With all the literature out in the world many themes overlap. The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a tragic tail of betrayal, revenge and redemption. In the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad the main character Marlow journeys through the Congo River where faces tragedy, death and the decent into darkness. Both of these pieces of literature share the themes of illusion versus reality, self – identity and madness. Sometimes someone’s first impression or thoughts might not always relate to reality. In Hamlet, Claudius is seen as a loving stepfather Hamlet but in reality he killed Old Hamlet to claim the throne for himself. In the quote “O villain, villain, smiling damned villain! My tables. Meet it is I set down. That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain” (Shakespeare 70). This quote shows how Claudius is seen as a happy and honest man but in reality he is a serpent who betrayed his brother. Similarly in Heart of Darkness, Marlow sees a man named Mr. Kurtz as idolizes him and is mesmerized by the “influence that man must have”, (Conrad 22). In reality when he meets Mr. Kurtz he sees that the man he idolized was nothing but a crazed lunatic that was “pampered and spoiled”, (Conrad 40) by the darkness of the jungle. It seems as if al of the Congo is different from what Marlow first expected. The whole trading route was littered with diseased bodies and constant attacks by natives. Even when Marlow reached the trading station he expected to find a fortress with great wooden walls but instead he found stakes with the heads of natives mounted on top. In both novels the theme of appearance versus reality is seen throughout both pieces of literature and is usually experienced by the main character expecting one thing but instead the reality being a lot different. Finding oneself- identity is a key step to the characters development throughout the story. Hamlet had a change in his identity when his father�