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Taylor Svete

Mrs. Smith

British Literature

12/7/09

The Dynamic of the Perspective on Kurtz

When Marlow’s story begins in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, he is

being sent to meet Kurtz, a man with a reputation for greatness. He is the idealistic imperialistic

man with impressive abilities in the ivory trade and control of the natives in Africa. Marlow

encounters widespread cruelty in the Company’s ways which extends especially to Kurtz’s post.

Along his journey up the Congo, Marlow slowly learns of Kurtz’s misgivings, according to the

other men at the stations. The reader learns about more of Kurtz’s even bigger misgivings when

Marlow finally reaches the station where Kurtz is.

As Marlow is waiting for his boat to be repaired (after it was sunk,

presumably by someone who wanted to prevent him from reaching Kurtz) his interest in Kurtz

grows as he wonders what this eminent man is all about. The manager and the brickmaker fear

Kurtz as a threat to their position, and later in the story, Marlow overhears the manager and his

nephew talking about Kurtz. For Marlow, he “seemed to see Kurtz for the first time” (p. 57)

through the manager and his nephew’s words. They disapprove of Kurtz, mostly because the

manager is jealous of his position and influence, but could there be other, moralistic reasons that

they may disapprove of Kurtz, or are they just as greedy as we will find out Kurtz is?
Kurtz treats the natives horribly. They may respect him because he is the only

one that can speak in their tongue but he is also the one that set rebels’ heads on sticks to set the

example to the rest of the natives: follow the rules of imperialism or there will be consequences.

Kurtz does not even treat his fiancé right. He has a native mistress on the island who his fiancé

does not know about. By the end of the story, the reader’s perspective on Kurtz is mixed; should

he be sympathized with or condemned for his greedy actions?

On one hand, his intentions did not begin with greed, but on the other hand,

his actions were corrupt and more savage than he thought the natives to be. He went into the

business to enlighten and change a group of people he thought to be savage, but in the end he got

caught up in the greed of the ivory business and the hunger for power and control over the

natives.

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