Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Heart Of Darkness 11 - College Essay

Heart Of Darkness 11


Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is at its core the story of two men, Marlow and Kurtz, and their experiences with the evil that resides within mankind's soul. In many ways, Marlow and Kurtz are the light and dark selves of the same person. Marlow is what Kurtz might have been; Kurtz is what Marlow could have become. Both Marlow and Kurtz begin their stay in the Congo as idealists of some kind, Marlow in the adventure that he expects to find and Kurtz in his plans to "civilize" the natives. Both find themselves irrevocably changed by their journey into the jungle and the darkness that they find there. Kurtz embraces this evil and willingly sacrifices a part of himself in exchange for the ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

in Conrad. The vast, abstract darkness that he envisions is too complex and overwhelming to be reduced to a clear or explicit truth. Instead, the truths of the world that Conrad creates in Heart of Darkness are, like those of the real world, necessarily messy, suggestive, irrational, and general.
In a sense, it is trying to explain the unexplainable brings Marlow to the Congo in the first place. Like a knight searching for adventure, Marlow was drawn to the Congo, "the biggest, the most blank, so to speak" (p 71) place on the map. Once there, Marlow discovers firsthand the horrors of colonialism as well as an even greater pull in the figure of Kurtz, a mysterious and startlingly efficient agent living deep within the African jungle. Kurtz is first introduced quite casually to Marlow by the Accountant, who describes him as "remarkable" and "first-class" (p 84). At the Central Station, Marlow's vision of Kurtz is fleshed out to include such descriptors as "prodigy", and "an ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.


Already a member? Login

Marlow belief in Kurtz's revelatory powers become, that when he thought that he would not have a chance to hear Kurtz speak after all, he felt as if he "had been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life..." (p 120).
Unfortunately for Marlow, Kurtz is not the great prophet that Marlow makes him out to be, at least, not in the sense that Marlow expects. At the Inner Station, Marlow discovers the answer to his earlier question of "just what such a man [Kurtz] would do when he got to the top," when he realizes that Kurtz had set himself up as a god to the natives. Here as in most of the rest of the book, Kurtz is portrayed, not as an individual person, but as an agent of some ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library.
Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports,
and research papers in 2 minutes or less.


CITE THIS PAGE:

Heart Of Darkness 11. (2005, April 8). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-11/25020
"Heart Of Darkness 11." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 8 Apr. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-11/25020>
"Heart Of Darkness 11." Essayworld.com. April 8, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-11/25020.
"Heart Of Darkness 11." Essayworld.com. April 8, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-11/25020.
JOIN NOW
Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays


PAPER DETAILS
Added: 4/8/2005 04:55:01 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 2295
Pages: 9

Save | Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS
Save and find your favorite essays easier

SIMILAR ESSAYS
» Heart Of Darkness 4
» Comparative Essay Between Heart...
» Heart Of Darkness 6
» An Analysis Of Heart Of Darkne
» Heart Of Darkness
» Joesph Campbells Hero Journey
» Analysis Of Three Of Hawthorne'...
» Journey of Life in Frost's Poem...
» Plan or Chance?: The Meaning o...
» The Hollow Men
Copyright | Cancel | Contact Us

Copyright © 2024 Essayworld. All rights reserved