Marlow and Human Limitations Essay -- Africa Philosophy Essays

Marlow and Human Limitations In center field of Darkness Marlow takes us on a journey into the heart of darkest Africa, at a time when explorers and treasure seekers were venturing up the Congo River in take c ar of the riches of ivory. What separates Marlows tale from a mere adventure story, however, are the uncomfortable truths about civilization and adult maleity that Marlow uncovers during his voyage. One of the inescapable truths he runs up against concerns the basic limitations of the humane species. While humans may get down so utterly confident in our civilizations prowess, and sometimes even believe we can act like gods, the truth is that we are still human and are bound by the basic human limitations that are inherent to our world and species. Although in a rush of agency we humans may believe ourselves to be immortal, omnipotent, and omniscient, Marlow realizes the reality is that humans are limited by devastation, have weaknesses, and sometimes must c ontend with shrewd less than the absolute truth. It is Marlows contending with human limitation and weakness that provides a major focus for Heart of Darkness. In the following passage, Marlow states his attitude towards the human limitations implied by the act of lying. In order to reach an understanding of the implication of lies to Marlow it is important to none how he finds in lies a taint of demolitionYou know I hate, detest, and cant bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies,which is exactly what I hate and detest in the worldwhat I want to choke up1 This quote shows how the inevitability of never knowing the absolute t... ...art of his own self-knowledge. however he deliberately lies, submerging himself in the detested taint of death and mortality, for the greater protection of civilization and humanity from the subversiveness of naked truth. Marlow comes to the acknowledgement that he must live and sometimes bathe in the appalling waters of human limitations in order not to disrupt the only human world.1 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, London, Penguin, 1995, 49-50.2 Conrad, 101.3 Conrad, 92.4 Conrad, 16.5 Conrad, 20.6 Conrad, 60.7 Conrad, 58.8 Conrad, 62.9 Conrad, 106.10 Conrad, 62-63.11 Conrad, 60.12 Conrad, 63.13 Conrad, 28.14 Conrad, 20.15 Conrad, 20.16 Conrad, 28.17 Conrad, 28.18 Conrad, 115.19 Conrad, 115.20 Conrad, 80.21 Conrad, 114.22 Conrad, 104.