Marlow id a biased narrator

In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the idea of restraint is explored in depth. Marlow spends much of his time throughout the narrative wrestling with his own ideas of what he thinks is restraint and what he thinks is indulgence. When psychoanalyzing the narrative using ideas put forth by Dr. Freud, Frederick R. Karl makes it clear that both the id and the superego strongly influence Marlow throughout his journey. Marlow's narrative becomes fragmented as he travels up river, deeper into an area where the superego has no presence. In the deep areas of the jungle, Marlow struggles to maintain the standards of his superego. When Marlow is recalling parts of his journey where he is struggling to fight off his id, his language becomes difficult to understand. These areas of the narrative are where Marlow's id becomes visible through the fragmented text. The reader disagrees with Marlow in these sections of the narrative because Marlow's personal bias is included with Marlow's id in these sections.

the Heart of Darkness's symbols: dream vs reality

In Marlow's narrative, he paints a picture of the Africans that crew the steam boat as scary, mob-like cannibals. In reality we know from a modern perspective that the African crew can function as a literary symbol that represents the picturesque practice of restraint. After being virtually enslaved, subjugated, beaten, and starved, the Africans that crew Marlow's steam boat are able to restrain themselves from mutinying. From Marlow's point of view, we see that the sequence of events can appear to be much more dream-like than the reality of them. So from Marlow's dream-like perception the Africans represent fear and looming danger. The clash between the dream interpretation of the African crew and the reality based interpretation of the African crew are a great example for a psychoanalytical assessment of Heart of Darkness because of the large gap between what Marlow sees, which could be considered the id, and what the reader sees, which is considered the ego.

Conrad discussion question #6

The blind woman is supposed to be justice who is carrying a torch instead of the scales of justice. By carrying the torch, she is bringing light to the darkness of the jungle but is unable to see the light that she brings because of her blindfold. She is blind to the light that she has brought and because of the sinister shadow that is cast on her face, she is unaware of its unflattering quality. The light's sinister shadow is symbolic for the violence and immoral practices of the "light bringers."

Conrad discussion question #2

Marlow wants to recognize that darkness has existed on the map for ages, and is not a new phenomenon. Even the industrial center of the world (which was arguably Brittain at the time the novel was written) was nothing more than a frightening blank on the map thousands of years ago. Maybe Marlow means to warn his friends and crew members against prejudice and excessive fear of the jungle that he will be narrating for them.