HOD Prompt #1 Question 17

What is the significance of Kurtz’ soul going mad? What caused his insanity?

             In the text it is said, “Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad.” The question is, what did Kurtz see when he looked within his soul? The answer to this question is the cause of his insanity. Conrad’s use of light and dark imagery may be able to help us understand Kurtz’ insanity and why after prolonged exposure to the primeval wilderness Kurtz finally succumbed to his primal instincts. Over and over again Conrad uses diction corresponding to ‘light’ such as describing people or items as “white, luminous, shining, etc.” in order to convey a sense of civilized life or behavior. In comparison Conrad uses dark diction such as “black, evanescent, smoky, and desolate” to identify things that are unknown, primal, or incomprehensible to a learned being. The knowledge and continued fascination of these dark beings or objects is what drove Kurtz into insanity. His desire or primal need to be unburdened by civilized life and rather be surrounded by inferior beings that glorify him as a god while knowing full well his “Intended” was waiting for him back in civilization literally tore his soul asunder. He was no longer one being that came out of the ‘Heart of Darkness’ rather as the novella suggests “The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of primeval earth.” Kurtz, who already was accustomed to civilized life, came to this devouring place of nature and died, or rather was reborn as a hollow shell of a man that knew only isolation.