Manifestations And Insights Of Heart Of Darkness - Essay Example

In the Conrad’s novel European courtiers such as Belgium England and France believed they were bringing the civilization to African native inhabitants. In Conrad’s novel, this tendency of good intentions is observed not only on the national level but on the personal level also. Main character Marlow as well as Kurtz, who is a core intrigue of the plot, is also full of good intentions at least at the beginning of their journey. For me, Kurtz is evident embodiment of most charismatic leaders that appeared to be tyrants.

I think, that Conrad who was born after revolutionary events in France, Germany and England and was contemporary of Russian revolution, knew the dangerous nature of these charismatic leaders and bloody consequences of their promises. He also warned the government of countries with colonial power about their ambitious representatives. He directly showed that ambitious, educated, capable and charismatic people who separated from civilization for a long time tend to feel superiority and can lose sense of bounds.

I think that Conrad wanted to show what kind of civilization such representatives factually bring to inhabitants of their overseas colonies. Insights from Reading Heart of Darkness describes a journey in both senses literal and metaphysical: a journey along the River Congo and a journey to the dark corners of human soul. Marlow is a researcher and adventurer in his heart so he is ready to both journeys. He feels irresistible fascination with Kurtz personality. At first, Marlow tried to struggle with this fascination but then he looked into his own sole and acknowledged that his sole also has dark corners.

Therefore, Marlow decides that Africa made Kurtz mad. Kurtz was not capable to live without European environment and social bonds that defined for him by civilization. Marlow suggested that when Kurtz separated himself from civilized society, he had been forced to see true nature of his soul, and this discovery drove him mad. This Marlow’s suggestion was an insight for me. I have never actually thought that person can become insane. However, giving it some thought, now I see that is correct.

People’s behavior depends on their environment. People changed if the surrounding conditions changed. Insanity is an illness. When people have a predisposition to some illnesses, they could become ill if something triggers it. For this reason, some people who have a predisposition become ill, but others with the same predisposition remain healthy. Therefore, it is possible that Kurtz would never become ill if he lived in Belgium with his fiancee, because a social framework of standards and norms.

The matter is that regardless of the pretence and hypocrisy that peculiar to civilized society it outlines a scope of expectations that a person have to meet; whereas, an absence of expectations and restrictions can drive a person crazy. The history gives one of the brightest examples of such madness. The Spartans grew up knowing only obedience and war. Defeating the Athenians, the Spartan empire grew, so its commanders were sent to rule distant city-states. Therefore, Spartan commanders were forced into a lifestyle that was entirely unfamiliar, because they were not ready to luxury that was peculiar to conquered cities, because they had never seen nothing like that in Sparta.