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Contrasting Marlow And Kurtz And The Theme Of Evil In "Heart Of Darkne

Contrasting Marlow and Kurtz and the Theme of Evil In "Heart of Darkness"


It can be said that a certain degree of darkness lies within every person,
but this darkness will not surface unless given the correct environment. The
darkness, however, can emerge and ultimately destroy the person if not checked
by reason. If one's inner darkness does surface, the victim then is given the
opportunity to reach a point in personal growth, and to gain a sense of self-
knowledge from it. That is, when one's darkness appears, one must learn from
this experience how he or she can prevent similar results from occurring in the
future. It is ultimately through self-knowledge that we gain the power to
defeat our inner darkness, and all of its elements. Just as everyone has the
potential for evil within themselves, we too have the potential for true
goodness. In many literary works the author attempts to exemplify the evil
which lies within by showing many characters which have been, or are being
overcome by their inner darkness. In the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph
Conrad we see how Marlow's journey into his ultimate evil, into his inner self,
can be a positive experience. By contrasting Marlow with Kurtz, who represents
the absolute evil, we can see the two products of an inner evil which has
emerged. Marlow, who defeats his evil, and gains self-knowledge, and Kurtz, who
is defeated by his darkness and falls prey to its wrath. In William Golding's
Lord of the Flies the author points out how easily people can be over taken by
the darkness, how the potential for good can be destroyed by the evil, but
ideally how good will triumph. Through an examination of these two works we can
see how the darkness within, given the correct environment will surface. The
circumstances which eventually cause the appearance of the inner darkness in
these two novels stems from the lack of civility, the true test, or journey
which every life contains, and finally the product of...