Heart Of Darkness Kurtz's Emotions

In the final part of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the impending death of Mr. Kurtz shows not only the regret he (Kurtz) feels, but the idea that people can only be truthful when facing death. The audience finds out a lot of information about Kurtz in his final moments alive. Marlow analyzes the expressions and the words that Kurtz gives to show the reader some of Kurtz’s true emotions. Only when facing his death does Kurtz finally give the audience a glance at his true feelings towards his own life and the lives of others. Feelings that are seen for the very first time in the book from Kurtz. In Kurtz’s final moments he begins to reflect on the life he has lived and this is what brings out all of the emotion that is seen and described

This is Ironic because it was the greed and desire that kurtz had for ivory that eventually brought about his death. A plethora of different emotions are also seen on Kurtz’s face in his final moments. The majority of these emotions are for the most part new to Kurtz as a character and ones that the audience has not really had a glimpse of in the book. The first emotion that is mentioned is “somber pride”. Somber pride refers to the pride that Kurtz feels in his accomplishments with the ivory company and also his power over the natives. This pride is described as somber because Kurtz realizes that his power and success is not necessarily something he should be proud of because of the ways in which he achieved it. The ruthless and controlling demeanor towards others throughout the book somewhat take away from some of the pride that Kurtz feels and gives him the sense of somberness that is mentioned. The quote also uses “ruthless power”. This alludes to the part of Kurtz that is more familiar to the audience because it can be seen in his character during the book. Kurtz uses his power and brute force to get the ivory that he desires. This makes him successful but it also makes people such as the manager uneasy.

Many of which he has never seen before. One trait that is new to Marlow is “craven terror”. Kurtz is portrayed in most of the book as a confident larger than life character. In his final moments however he is basically describes as scared and as a coward. Marlow sees that Kurtz too is human and is afraid of death. These are all things that are not seen in Kurtz until this moment. A moment in which he is finally reflecting on his life he feels scared and is acting like a coward possibly for the first time. These are traits that are new both to Kurtz and to Marlow. Kurtz is exhibiting a kind of honesty that can not be found anywhere else in the book. At the moment before his death he is vulnerable and also shows it when before he may have had vulnerabilities but never showed them. Lastly Marlow sees “hopeless despair” in Kurtz. This trait may be the most surprising because it has the most contrast to the way that Kurtz is portrayed in the better part of the book. Kurts is portrayed as very confident and sure of himself. When he is described as hopeless, it is another example of Kurtz being vulnerable and showing it. He knows he is going to die and he has lost all hope in living. The word despair again describes Kurtz’s reflections on his life and his realizations. Like the realization that although he was seen as a god to some, at the end of the day he was not seen in as good of a light to the