A Comparison of Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent Essay

A Comparison of Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent This essay consists of two separate parts but the intention is that both these parts will prove to be relevant from the point of view of what this essay sets out to study. The first part will present Joseph Conrads life and some of his works and the latter part will consist of a comparison of two of Conrads works, Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent. In this essay I will begin from two assumptions, namely, that both the works mentioned above include clearly identifiable similarities in their narration, theme and method, and, that Conrads own experiences and views have had great effect on both works. The method of this essay is firstly to discuss Conrads†¦show more content†¦Joseph Conrad was born on December 3, 1857 near Berdichev, in the Russian-ruled Poland. He was Christened Jozef Teodor Korzeniovski but changed his name later because he could not bear to hear people mispronouncing his name all the time. He was the first and only son of Apollo and Evelina Nalecz Korzeniowski. His father was an aristocrat, a land-owner who had two great passions which Joseph inherited: a love for his country and a love for writing letters ( Warner, 1950: 8). Apollos involvement with the Polish National Committee, which fought for the independence of Poland, lead to his arrest in October 21, 1861 and finally into exile in Vologda, in northern Russia where Conrad and his mother followed in 1862. Evelina died in exile in 1865 in the age of thirty-two. Apollo was becoming progressively ill and in December 1867 he was permitted to return to Poland. In the meantime the young Conrad had been living with his maternal uncle, Tadeusz Bobrovski, since 1866 at Nowofastow in the Polish Ukraine. Finally Conrad rejoined his father and they settled in Cracow in 1869. After Apollo finally died in May 23, 1869, Conrad continued his studies at the University of Cracow under a tutor, to whom he was much attached to, and to whom he confided his wish: a determination to go to the sea. Conrads guardian was against Conrads decision to go to the sea but finally Conrad did what he wanted and set out for the sea in the autumnShow MoreRelatedExamining Themes in Heart of Darkness Essay844 Words   |  4 Pages Joseph Conrad wrote the book, Heart of Darkness, in 1898. He wrote this book touching on many different themes such as imperialism and commerce, darkness imagery, dream and nightmare, isolation, mental and physical illness, truth, and journey. Although all the themes are important to make Heart of Darkness complete, three prevail overall: imperialism and commerce, truth, and journey. Being the author of the book, Joseph Conrad had a personal connection to it. He took his own journey down the CongoRead MoreLiterary Masterpieces in Contemporary Society Essay1433 Words   |  6 Pagessociety (What Makes a Literary Masterpiece? (Dec. 17, 2008)†. In masterpieces of Contemporary Society â€Å"Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad†, and The Love Song of J, Alfred Prufrock emphasis on the meaning of compassion, love, everyday life and allusions. The Contemporary literature also stem from stories from the bible such as John the Baptist and Lazarus. â€Å"The Heart of Darkness is based from the 19th and 20th century and is revolved around the natures of morality and evil. This masterpieceRead More Heart of Darkness Essay2840 Words   |  12 Pages Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness does not explicitly deal with a struggle between war and peace: the conflict is a psychological, moral one; however, the text’s implications that society is a thin veil over our innate savagery, the darkness at the roots of Western civilization, reveals disturbing truths about the peaceful, orderly lives we take for granted. The key to understanding Conrad’s novella lies in ascertaining the metaphorical significance of th e â€Å"heart of darkness,† a search which mayRead MoreEssay about Heart of Darkness: Psychoanalytic Criticism4502 Words   |  19 PagesHeart of Darkness: Psychoanalytic Criticism Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to find convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivatedRead MoreHeart of Darkness in the Light of Psychoanalytic Theories.4599 Words   |  19 Pagesrepression. A work of literature is thus treated as a fantasy or a dream that Freudian analysis comes to explain the nature of the mind that produced it. The purpose of a work of art is what psychoanalysis has found to be the purpose of the dream: the secret gratification of an infantile and forbidden wish that has been repressed into the unconscious (Wright 765). The literal surface of a work of literature is sometimes called the manifest content and treated as manifest dream or dream story. TheRead MoreAn Analysis of Macbeths Ambition2139 Words   |  9 PagesThrough his practical use of imagery, Shakespeare shows us a deeper look into how ambition can destroy man when unchecked by moral values. The use of imagery is widespread throughout â€Å"Macbeth†; it is most dominant in clothing imagery, light and darkness imagery, and blood imagery. Through these images, Shakespeare shows the development of Macbeth s ambition. Using clothing imagery, Shakespeare develops Macbeth s ambition. This is seen, as, imagery of clothing which shows us Macbeth s ambitionRead MoreEssay on The Allegory in The Minister’s Black Veil2914 Words   |  12 PagesMinister’s Black Veil†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   It is the purpose of this essay to show that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† is indeed an allegory. M. H. Abrams defines an allegory as a â€Å"narrative, whether in prose or verse, in which the agents and actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived by the author to make coherent sense on the ‘literal,’ or primary, level of signification, and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of signification† (5).    YvorRead MoreThe Nature Of The African Landscape10552 Words   |  43 PagesThe Landscape: In this section, I seek to investigate how the nature of the African landscape has been depicted in Heart of Darkness. Questions such as 1.) How the Orientalist others the foreign landscape 2.) What is the psychological influence of the African landscape on the European colonisers? 3.) Does the psychological influenceon the Whites similar to that of the Blacks? 4.) And, what are the consequences of that psychological influence on the White invaders and the natives? These argumentsRead MoreThe Notion of Duality of the Human Soul in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience4371 Words   |  18 Pagessongs. On this score, I strongly identify with Shadrack Ambansom’s opinion that â€Å"it would therefore be myopic to consider Blake as a simple poet†¦ indeed no poet who was capable of presenting penetrating studies of the devious and treacherous human heart as ‘The Human Abstract’, and ‘A Poison Tree’ etc can be called simple† (24). Blake, like Marlowe in Dr. Faustus, exhibits in his Songs of Innocence and Experience that the human soul has a dual nature, essentially made up of both the good and evilRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Sahgal 1908 Words   |  8 Pageswho are all â€Å"land-lords at heart.† The mutilation does not intimidate his spirit and he remains a fearless fighter for freedom. When Nishi’s servants try to drag him to the vasectomy camp, he thrashes out, handless and crippled though, and flings himself out of their reach. Ironically, Rose, who warms him day after day to be careful when he goes to the well, is herself pushed into the well while the beggar becomes the only witness to this brutal act done in the darkness of night. Towards the end of