An Analysis Of heart Of Darkness :: essays research papers

An depth psychology of "Heart of Darkness"Joseph Conrad, in his long-short story, "Heart of Darkness," tells the taleof two mens fruition of the hidden, dark, evil side of themselves. Marlow,the "second" narrator of the framed narrative, embarked upon a spiritualadventure on which he witnessed firsthand the wicked potential in e precise angiotensin converting enzyme. Onhis journey into the dark, forbidden Congo, the "heart of darkness," so to speak,Marlow encountered Kurtz, a " odd man" and "universal genius," who hadmade himself a god in the eyeball of the natives over whom he had an imperceptiblepower. These two men were, in a sense, images of each other Marlow was whatKurtz may put one over been, and Kurtz was what Marlow may have become. manage a jewel, "Heart of Darkness" has many facets. From one view it is an exposure of Belgian methods in the Congo, which at least for a good subr step to the foreine of theway sticks closely to Conrads own experience. Typically, however, theadventure is related to a big view of human affairs. Marlow told the storyone evening on a yacht in the Thames estuary as darkness dribble, reminding hisaudience that exploitation of one group by another was not new in history. Theywere anchored in the river, where ships went out to darkest Africa. Yet, aslately as Roman times, Londons own river led, standardized the Congo, into a barbaroushinterland where the Romans went to make their profits. Soon darkness fell overLondon, while the ships that bore "civilization" to remote parts appeared out ofthe dark, carrying darkness with them, different only in kind to the darknessthey encounter.These thoughts and feelings were that part of the tale, for Conrad had amore personal story to tell, about a single man who went so far fromcivilization that its restraints no weeklong mattered to him. Exposed to theunfamiliar emotional and physical demands of the African wilderne ss, free to doexactly as he chose, Kurtz plunged into horrible orgies of which human sacrificeand cannibalism seemed to have formed a part. These excesses taught him andMarlow what human nature was actually like "The iniquity" Kurtz gasped beforehe died. Marlows own journey from Belgium to the Congo and thence up the riverthen took on the aspect of a mans journey into his own intimate depths. Marlowwas saved from the other mans fate not by higher principles or a betterdisposition, but merely because he happened to be very busy, and the demands ofwork were themselves a discipline. The readers perceive, too, that other white