Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a novel about one man’s journey up the Congo River in order to meet an idealistic man of great abilities. A dystopian novel is characterized by a society that is undesirable or frightening, usually with dehumanization, totalitarian governments, and environmental disaster. The decline in society that is characteristic of a dystopia is found in Heart of Darkness as Marlow recounts his journey about trying to find the godlike Kurtz. It can then be noted that both of the characters’ journeys have a dystopian aspect such that both men went in thinking that they were doing something good for imperialism but ended up encountering the brutality and dehumanization that takes place in the African interior. Therefore it is the Congo where the darkness has the laws of civilization - standards, order, and authority - broken down and where both of the characters are internally changed.