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Comparing Truth In Canterbury Tales And Heart Of Darkness

Decent Essays

Truth is often used as a parallel between reality and perception. The contrast to truth is falsehood. Commonly, truth is seen as a language or an independent reality. The Canterbury Tales and Heart of Darkness share a common motif of the contrast between truth and lies. Throughout both texts the symbolism of the journeys searching for truth and meaning highlights the motif they share. In the Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner sells pardons to those who wish to go to heaven, and everyone believes him to be a kind and honest man. Throughout the text the Pardoner is truly being deceptive to those that he is “saving” from eternal damnation. He encourages his fellow pilgrims to come into contact with ordinary objects and deceives them by advertising the objects as holy relics. The Pardoner gives sermons …show more content…

At the end of the book, we are introduced to Kurtz’s intended. Kurtz’s intended describes him as having, “greatness of his generous mind, a noble heart, honesty,” (Conrad 148). Marlow was on a journey to find Kurtz, and whenever he did, the truth of Kurtz was revealed. On page 66, Kurtz is characterized as being a “Very remarkable person,” (Conrad 66). Most everyone that knows Kurtz sees him as a remarkable person, but Marlow is curious as to if Kurtz has any peculiar qualities. Marlow is on his journey to meet Kurtz and he meets the Harlequin, a worshipper of Kurtz. Along their journey, they come across some ornamental head. Marlow discovers that the ornamental heads were people that Kurtz had killed because they would not help him satisfy his selfish desires. The Harlequin describes Kurtz by saying, “Oh he is bad, very bad,” (Conrad 122). Despite the Harlequin being a worshipper of Kurtz, he tells Marlow that Kurtz is bad. Kurtz’s deceitful past lived on after he died because Marlow and Kurtz both know about Kurtz’s past, but they did not tell anyone about

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