“In seasons of pestilence some of us will have a secret attraction to the disease--a terrible passing inclination to die of it. And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them.”
In times of plague some will have the disease—an inclination to die of it.
All of us have hidden wonders in our hearts only needing situations to cause them to appear.
I think the quote is trying to state how humans are inherently evil; relating the hidden wonders in our hearts to secret attractions to diseases that are both evoked by circumstances. This quote relates to a theme in Heart of Darkness, human nature. In the novel Joseph Conrad uses rivets as symbols for laws and restraints. As Marlow made his journey into the heart of Africa he was exposed to a less civilized culture, lacking restraints, allowing circumstances to evoke wild, savage, and evil behavior in Africans and Mr. Kurtz. The main idea, without some kind of restraints humans will express their inherent evil. This compares to both White Fang and Lord of the Flies. In White Fang, Jack London’s idea is that humans are clay and behavior is molded by one’s environment. Humans can be evil if their environment causes that behavior but they aren’t inherently evil. Conrad and London have opposing ideas on human nature while Conrad’s theory is similar to William Golding’s. In the Lord of the Flies we learn that living in a utopia doesn’t create perfect behavior to match. These boys had food, shelter, and nice weather but their utopia didn’t prevent the inherent evil of mankind to surface. While not all of the boys expressed evilness (attraction to disease) they all are considered inherently evil (all of us have hidden wonders).
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