Heart of Darkess quote

[nanzley]

I'm having a brain blockage someone please help me with this quote:“Believe it or not, his intelligence was perfectly clear…but his soul had gone mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad. I had—for my sins, I suppose—to go through the ordeal of looking into it myself”.

[Jay]

Hi nanzley, welcome. :) Moving this to where it might get better chance of being answered.

[Union Jack]

Essentially, the Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is an experiment in Freidrich Nietzsche’s concept of the ubermensch or superman. The superman was a figure anti-ethical to conventional European civilization at the turn of the century who rejected those conventional values underpinning European civilization. These values promoted to subjection of the individual’s will to the dictates of society and conventional moral and ethical structure. The superman mindset relied heavily upon the Dionysian (emotional/ instinctual) portion of the human persona, and achieved greatness by pursuing those impulses found within the individual in the form of instinctive or emotionally driven behaviors. Nietzsche speculated that a person following the tenants of the superman would be able to gain the leadership of a new world society.

The Heart of Darkness is an experimental novel with pursues the following hypothesis: If you take an educated European, and place that individual in a social situation devoid of limitations inherent in European society, such an individual pursuing Nietzsche’s concepts of the ubermensch ought to achieve greatness and leadership. The experiment has two individuals, Kurtz, the subject and Marlow, the control, in a context (the upper reaches of the Congo) where liberated from the restrictions imposed by European civilization, they may fully realize the human potential that Nietzsche conceived. Conrad desired to show the effects of such an individuals encounter with liberation, and to convey a sense of hope. The story is told by Marlow sitting on the deck of an English ship, he appears positioned in a lotus meditative figure, and many analogies are made to Buddha, the enlightened one.

The quote, which you posted, exhibits the duality in Kurtz’s situation. On one hand, he is completely sane, and in complete control of his mind and actions, and on the other, his soul has “gone mad” according to Marlow. This is why Marlow fears Kurtz, for he is completely sane, and shows what a seemingly rational mind can accomplish without the restrictions emplaced by society. Conrad appears to believe that government, and laws, and social regulations, serve as a buffer between our inner, perhaps darker natures and us. This echoes Freud’s, ego, superego and id hypothesis.

The story proceeds with its trial case, to show how an individual placed within a lawless society ultimately flourishes and exerts their full human potential upon it. However, this freedom allows the characters two potential paths, that is, either an unbounded capacity for good, or an unbounded capacity for evil and destruction, a double-edged sword.

Ultimately, Nietzsche’s hypothesis is proven correct, and Kurtz is able ( in an environment devoid of the limits created by society) to flourish and reach his full potential. However, between the two aforementioned choices, Kurtz chooses the path of boundless evil, and utilizes his newfound power to subjugate and exploit the natives through a campaign of terrifying brutality. In the end, when Kurtz is lying aboard the steamer, he reflects upon his life. He examines his life (Plato) cries “The horror, the horror!” and then dies. Marlow respects Kurtz because he had the courage to look back upon his own life and make a final pronouncement as to its value.

So, Marlow (and indirectly, Conrad) returns to warn European civilization about the potential darkness inherent in everyone. Conrad argues that Nietzsche is right, and warns society against the great potential evil inherent within them. Thus, Marlow appears in this work, as an enlightened figure, who, having learned the truth of the darkness of human nature, returns to society, telling all he meets his story in an attempt to illuminate the shadows within their own hearts.