How Does Heart Of Darkness Change

”Men! The only animal in the world to fear” (Lawrence). D.H. Lawrence is stating that the only animal man has to fear is man itself. Heart of Darkness shows how cruel heartless man can really be. The men in the company acted ruthless towards the natives and some showed no restraint. It is seen that man is naturally “dark” when removed from civilization through the setting, character development, and symbolism of the novel. “The Nellie a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down on the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide(Conrad 1).” Before the company could head to the Congo, they had to wait for the storm to pass; meanwhile, Marlow describes his story from his
When arriving in the Congo, Marlow couldn't even bare to look at the slaves. He was too innocent and had morals and the extreme racism hurt his heart. Marlow once stated, "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much(Conrad 7)." However, by the time Marlow arrives at Kurtz’s hut, he sees the heads on poles and is amazed at how great they look. Kurtz was discovered to be insane and showed no restraint whatsoever. Kurtz killed and stole, and did whatever it took to ensure he had wealth and fame. Despite killing the natives, Kurtz was viewed as a god and worshipped. In the end, his health began to fail him and he removed from the jungle. Heading back into civilization Kurtz realized the horrible things he partook in while in the Congo and his final words were, “The horror, the horror(Conrad)!” Both Marlow and Kurtz had change of heart because they were removed from civilization for too