Heart Of Darkness

The bitterest contradiction and the deadliest conflicts of the world are carried on in every individual breast capable of feeling and passion” (Raskin 116). Even those with the best intentions can create some of the deadliest atrocities as passion can take control over one's emotions. This emotional instability can be seen in Heart of Darkness as Joseph Conrad illustrates how one’s “passion” of saving others slowly turned into a madness that caused hundreds of fatalities. We wonder, what could cause a man, such as Kurtz, in Heart of Darkness, to enter another country with the best intentions, to become so violent and be the reason behind thousands of brutal and torturous killings without any resentment. It was the unchecked power instilled within Kurtz that led him to act on his horrific impulses. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad claims one who has an unchecked power can fear losing it so eminently, that he or she is willing to engender atrocities that sustain the power the individual possess. In this case, Conrad suggests one way an individual reinforces his or her power on others is through annihilation.

1.     The protagonist of Heart of Darkness is a person named Charlie Marlow. Oddly, his name only appears once in the novel. Marlow is philosophical, independent-minded, and generally skeptical of those around him. He is also a master storyteller, eloquent and able to draw his listeners into his tale. Although Marlow shares many of his fellow Europeans’ prejudices, he has seen enough of the world and enough debased white men to make him skeptical of imperialism. An example of Marlow being independent-minded and philosophical is when he takes a trip up a river, as a break from working on ships. Marlow describes the trip as a journey back in time, to a “prehistoric earth.” This remark on how he regards

Who is "the flabby devil" who is "running the show'? Why is Marlow so frustrated by what he sees in Africa and by the Europeans he meets?

    Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is full of oppositions.  The most obvious is the juxtaposition of darkness and light, which are both present from the very beginning, in imagery and in metaphor.  The novella is a puzzling mixture of anti-imperialism and racism, civilization and savagery, idealism and nihilism.  How can they be reconciled?  The final scene, in which Marlow confronts Kurtz's Intended, might be expected to provide resolution.  However, it seems, instead, merely to focus the dilemmas in the book, rather than solving them.

In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz is depicted as an upstanding European who has been transformed by his time in the jungle- being away from the society he was used to that could have prevented him from becoming such a tyrant. I have experienced being in a situation where I was very different from the people around me. It forced me to figure out their interests so I was able to join in on their conversations. By the end of the day, I no longer felt alone. So that experience taught me that I am going to come across diversity in life, but I need to be open and accepting of it. If I had chosen to just be shy, I wouldn’t have learned this lesson. I didn’t find myself being pulled toward base, cruel instincts as Kurtz, but I think that’s because Kurtz had no one to control him. If a person gains that much power, it may lead to the transformation that Kurtz experienced. –pg. 144 “But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad.”

intelligence. Light is the source of goodness and the ultimate reality…It is the SUN and

     Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a story about a man named Marlow and his Journey into the African Congo. By reading the novel and understanding all the imagery Conrad has inserted, we can get a better understanding of the

To many, various parts of the world can seem different and strange. They may not want any connection to them and view those areas similarly to how Michael Conrad viewed and portrayed Africa as barbaric in his novel Heart of Darkness. It is true that every culture is different with their traditions and beliefs, but that does not mean that others cannot understand their way of life. Dance predates cave paintings from the Paleolithic periods in France and Italy, and because of this, dance is an integral part of all life. It is the universal aspect that is essential to every culture and understanding how cultures express their beliefs and values.

“[H]is soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad” (Conrad 100). In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad portrays man as he perceives him to be, a dark animal consumed by the evil in his heart. Conrad, being an atheist, understands no ultimate authority for right and wrong, but he does see corruption in the hearts of men.

When it comes to the topic of what the darkness represents in Joseph Conrad’s piece, “Heart of Darkness”, it seems to manifest itself as immoral circumstances. This story follows Marlow, an Englishman wanting to explore The Congo River while working for “the Company”, an ivory trade business (680). In his time there he searches for and meets Kurtz, a man who has an astonishing reputation as a very successful ivory tradesman. The greed, slavery, violence, and absurd gratification of power throughout this novel show the incompatibly of the Good Life, a life filled with reflection and realizing that happiness and knowledge are derived from being virtuous. Socrates states in “Apology” that, “The unexamined life isn’t worth living,” (38a). This quote portrays that a life filled with ignorance, materialism, or dominance over others is pointless and irreconcilable with the Good Life. In the “Apology”, Socrates is on trial

"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you" (Nietzsche). This powerful quote comes from Friedrich Nietzsche, and it is stating the idea that as people look deeply into the things that repel them, they are in danger of being affected by them. This occurs in many instances in Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness. There are also many themes in Heart of Darkness, many of them circulating around the idea of hypocrisy. Conrad utilizes many different literary elements, including characterization, symbolism, and imagery in order to delineate that if humans aren't careful when they choose to fight against a principle, they can quickly become the

Strong women are not born, they are molded by society. “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad follows the story of Marlow and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, a commander of an ivory trading post, as well as Marlow’s descent into darkness. Kurtz’s lover, the intended, represents the men’s traditional viewpoint of 19th century women, while the native woman represents a more modern portrayal of women.

In Heart of Darkness, a novel written by Joseph Conrad, the literary characters are forced into a web of darkness and evil as they enter the heart of the African Congo. However, the Congo itself is not the true evil, but the darkness instead lies within the dimming hearts of mankind. Conrad uses the literal darkness of the African jungle as a contrast to societies "supposed" enlightenment to show how the morals of civilized man are broken down when exposed to what they claim to be "savagery." This contrast is most evident in the different settings, the changes in civilized individuals as they venture deeper into Africa, and the final collapse of white man under the darkness of the

Beyond the shield of civilization and into the depths of a primitive, untamed frontier lies the true face of the human soul. It is in the midst of this savagery and unrelenting danger that mankind confronts the brooding nature of his inner self.  Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, is the story of one man's insight into life as he embarks on a voyage to the edges of the world. Here, he meets the bitter, yet enlightening forces that eventually shape his outlook on life and his own individuality. Conrad’s portrayal of the characters, setting, and symbols, allow the reader to reflect on the true nature of man.

In the book, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, all the characters are pulled into a well of black despair. Conrad uses the darkness of the situation contrasted to the light of society to show man’s dependence on western morals, and how when these morals are challenged by the darkness, the light crumbles under its newly weakened foundation. The contrast between light and dark is most stark in the themes of setting, the changes in Europeans as they drive farther into the Congo, and the white man’s collapse under the ultimate darkness of the Innermost Congo.