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Carlie Marlow - Heart of Darkness

4 Pages 963 Words January 2015

In the novel “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, one of the main characters, Marlow is given a task by the manager. However, this task becomes his most challenging quest. Marlow’s task is to bring back the “legendary” ivory trader Kurtz from his station because he is ill. He heads out on his journey to bring back Kurtz however, it turns into a quest because during his journey he encounters many difficulties both mentally, and physically. Throughout his journey he has to restrain from becoming savage-like, he learns that restraint is important in order to stay sane throughout his journey, and by the end of his journey he learns that mentally everyone has heart of darkness within them and it is only unveiled when someone is put in a savage environment where there are no rules.
During Marlow’s quest he encounters many difficulties such as staying sane throughout his journey. He realizes that he has to mentally stay sane and has to psychologically maintain the state the he was in when he started his journey. When Marlow goes to see the doctor he sees women outside of the office knitting black wool and this thought keeps him sane throughout his journey because he realized that the women were knitting the fate of the young men that were going out to complete their own individual tasks. Then later on when Marlow is getting examined the doctor says to him, “the changes take place inside, you know” (Conrad 16). He comprehends that the real difficulty is to maintain his psychologically state and not become uncivil. When Marlow reaches Kurtz’s station the reader can see that Marlow’s mental transformation from the beginning of the book up until this point. When he first started his job and went to meet the manager Marlow says, “I could see every rib: the joints of their limbs were like knots on a rope: each had a iron collar on his neck” (Conrad 22). When he first sees this he feels that the natives are being treated l...

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