Depravity Without Restraint In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

"Restraint! I would have just as soon expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battle," comments Marlow as he questions why the hungry cannibals aboard his steamer hadn't gone for the white crew members (Conrad 43). "The glimpse of the steamboat . . . filled those savages with unrestrained grief," Marlow explains after recalling the cries of the natives seeing the steamer amidst a brief fog lift (Conrad 44). "Poor fool! He had no restraint, no restraint . . .a tree swayed by the wind," speaks Marlow of a slain helmsman amidst an attack by tribal savages (Conrad 52). "Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts," says Marlow a few moments after he tells of his first glimpse of

Marlow has been an explorer and a dreamer his entire life; he says that he would “look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration” (Conrad 8). These vocations are fostered in modern 1890 Europe. This European mindset leaves the reader with little surprise that Marlow soon idolises Mr. Kurtz to be something of a legendary figure who exemplifies the proper conduct and attitude of an European adventurer in the ivory trade. Marlow becomes entranced by the many descriptions of Mr.

Timshel, a hebrew verb and belief, translates into "thou mayest", and indicates that humans have the power to choose good over evil, or vis versa. The word defines the ability to decide if one should destroy another, or to hurt someone for no good reason. In East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, the character Cathy Ames is depicted as a beautiful, yet evil woman. Her morals are questioned: has she simply chosen to be cruel at heart, or was she born that way? Even though Steinbeck characterizes Cathy as a malformed creature of seemingly inherited evil, the novel’s theme of Timshel suggests that she has the power to choose her own path.

Over time, Kurtz slowly lost his restraint due to being in an uncivilized habitat. Kurtz first wanted to make profit for the company and allowed himself to be controlled by ivory. The manager says: “Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him- some small matter, which when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence” (53). Kurtz’s desires caused him to lose control and lessen his grip on reality. Marlow sees that Kurtz has no restraint left in him: “He struggled with himself, too. I saw it, I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself” (61). Kurtz gives up by the end of the book. He has no more left to give, and has allowed himself to succumb to the chaos that engulfs him. The disorder and confusion of Africa has corroded Kurtz and has caused him to lose restraint.

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.

Individuals are constantly saying that the human condition is the pursuit of happiness. The true human condition is continual fear, and yet most people will choose not to believe this truth. In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, the narrator listens as Marlow describes an experience he had while traveling through Africa and how it changed his perception of life's meaning. The efforts to colonize and capitalize Africa and exploit its resources had a lasting impact on Marlow. His contact with African natives, his inspirational hero Kurtz, and his return to a ‘civilized’ environment all wrought great change in Marlow’s perceptions of reality.

“The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.” (ESV Prov. 17:23). Man will take anything if it can result in something positive. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, leaving civilization can lead to depravity, furthermore creating corruption amongst the company in the Congo. Throughout the novel, depravity is a key element in people and the company, constructing exploitation. In Conrad’s novel, he uses the literary elements of figurative language, symbolism, and Biblical allusions to demonstrate the theme of human depravity when removed from civilization.

As an outsider, Marlow sees how badly the Europeans have extorted the Congo and its people and it contrasts with the appearance and tone of the African jungle. It is a harsh reality that can drive a person insane and corrupt. Kurtz is a perfect representation in the way that he suffered from a mental illness as a result of his power driven corruption. Marlow puts into perspective the dormant desire for power and wealth even if is by a means of corruption and hurting other that most people carry. The story is relevant to real life in the way that it depicts the state of The Democratic Republic of Congo the due to the effects of

Kurtz. Kurtz is an intriguing character from the very first moment that we are offered his name. From the first mention of him, we are drawn in and curious to find out more about this mysterious man who people say has conquered the wilderness; some even go so far as to speak of him as somewhat of a god. Ian Watt supports the reasoning we have to assume this, stating “there is nothing inherently improbable in Kurtz’s having been accorded sacred, if not actually divine, status . . . Kurtz would be regarded as calamitous for his people. If he [Kurtz] were to die a natural death, they [African natives] would have thought that the world would perish” (232-233). From what we find out, he was sent from Europe to civilize the native savages of Africa, to essentially colonize the region. We support this through information given about his background such as his mixed French and English ancestry, and that he was employed by the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs.We can assume that he comes from an educated background in Europe and is far from a being a savage himself prior to being sent there. Somewhere along the way, however, Kurtz becomes obsessed with ivory and the means to obtain it. John A. McClure proposes the

Cruelty in Heart of Darkness In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, many motifs were mentioned in the story. Savagery, meaning an act of cruelty, was one of the most important motifs that were exemplified multiple times throughout the novel. As Marlow, the main character of the story, traveled along the Congo River to find Kurtz, he encountered many forms of savagery. In the beginning of the novel while Marlow was taking a break on the Nellie with other crew members, he described how the Romans felt when they were in his position on the river.

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"The horror, the horror!" Kurtz exclaims prior to his last breath of life on earth. In those final moments, Kurtz was able to say something so true about the whole mess of human life. A life dominated by the fittest, perceived differently through each human eye, and full of judgement lacking understanding of all sides. The various ways the world is viewed causes many problems amongst its people. Whether they are about racism, wealth, or even common sense, conflicts are still subject to arouse. Why? The answer to this is not yet clear because of its complexity and endless variables. Yet what is clear is that it ties into two other aspects-prejudice and social

Inherent inside every human soul is a savage evil side that remains repressed by society. Often this evil side breaks out during times of isolation from our culture, and whenever one culture confronts another. History is loaded with examples of atrocities that have occurred when one culture comes into contact with another. Whenever fundamentally different cultures meet, there is often a fear of contamination and loss of self that leads us to discover more about our true selves, often causing perceived madness by those who have yet to discover their own self.  Joseph Conrad’s book, The Heart of Darkness is a story about Man’s journey into his self, the discoveries to be made there and about

Heart of Darkness is written by Joseph Conrad and published in 1899. It is a novella written in the early modernism literary period.

In recent multicultural and globalized age, the number of immigrants tends to increase in many countries because many countries authorize right opportunity to their citizens to emigrate from their original birth countries to another. As consequence, the idea of citizenship became controversial subject by politically and personally perspective. Furthermore, dual citizenship was a disputed question within citizenship policies. In addition, Pogonyi (2011) claimed that from the nineteenth to half way through the twentieth, dual citizenship failed to be accepted by political policies, and also it was considered as political conflict compulsion. However, in recent decades citizenship policies of many democratic states have become widely incapable of adopting the changes and accepting dual citizenship. Pogonyi also argued that diffusion of the dual citizenship is often regarded as the