Denotation-definitionConnotation-emotional association with a word

heart darkness

Of hearts

Into the heart of darkness Marlow traveled Journey motif Exploration of self What will we find in our hearts

a. the heart is who we are

-connation our emotions

i. if our hearts are broken we are broken-what does that mean? What are we then capable of?

And hell

The mind can make a heaven out of hell and a hell out of heaven When Kurtz himself is lying on his deathbed, he

sees into his own heart, looks his personal hell in full view, and utters things which give Marlow a grim revelation as to what lies within that black abyss. Kurtz's final words, as he ends his voyage into his bitter core, are "The horror, the horror!" referring to what he sees inside himself.

The fall of Lucifer The fall of Kurtz Hell symbolizes the separation of us from God

(the light) Hell was blue

Symbols of Hell

The Journey/The Fall The culmination of Marlow's journey leads

into the heart of darkness, or in a more worldly sense, Hell. Heart of Darkness fosters the allusion that hell is within us, that it is the evil existing deep inside our souls.

Kurtz and Lucifer Hell is a separation from society/rules The congo resembles a snake/temptation

Evil

Conrad's frequent symbolic combinations of life and death is probably one of his numerous parallels to light and dark, echoing the fact that the two must exist simultaneously - there cannot be without the other. Conrad's book is based on the presence of light and dark within everyone, and in Marlow's journey the question is often posed of which is predominant. There are times when darkness usurps the light, others when it is the opposite. However, the darkness (evil) usually tends to prevail.

Conrad is implying that a sense of evil resides in the core of every human, and therefore reigns at the centre of humanity, however veiled by morals, civilization and refinement. This is one of the main facts Marlow ascertains on his journey, for he sees darkness everywhere, even when there is light. 

The Lucifer Effect-how good people turn evil What is evil-intentionally behaving in ways that harm, abuse,

demean, dehumanize, or destroy innocent others-or using one’s authority and systemic power to encourage or permit others to do so on your behalf.

We are afraid of evil because we know the evil in us. This causes us to act

Salem Witch Trials, The Holy Crusades

Who are you without society? People’s characters may be transformed by their being immersed in

situations that unleash powerful situational forces.

The Rape of Rwanda Abu Ghraib The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Experiment

"Instead, I argue that while most people are good most of the time, they can be readily seduced into engaging in what would normally qualify as ego-alien deeds, as antisocial, as destructive of others."

"Those forces that exist in many common behavioral contexts are more liekly to distort our usual good nature by pushing us toward engaging in deviant, destructive, or evil behavior when the settings are new and unfamiliar. When embedded in them, our habitual ways of thinking, feelings, and acting no longer function to sustain the moral compass that has guided us reliably in the past."

Discussion

i. do you agree with the above statements?ii. was Kurtz good and then The Congo made him evil? iii. Was he always evil and The Congo (without the strains of society) unleashed the evil and allowed him to be who he always was.