Conrad and Freud both explore humans’ “darkness.” The
darkness is one’s deepest desires that society rejects. For example, Conrad
illustrates Kurtz’s greed for ivory, which ultimately reveals human’s inner
“darkness.” (Kurtz was hired by a Belgian trading company to collect ivory).
The extent of his greed is demonstrated when Kurtz takes possession of a small
quantity of ivory from his Russian friend. The ivory is not needed for
survival, yet Kurtz succumbs to his inner desires and shows his true, greedy nature.
Similar to Conrad’s idea on human’s darkness, Freud
suggests “[one’s] neighbor is for them not only a potential helper or sexual
object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on
him…” In other words, human’s animalistic nature at the unconscious level is
constrained by the norm of society.
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