Discuss the relationship between the title and the themes in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness,
the title originally refers to Marlow's trip into the portion of Africa once referred to
as the Congo, which was "owned" by Belgium. The most profitable export was ivory, and
often those involved in collecting it were disreputable men who cares only for the
money, and treated the natives ruthlessly.

However, as the
story develops, Marlow—who serves as the narrator—is hired by the Company to captain a
boat into this "heart of darkness," asked to travel to the Inner Station (the third of
three stations) to bring out Kurtz, an extremely successful representative of the
Company, who has been cut off from civilization for more than a
year.

Hadn't I
been told in all the tones of jealousy and admiration that he had collected, bartered,
swindled, or stolen more ivory than all the other agents
together?

When Marlow finally
arrives at the Inner Station, he finds that Kurtz is living in a building surrounded by
spikes with human heads on them, and is treated much like a god by the natives. And
while Kurtz does not fight leaving the island, the natives are not happy about
it.

It would seem that Kurtz's experiences have irreparably
changed the man, though Marlow sees reasons for which he might once have admired the
other man:

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...in his being a gifted creature, and that of
all his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real
presence, was his ability to talk, his words—the gift of expression, the bewildering,
the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of
light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable
darkness.

In essence, Kurtz
has lost his way. He has seen the darkness in the souls of others; he has seen (and
given in to) the heart of darkness lurking within his own soul—perhaps in all men—but
instead of resisting it, he embraces it. It destroys the man; it destroys his mind. And
in leaving the jungle, Kurtz ultimately dies.

Kurtz's
willingness to embrace his own "heart of darkness" leads to his alientation and
isolation from his own society, and ultimately draws him from sanity to overwhelming
madness. In the struggle between the "light" and the "darkness," it has been a battle
that Kurtz could not win. In leaving the jungle, for a coherent
moment, Kurtz cries out his final words, which are reflective of what exists with the
darkest part of a man's soul; he says:

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‘‘The horror! The
horror!’’