Kurtz Imperialism

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Joseph Conrad is a man of critical acclaim, with his novel Heart of Darkness garnishing acclaim posthumous. The novel introduces us to Marlow, a man given a task by the company he works for to travel to the Congo. The purpose of Marlow's trip to the Congo is manifold. On a literal level, if he does not go there, we have no story. On a psychological level, Marlow seeks the heart of darkness, or the deepest recesses of his personality (place of secret desires). On a colonial level, Marlow goes there to help the savages. Like his Aunt, Marlow believes in British Colonialism as a means of the white man's redemption. In the Heart of Darkness, Marlow’s passion for Kurtz intervenes with Marlow’s responsibility to assist with the ivory trade that …show more content…
This obsession also ties in with the novel’s theme of futility, where Marlow longed to meet Kurtz but his journey was a waste of time because Kurtz dies shortly after they meet. In Part 3, Marlow says,”There was something wanting in him—some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence”(Conrad 3.3). This quote is Marlow describing Kurtz’s personality, and Marlow goes on to call him hollow, which is something that only he and the reader can see. This quote demonstrates how much attention Kurtz garners from Marlow, substantiating the claims of his obsession. As Marlow travels deeper into the Congo, his obsession grows and it puts the crew in danger, which is evident in Part 2, when the helmsman is killed by the Congo natives while maneuvering through the …show more content…
One detail that shows this would be the ship at Central Station sunk in the water. Conrad makes it known that the boat does not require any great effort to fix, but the rivets required for fixing the boat never comes therefore denying the boat of its original purpose. Marlow and Kurtz are also examples of the futility of European advancement due to what they accomplish at the end of the novel, which is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Not only did Marlow and Kurtz accomplish nothing for the Company, which was the sole purpose of the Company sending them to the Congo, neither party came to understand the natives, which could help them to obtain ivory. Instead Kurtz goes off and apparently becomes the Mufasa of the Congo and Marlow is left to his own devices and it is evident that that situation did not yield anything remotely
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