The Heart of Darkness: The Great Human Disease :: Literary Analysis, Joseph Conrad

It is easy to look at others and enamor their faults and weaknesses, but it is hard to see the same vices in ourselves. In the novella Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, this universal human flaw can be seen in the character of Marlow. While it appears that Marlow break loose the darkness, really he remained just as lost in the wilderness as the rest of those involved. The truth is that Marlow was non the exception. He may set out break loose Africa, but he did not escape the darkness. Marlow thought that he had only peered over the edge (pg. 119), seen into the darkness, when really he had fallen into it. He had been seduced by the snake.It should have been obvious to Marlow that there was something wrong with this company. There were countless clues right in front of him. Nothing was masked or hidden, made to appear wholesome. First of all, the counselling that he got the job was something that should have raised suspicion. The previous captain had died in a scuffle with t he natives (pg. 12). That bit of information should have made Marlow reconsider pickings the job or at least raised some questions concerning the circumstances of the scuffle. Aside from how he got the job, from when he first set foot in Brussels, Belgium, Marlow axiom so many off-putting things. He describes the city as a whited sepulcher (pg. 14)-a symbol of death. It is a biblical allusion from the book of Mathew. In a loss Mathew describes whited sepulchers saying that they appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead mens bones, and of all uncleanness (Matthew 2327). The fact that Marlow recognizes this shows that he is not completely ignorant to the truth about the company. Then he walks into the companys office positioned on a narrow and deserted street in deep shadow (pg. 14), and he sees these two women knitting black wool, looking as though they were guarding the door of darkness (pg. 16). Basically everything was telling him not to go behind those doors-not to take the interview-and Marlow chose to do it anyway. At one point Marlow even says it was as if he had been let into some conspiracy, into something not quite right (pg. 15). Clearly, Marlow knew that there was something nefarious about the whole business, and yet he took the job just the same, thus disproving his innocence in