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Conrad's Heart of Darkness takes us on a journey: a geographical journey into the heart of the Belgian Congo; a moral journey in search of an ethical response to the uncertainties felt at the cusp of two centuries; and a psychological journey into the heart of the subconscious. The ultimate destination for all these journeys is the realization of the darkness that surrounds us and inhabits our very core.

The geographical journey acts as an expose of Imperialism. The journey begins at the "white sepulcher" in Belgium, moves to the coast of Africa and then through the outer and central stations before arriving at the inner station. The staging posts of this journey take the reader through the various attitudes held towards Imperialism.

A thin veneer of philanthropy masks the insatiable greed and exploitation of Imperialism. This veneer is intact amongst those who remain in Europe; held together by naivety in some and self deception in others. As Marlow travels further into the Congo that veneer cracks and reveals Machiavellian subterfuges, ineptitude, inefficiency, cruelty and hypocrisy.

Marlow eagerly awaits his meeting with Kurtz. He feels that Kurtz has stripped away the hypocrisy of Belgian activities in the Congo; his success is in not abiding by a civilized code of behavior but acting truthfully. Marlow is disappointed when the meeting actually takes place. Relinquishing the sham of European social mores has left Kurtz an empty shell: capable of atrocity and still clinging to a desire to be lauded back in Europe.

Conrad has been denigrated for not being sufficiently critical of Imperialism and its results. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad undertakes to examine ethics, individualism and the problems of existence and in many ways Imperialism becomes the vehicle for those enquiries. The breadth of themes explored in the novel creates an ambivalence and ambiguity in Marlow's reactions which Post-Colonial literary criticism has condemned.

Conrad started writing Heart of Darkness in 1898. The moral and scientific certainties of the C19th were showing similar strains to those exposed in colonialism. The uncertainties caused by a growing feeling that ethical behavior is both relative and contingent are reflected in the moral confusion in the novel. Traditional hierarchies and systems of belief and behavior were loosening their hold and there appears to be nothing with which to replace them. Things fall apart and the center cannot hold because, as Marlow discovers, the centre does not exist.

The journey in Heart of Darkness can be read as spiritual; an existential quest. Marlow moves into a landscape both impenetrable and dark. He seeks illumination but his goal, Kurtz, fails to provide an answer. Kurtz has taken his spiritual journey further than Marlow and is appalled at the horror of finding a black hole where his soul should exist.

The final journey explored in the novel is psychological. Although Heart of Darkness precedes Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" the three stations visited by Marlow reflect the Super Ego, Ego and Id respectively. The outer station is the super ego. It is manned by those whose behavior, although cruel, is still governed by the expectations of Europe. The manager of the central station represents the Ego; he appears to toe the line whilst plotting his own advancement. Kurtz, at the inner station, represents the world of unfettered desires of the Id.

Marlow undertakes this journey in search of a truth that ultimately does not exist. As he travels further into the unconscious mind even his language becomes impenetrable. He cannot articulate that which defies or is beyond articulation. Civilization and therefore civilized behavior are externally regulated. Once that regulatory pressure is removed there is no constraint and man is shown in all his appalling inhumanity to man.

Everything is proved to be hollow. The "truth" that Marlow seeks ultimately does not exist. After penetrating the impenetrable he is left disillusioned and defeated; he reverts to relying on a system of beliefs and social mores he knows to be false in preference to the horror of acknowledging the alternative; a psychological and spiritual abyss. He decides to align himself with a lie represented by the falsehood he delivers to Kurtz's intended at the end of the novel.

Years later, impelled to retell Kurtz's story to a group of men on a pleasure boat docked on the Thames, Marlow is no less dishonest. He does accurately relate Kurtz's final words but ultimately his stance is one of superiority over his listeners. He does not feel superior because he openly criticizes Imperialism. He does not claim greater knowledge of the spiritual and psychological make-up of mankind. No, his superiority is in having experienced the details of his story while his listeners' involvement can only be vicarious.

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