In the Heart of Darkness and “Hollow Men” both author Joseph Conrad and T.S. Eliot argue the idea of Kurtz and the hollow men having an empty soul and also lacking humanity. Both these characters live a meaningless life and do not have a lot to be proud of. The hollow men live in “the dead land the cactus land” and Kurtz lived in Africa where there is not much soiled land mostly “dead”. To the reader you see how the Hollow men and Kurtz show their life as useless. For the Hollow men this is proved through how “the broken jaw of our last kingdom” represents how they “grope together on this beach of the tumid river in a valley of dying stars”. As they look down the river the stars are dying just like hope of making it there. The hollow men believe in a god and as the stars fade away so does their hope. Just as how Kurtz got consumed into the idea of ivory and how it was so important in his life. “There was nothing above or below him he had kicked himself loose of the earth (Conrad 61). Kurtz had nothing left to stand on he had dug himself such a deep hole that he does not know where to turn or what to do. All because of ivory, which is what his life revolves around. Causing him to lose hope in the future “the word “ivory” rang in the air you would think they were praying to it” (Conrad 18). …show more content…
Hollow men states “the eyes are not here, there are no eyes here” The hollow men realized that there are no eyes in “this” place perceiving they can not actually see. In relation to Kurtz people believed he did not have a soul and people were almost able to see right through him. The men were haunted by shadows preventing them for doing what they needed to do. Kurtz had voices of shadows in his head that also haunted him.”It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart” (Conrad 63). Kurtz’s words are a reflection of his
In the poem, “The Hollow Men,” isolation is a theme that occurs often. The author, T.S. Eliot, uses the description of hollow men to emphasize his definition of isolation. The hollow men have headpieces that are filled with straw. The straw represents that the heads are empty. The hollow men may have once been associated with royalty but now are filled with straw.
We are always taught to appreciate the little things in life; the things that don’t seem to have much of significance at first but end up meaning the world to us. These small things have a value so great but so hidden that they are usually taken a granted for. In The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, there are a few characters that aren’t present in the book for a large amount of time but have a great affect on the story. Kurtz is one of these characters. Kurtz is introduced towards the end of the story but he has an affect on the action, the theme and the other characters development even when he isn’t present.
...lt him as a strong statue, but he was broke down as he wither carried away on the boat or chopped down by the tribes machete. With everything under Kurtz’s power it was dark and gloomy setting, but once he was gone everything began to silence and lighten.
Meanwhile, the film also keeps Kurtz’s name in Heart of Darkness. The novella and the film all introduce Kurtz by other people’s talking or other materials to create mystery. Kurtz has different backgrounds in the two works but they all come from the traditional civilized society. In the novella, Kurtz has European descent “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” (Conrad 4). In the film, Kurtz graduates from West Point and gains countless medals.
In dealing with Kurtz many questions became visible for an example towards the end of the book what did he mean by “the horror, the horror!” was he referring to what he witnessed and experienced while he was in command of his ivory station or was he talking about the civilization of Europe and how he did not wish to return? Perhaps he saw Europe as being his darkness and the Congo being his light or vice versa.
In the novel, Heart of Darkness, Kurtz’s greed and maliciousness consume his actions and take over his body. Since Kurtz gains authority from his copious amounts of Ivory, he becomes arrogant and abuses his power. He murders groups of natives and hangs their heads on stakes to show his control which instills a sense of self validation. Sarcastically, Marlow states, “evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the-what shall I say?-less material aspirations”(Conrad 86). He displays his cruelty by placing material wealth like Ivory above human lives. This obsession eats him alive, and slowly, he becomes his treasure. His body deteriorates, and Marlow “saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror. . .”(105). He becomes a reflection of his greed which leaves him “hollow at the core” with no moral compass(87). In the beginning, the setting takes place in an ironic town called Brussels. Conrad alludes to a book in the Bible and states, “I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre. Prejudice no doubt”( 13). In the Bible, a whited sepulchre represents the burial site for the deceased and also represents a hypocrite. As the bodies rot underground and the bones take their place, the sepulchre serves as a comparison to the hidden impurity and sinfulness throughout Western civilization. The inside holds the truth while the outside
Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's tale of one man's journey, both mental and physical, into the depths of the wild African jungle and the human soul. The seaman, Marlow, tells his crew a startling tale of a man named Kurtz and his expedition that culminates in his encounter with the "voice" of Kurtz and ultimately, Kurtz's demise. The passage from Part I of the novel consists of Marlow's initial encounter with the natives of this place of immense darkness, directly relating to Conrad's use of imagery and metaphor to illustrate to the reader the contrast between light and dark. The passage, although occurring earlier on in the novel, is interspersed with Marlow's two opposing points of view: one of naïveté, which comes before Marlow's eventual epiphany after having met Kurtz, and the matured perspective he takes on after all of the events leading up to his and Kurtz's encounter.
In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,” the narrator has mixed emotions about the man Kurtz. The narrator spends a large portion of the story trying to find Kurtz. During this time the narrator builds a sense of respect and admiration for Kurtz; however when he finally finds Kurtz, he discovers that he is somewhat disgusted by Kurtz’s behavior. The narrators somewhat obsessive behavior regarding Kurtz is quickly changed into disappointment. The narrator sees that the man who Kurtz is, and the man he created Kurtz to be in his mind are two very different people. He finds that Kurtz is not a reasonable man of justice and reason, but an unstable man whose cruelty and deception is awful. In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,”
The man we meet deep in the Congo isn't the same man. He isn't civilized or truly respectable anymore. At this point, he had gone mad. He had the heads of "rebels" (97) on posts around his house, staring at his home. "He [Kurtz] hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away." (95) Kurtz had two opposing sensibilities. The one said that he should leave and return to civilization and his fiancée while escaping the sickness that seemed to pervade that jungle for all Europeans. The other sensibility was more basic. It was a growl for absolute power over the lives of the natives and also the material want for more ivory. He couldn't escape this hunger. Even at the end of his life when he has been carried onto the ship and is happy to leave, he tries to break away from this decision and return to the jungle.
Conrad introduces Kurtz as the archetypal European. French mother, English father, educated all over the continent- he’s strikingly average. By making him so normal Kurtz can serve as a model for all mankind- if it happened to this guy, who’s to say it couldn’t happen to anyone? At first Kurtz runs the inner station with common sense and justice (or what was considered justice during colonization), but before too long his character begins to spiral inward.
He started out with a noble goal, i.e. to modernize Africa, but suffered the effects of a deadly disease, greed. "It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage." Said Marlow of what Kurtz and the ivory company had done to Africa. Page 102 - "The 'Page'" Kurtz's characteristics are best seen through his work as an Ivory trader in the territory known as Congo. He got this position after being dubbed as a genius, partly because he worked as an orator, poet, writer, musician, politician, and artist in addition to the ivory business.
At a point in all mortal’s existence, there will be a moment when their soul is between two states of being, waiting to be judged. Without the fearlessness and faith to move on to the afterlife, they will spend eternity stuck in purgatory. When T. S. Eliot wrote “The Hollow Men,” he used symbolism, imagery, and repetition to share his insight to address the lack of courage and faith that plagues every human being.
Kurtz, a character to whom all of the rising action is dedicated in Heart of Darkness, has reason to have despair in the novella because of all he had done to the natives and because of his deceptive lifestyle. Kurtz stole from the natives often. He would find their hidden ivory and take it for the company. Kurtz stole not only their ivory, but also their worship and admiration. Kurtz was carried around on an improvised stretcher by the natives like a king, and when streams of natives surrounded the station, the Russian trader remarks that, “If he [Kurtz] does not say the right thing to them we are all done for” (III, p. 166). The Russian had apparently been at the mercy of a native tribe in a similar situation before, and has confidence in Kurtz
Take a moment to think about the social corruption that has taken place all around the world. In the novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Kurtz is a legend and acquires the most ivory around. People believe that he is good at his job until Marlow travels to the Inner Station. Marlow finds that Kurtz has enslaved the Natives to bring him ivory, if they fail to do so, they get punished. He is viewed like a God by the Natives, Kurtz believes that they need help and guidance to civilization. Kurtz thinks that he can lead them to it by corrupting them into doing anything. The great use of surrealism is found to support the social corruption portrayed throughout. Conrad writes this novella in a dream-like style portraying many senses too. In the Heart of Darkness, the dark environment and
In the book the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad Mr. Kurtz last words were “ the horror, the horror”. There are many ways to look at what might have been going through his head or what would have been the vision he was experiencing as the book describes it. One way to look at it is that he is recollecting on the way he tried to bring civilization to Africa. Another opinion that is expressed is that he was looking back on what he did as to unintentionally becoming a savage. In all reality I think it was his looking back on what he set out to do and how he did it and where it got him and what he became. And the fact that the lack of society helped morph him into what he was trying to change.