In Heart of Darkness, Marlow is on a journey to the unknown in two ways. He is on his way to Africa, "uncivilized" land unknown to many "civilized" Europeans, as well as a journey into the unknown parts of himself. This is where Kurtz comes in as the necessary shadow of Marlow. Kurtz repr

There are similarities between both the shadow selves and the main characters in both novels. Kurtz and Septimus are both viewed as insane by many people and are both consumed with darkness and tragedy. For Kurtz this submission to darkness was due to his intense appetites that he lacked the ability to control, and for Septimus his descent into madness was due to tragedy of the war. These perfectly mirror the issues the main characters are having. While Kurtz is consumed with "appetites", it is this that Marlow fear and hates most, and therefore must confront, and Septimus is afraid of a lack of feeling and destruction of the soul, which is just what Clarissa fears most. Both shadow characters had a brief moment of clarity prior to their deaths that also leads to the newfound clarity the main characters achieve with the passing of the shadow characters deaths. Both Clarissa and Marlow are repressing their own feelings and hiding from their darker sides. They both long for self-discovery but they are unable to achieve it without the interference of the shadow characters. Both are changed immensely when the shadow characters die.

The death of Kurtz and the effect it had on Marlow also relates very well with the death of Septimus and the effect that had on Clarissa. With the news of Septimus's death she is forced to feel again, and that brings about a huge change in her life. "The young man had killed himself; but she did not pity him; with the clock striking the hour one, two, three, she did not pity him, with al this going on...She felt somehow very like him-the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away. The clock was striking. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun." (Dalloway 203). Clarissa was very glad to know that he killed himself because he resisted the confinement of his soul. He was able to choose death over life because the life he would have led in the asylum would have been death for his soul. Clarissa begins to feel again, and for this she is very thankful. She spent much of her time in fear, like Septimus, that it was not possible to feel anything, or believe that the world had meaning. The news of his death brings her to an understanding of herself that alludes to the promising changes that will take place in her life from now on. She has a revelation and feels a strong connection to Septimus, even though she has never met him. This connection is very powerful, and is profound just as the connection between Marlow and Kurtz is. In both cases, the death of the sh

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Approximate Word count = 1761
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)