are more easily distinguishable, such as the comparison between civilized and uncivilized people, and some are more difficult to identify, like the usage of vagueness and clarity to contrast each other. One of the most prominent inversions contradicts the typical views of light and dark. While typically light is imagined to expose the truth and darkness to conceal it, Conrad creates a paradox in which darkness displays the truth and light blinds us from it.
Heart of Darkness is a kind of little world unto itself. The reader of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness should take the time to consider this work from a psychological point of view. There are, after all, an awful lot of heads and skulls in the book, and Conrad goes out of his way to suggest that in some sense Marlow's journey is like a dream or a return to our primitive past--an exploration of the dark recesses of the human mind.
Marlow is driven by morality and is able to see what is right and wrong; he is not blinded to the truth. The truth that these “civilized men” are destroying countless numbers of people so that they can worship th...
...e death."(Page 29 HOD), and this is a clear evidence that proves how Marlow’s morals have been destroyed as he moves to each station.
... Marlow doesn’t believe she is worthy of the truth, so he lies to her. "I could not tell her. It would have been too dark" (124).
Literature is never interpreted in exactly the same way by two different readers. A prime example of a work of literature that is very ambiguous is Joseph Conrad's, "Heart of Darkness". The Ambiguities that exist in this book are Marlow's relationship to colonialism, Marlow's changing feelings toward Kurtz, and Marlow's lie to the Intended at the end of the story.
...s to look at Kurtz as a hero for all that he had accomplished, no matter how evil. Marlow?s obstacles as the hero are not the overcoming of a dragon or evil villain. It is the eternal battle of the story of a Hero versus Antihero. Marlow?s blindness to Kurtz?s impurities are both his strength and weakness. His ignorance to the greatness of his own qualities can best be stated one way: ?The Horror.?
Marlow is an honest man. He sets out on a genuine search for answers to his questions of exploration of the unknown "when (he) was a little chap" (Conrad 64). Marlow was drawn to a certain place on the world map, called the Congo "the biggest, the most blank, so to speak---that (he) had a hankering after" (Conrad 64). Upon first entering the mouth of the Congo River, Marlow declares his stance on lies and those who lie. [He believes that lying in the worst thing for a person.] He vows never to lie in his life. After reading Kurtz's report about his progress down the Congo, Marlow finds that Kurtz lied, and in part loses all the respect he ever had for Kurtz. However, Marlow still continues to pursue him. Marlow continues his journey up the Congo River, penetrating further and further into the heart of darkness. In the process, Marlow reverts back to his innate state to survive, whether or not that means going against his principles. Finally, 200 miles later, Marlow meets Kurtz, who is the object of his psychological desire, only to find him very ill. After Kurtz's death, Marlow finds himself transformed into a person he thought he would never become, a liar. Marlow lies to Kurtz's intended about Kurtz's last words when he returns to Europe. After being consumed by the heart of darkness, Marlow throws away his previous values as he reverts into a savaged, almost evil state of mind.
Modernism began as a movement in that late 19th, early 20th centuries. Artists started to feel restricted by the styles and conventions of the Renaissance period. Thusly came the dawn of Modernism in many different forms, ranging from Impressionism to Cubism.
Marlow feels that there is a taint of death and a flavor of mortality in lies,