Who Is Conrad's Heart Of Darkness?

To this day, mankind holds onto its vestigial will to survive which serves as a testament to the dangers mankind faced during its evolution. This will to survive resides inside of the subconscious of all men, yet mankind attempts to suppress these primal desires for once unbound, these desires go against the societal limits developed by mankind to civilize itself. The constant battle between this vestigial and primal darkness and the lightness of society’s mores acts as the fundamental conflict of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as Conrad explores the effects on mankind when returned to a primal environment where man’s innate darkness loses its societal bounds. Prior to Marlow’s appointment to a steam boat, the station doctor introduces
When man faces the savagery of the unknown, he faces a choice between sticking to his societal values instilled into himself by the limitations society enforces upon mankind or engulfing himself in the darkness of his vestigial primal desire to metamorphosize as a part of the savagery. Prolonged exposure to this dichotomic battle between darkness and lightness may cause man to lose sight of his own self as his heart escapes from the bounds placed upon it by the collective will of society and morphs into a heart tainted by darkness. As Friedrich Nietzsche stated, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” as those who attempt to fight their innate darkness must see that exposure to this darkness does not engulf himself for acknowledging one’s innermost vestigial desires may lead to these desires overthrowing the lightness instilled into one’s self by society through an irreversible coup de