The Heart Of Darkness And The Heart Of Love

Joseph Conrad and D. H. Lawrence are two of the most outstanding British writers and also the writers of the same period, there exist both similarities and differences in the way that Joseph Conrad and D. H. Lawrence consciously utilize such literary techniques as the psychoanalysis, the symbolism, the archetypal myth and the catchy images to explore a real inner self of a typical modernist "hero", via the application of Freud's psychoanalytic theory. In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz is described as a 'hollow man' without basic integrity or any sense of social responsibility. In The Horse-Dealer's Daughter, Dr. Ferguson and Mabel are pictured as 'subject animals' showing the sickness of the soul without love.This paper chiefly analyzes the theme from the view of human nature, the Freud's influence on both works, and the employed techniques from the modernistic view. It sets out to show that both works possess a significant feature of exploring the innermost self of the main characters and shift the subject matter away from the material world to the inner spiritual world. In addition, both works reveal that once exposed to an unrestrained environment, protagonists will unleash their own intrinsic desires of subconsciousness after a long suppression of their instincts, which is believed to be linked closely to Freudianism. Another finding of this comparison is that both Conrad and Lawrence are so well-equipped to apply the techniques of symbolism, mythology and imagery in their works Heart of Darkness and The Horse-Dealer s Daughter.The result of comparison manifests that despite all the mentioned similarities, the fate or the destination of the 'hero' and the 'heroine' is different: in Heart of Darkness, after a complete exposure to the uncivilized environment and totally throwing off the restraints of the civilization, Kurtz has de-evolved into aprimitive state--a savage evil and finally ends his life with "horror" and hisintended fiancee lives on a false lie, with a broken heart, while in TheHorse-Dealer's Daughter, Mabel and Dr. Ferguson are both saved by the renewing effect of the true love in spite of the complexity of their emotional response to the their new love . The two works are just like two people who are standing on a horizon being lost, struggling, dying and loving, interacting with each other with different hearts, one is evil, the other is love, which shows the contrasting features of these two works of the two great literary giants. And finally it is maintained that the authors' exploitation of the two sides of human nature unconsciously emphasizes the importance and the necessity of the restraints of the civilization and the sense of social responsibility.