The Epiphany in Heart of Darkness In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow experiences an epiphany, a dramatic moment in which he intuitively grasps the meaning of a situation. Marlow's epiphany begins when Marlow's helmsman was killed in an attack by savages while they were sailing up the Congo between the Central Station and the Inner Station. Marlow realized the darkness in the man's soul. His helmsman, whom Marlow regarded with a sort of complicity, was killed by the natives sent by Kurtz, and his body fell bleeding at Marlow's feet. At that moment, Marlow begins to think about the evil that is involved in the whole ivory trading operation, and in which he later discovers Kurtz is engulfed. Marlow immediately takes off his bloody shoes and throws them into the sea. This can be seen as an action that shows how Marlow wanted to get away from all the violence, bloodshed and evil of the ivory trade that he was involved in. Marlow continues to capture the essential nature of the man's dark heart later in the story when he is conversing with Kurtz in the woods. There he "wrestled with a soul." Marlow's mindset changes from seeing all the glory and profit involved in the ivory trade, to also seeing the horrible evil involved, the death and destruction. Nearly all other whites involved in the ivory trade do so for profit, as Kurtz was. When asked, one of the men who traveled to Congo said he was there "just for the money, obviously." Marlow realizes that, especially in Kurtz's operation, there is a lot of evil involved. The darkness had “entered his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul by the inconceivable ceremonies of some diabolical initiation.” The powers of darkness had “claimed him for their own.” Kurtz is said to have "presided at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites, which, as I reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times, were offered to him." All theses show how Kurtz allowed himself to be engulfed by evil and darkness. The significance of this change in Marlow is that Marlow realizes that inside every man there is a dark heart, which can overpower a man as it did Kurtz..