ss of its solitude. The movie ends quite differently than the novel. The movie ends with a spectacular scene. During a native tribes ritual sacrifice ceremony of a water buffalo, The Doors The End playing on the background, Willard finally kills Kurtz with a machete. Willard exits to find the natives begin to worship him. This exhibits the fisher king legend where man kills the king and becomes the king himself. But Willard doesnt want any of this. Willard drops the machete and walks away. The movie ends when Willard and Lance leave the camp in the boat. In the novel Kurtz dies of an illness, which is quite different than the film. The novel ends with Marlow returning the United States, keeping a promise he made to Kurtz before he died, where he speaks to Kurtzs intended and tells her a lie. He tells her that his last words were her name.Both stories are about a mans journey into his self, and the discoveries to be made there. They are also about Man confronting his fears of failure, insanity, death, and cultural contamination. In Heart of Darkness there is an outside narrator telling the story that he heard Marlow tell. Conrad uses Marlows imagery and objective observation to establish a criticism of civilized society. The very opening paragraphs create a dark image of London, the center of civilization during Conrads time. The comparison between the pilgrims and the cannibals on Marlows ship yields another example of the savagery of civilization. Marlow also exhibits a resolution of frankness and truth. Throughout the novel he emphasizes his contempt for shallow, materialistic men, and his value on honesty. This brings up a theme of hypocrisy or insincerity in the story. Another theme is hegemony. Whenever fundamentally different cultures meet, there is often a fear of contamination and loss of self that leads us to discover more about our true selves, often causing perceived madness by those who have yet to disco...
