Marlow’s Return To Humanity

As one of the most significant novellas in the history of modern British literature,Heart of Darkness has received extensive critical attention.This thesis aims at exploring Marlow’s return to humanity.According to the content of the novel,Marlow has always worshiped Kurtz.In the process of his visiting Kurtz in Africa,he has always been attracted by primitive temptations,but eventually he successfully resists all kinds of lures,even gives up Kurtz’s career which Kurtz has ever let him inherit.Eventually he returns to Europe,successfully returns to humanity and civilization.So my paper is to explore Marlow’s journey to Africa.Through the exploration of his spiritual journey,the novel shows Marlow’s self-reflection and reveals the secret of his return to humanity.In this dissertation,colonism,symbolism have been applied to analyze Marlow’s psychological changes in his travel to Africa.This thesis reveals that Marlow’s travel in Africa is essentially a journey of self-discovery and it leads him to return to humanity.Chapter1: Author’s growth and its influence.Conrad’s childhood was full of loneliness and melancholy.All these formed and deepened his hatred of colonial oppression,sowed the seed of exploring “evil of human nature”,at the same time,to some extent,it promoted his “daydream” of literary creation in the future.Heart of Darkness is based on Conrad’s experience in Congo in 1890.He came to Congo when it was a crazy time for the imperialist powers to carve up Africa.He led the ship to Africa,on which he heard and witnessed the heinous crimes committed by European colonists under the cover of Christian civilization and progressive cause.There Conrad was deeply shocked.He saw African black suffer from cruel exploitation and oppression.He was surprised at the barbarous acts of the European white people under the banner of spreading civilization.Chapter Ⅱ Marlow’s job--to discover his inside nature.Symbolism can present thought,and convey the work meaning.Conrad uses a large number of symbols in the novel,which creates an emotional and spiritual atmosphere and inspires people’s hatred of colonialism.This is a story about “pursuit”.Marlow not only goes deep into the hinterland of Africa to pursue Kurtz,but also to find another “himself” with the progress of the voyage.In this process,Conrad vividly shows Marlow’s contradiction,which is reflected in the struggle between “morality” and “non-morality”,and the struggle between “rationality” and “non-rationality”.It is because of the pursuit of Kurtz that Marlow gets the chance to know another himself.Chapter Ⅲ Marlow’s discovery of Kurtz-from model to devil.Marlow admires Kurtz’s at first,so he has a strong motivation to meet the great man.However,with the process of his pursue,what he sees and hears is Kurtz’s more and more inhuman “atrocities”.Kurtz has been eaten up by evilness.This chapter can be divided into two parts,Kurtz in the eyes of others and Kurtz in Marlow’s eyes.The difference between them leads Marlow to rethink Kurtz’s actions and colonialism itself.Chapter Ⅳ: Marlow’s return to Humanity.As two African invaders from European civilization,Marlow and Kurtz have many similarities,but they are different.Therefore,Marlow is able to retreat from the primitive land of Africa and return to the embrace of European civilization.Kurtz,however,can only stay in the African primitive land.From the above analysis,we can see the surface structure of Heart of Darkness is a journey of exploration to Africa,while the deep structure is a spiritual journey of exploration to human nature.The novel explores the duality of human nature,especially the part of human being’s subconsciousness.Kurtz is far away from the constraints of civilized society,abandoning religious beliefs and moral norms.When he is involved in the wild jungle,his psychological balance is broken,and the subconsciousness is overwhelmed by all kinds of desires which make him lose his mind.Different from Kurtz,Marlow gradually completes his understanding of "self" and moral salvation.From the depth of the jungle,Marlow becomes a wiser,however,Kurtz is trapped in the depth of moral darkness.