Introduction: The Concealment of Civilization; A Vain and Floating Appearance

      In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Marlow gains insight into the true absurdity and discontinuity of the world. As he travels further into the darkness, he is more free to pursue an uncontrollable journey into the representation of mankind. And, throughout his fruitless endevours Marlow encounters what is surely his most fulfilling and important discovery- "the absurd gap between what we profess to be and what we are." It is through art, alientation, langange, and nature that Marlow finds his concealed "hidden self" and gains a better truth on the disguise civilization has put on his own existence. Indeed, Frederick Karl and Sigmond Freud's idealology provide a modern rendition to this skewed relationship between ourselves and the universe. Consequently, in stressing these irrational elements in humanity- Marlow and the reader are able to travel further into the unconscious and disinteregate from reality.