A White Lie in the Heart of Darkness Essay examples

The narrator of the text “The Tell-Tale Heart” is insane because he is unable to tell what is right and what is wrong. When he was discussing the way he covered up the murder, he described it as if it was a good thing. He made it clear that he was proud of himself and that he thought what he was doing was right. The narrator states “ I then replaced the boards so clever, so cunningly, yet no human eye - not even his - could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out- no stain of any kind- no blood- spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all- ha! ha!” The fact that he considers what he did clever and cunning shows that he doesn't see any fault in what he did. Any sane person would see that covering up a murder is indeed wrong. Unlike the narrator who assumed covering up a murder is something to brag about.

The main characters whose lies devastate the characters in the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Hester. Each character has once told a lie either about their character or identity. First, Dimmesdale is well-known in the community as a minister who gives sermons. But the townspeople do not know about the affair between him and Hester. He lies because he does not want to give up his reputation as a minister. The effect of him lying is that he has a guilty conscience, thinks that he “sold himself to the devil”, and ironically, people view him as a saint. (Hawthorne 193). Next, Chillingworth is an old man who is well-known in the community as the town doctor who makes medicine and takes

This became a dilemma because the community did not know which decision God would want. They believed lying was a sin and even if they lived when they eventually die they would be sent to hell. If they decided to be honest and die, they didn’t know if God would be okay with them not fighting for their lives. “Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate so slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it.” (1303) Reverend Hale believed the accused should lie so they could be saved again and live. Hale did not think God would want them to be truthful if it meant giving up their lives.

Conrad’s intentional use of vague and ambiguous traits in the ending may have been used because we, as people, are also vague and ambiguous. Examples could be with good and evil, or civilized and savage. The ending isn’t supposed to detract from the rest of the novel. When Marlow goes to Kurtz’s

“ Because it keeps you locked in the jail of your own mind.” This quote interprets that lying keeps people from the lie you could have told one person but not the other. Both the author and Blanton have a good point where people might have a need to lie and know the consequences, however they still commit them. “... and you manipulate information to control the outcome.” Many liars use this method, and withhold information to oppose the fallout. Some who think it sometimes it’s justified say “I didn’t tell a whole lie”, but don’t see how it’s not the whole truth either. Expectations are set, and state that the person being lied to is the one hurt in the end, but many don’t know that the pejurer themselves are also badly affected or even

Everyone is a liar. From little white lies to fibs completely blown out of proportion, we all lie. Sometimes lying seems necessary for we lie to help someone or to spare hurt feelings, so we convince ourselves that our actions are justified and to some unknown point they are. The difference between a liar and someone who just tries to help is whether they will admit to their wrongdoings and try to repent for their actions. While people who just try to help eventually get applauded for their actions, liars get scorned. In the novel, Nothing But the Truth by Avi, the protagonist, a ninth grader by the name of Philip Malloy, succumbs to his own lie and lets his inner selfish motives become more important than the truth, ruining the reputation of someone who just tried to help.

In “Salvation” (1940), Langston Hughes makes it clear that when he deceived everyone at Church by having them believe he was saved, it took a toll on his mental well-being. “I cried, in bed alone, and couldn’t stop. I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me” (Hughes, 1940, para. 15). It is not normal for a twelve year old to cry excessively and loudly. His extreme crying after the deception proves that when his words did not match his actions guilt ensued. Hughes mentions he primarily felt guilty for lying. “But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church” (Hughes, 1940, para.

In his narrative, Marlow declares, "You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies, - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget" (Longman 2210). In spite of these strong words, he lies to Kurtz's "Intended" when he visits her and tells her, "The last word he pronounced was - your name" (Longman 2246). Marlow's words, spoken in Part I to the audience, seem to contradict his words spoken in Part III to the Intended. Upon closer examination however, it is clear that it was keeping to his beliefs that caused Marlow to lie to

In chapters 20 and 21, Baker discusses lying and compromising. Baker lists nine kinds of lying, some of which we automatically assume are terrible sins, and others we may feel justified in. The form of lying that convicted me the most is exaggeration. I am naturally a quiet, reserved person, and I find it easy to turn to exaggeration to compensate for this. Baker points out that both over and under exaggeration are forms of untruth that one should avoid (Baker 139). I have discovered the danger of both of these.

Conrad seemingly implies that Marlowe endorses morality or is a moral character. The idea of restraint, which Marlowe is so insistent upon throughout his tale, might stand for an idea of morality. Marlowe insinuates that morality, or restraint, would have saved Kurtz. Marlowe claims that his helmsman's death is a result of his lack of restraint: "Poor fool! If only he would have left that shutter alone (51.)" Marlowe blames a lack of restraint for Kurtz' death as well. Marlowe goes on, "no restraint-just like Kurtz-a tree swayed by the wind." Had Kurtz possessed some sort of restraint, he may not have become unsound. The imagery of the swaying tree in this passage begs the reader to see amoral individuals as powerless and fallible while affirming Marlowe's belief in a moral system.

Randy, from the novel Alas, Babylon, was taught at a young age that lying is unforgivable in all circumstances and there will never be an exception to a lie. I can personally relate to this because my dad had taught me the same thing. Always as a child the worst punishments came with lies and I never dared to tell a lie. My father told me that I would get in much more trouble if I lied about what I did. He told me no matter what I will get a lighter punishment for telling the truth. So as a kid, I learned to tell the truth and be a trustworthy person.

Kurtz dying words are a cryptic whisper: “The horror, the horror”. There could be more than one possibility of the “horror” Kurtz could have been talking about. I think that it symbolizes the darkness of Kurtz’s tyrant and savage-like qualities that he gained when he lived with the natives. When he

Through viewing scenes where Marlowe is beaten up and tied up by Mars' men, we come to realize the strength of Marlowe's integrity and will. Although he is put through much physical pain as well as the mental pain of witnessing horrific acts, he bites the bullet and commits himself completely to the tasks placed before him. Once again, he does not do his task for the small amounts of money, but he does it because he feels it is what he must do.

First, he states that it is okay to lie so you can save yourself from embarrassment.(516) Secondly he claims that consistently telling the truth has it’s advantage in trust.(516) To this he says there are exceptions to this rule. Namely that if withholding information from someone results in saving them from evil occurring to them.(516) Even with these exceptions, he says that we have to recognize that the lie may be breaking down trust so we can truly weight the cost and the benefit of both.(516)

This is because silence is not the truth, so by remaining quiet, that person is not telling the truth. A more recognizable form of lying is outright lying, such as when a student claims to be working hard on her philosophy paper when she has in fact been partying at Myrtle Beach for the last two days. Deception is yet another form of lying, because by tricking another person into believing something false, one is withholding the truth from that person. By withholding the truth, the truth is not being told, so the deceiver must be a liar. Regardless of the form in which a lie is being presented, all lies have one thing in common. By giving others false thoughts or perceptions of an event, lies can have a strong influence on our free thinking. Therefore, they are all violations of human reason, something that many people strongly respect. As we will see shortly, the ability to reason is also considered valuable to both Mill and Kant, since it underlies both of their moral theories.