Sam Rapine

The Nature of Evil

The nature of good and evil is one conceived, maintained, and ultimately hampered by perception. Depending on one’s point of view, the noblest of gestures can be the wickedest of slights, without any physical change. But a paradox arises in the argument of evil (they often do) in that, when it is most clear that evil is present, it is hardest to recognize it. Evil is mercurial and malleable by nature, and emerges in the most unexpected of ways in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, failing to mention veritably everything else.

Joseph Conrad extended the probe of civilization into the most maleficent, reviled depths of humanity, peeling back the layers of morality and logic to reveal the feral, savage human soul beneath. Marlow observes this process within Kurtz, and the nature of his evil is one that steals from him the essence of what makes him a civilized human. This is evidenced: “I remembered his abject pleading, his abject threats, the colossal scale of his vile desires, the meanness, the torment, the tempestuous anguish of his soul” (Conrad 152). Running under the precursor that we have accepted Marlow’s perspective of good and evil, the system determines that this lack of civilization—this lack of composure as he drifts towards the heart of darkness—is therefore evil.

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” exemplifies evil in a much quieter, more common setting: rather than drifting down the Congo River searching for an intrepid ivory dealer, it explores the much more chilling penetration of evil into the safety of one’s home. The onset of evil occurs as the omniscient narrator peers into the discontent of a high-society family. Wedges of both need and lack thereof permeate the cracks between the members of the family, and Paul, the dark young boy aspiring to maintain the bond between himself and his mother, drives himself to death through the abject need to please her. “Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!" (Lawrence 16) demonstrates the unbridled joy he expresses, believing he pleased his mother, even as the last hours of his life slip by. This condition, perpetuated by Paul’s mother, is an example of evil twisting something naturally and conceptually beautiful, such as a mother’s love.

These two tales are similar in several ways. Firstly, their core concepts revolve around the turning of good intentions into something ugly and convoluted: Kurtz’s trip to bring glory to the civilized peoples, and Paul simply wanting to make his mother happy. In both scenarios, the victim sees none of the evil he’s done to himself, but only the good he hopes to accomplish, or believe he has accomplished. Additionally, the theme of the unknown is explored in both; grandly, as Marlow travels hundreds of miles through darkness to find Kurtz, and locally, as the family turns on the light to behold Paul’s sanity and life slipping away.

Perception is as elusive as an ocean, and grasping hold of what is good and what is evil can be as difficult as detaining the ocean’s reflection. It can sneak from behind, unknown to the victim until well after it has killed the soul and fed its part. The fact that evil appears in both works of literature is no coincidence; it is an ultimate value that our very existence is founded upon.