Part 1 of Essay
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is at its core the story of two men, Marlow and Kurtz, and their experiences with the evil that resides within mankind's soul. In many ways, Marlow and Kurtz are the light and dark selves of the same person. Marlow is what Kurtz might have been; Kurtz is what Marlow could have become. Both ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... unable to really quantify it in any specific or explicit manner. Marlow's inability to give more than a generalized description of this central subject parallels a corresponding incapacity in Conrad. The vast, abstract darkness that he envisions is too complex and overwhelming to be reduced to a clear or explicit truth. Instead, the truths of the world that Conrad creates in Heart of Darkness are, like those of the real world, necessarily messy, suggestive, irrational, and general. In a sense, it is ....