Marlow Lies

798 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Heart of darkness about marlow and kurtz

While Marlow is in Africa, he travels to the Inner station to meet the Great Kurtz, the man Marlow has been hearing about since he first arrived at the coast. After going through all the dangers with his steamboat, he survives the journey and meets Kurtz in person. However, Marlow finds out that Kurtz was not the great person he had heard from others, but a mad man. Kurtz was an ill man, who was near his death. After Kurtz dies, Marlow leaves Africa and returns to Belgium to meet one of Kurtz's close acquaintance, his fiancé. However, before Kurtz died, his last words were nothing close to what Marlow had said to Kurtz's fiancé. Kurtz's last words were (pg.116)"The horror! The horror!," however, Marlow talks about how Kurtz was a great human being and about his great plans to civilize Africa, rather than telling her the truth about the real Kurtz in Africa. Marlow decides not to tell her the truth because, he didn’t want her image of Kurtz to change and know about his lunatic life at the inner station. Kurtz had a complete opposite life in Africa than he had back in Belgium. Also, not only Kurtz's fiancé will be confused, his close associates would be all be enlightened. For these reasons, Marlow decides not to tell Kurtz's fiancé the truth about Kurtz's last words.

Kurtz was a man who was sent to Africa by a Belgian company, as an ivory trader. He is well known by other traders for gathering huge amount of Ivory throughout the country. But, Kurtz's obsession to ivory lead to ravenousness. His greedy hunger for ivory urges him to make alliances and enemies between the native, raiding village after village with the help of his African friends as he searches for ivory. His obsession takes over so much that he is described to seek...

... middle of paper ...

...idn’t want to leave her all confused and find out how truly terrible Kurtz was. Kurtz's fiancé and close contacts knew Kurtz's for being smart, admiring and his greatness. Not the horrible man he was in Africa, greedy and brutal. He was a the opposite man of what they had known and believed him for, before he left for Africa. If Marlow had told her the truth about what he had done and said in Africa, not only would she be the only person being confused, people who were close to Kurtz's would also act and feel the same. Marlow mostly didn’t wanted Kurtz's fiancé's view to change, and let her live on her life without knowing any truth about Kurtz's darkness.

Works Cited

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-do-you-suppose-that-conrad-has-marlow-lie-219959 http://www.shmoop.com/heart-of-darkness/mr-kurtz.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurtz_(Heart_of_Darkness)

Show More
Related

  • Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now One Pager

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both the film and the movie, Kurtz is portrayed as a man of great stature and mastery whose actions become questioned due his barbaric conduct. While Marlow slowly learns more and more regarding who Kurtz is and what he has done through others’ conversations, Willard educates himself about Kurtz through pictures and files he has of Kurtz. He states that he feels like he already knows a thing or two about Kurtz that are not in the papers he has, and that beyond the bridge, there is only Kurtz. This goes to show how Kurtz develops a prof...

    Read More

  • The Mystery of Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

    386 Words  | 1 Pages

    Kurtz was an English man who traveled to the Congo in search of excitement, money and experience. To many people back home, he was known to be a loving intelligent young man. In Congo he was also known as being very intelligent, but also as being insane. The question is what happened to Kurtz how and why he let his self go insane. In a way you can say that he found the “heart” of his “darkness,” embraced it and could not escape it.

    Read More

  • The Power of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Power this is what kept Kurtz in the jungle for such a long period of time.  Determined not to become another causality he becomes allies with the natives through fear.  Kurtz is a brilliant man who did not have to adapt to his environment but had it adapt to him.  On top of a hill his hut is surrounded by the heads of men who have betrayed in him some sort, this serves as a reminder to anyone who contemplates going against his wish.

    Read More

  • Marlow Vs. Willard

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...urtz. Marlow could tell that Kurtz was dying while Willard knew what he had to do and that was kill Kurtz. Willard had doubts about killing Kurtz but after seeing Kurtz’s camp he knew what had to be done. Marlow knew that Kurtz had a good reason to do what he did but the ways he did them was not moral. The plundering of ivory was not good. Marlow and Willard both went through a substantial change after meeting Kurtz. The mystery that both Marlow and Willard had about Kurtz was all over. They met this man that was on their minds since leaving for their missions. One cannot tell, if Marlow and Willard were disappointed, of the states they found Kurtz. Willard at one point was even considering joining Kurtz. Willard finally realized the power of the jungle and how it took in Kurtz.

    Read More

  • The Powerful Voice of Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    In German “kurtz” means short. What Kurtz actually says is plain and terse, but appalling. It is not hidden behind words, but revealed within Kurtz’s own voice and scribbled in margins. However, it is the voiceless words, the written words, the lies, and not the note scribbled by his own voice that Kurtz asks Marlow to preserve. By wanting to preserve his report, Kurtz acknowledges the power of written words. He knows that besides Marlow’s memory, writing is the only thing that can begin to immortalize him. But, perhaps, Kurtz’s knowledge is meant to die along with his voice.

    Read More

  • The Deception Of Kurtz In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    This situation of waiting for Kurtz allows Marlow to fantasize about Kurtz and create a larger than life figure out of a man who he’s never met before. Soon Finding Kurtz becomes an all-out obsession for Marlow; even the night before they meet Kurtz, he wishes to press on despite the danger. Here the reader can see that Marlow is willing to get to Kurtz at all costs. When Marlow does finally make contact with Kurtz, his fantasy carries over into the person who he sees Kurtz as. Marlow is willing to overlook some of Kurtz’s shortcomings and is very willing to see his greatness. Marlow is obviously fond of Kurtz, as it can be seen in the passage when he speaks of Kurtz’s “unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.” Here the reader can observe that Marlow is truly fond of Kurtz’s. The narrator even chooses to side with Kurtz against the manager; even though he hardly knows the man. Kurtz has also managed to get the native people to worship him as a god, and has mastered their language. This makes Marlow respect him even more. Marlow’s point of view allows him to foster both the reality and the fantasy of Kurtz, and though he is very fond of Kurtz, he is still able to see the truth in him as

    Read More

  • Chaos Theory Portrayal In Heart Of Darkness

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now

    2185 Words  | 5 Pages

    afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land." (Dorall 303), he hears rumors of Kurtz's unusual behavior of killing the Africans. The. The behavior fascinates him, especially when he sees it first. hand: "and there it was black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids- a head.

    Read More

  • The Heart Of Darkness

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marlow’s thoughts are so consumed by Kurtz, that he is built up to be much more of a man than he truly is. In turn, Marlow is setting himself up for a let down. He says at one point, “I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time...the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home...towards his empty and desolate station”(P.32). When Marlow reaches Kurtz’s station, he begins to become disillusioned. He begins to hear about, and even see, the acts that Kurtz is committing, and becomes afraid of him. He sees in Kurtz, what he could become, and wants nothing to do with it. He does not want people to know he has any type of relationship with him, and says in response to the Russian, “I suppose that it had not occurred to him that Mr. Kurtz was no idol of mine.” (P.59). It is at this point that he begins to discover the darkness in his heart.

    Read More

  • Human Nature in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kurtz once was considered an honorable man, but living in the Congo separated from his own culture he changed greatly. In the jungle he discovers his evil side, secluded from the rest of his own society he becomes corrupted by power. "My Ivory. My people, my ivory, my station, my river," everything was under Kurtz's reign. While at Kurtz's camp Marlow encounters the broken roof on Kurtz's house, the "black hole," this is a sign of the uncivilized. The black hole represents the unknown and unconquered, and therefore represents the uncivilized. Also, Marlow notices the "black heads" on Kurt...

    Read More

  • Heart of Darkness and Wide Sargasso Sea: Depiction and Effect Due to Colonization

    1988 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kurtz was the chief of the Inner Station, where he was in charge of a very important ivory-trading post. Marlow learns that because of Kurtz’s ability to obtain more ivory than anybody else, he is of “greatest importance to the Company” and is to become a “somebody in the Administration” (Conrad 143). However, a critical aspect is the way in which he went about his business, as it was ruthless and selfish, characteristics that go hand-in-hand with European colonization.

    Read More

  • Heart of Darkness: Analysis of the Two Major Themes

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    On one hand, Marlow is saved by his self-discipline while on the other hand Kurtz is doomed by his lack of it. Before Marlow embarked on his voyage to Africa, he had a different view. Due to propaganda, he believed that the colonization of the Congo was for the greater good. In his head, he judged that the people of Africa were savages and that colonization would bring them the elation and riches of civilization. Despite an apparent uneasiness, he assumed that restraint would function there.

    Read More

  • Racism in Heart of Darkness

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    This sight angers Marlow, and when he gets to Kurtz, it’s too late. Even he has been pulled in by the darkness. Conrad makes an effective distinction between Marlow and Kurtz.

    Read More

  • The Hero and Anti-Hero in Joseph Conrad?s Heart of Darkness

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...s to look at Kurtz as a hero for all that he had accomplished, no matter how evil. Marlow?s obstacles as the hero are not the overcoming of a dragon or evil villain. It is the eternal battle of the story of a Hero versus Antihero. Marlow?s blindness to Kurtz?s impurities are both his strength and weakness. His ignorance to the greatness of his own qualities can best be stated one way: ?The Horror.?

    Read More

  • Marlow and Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the time Marlow and Kurtz meet, Marlow is already well aware of the similarities they share. Both are imperialists, and while Marlow detests the treatment of the natives by his employers (Belgian colonists), he also makes apparent his abhorrence toward the Africans. On the other hand, Kurtz abandons the pretense of helping the natives achieve civilization, as displayed by the Europeans. Instead, he adopts their customs and becomes their leader in the never-ending quest for ivory. "He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of the supernatural beings- we approach them with the might as of a deity' (Longman, 2000, p. 2226). Marlow also admired Kurtz' resourcefulness and survival skills, especially his perseverence through jungle fever. "The wilderness had patted him on the head....it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite." (Longman, 2000, p. 2225).

    Read More

More about Marlow Lies

Open Document