Heart of Darkness and Freud's Theory of the Psyche

Freud’s Theory of the Psyche in Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness focuses on Marlow, an English everyman, sent to Central Africa as part of a European Imperialist mission. The novel follows Marlow as he travels up the Congo River to retrieve ivory from morally corrupt characters residing in the jungle, like Mr. Kurtz. Foreshadowing the true meaning of “heart of darkness,” when Marlow attempts to explain to his crew the intensity of the journey, he describes the “utter savagery that had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.” (Conrad 10) Marlow’s journey into the “heart of darkness” represents his journey through the superego, ego, and id of Freud's Theory of the Psyche, where the id is pure human instinctive desire without limitations or moderation from the ego and superego.

When Marlow arrives at the Outer Station in Africa, he is in the superego of the mind, marked by morals and one’s impression in society. Marlow realizes the evil of exploiting the Congo natives when he observes the dehumanized slaves, saying, “They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.”(Conrad 20) He then meets the chief accountant, very concerned with his image, surrounded by slavery and death but still wearing the superego’s “high, starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket” (Conrad 21). At the Outer Station, Marlow is still morally upright and aware, despite the decay of civilization around him.

As Marlow travels up the Congo River to the Central Station and enters the ego state of his psyche, his morals fade. The ego is the transition between the superego and the id, concerned not with society’s impression of one’s actions, but how to carry out the id’s impulsive desires in a logical way. While traveling, Marlow and his crew encounter cannibals. His moral judgment falters when he sees the cannibals as “fine fellows” since “after all, they did not eat each other before my face” (Conrad 36). Throughout their time around the central station, Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz, a sort of mystery in Marlow’s eyes. The hazy fog that appears as Marlow and his crew near the Central Station is a metaphorical transition. When the fog disappears, so does their concern with civilization’s rules, bringing their psyche closer to the id.

In the jungle’s heart, there is neither civilization nor rule, making it an ideal domain for the id. Freud says the id represents unrepressed human instinctive desires, and Kurtz is the prime example. With only his own rules, Kurtz has created his own world, complete with human heads as trophies that “seemed to sleep at the top of that pole” (Conrad 57). When Kurtz is forced to leave his own kingdom, the true heart of darkness is exposed: Kurtz has recruited the natives to worship him as a god with “the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations” (Conrad 65). The lawlessness of the land and Kurtz’s absolute power exist because “Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him” (Conrad 57).

The id of the mind is a lustful and irresistible state, tempting human nature. While in the heart of darkness, Kurtz has no laws to follow, luring him to make his own empire. The superego and ego, focused on image, protect the id. Similarly, to protect Kurtz’s fiancé, Marlow tells her that Kurtz’s last words were here name since the truth was “too dark—too dark altogether” (Conrad 76). It was similar to the Imperialists disguising from European civilization that their colonialist mission truly exploited the natives for their ivory. Kurtz’s id was satisfied because nothing could stop it in the heart of darkness, but Marlow and European civilization play the role of the superego and ego to shelter the id.