In the novella, Heart Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, Marlow goes through various opinions of Kurtz. He goes from one extreme to the other. Marlow was excited about traveling through this unknown place, The Congo River, and the only way he could make this trip possible was to work for the company. The company sent him on a voyage to discover what had happened to Fresleven, a captain that had been killed in a scuffle with the natives, and to recover his remains. Throughout this journey he finds a fascination about Kurtz. It’s almost an obsession. Marlow was interested in Kurtz in the beginning because of the man he proclaimed to be. A sick man says, “He was a first-class agent… he is a very remarkable person,” (pg. 19). When Marlow hears this, it interests him. It makes him eager to learn more about this man. He wants to meet him someday. The sick man also tells Marlow, “Mr. Kurtz was at present in charge of a trading-post, a very important one,” (pg. 19). Hearing this makes Marlow gain respect for Kurtz. He doesn’t know this man, but just from hearing someone speak so highly of him really grabs his attention.
As this expedition progresses Marlow gains a different opinion of Kurtz. He notices a greedy side of him. The Accountant told Marlow a story about Kurtz, he said, “He wanted to shoot me too one day… I had a small amount of ivory the chief of the village near my house gave me… He declared he would shoot me unless I gave the ivory and then cleared the country because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly please,” (pg. 56). Once Marlow heard this story about Kurtz and what he would do for ivory, he detected that he wasn’t as good as people claimed. He was a greedy person and Kurtz was disappointed to find this out about the person he admires. The last part of what the Accountant told Marlow showed how others looked at Kurtz. They looked up to him and thought of him as a God.
Marlow heard Kurtz say, “The horror! The horror!” (pg.76). This was the last thing that Marlow said. This was Marlow’s way of admitting to all the horrible things he did just to get ahead of everyone, just to be known as “a very remarkable person,” as the sick man said, (pg. 19). He is now realizing and the wrong he has done is beginning to regret everything he had done.
After everything is said and done, Kurtz died. Marlow returns London to see Kurtz mother but she had passed. A year later, Marlow finds out that Kurtz had finance. He went to pay her a visit in hopes that he could meet someone that was special to Kurtz. When she met him she asked what his last words were. Marlow respected Kurtz in such an abundant amount that he lied to her and said it was her name instead of admitting what kind of person he had truly been in the last years in his life.
Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. W.W. Norton: New York, 2005.
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