Essay Intro

The unconscious desires of human beings that are within our "Id" are powerful motivators that drive our behavior. Critic Murfin points out that no one, no even the author of a literary work is immune from his or her own sub-conscious desires. As Ross Murfin suggest, an author may write in order to "gratify secretly some forbidden wish" (118). This unconscious wish makes its way into the text by the process of displacement. In the "Heart of Darkness", Joseph Conrad explores a dark world of colonial Africa, and in doing so, plays out his own desire to be free of moral responsiblity like his strange, crazy character Kurtz. Conrad is trying to satisfy his own dream for unbridled power and Godlike status. The heart of Darkness is really in some ways a journey to Conrad's own Dark Heart at the center of his heart and soul.