Psychoanalytical Lens In Heart Of Darkness

Filled with an enigmatic darkness, Heart of Darkness is layered with a very detailed blend of character development involving personality changes and an obvious plethora of racist ideologies. The way in which Conrad writes allows the reader to find a rather interesting and even exciting read. The story itself is filled with rich detail to provoke imagery. Symbolism and allegory can be found everywhere in the novel, focusing largely on the inherent darkness that surrounds and possibly influence us. Heart of Darkness is a classic that we should use to teach. Of course racism makes up the novel in of itself, but the imagery and detail that Conrad is able to evoke can offset the racism. The novel can be compared to that of Sherlock Holmes – both cause the reader to yearn to unravel the mysteries within them – a great piece of literature. Conrad’s work should not be completely lost or forgotten – being taught in schools could be the perfect case for its use.

Looking Through the Psychoanalytical Lens The definition of a psycho is a person who is mentally unstable, crazy, and sometimes aggressive. The main character, Roderick, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and the house itself are perfect elements of the short story to look at through the psychoanalytic lens. Through a psychoanalytic lens, the audience explores the ideas of the human psyche, mysterious things, and trauma within the story. This lens also allows the reader to do a deep dive into the character's mental health, and how this relates to the author.

The novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, portrays a dark and somber theme throughout the entirety of the book. Even in the end, the darkness is still there. But even so, the end is difficult to understand. The ending is very vague on certain perspectives. Conrad intentionally does this, not to detract from the rest of the novel, but to sum the entirety of his main point up.

“Was It a Dream?” by Guy de Maupassant: A Psychoanalytic Lens “Was It a Dream?” by Guy de Maupassant, unfolds in a dreamlike state, blurring the lines between reality and the subconscious. When observed through a psychoanalytic lens, the story serves as a descent into the protagonist’s psyche, revealing the interplay and transitions between the id, ego, and superego. This essay focuses on how each aspect of his psyche manifests throughout the narrative. The ego, which represents rationality and consciousness, is depicted in the story’s initial stages until the protagonist’s encounter with the mirror. This transitions into the superego, the moralizing force within the psyche, as he casts judgement on his dead partner’s vanity – “looking glass in which she had so often been reflected.it must have retained her reflection.”

Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to find convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control (Guerin 127). One of Freud’s most important contributions to the study of the psyche is his theory of repression: the unconscious mind is a repository of repressed desires,

Heart of Darkness, is not only an intense tale of pursuit, but also a psychological roller coaster as, through the characters of the story, Joseph Conrad shows us a powerful struggle between the Freudian personalities of id, ego and superego. The main characters of the novel, Marlow and Kurtz are mainly identified with the id and the super-ego type of personalities, and throughout the novel, these characters are placed in intense situations which makes them question their own beliefs and reactions, and ultimately their human personality. Hence, in between the characters, not only is there a battle in the physical sense, but also on the meta-physical level. This leads to a psychological imbalance between the human personalities of both the

    On the surface, Heart of Darkness is the exploration of the African Congo where the explorers are trying to conquer the natives and make a profit in the ivory business. However, there is much more to the short novel written by Joseph Conrad than just the surface. It is also the exploration of the unconscious where the goal is to conquer the unknown. At the same time when Heart of Darkness was surfacing in the 20th century society, a psychologist named Sigmund Freud was publishing his research findings. Freud’s research of the unconscious and Conrad’s journey into darkness is remarkably similar. John Tessitore, a modern critic, says of the similarity, "...it is enough simply

     Joseph Conrad's repeated use of darkness in his novel Heart of Darkness has been widely interpreted. Readers have arrived at many different conclusions about the use of darkness throughout the novel. The critics themselves cannot agree what the darkness means.

     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

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a frame narrative which creates a clear and organized structure. This structure helps emphasize upon the hypocrisy of imperialism in the novel and Marlow’s journey to discovering his true identity. The orderly and systematic nature of the structure corresponds with the Company in the novel and how it seems so structured on the outside while their mission is actually extremely chaotic underneath as displayed by Kurtz. The cyclical structure of the novel outlines Marlow’s journey in finding himself and his true identity. As the chaos of the journey is uncovered, Marlow delves deeper and deeper into uncertainty regarding the things going on around him in his life.

Throughout its entirety, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness utilizes many contrasts and paradoxes in an attempt to teach readers about the complexities of both human nature and the world. Some are more easily distinguishable, such as the comparison between civilized and uncivilized people, and some are more difficult to identify, like the usage of vagueness and clarity to contrast each other. One of the most prominent inversions contradicts the typical views of light and dark. While typically light is imagined to expose the truth and darkness to conceal it, Conrad creates a paradox in which darkness displays the truth and light blinds us from it.

Known for its dark and controversial subject matter, Heart of Darkness remains one of the most profound novellas of the present day. Written by Joseph Conrad in 1899, the author arguably recounts an experience mirroring his own life, using Charlie Marlow as his faithful story-teller. Unlike most late-nineteenth century pieces of fiction, Conrad’s masterpiece does not contain ten or twenty different names for different characters. In fact, it only contains two. Although Heart of Darkness has an actual narrator, he remains relatively quiet and represents the reader in a way due to his unobtrusive manner, revelling in his anonymity as he listens to the protagonist: Charlie Marlow. Moreover, all of the other characters, including the narrator,

An alternate interpretation of the text can be made through a psychoanalytical lens. In accordance with Freud’s theory of the id, the ego and the superego, Marlow and Kurtz can be seen as psychological doubles, with Marlow representing the superego and Kurtz representing the id. The validity of this reading is affirmed through the fight which Marlow and Kurtz have, symbolising a fight for control over the ego. As Kurtz loses this fight, Marlow’s psyche is damaged, due to the death of the physical manifestation of his id. It is with this split in his psyche that the novella ends. Thus, Heart of Darkness becomes an intense psychological journey which ends in special knowledge and self-discovery on Marlow’s part.

As the Heart of Darkness snakes its way into the savage shadows of the African continent, Joseph Conrad exposes a psycho-geography of the collective unconscious in the entangling metaphoric realities of the serpentine Congo. Conrad’s novella descends into the unknowable darkness at the heart of Africa, taking its narrator, Marlow, on an underworld journey of individuation, a modern odyssey toward the center of the Self and the center of the Earth. Ego dissolves into soul as, in the interior, Marlow encounters his double in the powerful image of ivory-obsessed Kurtz, the dark shadow of European imperialism. The dark meditation is graced by personifications of anima in Kurtz’ black goddess, the savagely magnificent consort of the underworld,

    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.