"The truth within is hidden, fortunately, fortunately" - Marlow, Heart of DarknessSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Joseph Conrad's famous short story, Heart of Darkness, is a work that has generated great controversy and heated debate regarding its meaning. Since its publication over a hundred years ago, countless interpretations of the story have emerged. Indeed, “its imagery has been described in detail, the resonances of Dante, Milton, the Bible, the Upanishads have been invoked; his philosophical position is variously argued as being Schopenhauerian, Nietzschean, nihilistic, existentialist or Christian, his psychology Freudian, Jungian. , Adlerian..."(Bloom, 57). It is possible that Conrad intentionally left his short story ambiguous and open to so many interpretations in order to convey his true message; that there is no truth in life, no real meaning, only ambiguity Although this statement itself may seem ambiguous, as the following paragraphs illustrate, through the setting of the story itself, the journey of. Marlow, Kurtz's Journey and Its Inconclusive Ending, Conrad expresses this concept of absurdity and unattainable truth ambiguously from the beginning If Marlow is the character who experienced this physical and metaphorical journey to the "center of the earth. ", it's an anonymous narrator who tells Marlow's story. This anonymous narrator didn't actually go to the Congo with Marlow, so every line of his story is an attempt to remember the story Marlow told him. narrated Thus, the reader is not directly placed in the story or in the real experience, nor even told by Marlow, the character who actually experienced it. The reader is informed of this by a character who simply heard about it from Marlow. Conrad has already placed the reader away from the story itself, distancing them from the truth. Marlow's physical journey to the Congo is the realization of a childhood dream. It recounts his youthful desire to travel and explore the world, including the Congo River. He describes this area of ​​the map saying, “It had become a place of darkness. But above all there was a river in it, a very large river that we could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, its head across. the sea, its resting body bent far away over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the earth". This concept of "darkness", which continually arises throughout the short story, serves as a symbol of the unknown. It is to physically discover this “place of darkness” that Marlow decides to go down the Congo River. Thus, through his journey, Marlow is in search of truth and meaning. recounts the brutality of white men against the African population and the horrible conditions many of the natives endured One such description occurs when he witnesses the deaths of various native workers He comments: “They were dying slowly – it was very. clear. There were no enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but the black shadows of disease and famine lying confusedly in the greenish darkness." Marlow acknowledges and describes the terrible conditions of the indigenous people, but at no point directly expresses disapproval. His descriptions, like the one above, evoke the reader's compassion for the African people, but this compassion is a reaction to the horrors that they experience. he describes, and not the psychological difficulties that Marlow experienced in the face of the atrocities of the white people. What Marlow really concludes.about the brutality is not revealed. Thus, while his journey is filled with descriptions of the suffering of the natives, the reader has no ultimate sense of the truth of what Marlow feels about what he has witnessed. Marlow's journey also becomes a quest to find Kurtz. He describes his view of Kurtz before meeting him, saying, "All of Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz." Thus, for Marlow, Kurtz symbolizes Europe and civilization. Marlow expresses his awareness that the journey has become Kurtz's pursuit when he describes the steamboat (or "filthy beetle", as he calls it) traveling down the Congo River. He says: "I don't know where the pilgrims imagined he was crawling. To a place where they expected to get something, I bet! To me, he crawled towards Kurtz, exclusively." Marlow's journey through the Congo is ultimately a journey to find Kurtz, who has become a symbol for Marlow. However, despite his strange attraction to and loyalty to Kurtz, Marlow's feelings towards the man are never fully expressed. Although he reveals that Kurtz is a very gifted and influential man, he never directly expresses approval or disapproval regarding Kurtz's actions in the Congo. Thus, Marlow's journey is not only inconclusive in that he never really says how he feels about the atrocities he witnesses, but it is also ambiguous and devoid of truth in that he draws no real conclusion about this talented and brutal man, whose successes came to fruition. through the suffering of others. The unnamed narrator actually reveals that this is what will happen before Marlow begins his story, saying: "we were destined, before the reflux began to work, to hear of one of the inconclusive experiments by Marlow. Kurtz is also on a journey in Heart of Darkness, although his journey quickly comes to an end, as he dies shortly after his introduction in the novella. Just as he does with Marlow, Conrad leaves Kurtz's beliefs and conclusions somewhat ambiguous. However, he becomes the only character who seems to find some truth in his journey. When he dies, Kurtz experiences a significant moment of revelation. This is the only place in the story where Conrad alludes to the possibility of discovering the truth. Marlow describes this moment by saying: “I saw in that ivory face the expression of dark pride, of ruthless power, of cowardly terror – of intense, desperate despair. Did he relive his life in every detail of desire, temptation and emotion? capitulation during this supreme moment of complete knowledge? » . While experiencing this moment of “complete knowledge” and “glimpsed truth,” Kurtz exclaims “The horror! The horror! A totally ambiguous statement. This can be interpreted as an acknowledgment of the violent and barbaric human being he has become, but Conrad leaves this unclear. Although Kurtz is the only character to experience a moment of truth and clarity, Marlow comes to no conclusion about the truth that Kurtz sees as he dies. This remains unclear, as do Marlow's own ideas. As stated previously, the setup of the story distances the reader from the actual events taking place, and therefore distances them from the truth. Likewise, this idea of ​​ambiguity and absence of truth is reinforced by the end of the story. Heart of Darkness ends inconclusively: Marlow ends his story with the memory of a lie he once told. The fact that the last thing he says is the exact opposite of the truth was an intentional decision on Conrad's part to convey his overall message regarding the absurdity of things and the lack of absolute truth., 1987.