What has come to be known as the sublime is an awe inspiring experience, caused by an equilibrium between aesthetic gratification and negative pleasure that one receives from witnessing raw power. What causes this awe is not solely a mere sense of beauty, but a much more magnitudinal force. Using the ocean as an example, one may relish in the allure of its reflective surface or even the methodicality of the waves seeming to endlessly rush onto the beach. However, what makes such an experience sublime is the recognition of danger, or terror that it incites, that, for the ocean, could be the power of the waves crashing against rocks or the mystery of what lays below the surface. These experiences are so appealing to humans as a result of a certain negative pleasure that comes with the aesthetically pleasing aspect. It is through this mysteriousness and magnitude of power that leads humans to constantly seek these experiences in nature through adventure and exploration.
Overall, the paragonal point of the sublime is its ability to [produce] the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling (Burke). In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, sublime experiences are not only used to enrich the inner philosophies of characters, but also to give insight into what makes the story such a literary masterpiece. First, Marlow comes into contact with the sublime when interacting with both the natural world and Kurtz, allowing him to initially communicate messages of disquietude. Second, Kurtz experiences himself as the sublime, skewing his morality, and therefore being able to convey this experience to other characters. Third, parallels between Kurtz and Heart of Darkness are drawn, reinforcing the book itself as a sublime experience and ultimately creating a powerful message of moral confusion. Collectively, it is the intertwinement of the sublime into characters in Heart of Darkness that allows the book to convey such strong moral messages.