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Literary analysis of heart of darkness
Literary analysis of heart of darkness
Literary analysis of heart of darkness
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Strong Versus Weak Characters in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
One of the central tragedies of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is the insanity of Mr. Kurtz. How could a man who seemed so good, so stable, suddenly become so mentally lacking? Through the deterioration of Kurtz’s personality and Marlow’s response to his breakdown, Conrad explores the elements of strong versus weak characters.
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.
Because of his over bearing personality, the Africans begin to look to Kurtz as a sort of god, and he begins to work with the idea. Had this occurred in society, he would have been checked: “Kurtz, stop being so silly.” But! In the jungle no one is there to keep him within societal boundaries- and the immense power he has begins to take hold of him. Kurtz is folding further and further into himself. The perfect example of this is the pamphlet Kurtz wrote. It seems that, though his actions say differently, when he is in the act of writing- something he learned in the civilized world- he can still function. He can still perform the, what is considered a solely human, trait of consciously thinking about and considering his own actions. Even when he talks about the pamphlet- he knows he wrote something and that it was good and important. Finally however, he writes at the bottom, “exterminate the brutes,” and the old Kurtz is gone.
The once normal Kurtz has become a megalomaniac. Consider the shrunken heads put up around his house. It is feasible to think that perhaps a savage would do something like that as a warning to anyone who might stop by. Even in the horror- there is logic to it. But- Kurtz has them facing toward his house. This has no reasonable explanation, except that Kurtz has lost his mind. Conrad describes the scene almost as though Kurtz has them set up out there to look at, to talk to from time to time. His unchecked power of the natives takes away his human ability to reason and leaves an empty Kurtz-shaped hull.
While there are differences between Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now!, and Joseph Conrad novel, The Heart of Darkness, Kurtz and his influence on the main character remain very similar. Both the movie and novel depict a protagonist’s struggle to travel upstream in a ship in search of a man named Kurtz. While doing so, Marlow (The Heart of Darkness)/Willard (Apocalypse Now!) become progressively fascinated with Kurtz. Kurtz is claimed to have a profound influence on his followers and is becoming a huge influence on Marlow/Willard as well.
Mr. Kurtz is a character in Konrad Korzenioski’s, a river captain in the Congo, scathing novel Heart of Darkness. Writing under his pen name Joseph Conrad, the main character Marlow journeys to a Congo post where he meeting Mr. Kurtz, a man who bears many similarities to agents of King Leopold’s II crimes. In the novel, the narrator encounters a fence displayed with shrunken African heads in front of the house of Mr. Kurtz. Horchschild states that this “Inner Station” that Marlow sees is based on Korzenioski’s encounter at the Congo port Stanley Falls. This is corroborated by the fact that George Washington Williams, a journalist who experienced Stanley Falls around the same time Korzenioski was said to be there. Both writers detail the atrocities
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.
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Kurtz is one of many men sent into the jungle to rape the land and its people of its natural resources. Many men have journeyed into the jungle also refereed as the heart of darkness never to return. Kurtz goes into the jungle and becomes obsessed with the people and the land. Though Kurtz has an obsession with ivory this is not the sole reason for him to overstay his welcome in the jungle.
Kurtz does not have to adapt to his environment, instead the environment adapted onto him, creating an evil and darker twin. He allows his self-serving greed to control him leading him to his dissolution. It is his imperialistic actions that allowed him to fixate over materialistic things. His obsession with wealth and power leads him to destroy the system he was preaching to the natives. His corruption is made evident as he uses the power he gains to create disorder, leading him to the darkness causing his dissolution.
In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad presents the character of Kurtz as a man who is seen differently by all who know him depending on their individual experiences with him. His cousin knew him as a man with great musical talent, others knew him as a great leader, and his “Intended” fiance knew him as an admirable humanitarian; but all of these knew him to be a remarkable genius. When the narrator, Marlow, first hears of him, he is told that Kurtz is known as a great leader destined to hold high positions and fame. However, as he travels the river, he also learns that Kurtz has become insane during his time in the African jungle. After Marlow finally comes into contact with him, he discovers that Kurtz has become a god among the natives and has been brutally collecting the coveted ivory. Marlow finally convinces the deathly ill man to return to the ship where he finally dies. Upon his death, Kurtz’s facial expression causes Marlow to feel as though he may be seeing his entire life passing just before it ends; and finally, he murmurs his final words “The horror! The horror!” (Conrad, p. 64).
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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.
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Even from the beginning, Kurtz was made out to be an icon, an idol. To Marlow, he was the only thing that made sense in the company, on a journey, in a wilderness full of confusion. The company hailed him as their biggest asset and success. He delivered massive amounts of ivory to them and they liked that very much. Kurtz represented many things to many people. In class, we described him as a representation of the wilderness, the voice, a superior God-like being, an imperialist who was a symbol of colonization, and a symbol of the jungle. We also considered him a symbol of power, dehumanized, unhuman, a rule-breaker who had to face his consequences, and a once-great man who was trapped somewhere in the layers of the Heart of Darkness. Late in the book, several characters mention all the things that Kurtz could have been, his great potential. Kurtz's cousin came to Marlow wishing to know about Kurtz's last moments. He told Marlow that Kurtz had once been a great musician (Conrad, pg. 71). Later, a journalist told him that Kurtz had the potential to be an excellent politician (Conrad, pg. 71). It was also said that he would have been a splendid lawyer. No one could deny that whatever he was, and whatever he did, as his cousin said, Kurtz was "a universal genius" (Conrad, pg 157). Kurtz also possessed a “gift of expression.” (Stewart, 361) He had an uncanny ability to persuade and influence people with his articulate way of communicating. Perhaps it was his extreme promise that lead to his failure. The higher the height you fall from the greater the fall. He was not the only one in the jungle that failed, but his fall was worse because he had the most potential. All the characters reacted to their new environment differently. A common bond was that all of them were desperately hanging on to anything fam...
There are key characteristics that define reality television. One of the key features is unscripted programming with unprofessional actors. According to a majority of reality shows producers, they claim their show is unscripted because participants are under surveillance twenty-four hours, seven days a week. Another characteristic is the ...
In studying Joseph Conrad's, The Heart of Darkness, many critics dwell on the issue of heroism. Who is the hero, Marlow or Kurtz? It is clear that both Marlow and Kurtz are the protagonists of the story; however, protagonist and hero are not always synonymous. Marlow is the hero in the traditional sense of the word, while Kurtz is the more modern hero, often referred to as the anti-hero.
The main character in Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, isKurtz. Kurtz no longer obeys the authority of his superiors who believe that he has become too extreme and has come to employ "unsound methods" (Coppola, 1979; Longman, 2000). Marlow is sent to retrieve Kurtz from the evil influences in the Congo, and a wild journey on a tainted river ensues. Along the way, Marlow learns about the real Kurtz and finds himself identifying with and becoming dangerously fond of the man.