Hearts

Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By 1880, the hectic rush of nations wanting to continue extending their empires beyond European borders would lead to the scramble for Africa. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness tells one of the most remarkable stories in Europe’s…

Throughout Heart of Darkness, civilization and savagery are two contradicting themes that exist mutually. However, civilization is not a permanent state; it can drift to its opposite side very easily under the power of jungle. Joseph Conrad characterizes Marlow, Kurtz, the manager, and many other roles to demonstrate their moral and values during their experiences in Africa. The traditional western principles are constantly challenged by the nature and the people. At the beginning, Marlow lives…

reading the first words, I knew I was in for a literary delight”, Rafael says, “The words speak to a person; one can imagine the scene that is being narrated. While reading the Heart of Darkness, I realized that the book was new and interesting in ways Conrad could never have imagined. “ At a first glance Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness may seem to the untrained eye of Charles Marlows’s experience as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa and his encounter with a manager in…

old white female admitted to the unit on 10/29/15 for congestive heart failure and shortness of breath. This is her second time being admitted within a week of discharge for the same diagnosis. G.S. is a widow who lives along at home. She has never smoked and does not drink alcohol. She is, however, a little on the obese side. Her niece is her power of attorney and she does have an advance directive. She has a family history of heart disease and hypertension, and has stated that all of the men…

Tell-Tale Heart,” written by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe kills an old, innocent man. The man lives with a vulture eye, obsessed over by Poe, until he is brutally murdered. Poe goes off the wall. David O. Russell directs a similar story, The Silver Linings Playbook. Pat is suffering from bipolar disorder and has just been discharged from a mental asylum after spending a year there for almost beating a man to death. He continues to struggle building relationships with others. Both Poe’s “The Tell-Tale…

Every action comes with a consequence. In Edgar Allen Poe’s, The Tell Tale Heart, the narrator learns this. The man kills someone who bothers him, and believes that his plan is “perfect” enough to end his troubles completely. However, the theme was proven when the man is overcome with guilt after the murder. This message “every action comes with a consequence” is seen throughout the gruesome story in character, setting, and plot. Poe’s story starts out with the narrator pleading his sanity. In…

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness works as a frame story for the main character: Marlow. Unbound from the world and tightly knotted into his own thoughts, Marlow struggles to grip onto anything that is reality. He and his team nearly approach the Inner Station as he aimlessly scans his surroundings. Irked by the lack of civilization, Marlow finds it hard to understand why he sees “neatly stacked wood-pile” (37). He is often vague and confused in his storytelling. Therefore, it is of no surprise…

Deep in the heart of the African Congo in the late 1800’s, the Belgian Government was on the hunt for power. King Leopold ll took over to help the natives become civilized. However, this help soon turned to greed and lead to death and destruction. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, shows through the eyes of an innocent, naïve man named Marlow, the horror and devastation the Congo was facing. Nearly a century later, director Francis Ford Coppola released a movie rendition of Conrad’s iconic novel…

Sulky Devils: A Post-Colonial Criticism of Heart of Darkness “And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler...and what he knew was this - that should the water in that transparent thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would get angry through the greatness of his thirst, and take a terrible vengeance.” (Conrad 45) Throughout much of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, there lurks a theme of Marlow’s, and…

oremost, the gruesome imagery Conrad creates to depict Kurtz’s property illustrates narcissism: a form of mental disease fueled by the lack of empathy, and the craving for power in his psyche. The obsession to be seen as superior can derail one’s life. For instance, Kurtz is seen as a powerful man to all, because he was “[ivory’s] spoiled and pampered favorite”; the amount of ivory he acquires for the Company made him legendary among his peers (Conrad 115). Due to his immense success, Kurtz was…