Prince Hamlet, of Shakespeare’s famed tragedy, and Marlowe of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, are similarly situated characters. Despite superficially different settings and plots, there is a remarkably similar thematic element shared between both works. Prince Hamlet and Marlowe are brought to the very brink of insanity by their immersion in worlds gone mad, yet still succeed. At their roots, the similarities of the environments they are immersed in are remarkable. Whether their environment is a “too too sullied” (1057) Royal Danish court, or the dark madness of a murderous Congolese jungle, the relationship between a sane man’s mind, and a man’s insane world is openly explored. In Hamlet: Prince of Denmark and in Heart of Darkness many similarities exist between the madness that both stories are surrounded in. Despite the obvious differences of the Congo and Copenhagen, both worlds are places where evil abounds and territory where man has brought on that evil. The destructive greed and lust for power that drove Hamlet’s uncle, Cladius, to murder his own brother, have tainted and steeped the Danish court in corruption. In Heart of Darkness, the madness stems from the desire for power in the form of valuable ivory. The power of ivory in Heart of Darkness is not only apparent because it drives “civilized” men like, Mr. Kurtz to commit his savage acts, but also because how quickly Marlowe becomes aware of its power. Upon Marlowe’s arrival to the Central Station he observes, "The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it.” (1639). In Hamlet and Heart of Darkness, the ultimate motivation for the evil that both Prince Hamlet and Marlowe nearly become pawns to, is a timeless and cruel avarice. Not only are the natures and causes of the evil present in both Hamlet and Heart of Darkness remarkably similar, but also each ...
