Hecht 1

Alex Hecht
Mrs. Crossley
AP English 2A
2/11/16

The Light at the Heart of DarknessYin and Yang in Heart of Darkness

Hope and despair. Light and darkness. Fire and ice. Honor and Dishonor. Life and death.
These are just some of the things represented by the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, also known as the
Taijitu. Originating in ancient China, the central concept of Yin and Yang is perhaps best described in

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the idea that for there to be good, there must also be evil. It encapsulates the idea that the universe is
ruled by opposing forces, but it also states that those forces are not pure- wherever there is darkness,
there will always be light, and vice versa. One of the best examples of this concept is in the novel
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Marlow and Kurtz, the two main characters of the novel, serve
as a primary example of Yin and Yang. At first they appear to be polar opposites, but as more
information is uncovered, things become a bit less certain.
Perhaps the easiest way to discuss Marlow and Kurtz is their differences. Where Marlow is
portrayed as an ambitious young man seeking adventure, Kurtz, at least at the beginning, is discussed
as someone who already has it made. Though Marlow only learns of him through others at first, Kurtz
is described as a man who is larger than life, making a fortune from the ivory he brings up the Congo
and earning the jealousy of the entirety of the Company for whom he works. Where Marlow is the
fresh meat, Kurtz is described as a sort of aged mentor. But it is when Marlow actually encounters
Kurtz that it is revealed who Kurtz actually is- a true opposite of Marlow. Where Marlow is an
innocent young man encountering the horrors of the Congo for the first time, Kurtz is revealed to be a
sickly, broken man who lost himself long ago to the pervading darkness all around him. Things that
abhor or shock Marlow Kurtz hardly seems to notice. For example, the inner station where Kurtz
resides is dotted with poles topped with human skulls. When Marlow notices, he is horrified, but Kurtz
never mentions it, never even seems to take notice. Indeed, if one were only to look at the surface,
Marlow and Kurtz would seem to almost be irreconcilable in their differences. How could someone as
broken as Kurtz ever have any similarities to someone as pure as Marlow? But it is deeper that things
get more interesting.
Kurtz and Marlow. At first glance, polar opposites, but look a little deeper and they are eerily
alike. Through the whole novel, Marlow clearly describes how horrified he is by the things he
encounters deep withing the shadows of the Congo. At first, Kurtz appears to be the exact opposite,

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dismissing the pain and death all around him with cold indifference. But it is in death that Kurtz's true
nature is revealed. As Kurtz lies dying of a sickness that had ravaged him many times in the past, his
last words slipped out in barely a whisper: The horror! The horror! (Conrad 43). It is here that Kurtz
shows that he knew what he was doing. His sickness was perhaps not solely a sickness of the flesh, but
also a sickness of the soul. As the philosopher Nietzsche once famously said, If you stare into the abyss, the
abyss stares back at you ( Graham 16).Perhaps Kurtz thought that he could control the darkness about him. Perhaps he
thought that he alone could change things in the depths of the Congo, for he certainly believed that no one else could, as
shown by his painting at the middle station of the blindfolded woman holding a torch. And indeed, Kurtz was once a
remarkable man, a youth filled with vigor searching for adventure and for the respect of his betrothed. He is described at
multiple points as truly being a man of many talents, skilled in the arts of speech and persuasion. And for a time, he did
hold out, driving back the darkness around him with the bright torch of civilization. But that torch could not burn forever.
The Company needed its ivory and it was Kurtz who was to procure it. And it is Marlow who learns of Kurtz's methods
in gathering the ivory, the methods in which Kurtz lost himself. Kurtz would wage small wars on the natives and perhaps
even other Europeans surrounding him, killing indiscriminately to gather the ivory that his masters demanded. And with
these battles came the sickness that ravaged Kurtz. As the Company grew strong, Kurtz grew weak. At some point, he
took a mistress from among the natives that he had made his servants, a strong woman, some kind of princess or priestess,
and the exact opposite of the woman Kurtz had come to the Congo for in the first place. But Kurtz knew what he was
doing. Eventually, he had enough. During one of his regularly scheduled ivory deliveries to the middle station, Kurtz
stopped just short of the station and turned around, denying the Company its profits. And when he heard that the
Company had sent an expedition to recover him, he did his utmost to stop it, even to the point of ordering his followers to
attack the expeditions steamer. Kurtz did not wish to return to Europe. He knew he was dying. He had given up on
himself, and believed, not untruly, that there was no salvation left for him. When he died, he wanted it to be not in the
pristine halls of some European manner, but in the darkness that had shaped and molded him into what he was. He had
begun, so long ago, much as Marlow is now, an optimistic young man seeking nothing but to better the world and

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himself. But even a man of his ability, of his skill, could not escape the heart of darkness untouched.
Portrayed as a young man of grand ideals, horrified by the terrors of the jungle all around him, and at times driven
almost to the point of insanity by the horrors he encountered, Marlow is very much like Kurtz once was. Encountering
the darkness of the Congo for the first time, in his ignorance he thinks that there is something that he can do. Let him feed
this dying man. Let him bring civilization, a light in the darkness. Let him meet this great man named Kurtz, and surely
together they could bring about a renaissance in this darkest corner of the world. But it is not to be. There are signs that
Marlow is affected by the jungle in a very similar way to Kurtz. When Marlow reaches the inner station with the
expedition to recover Kurtz, he encounters Kurtz's mistress. He spends quite a bit of time describing her, speaking of her
beauty and her ferocity, her wildness and her sensual body. And in a moment very unlike the Marlow at the beginning of
the novel, he describes an urge to talk to this wild beauty. And this is arguably one of the key points of the novel. If
Marlow had spoken to that woman, if he had given in to his baser instincts as Kurtz had done so long ago, then perhaps
the Company would have set a new record for ivory production, with the new head of the inner station being the main
cause. Marlow, for a time, idolized Kurtz. The very essence of Kurtz was held in Marlow. Two men, opposites and yet
so similar.
Kurtz and Marlow. Madness and sanity. Two halves of a whole. Two sides of a coin. Each being the opposite
of the other, but each also carrying remnants of what the once were or seeds of what they could become. Truly, they are a
representation of Yin and Yang, and through that these two men give a warning- be careful where you walk. When you
enter the heart of darkness, even a single misstep can send you careening down a shadowy path from which there is no
return. If the best of Europe could not conquer the pervading darkness of the Congo, how could any man?

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Works Cited
Anon. Coloriage-yin-yang. 2013. Web. JPEG.
Casey & Julie. What is Yin Yang? Personal Tao. Web. 3 February 2016.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.
Graham, David. The Very Best of Friedrich Nietzsche. New York: Graham, 2014. Print.
Koi Fresco. Yin & Yang (Explaining the Taijitu). Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 20 July 2015.
Web. 3 February 2016.
Wang, Robin R. Yinyang (Yin-yang). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 3 February 2016.
Will. Taijitu. Ancient-Symbols.com. Web. 4 February 2016.