Heart of Darkness3

A detailed Summary of Heart of Darkness3

In the classic novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad takes us on a journey into

the soul of man. When the character of Marlow travels into the jungle of Africa to find

Kurtz, he realizes that he is in a place where the rules of society no longer constrain

human nature, and the frightening truths about human beings can be observed first hand.

Marlow finds that human nature is something terrible and unlimited by observing the

effects of such freedom on Kurtz. He also discovers that human nature is able to be altered

(subject to the constraints placed on it by the environment), and that it is able to be either

good or evil. The temptation of evil, existing the most in an environment lacking any rules,

creates a turmoil in the human soul, as it struggles between its conscience and its

Kurtz confides in Marlow near the end of the book, and from him Marlow learns

about human nature as he examines Kurtz's destroyed soul. Marlow says, "By being alone

in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and....it had gone mad" (p.150). Marlow

observes how Kurtz struggles with himself, and the horrors of the wilderness that he had

given in to. When Marlow arrives at Kurtz's statio

confronts Kurtz's intended, who is a symbol of good, he is not able to corrupt her

tempted by evil. When first talking to Marlow, Kurtz tells him that he was "on the

struggle that summed up human nature. This ability was Kurtz's greatness. His last words

posts as symbols. Marlow believes that the wilderness "whispered to him things about

He is haunted by the tormented discoveries that Kurtz passed on to him, and when he

As Kurtz approaches death, he struggles desperately with himself and the evil that

had not simply resigned to some state between good and evil, but he had been able to

himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel

n, he finds that Kurtz participates in

Approximate Word count = 902
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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