In the classic novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad takes us on a journey into
the soul of man. When the character of Marlow travels into the jungle of Africa to find
Kurtz, he realizes that he is in a place where the rules of society no longer constrain
human nature, and the frightening truths about human beings can be observed first hand.
Marlow finds that human nature is something terrible and unlimited by observing the
effects of such freedom on Kurtz. He also discovers that human nature is able to be altered
(subject to the constraints placed on it by the environment), and that it is able to be either
good or evil. The temptation of evil, existing the most in an environment lacking any rules,
creates a turmoil in the human soul, as it struggles between its conscience and its
Kurtz confides in Marlow near the end of the book, and from him Marlow learns
about human nature as he examines Kurtz's destroyed soul. Marlow says, "By being alone
in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and....it had gone mad" (p.150). Marlow
observes how Kurtz struggles with himself, and the horrors of the wilderness that he had
given in to. When Marlow arrives at Kurtz's station, he finds that Kurtz participates in
horrible ceremonies, like one in which he beheaded natives and placed their heads on fence
posts as symbols. Marlow believes that the wilderness "whispered to him things about
himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel
with this great solitude -- and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating" (p.138).
Without the constraints of society, Kurtz is able to fulfill his inner desires and go beyond
any restraints that he may have had before. In Kurtz, Marlow sees "the inconceivable
mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with
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