Heart of Darkness, written in 1899, is the most famous novel by Joseph Conrad. A short novel that takes us to the worst of colonialism and the lowest human behavior and it can be read as an almost prophetic text of the horrors of the twentieth century for the realism of its descriptions, for its critical sense and how it explores the contradictions and instability of the human mind. The historical context is imperialism and racism in Heart of Darkness as it was written when European imperialism and especially British began to lose their humanity, and people began to know the brutalities committed by Europeans in Africa.
The book tells the journey of the protagonist, Marlow, by a river at Congo in search of Kurtz, a commercial agent who apparently has gone mad considering that he crosses the weak line between good and evil and
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The horror!". Marlow's journey becomes a descent into hell, but also a critique of Western imperialism and a investigation about sanity and madness and horror as a fundamental part of being human.
"The horror, the horror!" only with this phrase Conrad clearly reflects a fundamental part of who we are as evil, perversity, horror, all of these are human constructions, so they are part of our human condition. It is this vision of evil, of our dark side, what explains that Kurtz is insane for some and for others, he is admirable, which explains that for some plundering is fundamental part of a civilizing work and for others is immoral and unjustifiable. And these words of Kurtz explains well the idea that supports the book.
These words are also the result of a person "civilized" when it stops feel social pressure and is surrounded by "wild", as they call them, which is unable to understand the different cultures of the two, and between that feels like a God. Those who eventually succumb to behave like a God are those who unleash "the