| Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), a famous English writer, gives a static demonstration of human nature in his works, which jointly draw a picture of the dynamic changing process of human nature. With human nature as its axis, this thesis deeply explores Conrad's works for the concrete contents and artistic devices to represent human nature in four parts. Part One, "Moral Ideal" and Humanity Fluctuation, mainly discusses the gap between ideal and action and the pursuit to the dream shown in Lord Jim and Nostromo. Part Two, "Dual Personality" and Dialogues on Human Nature, mainly deals with the fact that, in The Nigger of the "Narcissus", The Secret Sharer and The Shadow-Line, the other tends to be an externalization of the other personality of the protagonist, and dialogizing with the other is a symbol of the dialoge between different personalities. Part Three, "Narrative of Progress" and Depravity of Human Nature, discusses the course of the depravity of human nature in Conrad's novels , such as An Outcast of the Islands, Heart of Darkness and An Outpost of Progress, focussing on its specific reasons and Conrad's paradoxical attitude to the human nature. Part Four discusses the artistic devices in Conrad's works, analyzing the special function of the construction of personality other and the symbol of the white-black in representing human nature. The thesis holds that the discussion of human nature in Conrad's novels helps us to have a self-perception and has some positive practical significance.
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