Generally, it implies the horror Kurtz witnesses in Africa, though the horror could be the exploitation of Africa, evil practices of humans, his crumbling sanity, or an illusion of understanding and hope. Simply, it conveys what the West did during colonization in the name of progress, and under the guise of civilizing the natives. Darkness prevails when he dies, symbolizing that his actions were evil. The use of this phrase is not common in everyday life.
However, you may find it in literary texts and movies. Marlow refuses, but he does give the official a copy of Kurtz's report to The Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs with Kurtz's chilling postscript "Exterminate all the brutes! Marlow's final duty to Kurtz is to visit his Intended and deliver Kurtz's letters and her portrait to her. When he meets her, at her house, she is dressed in mourning and still greatly upset by Kurtz's death.
Marlow lets slip that he was with Kurtz when he died, and the Intended asks him to repeat Kurtz's last words Marlow lies to her and says, "The last word he pronounced was — your name. The anonymous narrator on board the Nellie then resumes his narrative. The Director of Companies makes an innocuous remark about the tide, and the narrator looks out at the overcast sky and the Thames — which seems to him to lead "into the heart of an immense darkness.
Previous Book Summary. Next About Heart of Darkness. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title.
Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? My Preferences My Reading List. The enigmatic character Kurtz could be considered a tragic hero because he is a talented and powerful individual whose excessive pride and flawed perception leads to his demise in the jungle. A tragic hero must also be capable of virtuous acts and fall victim to their hamartia tragic flaw. The novel is about two men, Marlow and Kurtz whose existences mirror each other.
Ultimately, Kurtz is who Marlow may become if he abadons all restraint while working in the jungle. Kurtz emphasized godlike image is to show why Kurtz became what he did and how Marlow retreats from this fate. Marlow and Kurtz are the only ones named because they do not hide who they are, everybody else does not see the truth, and they are the only ones who achieve enlightenment.
The two men are not afraid to openly show themselves. The two epigraphs to the poem, " Mistah Kurtz — he dead" and "A penny for the Old Guy", are allusions to Conrad's character and to Guy Fawkes, attempted arsonist of the English house of Parliament, and his straw-man effigy that is burned each year in the United Kingdom on Guy Fawkes Night, 5 November.
As Marlow makes his journey up the river all he can think about is Kurtz. In this mission to find Kurtz , Marlow compares everyone he meets to him. He does this because Kurtz was able, on his deathbed, to judge what he had done was wrong. Willard succeeded in his mission only because Kurtz , himself broken mentally by the savage war he had waged, wanted Willard to kill him and release him from his own suffering.
Before Willard killed him, Kurtz asked Willard to find Kurtz's wife and son, and explain truthfully to them what he had done in the war. He induces the natives to worship him, setting up rituals and venerations worthy of a tyrant. By the time Marlow, the protagonist, sees Kurtz , he is ill with jungle fever and almost dead. Marlow seizes Kurtz and endeavors to take him back down the river in his steamboat.
The natives perceive Kurtz as a mythical deity and think that the guns carried by his followers are lightning bolts, symbols of power rather than actual weapons. Marlow and the Russian trader are aware of the guns' power to kill, however, and they react nervously at Kurtz's show of force.
This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of letters to preserve his work and memory. He tells her Kurtz's last words were her name.
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