Kurtz was the "chief of the inner station" (pg 94). He was "in charge of a trading post, a very important one, in the true ivory country." Kurtz sent in "as much ivory as all the others put together" (pg 85). The company described him as the "best agent, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the company" (pg 90). Kurtz went to the jungle for many reasons, but mostly to make money to return to Europe and marry his 'intended.' Marlow "heard that her engagement with Kurtz had been disapproved by her people. He wasn't rich enough or something." He had given Marlow "some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there" (pg161). He had been driven into the jungle to procure money for the company and for himself and for his life with his intended. Greed is what kept him out there so long and clouded any of his previously noble ambitions.
Having spent so long in the savage jungle dehumanized Kurtz. He lost sight of the thin line between goodness and corruption, as did many others before him. Kurtz ended up "raiding the country" (pg 135) on his frequent ivory expeditions. He had a tendency to become cruel, once even threatening to kill his devoted companion, the Russian (pg 136). This makes the reader question Kurtz's priorities. How could he threaten the person closest to him over something that held nothing more than monetary value? The Russian had been given " a small lot of ivory" by a village chief and Kurtz said he would kill him if he did not hand it over. This is only a glimpse into the probability that Kurtz has come to value money over people, and thereby wealth over humanity. Kurtz hated his job and the jungle, but he had become too greedy to leave. His greed was his prison. He stopped caring about the natives and how they viewed him. He began to treat them cruelly, especially when they went against him. He went as far as posting sunken heads on stakes outside of his window. He felt they were rebels, so by displaying them he set an example. He had been living in an uncivilized land for too long and the land's savagery had rubbed off on him.
Now matter how you look at it Kurtz was a failure. He lost the admiration of the natives and of the company, and most importantly, he never made it back to Europe to claim his intended. We see the way Kurtz views his time in the jungle in his tragic last words : "the horror, the horror" (pg 154). Kurtz knew what he was, and was hurt when he thought of what he could have been. The jungle had robbed him of his dignity, he had become a savage and he died being fully aware of what he had become.
Heart of Darkness Essay: The Failure of Kurtz
In the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, many different points of views of different topics were taken. For me I was mostly interested in knowing and finding out why or how come did Kurtz fail or thought he failed, and what external forces and conflicts caused him to consider his life a failure. Now I'm in a small excavation to unfold the answer or answers that would allow me and others to understand Kurtz more.
One reason that caught my attention was the part about why Kurtz came to Africa, which as I understood that he wanted to come and leave as someone big, someone that had been able to accomplish something big, and than he would be able to have all the right to married his love one. But when he knew that was the end of his life and he had nothing else to give, he might have felt like all that he had try working for, came down to nothing, and he was not even able to go back and see his lady and show her all the hard work that he had done just for her.
Another reason that I think that might have been another reason why Kurtz might have consider his life a failure is that he might have learned that all his work that he had done has been done for nothing, all the he had accomplish in Africa was going to be nothing. What made me think of this was when Marlow said this "....nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat ...."(p. 154). The entire quote made you try to feel how would it be to die like Kurtz did, that is how I interpreted, how much you have put in your life, but all of that won't matter to anyone anymore, that he is just like everyone else, and he has not been able to become someone special.
My last explanation, for why Kurtz might have consider his life a failure would be he might not have actually consider it that maybe he just sees that life is just the way it is, that you are born, you live and then you die, "I am lying here in the dark waiting for death"(p. 153). He worked hard to get what he wanted, he just followed everything that came upon him, and try to take over, he did his best, but afterwards it all had to end, and that is how it went.
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.
