The enigma of adventure literature and hyper-masculine prose is revealed when the protagonist or a subordinate character cowers in the face of darkness. The unknown strikes the heart of man and satiates his inner desire to encounter a force greater than himself. The darkness, not scary in itself, is scary because it hides what lies within its folds. In his short story Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad explores common human questions through the exploration of his narrator, Marlow. Conrad addresses the question “why does man fear the darkness” on a metaphysical level. Conrad illuminates humanity's fear of the unknown, bringing that construct out of the darkness, with his intentional use of contrast between light and dark and unintentional employment of hyper-masculine tones. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Conrad's Tale tells the story of a captain, Marlow, who also serves as the narrator of the tale. At the beginning of the story, Marlow sits on a yawl and recounts the nature of his journey to the African Congo. Marlow informs his acquaintances that he once took a job at a trading company simply called "Company" and met a man named Mr. Kurtz. This meeting enlightens his mind on the true nature of the world and man. While working for the company, Marlow witnesses wild and savage acts by the native inhabitants and observes Mr. Kurtz's ingenuity and barbarity. Marlow, sent by the company to retrieve a very ill Mr. Kurtz, whom the company considers a great asset, fails to bring Kurtz back to Europe. Over the course of a series of months, Marlow travels up the Congo River, finds Kurtz, witnesses his death, and returns to Europe a changed man. Marlow's tale ends with Mr. Kurtz's last words, "The horror, the horror" and Marlow's final journey to tell Kurtz's fiancée about Kurtz's death (Conrad 91). Marlow chooses not to let the trip to Africa be a wasted expense, drawing from it great enigmatic lessons about human nature and a newfound cynicism that he considers realism towards society. Darkness, the most frequent symbol in Conrad's tale, has an omnipresent force. In Heart of Darkness Short Story Criticism, various scholars conclude: “To demonstrate the uncertainty of this world and of life in general, Conrad constantly alters common symbolic conceptions of light and darkness” (Palmisano 3). The primal instinct that darkness represents a greater evil pervades the human mind from childhood to adulthood. A child does not fear the darkness of a threatening closet because the lack of light is intrinsically frightening; rather, darkness is undesirable because it ominously hides what man innately feels he has a right to know. This reality of “unconsciousness” threatens the dominant position that man has achieved for himself in the natural order of things. Conrad understands that this darkness infuriates man and employs this understanding in his writings. When Marlow explains the nature of Belgian imperialism to his friends aboard the yawl early in the story, he observes: "It was only a robbery with violence, an aggravated murder on a large scale, and men who tried blindly – ​​as is very appropriate for those who face a darkness” (Conrad 21). The question arises: with what is the darkness faced or, more poignantly, what unknown arena are the characters afraid of? Thomas C. Foster, “No one looked longer or more carefully into the human soul than Conrad, who found truth in extreme situations and alien landscapes.” In Heart of Darkness, Africa as a Continent,the afterlife, the reality of the Other, and the wild jungle all present an unknown dilemma for Marlow and other subordinate characters. Africa as a largely unexplored continent adopts the pseudonym of obscurity. Congo is located in the heart of Africa and beats like the heart of darkness. Just before obtaining a status knowledgeable about the nature of Africa, Marlow travels to the continent for nothing more than an attraction to its sheer mystery: it is an undeniable characterization due to the lack of known characteristics. Marlow recalls: “When I was little I had a passion for maps. At that time there were many empty spaces on the earth, there was one more – the largest, the emptiest, so to speak – that I longed for” (Conrad 22). Africa, for Marlow, is nothing more than an unknown province whose mystery torments his hyper-masculine inner desire to extinguish his own ignorance. Acclaimed literary critic Chinua Achebe argues that Conrad characterizes "Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of any recognizable humanity, which the wandering European enters at his peril." Marlow makes his adoption of this view of Africa evident soon after his arrival. Marlow's blurred vision of Africa, kept outside, pervades the tale. There are others who characterize Africa as a vapid, savage darkness. Shortly after arriving in Africa, Marlow witnesses a strange event: "We came across a warship anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shelter and it was shelling the bush... In the empty immensity of the earth , sky and water, there it was, incomprehensible, firing at a continent's encampment of natives - he called them enemies - hidden from view somewhere" (Conrad 29). Africa suffers physical cannon attack. Fear afflicts the men, struck by madness, aboard the warship. The mystery of Africa threatens the white man who feels the right course given by God in his veins to know and control all things. The immensity and uncontrollability of Africa are a scorned laugh in the face of the rights of the white man. This knowledge fuels the frustration of those aboard the warship in unleashing a tangible attack on a continent, on Africa, on the Darkness. A more targeted fear manifests itself in the African jungle. One of the most fear-filled sections of the tale occurs when Marlow drives a steamboat down the Congo River. In this section, a thick fog envelops the surroundings, blinding the boat's passengers. This blinding fog covers a once bright and shining river, whose waters reflected the light of the sun. Marlow notes the sudden transition from light to darkness: “When the sun rose there was a white fog more oppressive than the night a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, hovered slowly in the opaque air it seemed as if the fog itself had shouted” (Conrad 55). Walter E. Anderson, in his thesis, points out that “Conrad so overwhelms us with images of darkness that we are in danger of losing the light” . The sharp and sudden contrast between the light of the rising sun and the falling fog is vital to this scene. The light of the rising sun illuminates the secrets of the wilderness, leaving the men aboard the boat with a sense of control and ease. The wilderness robs sailors of their growing knowledge of the jungle by shrouding the river in thick fog. The piercing cry that seems to come from the “mist itself” never materializes as a concrete threat. Maybe the cry really comes from the fog. Perhaps the men aboard the boat paint their own scenario of danger driven by the new fear of the unknown created by the fog. This seemingly dangerous scene is the only scene inwhere a piercing cry, typically a premonition of a native attack, never develops into a consequential danger. Another fear grows in Marlow's heart. A fear that arises from the fear of the jungle is extrapolated to the women in Conrad's story. Conrad intentionally uses the contrast between light and darkness to illuminate the ecstasy of knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge. However, the tone of misogyny present in the literature is unintentional and actualizes Conrad's fear of the unknown - the mystery of women - present in his subconscious. Kaplan explains: “Marlow insists on the distinction between truth and falsehood, between men and women; between civilization and savagery, this awareness offered by the text escapes Marlow since, entangled in his own culture, he would find this awareness 'too dark, too dark as a whole'”. Characterized by little more than a “wild and haughty, wild-eyed” appearance, the Congo woman in Conrad's tale represents “wild nature itself.” Johanna Smith, professor of women's and gender studies and English, argues: “In this symbolism Marlow distances himself from the woman's body by merging it with the jungle; as the jungle takes on a body, the woman becomes the image of the jungle's soul. Symbolizing woman and personifying the jungle, Marlow works to contain and control both.” Conrad generalizes the “strangeness of how far women are from the truth” when he talks about Marlow's aunt. This strangeness – or strangeness, even mystery – presents a dilemma of “unknowing” for Conrad and his narrator Marlow. Therefore, the frustration of not knowing the implications of the woman – or the Other – strikes fear into the hearts of Marlow and Conrad. Kaplan observes, "the 'wild' woman is not without purpose, and so her 'mid-struggle resolve' is all the more threatening for being unknowable." Kaplan sheds further light: “Throughout the text, Marlow insists on the distinction. . . between Self and Other. . . in psychological terms, the Other is nothing other than the unexplored territory of the Self”. Furthermore, alluding to the continent of Africa, called the Darkness, Marlow notes with hyper-masculinity, “They were men enough to face the darkness” (Conrad 20). Ironically, the hypermasculine attitude arises exclusively from fear and the awareness that men don't know everything. The mystery of Africa and women, profound and invincible, can never be truly explored by ignorant minds. Furthermore, the images of light and darkness regarding the afterlife promote the theme of humanity's fear of the unknown. The infamous Mr. Kurtz, accompanied by the presence of Marlow, rests seriously ill in his cabin towards the end of the tale. Marlow listens to Kurtz's last words then blows out a candle: “'How horrible! How horrible!' I blew out the candle and left the cabin. Kurtz – is dead” (Corrado 86-87). The candle in this scene casts light into the room where Kurtz lies “here in the dark waiting for death.” His presence in the room resembles the false hold on a certainty that Marlow and Kurtz seem to have about reality. With Kurtz's death, Kurtz enters a realm of unknown nature. Kaplan states, "As the room grows darker as Kurtz's death approaches, the darkness symbolizes a different unknown: the afterlife." As the candle flame goes out, the certainty that had begun to fill the minds of Marlow and Kurtz dissipates into the air along with the smoke. The darkness that hangs over the African continent, over the woman in Marlow's world, and over the threshold of the afterlife are dark, far too dark for man's safety. The inscrutable treasure that lies clandestinely in the folds of darkness torments the hearts of all men. The Western world has been shaped and imperialized into a system where men come.. 169-184.