8/9/2020 Heart of Darkness Character of Kurtz-RiseNotes

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Discuss the character of Kurtz in Heart of

Darkness

Kurtz, "a universal genius", is a musician by profession. He also wrote for newspapers.
Physically Kurtz "looked at least seven feet long." He had a family; his mother and his
fiance. Kurtz wanted to earn money for his family. Therefore, he decided to join the
Company and went to Africa. Marlow feels for Kurtz that he was poor enough to go out into
that dark wilderness: "He had given me some reason to infer that it was his impatience of
comparative poverty that drove him out there". Once in Africa, Kurtz had realized the
importance of making money through ivory and it was not possible without savagery, a
practice of the "torchbearers of Europe" that wanted to "exterminate all the brutes" for
snatching ivory and making them work as slaves.

Kurtz is also a symbol of European plundering and loot in the heart of Africa, Congo. Kurtz
roamed about and discovered villages and a lake "but mostly his expeditions had been for
ivory". Kurtz had a "good lot of cartridges" and "he raided the country" and "Kurtz got
the tribe to follow him" and "they adored him". Kurtz came to the natives "with thunder
and lightning, you know-and they had never seen anything like it-and very terrible. He
could be very terrible". The Russian tells that Kurtz had power and such a strong influence
in the town that he could get anything that he liked. He was a king without crown: "there
was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly well pleased".

Kurtz is also represents the lust of wealth and the madness of European civilization which
didn't spare its brotherly human races from its devilish plans. The Russian that nursed and
served Kurtz during his illness was also not spared by him. The Russian reminds Marlow
that "you can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man". He tells him an instance of
Kurtz' lust for ivory: "I had a small lot of ivory the chief of that village near my house gave
me. You see I used to shoot game for them. Well, he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason. He

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declared he would shoot me unless I gave him the ivory and then cleared out of the
country".

Kurtz is a victim of the clash between the new and the old. The "wilderness had found him
out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion". He further
told Marlow that it seemed that the wilderness whispered to Kurtz and "the whisper had
proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the
core". Kurtz could not distinguish the difference between truth and reality. He went after
ivory, the shadow, and forgot of the real happiness of life which existed merely in living
peacefully with nature. So, if Kurtz was caught by lust of his inner darkness, he was also
captured by the gloomy revenge of the outer wilderness.

Kurtz is the truth of which is discovered by Marlow while Kurtz was unable to ascertain the
reality of his own being; he seemed to have understood it very late though. The truth forced
Kurtz to go back into the village by leaving the rescue boat of Marlow. His attempt failed
because Marlow followed him in this savage and dreadful night: "I tried to break the
spellthe heavy, mute spell of the wilderness-that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by
the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous
passions". Marlow brought him back but he could not bring back his soul, his yearning and
his will of staying back in the dark of Congo: "You are interrupting my plans now... I will
return. I...."

Playwrights Playwrights

O' Neil Oscar Wilde

William Shakespeare Anton Chekhov
Sophocles George Bernard Shaw
Christopher Marlow A.A.Milne
Samuel Beckett More Dramas
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