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Heart Of Darkness Symbolism Essay

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“Men! The only animal in the world to fear” (Lawrence). This quote from D.H. Lawrence is stating that mankind is the real animal we should be in fear of. In many ways, mankind often acts in ways that our against our morals and civilization. In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, he shows how men can obliterate all of their morals and abandon their restraint beginning to act like animals when removed from civilization. Heart of Darkness reveals multiple themes about mankind living in this type of setting. In his novel, Conrad uses the literary elements of symbolism, characterization, and setting to illustrate the theme that when humans are surrounded by darkness, they can become blind to the truth. The literary element of symbolism is …show more content…

Conflict is used what many characters to cause changes, both negative and positive, in these characters. The main conflict Marlow faces, is whether or not he should stay loyal to Kurtz, or should he expose him (Conrad). During this conflict it is shown that Marlow counteract his morals, and stay loyal to Kurtz, rather than doing the right thing and exposing him. This shows how the darkness of the jungle clouded Marlow’s mind and skewed his choices. Marlow would have rather stayed loyal to Kurtz, a complete animal, than help the innocent natives of the Congo. The manager of the inner station asked Marlow to turn over the papers Kurtz gave Marlow, in order to expose Kurtz’s actions (Conrad 66). Furthermore, Kurtz has a conflict of his own with his endless greed, this shows the true darkness of the heart of man. Kurtz told the Russian he would shoot him if he didn 't hand over the ivory (Conrad 51). The darkness caused Kurtz greed to grow so large that he was willing to take a life of someone else for an almost absolute amount of ivory. Kurtz was considered a god of ivory, and he collected more ivory than anyone else. However, everyone who considered Kurtz these things, was unaware of the way he obtained the ivory. These two conflicts make it very clear that both Marlow and Kurtz were blinded to making the right choices and fulfilling them when they were removed from

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