"There is a machine. It evolved itself, and behold!... it knits. It knits us in, it knits us out. It has knitted time, space, pain, death, corruption, despair, and all the illusions... and nothing matters. I'll admit however that to look at the remorseless process is something interesting." Joseph Conrad addresses the evils of this machine that has created modern society and molded its citizens in his book Heart of Darkness. In the story, Marlow, the main character travels into the Congo. He expects to enter a world where a code of moral conduct is followed, but he quickly realizes that morality is not the way of this world, or any world for that matter. Marlow finds, instead, that the world is made up of corruption, death and despair.
             Corruption is the main theme of Heart of Darkness, and it is reflected in many parts of the book. First of all is Kurtz. "He had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory that all the other agents together"(pg. 43), and no doubt committed all forms of corrupted deeds to get this ivory. "It was Kurtz who had ordered the attack to be made on the steamer." (pg. 58) As the quote explains, he even attacked Marlow's ship, full of defenseless men, just so he could remain with the natives and continue to collect ivory. Although the company despised Kurtz for his ruthless actions, it was no less corrupt. In a conversation Marlow has with his aunt, "She talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the company was run for profit." A symbol of the corruption of the empire is the brick-maker. He is referred to as a "papier-mâché Mephistopheles"(pg. 23) because Marlow thinks him to be shallow, conceited and evil (Mephistopheles is a metaphor for the Devil). Marlow finds the corruption that surrounds him ...