The Epiphany in Heart of Darkness Marlow, in the novel "The Heart of Darkness", experiences an epiphany, or a dramatic moment in which a character intuitively grasps the essential nature or meaning of some situation. The moment Marlow experiences his epiphany is right after the helmsman is killed by the natives, who are associated with Kurtz. What Marlow realizes is the ferocity of man and the corruption of the ivory trade. The real change occurs when Marlow sees the helmsman die. Marlow sees death occur and is shocked. “The side of his head hit the steering wheel twice, and the end of what looked like a long stick swung around loudly and knocked over a small camp stool…my feet were so hot and wet that I had to look down... It was the shaft of a spear that... had hit him in the side just below the ribs. I had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and take care of the rudder... I declare it seemed soon he would have asked us some question in an understandable language; he died without making a sound, without moving a limb, without moving a muscle... "He's dead," the man murmured, immensely impressed by this, "I said." When this happened, Marlow realized the ferocity of man, the horror of death and the corruption of the ivory trade. He realizes that in the ivory trade, ivory is more valuable than human life and that the traders they would do almost anything to get it. He also realizes the ferocity of man if man values ​​riches more than human life. This is Marlow's epiphany in "The Heart of Darkness." Marlow's epiphany in "The Heart of Darkness" has significance in the entire story. The theme of the story is how every man has a dark heart within him and that a person, being alienated like Kurtz, will become wilder. Marlow, in his epiphany, realizes the ferocity of man and how alienation from modern civilization leads to being wild and raw. This savagery is shown mostly in the death of the helmsman, which is where Marlow's epiphany occurs, but savagery is also shown in Kurtz. The connection Kurtz has to the natives and the death of the helmsman is that the natives work for Kurtz.