"Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise" Freud teaches to embrace our id rather than to reject it. But the deniable question remains: are we brave enough?
A dream: the pure and profound essence of an alluring fantasy. Cinderella's "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" perfectly reflects Marlow's obsession with Kurtz and the symbolism that reoccurs throughout his unconscious mind. Kurtz is the most explicit representation of Marlow's Id. However, the audience realizes only at the end of the text that his blazing attraction to Kurtz results from Marlow indirectly peeking into his own soul. Marlow exemplifies his devotion to Kurtz: "it was ordered I should never betray him--it was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice" (267). Although Marlow reveals his Id as a nightmare of his choosing, he does not entirely expose his extreme desires. His wishes are never directly disclosed because that would be too confronting, and the truth is too frightening to bear. In addition to learning the monstrosity of inner evil, Marlow understands the loneliness and silence each individual possesses because no person will ever suffer, endure, or enjoy the same exact way another being does. Marlow articulates this emotion en route to Kurtz: "No, it is impossible, it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any epoch of one’s existence – that which makes truth, its meaning – its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live as we dream – alone…” (107). Conrad's simile compares life to a dream; thus, while dreaming, one often embarks into a world of folly that can be felt by the dreamer, alone. Therefore, both life and dreams connote solitude. Furthermore, isolation concludes many of the characters' lives towards the end of the novel. However, according to Freudism, perhaps the characters were always alone; Marlow did not only begin to feel detached from the world once Kurtz died. One can never fully relate to another being; therefore, one will everlastingly live a disconnected, deserted life.
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