Colonialism and Imperialism - European Ideals in Heart of Darkness and The Hollow Men

Hollowness of European Ideals Exposed in Heart of Darkness and The Hollow Men

Kurtz occupies a peculiar position in Conrad's Heart of Darkness and T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men." "Mr. Kurtz, he dead" is the epigraph to "The Hollow Men." Eliot draws an obvious allusion to Kurtz, the morally hollow man in Heart of Darkness. Left to his own devices, Kurtz commits appalling acts such as shrinking human heads and performing terrible sacrifices. Kurtz is armed with only the dubious sense of moral superiority of his culture and the desire to civilize the natives (Dahl 34). This front quickly crumbles when faced with the noble yet savage ways offered by Africa. The crumbling front only leaves a hollow void of desired ideas and morals. This hollowness is what Eliot builds on to develop his own idea of hollowness. Kurtz is an apt example of the hollowness of European ideals that Eliot wanted to expose. T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" uses Conrad's Kurtz to enforce the idea of hollowness found in contemporary Western thought, because Kurtz is a "model European" and represents the ideas of the modern Western Everyman.

Kurtz is a prototypal European thinker and citizen. He is the product of idealistic, progressive, and optimistic thought (Dahl 34). Kurtz is a Renaissance man, being a musician, a painter, a journalist, and a "universal genius" (71). So well does Kurtz perform all his duties, Marlow never figures out Kurtz's true occupation. Marlow can envision Kurtz as a "painter who wrote for the papers" as well as a "journalist who could paint" (71). Kurtz's universal talent extends to the field of politics, where he could have been a "splendid leader of an extreme party," in fact of any party (71). Kurtz was highly respected...

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...rmany and later in Vietnam and Cambodia (Anderson 404). In all likelihood, Heart of Darkness was just a prelude to the atrocities that could be committed with the continuance of European thought as it was. Eliot explicitly says one of the themes to Part V is "the present decay of Eastern Europe" (Roessel 55). Eliot built on this theme of moral hollowness in "The Hollow Men," by having Kurtz and his actions be representative of contemporary European thought.

Works Cited

Anderson, Walter E. "Heart of Darkness: The Sublime Spectacle. University of Toronto Quarterly 57(3) (1998): 404-421.

Dahl, James C. "Kurtz, Marlow, Conrad and the Human Heart of Darkness". Studies in the Literary Imagination 1(2) (1968): 33-40.

Roessel, David. "Guy Fawkes Day and the Versailles Peace in 'The Hollow Men'. English Language Notes 28(1) (1990): 52-58.