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Do
you agree with the view that the exploration
of evil is one of the major themes in
The Heart of Darkness.
Conrad's
The Heart of Darkness says
that everybody has within oneself vulnerability,
fragility, weakness and strong fear
of being deviated from the essential
norms and values. All of us possess
within ourselves basic evils. In our
day to day normal life this basic hidden
evils don't emerge strongly and overwhelmingly.
But when we enter in to that zone which
fires our evils, these evils becomes
insurmountable and unconquerable. These
evils becomes so threatening that they
can claim our lives. For example greed
and lust for power and prosperity is
invisibly hidden in the innermost part
of our life. At the normal state of
our life we are not aware of how life
threatening they are. But the moment
we enter in to the atmosphere of temptation
we succumbs to the temptation of evils
if we have no substance to prevent.
In the novel there is a unique and pretty
extraordinary genious Kurtz. He is a
superb European.
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He represents a highly refined
civilized, European, moral
self. Amidst the enchanting
glow and glamour of his civivlized
personality all basic evils
remained unknown. But as soon
as Kurtz landed on the soil
of Congo, his civilized personality
and self began to dwindle
and disintegrate. His cilvilized
self became so torn that he
became the avatar of the natives.
He was so engulfed by barbarism
that he began to say, 'Extreminate
all the brutes'. One step
ahead, he becomes so cruel
that he was ready to shoot
his own bosom friend just
for a sake of a small piece
of ivory. He was so obsessed
that he rapaciously exploited
Congo.
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His
evils cropped up and mushroomed Panoramically.
He became so sexual that he forgot about
his European girl friend and began to
enjoy with an Afrian women. So it seems
that Kurtz's evils increased by leaps
and bounds as he came in touch with
evil- stimulating outer atmosphere.
But like Kurtz, Marlow too had reached
Congo. But unlike Kurtz, Marlow kept
himself intact amidst the enticing climate
of evil. Hence the novel asserts that
by exploring outer world of evil the
explorer happen to explore his own inner
world of evil. Whichever evil your explore,
evil is evil and the elements explored
remains evil. Hence Conrad's The
Heart of Darkness is an exploration
of evil.
Joseph
Contrad ridicules the hollowness of
the Western European civilization. European
civilization puts forward, severeal
tales claims. Western civilization trumpets
countess slogans like " Universal
Culture", Unveral Civilization
and The White man's burden. But all
of its claims and slogans sound somewhat
hollow and empty. The veneer (Mantle)
of the European civilization, at surface,
seems gorgeous and glamorous. Nobody
succeeds in protecting oneself from
being tempted by the gorgeous veil and
veneer of the European Civilization.
Its outer appearance is so enticing
and hoodwinking that we could not help
falling in love with it. In addition,
the European civilization claims more
than what it is capable. It claims to
give more than what it is able to give
in reality. It tends to play the game
of what the famous post colonial critic
Gayatri Spivak called 'Othering'. It
is artistically boastful of its innate
superiority.
According
to Joseph Conrad the Western civilization
is worrisomely fragile and anxiously
breakable. It claims and slogans are
empty and dangerous hollow. Its basic
context lacks a sense of profundity
when kurtz came in face to confrontation
with Congo, the symbol of Barbarism,
an anti thesis of civilization, Kurtz
began to show his hidden barbaric self.
His unrestrained greed just increased
unbelievably. His civilized self didn't
moderate and subdue the sudden emergence
of the barbaric self. As Kurtz's living
in Congo continued he gradually changed
in to the most cruelest and exploitative.
Had the western civilization been as
strong as it was told, Kurtz should
not have degenerated into the lusty,
licentious, cruel and exploitative figure.
Not only Kurtz but the group of pilgrims
who were on Christianization mission
turned out to be explotiative figure.
Their so called mission of Christinization
on Congo was a mask behind which the
ghost of economic exploitation dances
joyously. Kurtz's much- boasted mission
to civilize the African native is a
hollow white man's burden. The real
target was ivory. The outer face of
the European civilization is tantalizing.
But inwardly it is fragile and breakable.
It topples down consequent upon its
contact with barbarism. Hence, to dramatize
the fragility of the veil and veneer
of the Westernern Europe Civilization
is the powerful and prominent theme.
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