Compassion and Cruelty: A Response to Heart of Darkness

A detailed Summary of Compassion and Cruelty: A Response to Heart of Darkness


Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (of my personal interpretation) is an understanding of the difficulty of the world in itself. By interpreting the world, it goes beyond one's self, and one's judgment of each other. With judgment lies compassion and cruelty that is a found based upon one's image and the way they are portrayed. This novel is fundamentally based on a sailor (Marlow) and his journey up the Congo River to meet a man (Kurtz) he soon finds dark and empty. The characters in this novel are faced with violence, ill health, confusion, and above all imperialism (ironically, this book was written during the 1890's during which many small places have been taken control by Europe). Above all of this, Heart of Darkness is a novel that portrays compassion as well as cruelty that I found through the characters Marlow and Kurtz.

Compassion is a value that I found in this novel through the main character Marlow. (And in some cases I found cruelty that was brought upon Marlow by others). He is in certain ways a classic hero; a proficient man who is tough, honest


A prime example of cruelty in Heart of Darkness is through the evil, yet intellectual man Kurtz. He justifies the lack of moral sensibility, but has become a questionable man to Marlow. I found him to have a personal quality of leadership and enthusiasm thus far. He only concentrated on the ivory that he has become obsessed about. Therefore I found he deserved what he got. Having a fiancee as well as a mistress does not say a whole lot about a person's character. If anything, by thinking of himself made him to be a cruel man towards his fiancee as well as others even if they had no understanding of him. It was also obvious to the reader that he also was completely brutal and cruel to the natives.

This book is based on the center of darkness. It takes place in Africa, but England is described as the center of "gloom." I find the title of the book Heart of Darkness to mean compassion and cruelty. The heart, a place of comfort, love for one another, and finding things that makes you passionate and sympathetic towards, is true reflections of the value compassi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Heart Darkness, Kurtz Instead, Kurtz Compassion, Congo River, Africa England, heart darkness, compassion cruelty, compassion cruelty found, cruelty found, marlow found, cruelty heart, kurtz's fiancee,

Approximate Word count = 725
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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