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Marlow stands on the Thames River and remarks that the land he and his comrades is standing on was once a place of darkness and an uncivilized wilderness
· Through nostalgia he remembers an incident from his past when he commanded a steamboat on the Congo River.
· He talks about the Company’s chief accountant who first mentions Kurtz to him.
· The accountant tells him that Kurtz supplies more ivory for the company than everyone else combined.
· Marlow’s interests in Kurtz is perked.
· Marlow discovers that the steamer he is supposed to command has been destroyed in a wreck.
· He meets the local manager who mentions Kurtz in conversation.
· He tells Marlow that Kurtz is ill and he must get to Kurtz swiftly and bring him back for medical treatment.
· Marlow speaks with a brick maker who admires and envies Kurtz.
· Marlow eavesdrops on a conversation between the manager and uncle. He learns that the manager resents Kurtz.
· Three months pass. Marlow and a crew set sail towards Kurtz’s location.
· Fifty miles before Kurtz’s station, they discover a hut bearing wood for the steamboat and message to proceed with caution.
· Two days later they awaken to an attack by the savages. The helmsman is killed. Kurtz blows the steamboat whistle to frighten away the savages. Dumps dead helmsman’s body overboard so cannibals don’t get any ideas about eating him.
· They arrive at the Inner Station. Greeted by a Russian that takes care of Kurtz.
· Through conversation with the Russian, they learn that Kurtz has not been the most upstanding and moral person. He’s been abusive to the natives.
· Kurtz appears, carried on a stretcher.
· They carry Kurtz onboard the steamboat.
· The manager tells Marlow he disapproves of Kurtz.
· The Russian makes a visit to Marlow, tells him that Kurtz ordered the attack on their vessel that killed their helmsman.
· Kurtz escapes and swims ashore. Marlow goes after him and cuts him off.
· They make a departure, savages show up, Marlow blows whistle and scares them away again.
In both the film and the movie, Kurtz is portrayed as a man of great stature and mastery whose actions become questioned due his barbaric conduct. While Marlow slowly learns more and more regarding who Kurtz is and what he has done through others’ conversations, Willard educates himself about Kurtz through pictures and files he has of Kurtz. He states that he feels like he already knows a thing or two about Kurtz that are not in the papers he has, and that beyond the bridge, there is only Kurtz. This goes to show how Kurtz develops a prof...
Kurtz was the chief of the Inner Station, where he was in charge of a very important ivory-trading post. Marlow learns that because of Kurtz’s ability to obtain more ivory than anybody else, he is of “greatest importance to the Company” and is to become a “somebody in the Administration” (Conrad 143). However, a critical aspect is the way in which he went about his business, as it was ruthless and selfish, characteristics that go hand-in-hand with European colonization.
3. Kurtz, who is not the protagonist or antagonist is a very significant character in the book as Marlow and Kurtz essentially form a team as the novel progresses. He is the chief of the Inner Station and Marlow basically follows him. Kurtz is a man of many talents (he is a talented musician and painter). His abilities are nothing without his charisma and his ability to lead. Kurtz is a man who understands the power of words, and his writings present a complexity that obscures their horrifying message (his writings are often hard to understand, as they are complex in structure, often hiding the morbid message behind them). Although he remains a “puzzle,” e...
Marlow then proceeds to head for the Congo, and when he finally reaches the company's lower station he begins to see how the white man has come to try and civilize and control the wildness of Africa and its inhabitants. The blacks were being used as slaves at the station to build railroads. The scene left Marlow feeling that the blacks "were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation" (p. 2202). Marlow sees how the asserted superiority of the white man has led to the devastation of the black natives in both spirit and body.
The voice of Kurtz is heard and realized not in the familiar words of others, but in the journey down the river into the unknown. People’s inability to pronounce Kurtz’s name suggests the authenticity of Kurtz’s own voice and the weakness of the words used to describe him. When describing Kurtz, familiar vocabulary fails altogether; Kurtz remains a word with little meaning. Marlow first hears of Kurtz from the Company’s chief accountant at Outer Station. When asked who Kurtz is, the accountant responds, “He is a very remarkable person” (37).* The accountant does not mention his name without adding t...
The manager was an illustration of an established imperialist power. He was well settled in, as demonstrated by the fact he controls all the stations. An example of his power over others was when he had the black boy thrashed for the burning of a shed. In addition, he is expansionist and wishes to destroy Kurtz and gain a monopoly on the ivory trade. The manager's discussion with his uncle is yet another example of his ruthlessness and amoralness.
Both Marlow and Captain Willard were fully warned and well aware of the evils each would encounter. However he chooses to ignore this aspect in hopes of satisfying his curiosity. His curiosity about the unknown realm drives him to cross the line between civilized human behavior and enters a nightmarish world. In this nightmare world he realizes the horror of human nature as he sees over the edge of sanity and discovers what he could become, Kurtz.
Marlow is driven by morality and is able to see what is right and wrong; he is not blinded to the truth. The truth that these “civilized men” are destroying countless numbers of people so that they can worship th...
When Marlow finally reaches Kurtz he is in declining health. This same jungle which he loved, embraced and consumed with every ounce of his flesh had also taken its toll on him. Marlow finally meets the man whose name has haunted him on his river journey. Could this frail human be the ever so powerful Kurtz? The man who has journeyed into uncharted territories and has come back with scores of ivory and the respect of the native tribe. Yes, this was the very man and though he is weak and on his way to death his power still exudes from him.
Both Marlow and Willard became obsessed with a man by the name of Kurtz. Marlow wanted to meet Kurtz very bad. He was so fascinated with his accomplishments that he...
...s to look at Kurtz as a hero for all that he had accomplished, no matter how evil. Marlow?s obstacles as the hero are not the overcoming of a dragon or evil villain. It is the eternal battle of the story of a Hero versus Antihero. Marlow?s blindness to Kurtz?s impurities are both his strength and weakness. His ignorance to the greatness of his own qualities can best be stated one way: ?The Horror.?
It is very intriguing and for the audience this is very important because as we get farther in the story and see how truly mad Kurtz has become, one can see the theme of madness being displayed. On page 28 of Heart of darkness we discover that Kurtz came to the Congo to set up stations that would serve to improve the morals of the natives (Conrad). Unfortunately the natives began to treat Kurtz as god of some sorts and it got to his head and he was smart enough to use this to his advantage, leading him to going mad. Inching closer to Kurtz station and becoming intrigued with Kurtz as a person, Marlow begins to realize that Kurtz is not inherently bad. He admires him almost as much as he disagrees with his decisions he has
Later, Marlow encounters cannibals who are characterized by restraint. They outnumber the whites “thirty to five” and were “big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences.” Marlow describes them as being utterly capable of simply overpowering and consuming the Europeans. He even considers that he would have as soon expected such restraint fro...
By the time Marlow and Kurtz meet, Marlow is already well aware of the similarities they share. Both are imperialists, and while Marlow detests the treatment of the natives by his employers (Belgian colonists), he also makes apparent his abhorrence toward the Africans. On the other hand, Kurtz abandons the pretense of helping the natives achieve civilization, as displayed by the Europeans. Instead, he adopts their customs and becomes their leader in the never-ending quest for ivory. "He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of the supernatural beings- we approach them with the might as of a deity' (Longman, 2000, p. 2226). Marlow also admired Kurtz' resourcefulness and survival skills, especially his perseverence through jungle fever. "The wilderness had patted him on the head....it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite." (Longman, 2000, p. 2225).
This sight angers Marlow, and when he gets to Kurtz, it’s too late. Even he has been pulled in by the darkness. Conrad makes an effective distinction between Marlow and Kurtz.