Justin Enriquez

Brit. Lit. /Comp.

READING BLOG: Using your Timed Writing elaborate on your answer using evidence from the text.

12 December 2013

The Dark Side

                In Heart of Darkness, Conrad portrays various aspects and incidents in ways that the reader can  easily identify with the title. One instance is when Marlow keeps the darkened truth of Kurtz’s death a secret from Kurtz’s fiancée. This instance shows that Marlow is a thoughtful young man who believes women cannot handle truth like men. Therefore, he lies to Kurtz’s fiancée and instead tells her that Kurtz’s last words were here name. Furthermore, the underlying truth to Marlow’s action in doing this is because he did not want the fiancée to experience the true nature of Kurtz’s self but rather keep Kurtz’s “heart of a conquering darkness” a secret.

                The instance stated above signifies that Marlow’s sympathetic nature is prevalent throughout the novel. From helping the African native by giving him a piece of bread to hiding the true nature of Kurtz from the fiancée, Marlow is a sympathetic young man who knows when to reveal and hide the truth. This instance relates to the overall theme of “darkness” in the story because Marlow had an opportunity to reveal the truth about Kurtz to one of Kurtz closest loved ones but chose not to cease the opportunity which relates to the overall theme because by keeping this dark side of Kurtz hidden, the reader can evaluate all the other instances involving darkness and reach a conclusion that when one character has the chance to reveal darkness they don’t and instead choose to keep it hidden. Moreover, this instance relates to most of the novel in that what Conrad tries to convey to readers is hidden and contains an abundance of themes from darkness to racism. Furthermore, one must take into account that when reading Heart of Darkness, one must search for underlying truths and evaluate them in order to discover how it relates to that particular instance and story line as a whole.