Isolation In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

In Heart Of Darkness the isolation from civilization in the Congo causes people to lose their moral senses. This is quite prominent in Kurtz, but Marlow was able to restrain himself from going as far as Kurtz did. This was done by Marlow be observant of Kurtz and his own moral sense.

Throughout the story Marlow is able to realize the loss of moral senses in Kurtz. This is due to the isolation Kurtz experienced while he was surrounded by the dense jungle. This led to Kurtz realizing he could do anything he wanted, which led to him to loss his morality sense. The Congo is filled with savages, whom Kurtz is the prodigy of. Kurtz becomes overwhelmed with power and loses his self-control causing him to become a savage himself. Marlow sees this as he explains in the book the setting and it’s connection with savagery and loss of morality. He talks about the swamps filled in the jungle and how the utter savagery has closed around Kurtz. He talks about this savageness as a mysterious life in the wilderness that stirs in the forest, and in the moral hearts of wild men. Marlow is able to realize this darkness that engraves in the hearts of men, but at this point Marlow still has a young lighted heart that has not be engraved by the savageness.

Marlow believes that the darkness of the jungle deletes the hindrance that has been built in the civilization
Through his journey Marlow was able to be an observer of this, leading him to make assumptions and beliefs of how men’s morality and sanity are affected from the loss of civilization, and the presence of the wild. The over arching theme Marlow describes in this book is that we all have an inner savage in us, but this only comes to play depending on the environment you are in. Heart Of Darkness shows the proof of this theme through the failure of Kurtz and the observer of