Restraint in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay -- Heart Darkness

Restraint I would have just as soon expected breastwork from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battle, comments Marlow as he questions why the hungry cannibals aboard his soft-shell clam hadnt gone for the pureness crew members (Conrad 43). The glance of the steamboat . . . filled those savages with unrestrained grief, Marlow explains after recalling the cries of the natives seeing the steamer amidst a brief fog lift (Conrad 44). Poor fool He had no dominance, no restraint . . .a tree swayed by the wind, speaks Marlow of a polish off helmsman amidst an attack by tribal savages (Conrad 52). Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the satisfaction of his various lusts, says Marlow a few moments after he tells of his first glimpse of severed human heads fixed atop posts at the Inner space (Conrad 58). Restraint. The word is used time and time again throughout the text. Acknowledging restraint and the lack thereof in characters as the story progresses in Joseph Conrads nerve of Darkness is paramount to any understanding of the work. The storyteller Marlow first believes that restraint is what separates civilization from chaos and society from savagery. As his journey into the heart of phantasma progresses, however, he learns that such a conclusion is rash, and that there is far more to the matter than simply that. Literary critic Cedric Watts comments upon the ambiguity of the title of bosom of Darkness. In Watts view, the phrase can mean both the center of a dark and the heart which has the quality of being dark (54). This question regarding the titles inwardness can have an answer when one considers restraint. Restraint goes hand in hand with rationality, which is associated with the brain. Lack of restraint can, ... .... New York Penguin, 1999. Print.DAvanzo, Mario. Conrads Motley as an Organizing Metaphor. substance of Darkness. Edited by Robert Kimbrough. New York Norton & Company, Inc., 1971. 251-253. Henrikson, Bruce. touchwood of Darkness an d the Gnostic Myth. Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Modern unfavorable Interpretations. Edited by Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea erect Publishers, 1986. 45-56. Joseph Conrad. 2012. Web 6 Nov. 2013.http//www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jconrad.htm.Ong,Walter J. Truth in Conrads Darkness. Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and The unavowed Sharer. Edited by Harold Bloom. Broomall Chelsea hearthstone Publishers, 1996. 59-62. Watts, Cedric. Conrads Heart of Darkness A Critical and Contextual Discussion. Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. Edited by Harold Bloom. Broomall Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. 54-56.