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The Conflict between Truth and Ideals in "Heart of Darkness" The story "Heart of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad, is concerned as much with the journey into the "darkness" of man's soul as it is with the literal journey into unknown lands. The protagonist, Marlow, describes the moral dilemmas that outweigh the physical ones to his confidantes upon his return to England. Propelled by a lifelong curiosity over the "blank" spaces of the Congo, Marlow ventures …

…what I want to forget." (Pickering 302). However, at the acme of his enlightenment, Marlow lies to Kurtz's fiancée about his final moments without hesitance. On his way to visit Kurtz's intended, Marlow thinks about the "tempestuous anger of his soul."(Pickering 337). Marlow's deception of the intended was a recognition that very little separated the fate of Kurtz from that of his own. The shattering of idealism was replaced by a fear of the truth.