A Freudian Perspective of Marlow in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad explains the process and details of enlightenment. The novel is a retelling of the main character's journey into the depths of Africa and humanity. This symbolic journey begins on a boat in which he is the captain on a river in Africa. As Marlow’s crew move closer to the central Africa and the greatest employee of his company,Kurtz, he realizes the truth about humanity. Additionally, Marlow believes Kurtz is a wondrous man and he eventually encounters him. Soon after finding Kurtz, he dies and Charles must devise a way to explain this to Kurtz’s wife ,The Intended. At the end of the novel, Marlow lies to The Intended about the death her husband to protect her view of

The Psychodynamic Approach was first approach by Sigmund Freud; he dealt with the understanding that personality came from our unconscious state of mind. And that unconscious state interacted to determine our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings (Bernstein, 425). Freud also created the psychoanalytical theory stating that personality led the way to handling psychological disorders. He divided personality into three main topics; which are the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the basis of each human being’s instincts we are all born with. It is the immediate wants I crave; it may show more selfish side. The ego is the part that subdues the id and calms it down. It allows me to think and realize certain actions may upset someone else around me. The superego is

Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is both a dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century and a symbolic journey into the deepest recesses of human nature. On a literal level, through Marlow 's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. By employing several allegoric symbols this account depicts the futility of the European presence in Africa.

     Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's tale of one man's journey, both mental and physical, into the depths of the wild African jungle and the human soul. The seaman, Marlow, tells his crew a startling tale of a man named Kurtz and his expedition that culminates in his encounter with the "voice" of Kurtz and ultimately, Kurtz's demise. The passage from Part I of the novel consists of Marlow's initial encounter with the natives of this place of immense darkness, directly relating to Conrad's use of imagery and metaphor to illustrate to the reader the contrast between light and dark. The passage, although occurring earlier on in the novel, is interspersed with Marlow's two opposing

Overall, many of the locations found within “Heart of Darkness” contradict one another and therefore irradiate very significant themes such as light and dark and the hypocrisy of imperialism. Most notably, the contrasts between the Thames River and the Congo River achieve this goal of revealing those important themes to the

Psychoanalytical lens reveals the range of meanings hidden under the entrancing story. Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness has many psychoanalytical interpretations of the complex meanings represented in the text through the use of allegory. The allegorical explanation of human nature avoids the confronting truth and secretes the true meaning under the surface of the literal story. The use of the abstract noun darkness to describe the inner mind represents the daunting nature of the subject. Conrad clarifies his purposeful hidden meaning in the foreshadowing of the tale in which he explains, “The meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow as a glow brings out a haze,”

The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather that upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality which was lacking in Lester,

Tovah Popilsky Ms. DeCaporale Modern World Literature 1 September 2015 Lit Log: Heart of Darkness Throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses the word “darkness” both as a symbol for the incivility and savageness of Africa and its natives, which provides a negative connotation towards the continent and heightens racial stereotypes, as well as to point out the negative situation caused by European colonization. Conrad continually equates “darkness” with the African peoples, which portrays the Africans as primitive and suggests that they need to be colonized by Europeans. Darkness is first introduced within the title of the novel, Heart of Darkness, which sets the theme of savagery, evil, and manipulation from the very beginning of the story.

The Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s cautionary tale about the dangers of colonization. The reader journeys with protagonist Charlie Marlow deep into the jungles of Africa, which exposes the greed and corruption of Europeans who have taken over this land and enslaved its natives. Exploring this journey through the psychoanalytic and feminist theoretical lenses, however, provides a different perspective altogether.

Heart of Darkness takes place in the height of the European imperialism and appears most frequently in the Belgian Congo, the heart of the Congo. Conrad used the ideas of imperialism and greed, which was extremely prominent in this era, as a platform for the ideas of the conscious and unconscious mind of an individual. In the novel the Europeans were perceived to be more valuable or important and put into a position of power not out of respect or earned amount but out of fear, fear because they had more advanced weapons and scared the native people of the land into obedience. They were cast into a land without guidelines or complete authority, this resulted in anarchy and the slow decay of sanity. The isolation from the social norms drove the

The significance of darkness in Conrad’s novella is first indicated by the title of the story, Heart of Darkness, which sets the theme for his story. Upon first reading, the title refers to the physical darkness of the Congo River and the mysteries of an uncivilized place. However, as the plot of the story progresses further, darkness becomes a metaphor for the savagery encased in the heart of man. Ultimately, Kurtz is revealed as the epitome of one embracing his heart of darkness.

Throughout this narrative, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of darkness, the main character marlow inquires the illumination of reality deep in the heart of Africa. During his exploration a connotation of the African civilization and appearance mainly appears negative, due to the dark lexicon that continuously appears throughout the book to describe almost all of the continents life. The book begins with the dark lexicon, presented directly on its title. The reader's first depiction of the book comes from its title, this books title automatically gives off a negative connotation with the word “darkness” being presented on the front cover. The meaning of the darkness is constantly changing throughout the book; however, the meaning will always result in a negative connotation. Generally speaking, Joseph Conrad is trying to vividly illustrate a dark-imperialistic-savage place with unknown creatures and evil coming from every corner.

Traditional methods of literary expression began proving insufficient in reckoning with a world where corrupt political motivations and crimes of humanity were being carried out by the very empires who touted civilized rationality to the rest of the world. Additionally, the earth shaking works of Freud and Darwin greatly supported a notion that individuals are shaped by countless external and internal factors, most of which lie beyond human control. Amid these disorienting conditions literary modernism was born, and among its earliest and finest works was Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. Detailing a merchant sailor’s winding journey into Africa’s uncharted center to a Belgian ivory outpost headed by an enigmatic and morally tormented colonialist leader named Kurtz, Heart of Darkness is a hugely multi-faceted story, and of its many themes the relationship between humanity and its natural surroundings is among the most prominent. Early in the story, the protagonist, Marlow, learns that the man who had held the captaining position before him was killed by African natives, and he is asked to retrieve the body. When approaching the man’s corpse, Marlow observes that he “had not been touched after he fell” and that “the grass now growing through his ribs was tall enough to hide his

The journey in “Heart of Darkness” spans not only the capricious waters extending our physical world, but also the perplexing ocean which exists in the heart of man. Through Marlow 's somewhat overenthusiastic eyes, we perceive the mystery that is humanity, and the blurred line between darkness and light. It is an expedition into the deepest crevices of the human heart and mind bringing on an awareness, and finally descending into the abyss of hell abiding in each of us. Conrad’s use of wordplay and symbolism shows the reader that this journey is something much deeper. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad conveys the themes of darkness, duality, and imperialism through Marlow’s tale of his experience along the Congo River.

   Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, is about many things: seafaring, riverboating, trade and exploration, imperialism and colonialism, race relations, the attempt to find meaning in the universe while trying to get at the mysteries of the subconscious mind. Heart of Darkness is a vivid portrayal of European imperialism.  The book in other words is a story about European "acts of imperial mastery" (1503)-its methods, and the effects it has on human nature-and it is presumable that Conrad incorporates much of his own experience in the Congo and his opinions about imperialism into the story.