Joseph Conrad’s famous novella, Heart of Darkness (1902), explores the evil underbelly of the colonization and exploitation of the African Congo that occurred under Belgium’s wretched King Leopold II. Many literary critics have pointed out the uncanny parallels between Marlow’s (the protagonist) journey into the “unknown” as described by Conrad, and Freud’s division of the unconscious mind into the ego, superego and id.

Marlow recounts his tale in hindsight, beginning with his fateful decision to accept a job in Africa working as a ferry captain of a boat that is responsible for transporting ivory downriver. However, Marlow soon learns that his “real” assignment is far more daunting; bringing the AWOL Captain Kurtz back to civilization and the European authorities. Naturally, this task proves to be way more than Marlow bargained for…

In his work on dream analysis, Freud employed the use of the term “overdetermined” to refer to the process by which one central image takes on multiple meanings. It has been argued that Conrad’s description of the jungle acts as a dual symbol of something humans innately fear and feel compelled to destroy. This symbol acts as a siphon for Conrad’s scathing critique of the Europeans’ callous and exploitive policies towards the native population and his despair at the irrationality of human behavior.

The narrative structure of the novel has also elicited Freudian analysis, due in large part to Marlow’s persistent compulsion to retell, and thereby relive, his jarring encounters with Captain Kurtz. Some scholars have argued that Marlow retells his saga in an effort to process the chilling events he has experienced, which is analogous to Freudian psychoanalysis. By packaging his experience into a narrative form, Marlow is forced to contextualize and order his experiences into something that can be understood by his audience.

Moreover, Marlow feels the need to talk about his trauma in an effort to stave off the damage that has been wrought to his psyche. Thus, what Marlow ultimately yearns for is prophylactic cure against Kurtz’s horrifying fate- succumbing to the temptations of the darkness within and losing one’s essential self in the process.

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