Heart Of Darkness Imperialism Essay

In the story Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, it follows a man, Marlow, who tells a story of himself going on a journey to retrieve the man he admires, Kurtz from a land. He talks about entering a foreign land and what he experienced and overheard on his way there. Kurtz was described as a man of eloquence. In his journey, Marlow experiences the man he admires lose restraint. Throughout the story, hints of imperialism and colonialism have been shown in the Heart of Darkness.

An example of imperialism and colonialism was when Kurtz was sent to the land of Africa to complete the Suppression of Savage Customs. The savages stated are the natives of the land. At first, Kurtz 's task was to collect ivory, but as he spent time in the foreign land, the characteristics that make him a European gentleman slowly faded away. Kurtz instills fear into the Natives by chopping off the heads of those who oppose him and uses them as ornaments around his hut (137-138).

Marlow 's lie to Kurtz 's Intended can be interpreted as a comfort for the woman, but it can also be seen as Marlow not wanting the Intended to know much about Kurtz as he did. Marlow told the Intended that Kurtz’s last words were about her (164) but Kurtz was actually shouting his regrets of things he was not able to do when he was living(153-154). Marlow seems to want to take over the memories of Kurtz and keep them to himself. Although it seems that he lied to the Intended because he pities her, but he may have an ulterior motive. He doesn 't want the Intended to know the real Kurtz, the one that not much people knows about. He rather the woman to stay ignorant of who Kurtz really was and be naively happy than to actually explain to her that she didn 't know her fiance at all. This is a motive that shows that maybe Marlow wanted to be the person who knew the most about Kurtz than anyone who 've known