Intro

In Conrad's novella The Heart of Darkness,  Conrad explores the subconscious and psychoanalytic thought during the 1900's.  This was the same time that Freud was coming out with his revelations about the super ego, ego, and id.  Conrad is influenced by Freuds writings and this is clearly illustrated with the Marlow's journey into the darkness.  Marlow begins his journey in Brussels with the Belgium Company and he begins his journey into the Congo.  As Marlow precedes into the darkness, we see that his rational is lost as there are three stages, superego, ego and id.  The further and further that Marlow goes on his journey, the more his mind gets taken over by the darkness and the knowledge deteriorates as his unconscious takes over on his hunt for Kurtz, someone who he admires by the end of the novella.  In the Heart of Darkness Conrad employs the super ego, ego and id with Marlow, as Conrad penetrates into Malows mind and takes the reader through these different stages as Marlow, travels from the Outer Station and into the Inner station of darkness.  This is effectively illustrated through Marlow's actions and his rational that are effected as Conrad penetrates Marlows subconscious.

Have Marlow and Kurtz mastered the art of seduction?

In my essay, the topic I am going to investigate weather or not Kurtz and Marlow had different secret wishes that could only be able to be accomplished in the darkness. Literally the darkness is when we are sleeping and when metaphorically the rules are gone, so does Kurtz and Marlow have secret desires that they want to pursue.  Knowing that the darkness is the only way to pursue these dreams, the same way you know that these dreams are desires that would be unattainable in "light" knowledge and sophistication.  So does Marlow and Kurtz have to make themselves seem less knowledgeable in order to subconsciously pursue their desires.  We are unaware of this but do we dumb ourselves down to seduce people into doing what they want for both Marlow and Kurtz.  And these secret desires can only be attained in the darkness.  Is going to the darkness, losing the knowledge, a seductive tactic by Kurtz and Marlow in order to achieve their secret desires and then go back to reality when they are back in the light.

Karl

One of the most interesting aspects of this article to me is the fact that both Marlow and Kurtz penetrate the darkness and darkness occurs when you are sleeping when your unconscious takes over.  This allows you to do things that you wouldn't have ever imagined doing, as your secret desires come out.  We see this true with Marlow as he is a very moral and rational man as seen through his analysis of the romans and the British connecting that too the british and the congo.  However when Marlow actually goes into the darkness, we see that he idealizes such a brute and a manic in Kurtz.  What Kurtz is, his personality and his persona is something that Marlow doesn't have on the exterior but what is unconscious is.  So when Marlow goes into the darkness, we see his idealization for Kurtz shown because that is his what he keeps in his unconscious and is something when he comes out of the darkness, he goes back to reality and realizes that Kurtzs wasnt the person he thought, the person he was idealizing.  The question I pose is Kurtz with his last words, reviewing his life, what will Marlows last words be?

Murfin

One of the most interesting key ideas in this analysis is the fact that natural urges that we have that have been deemed as wrong is repressed in the in the unconscious.  It says that desires that are deemed unacceptable by what our parents or by what social institutions say are wrong, leads those thoughts in our unconscious.  It makes sense, if we are told not to do something, then we will make a conscious effort not to do it or not to commit an action deemed as unacceptable.  These however appear in the subconscious as they are the driving force behind what we have no control over because these ideas are being repressed in society.  Also that these repressed desires only appear in such subconscious behavior such as dreams.  These emerge in disguise, we don't know why we do something or why it is that we believe in something, but it is because our repressed desires are disguised and we are not aware that we are committing such action or believing or doing something.  The question i pose is that if we live in the ego and the super ego for most of the time we think and make decisions, how is it possible that the main power motivating men and women are mainly unconscious, because that was the case, wouldn't everyone just kill everyone else and blame their subconscious?

Kurtz Last Words

"The Horror! The Horror!"  Those were Kurtz's last words as he is sleeping on his death bed.  There are many differnt connotations and meanings surrounding what Kurntz might have meant.  One important thing about the scence is that after his last words, Marlow blows the candle out and the light of "knowlege" was gone.  The light of enlightment was lost and not there anymore.  More importantly however, Kurtz says the horror the horror, but what i belive in is that the horror is the horror of self enlightmeant is meaningless becasue it comes to late.  When he is looking back on his life, I feel that Kurtz is regretting what he was doing and although he cant go back and change it, he has an epiphany at the end when he says horror, horror, all the exploitation and all the raid and craziness he went through for the ivory and for traveling through the heart of darkness for self enlightment, was a waste and was a horror as he didnt grasp the meaning and self knowlege he wanted to grasp until the end of his life when it was meaningless.

Heart of Darkness Passage

One of my favorite passages that I have read is the one about the cannibal restraint.  When Marlow describes the world and the cannibals are there and not coming to eat Marlow and the rest of the people, it demonstrates how the so called "uncivilized" world is actually "civilized."  The Europeans are the ones who are actually have no self control and self restraint on what is right and what is wrong.  This could have been because of the colonization of the British by the Romans who brought in business and new technology and exploited the British.  The Africans are restraint and I love this because we don't see self restraint very often because of the way our society is today.  I believe understanding self restraint is a very important thing in living a safe and healthy and successful life.  I believe that we as a society have digressed and our moral and values have regressed and that the Africans would have progressed as a more healthy and smart civilization if they kept practicing self restraint and if it wasn't for the hungry and driven and unrestrained Europeans, then the Africans would have had a more successful morally and shaping cleaner and healthier future.

Heart of Darkness passage

The passage that I choose is the one that Marlow is in the water and he is going on his ironic Eldorado Expedition.  In this expedition, he describes how the world surrounding him made him feel like he was going back into time.  With the description of the way the area is run is very out dated and very nature driven, really demonstrates the lack of technology and business into Africa.  This is very ironic, because the British company are the first business to come into Africa and to exploit the virgin lands of Africa.  I enjoyed the descriptiveness of this passage a lot and it really gives you a clear visual what he is witnessing. Also I enjoyed how people can go back and get lost in nature.  In this new age of technology, us getting lost in nature only happens in a video game.  I have felt this wonderful sensation where I am in one place but I feel like I am in another universe or time period.  Nature has become a very underrated aspect of our everyday life and I enjoyed how Marlow really exemplifies the importance and the innocence of nature and of the African people.

Heart of Darkness 4

Marlow does not agree with his aunts statement that he will be the "emissary of light" for the Africans.  This is referring to the fact that Marlow is going to be the source with the rest of his English conquerors, the source of knowledge and truth and a new style of living.  This will be the way the English help the Africans, is through their ways of helping bring the Africans out of poverty through the English's knowledge and experiences with every day life.  Marlow disagrees with this comment and changes his attitude at the end of the paragraph when he says that the company was made for profit and money, not to show the Africans knowledge and truth.  Just like the way the Romans exploited the English, to make the Romans more wealthy at any cost, the English, in Marlow's eyes are doing the same thing, trying to make themselves rich at the expense of the Africans.  This is ironic because they will be doing the opposite, they are not going to be adding "light" but instead they will be exploiting them and taking the light away.

heart of darkness number 2

The connection between the Roman timnes and London and Africa is that their new colonization of Africa is what london use to be like.  London use to be like Africa and very dirty and a place where people who would get into trouble and the misfits would go.  The Romans came and colonized London, and gave them new life and new tecnology that wasnt there before.  The Romans came and colonzied London and that is what now London is doing for Africa.  Changing and bringing the British ideals to Africa, Marlow is just recognizing that we, the british were once colonized and that we are now doing the same to the Africa.