Analysis Of Joseph Conrad s Heart Of Darkness - 969 Words

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow and Kurtz are two different types of competing heroes; each of the characters has strong ideologies. There is the classic European hero, at least at that time, taming the natives, the Congolese people, and exploiting them by â€Å"forced labor.† This â€Å"hero† is Kurtz. Marlow resembles more of a traditional hero in more of today’s terms. He is tough, diligent, and an independent thinker. Although he doesn’t really â€Å"save the natives, he does start to see them more than just savages, he sees them as people. The natives see Kurtz as sort of â€Å"god†, but this doesn’t mean he is a â€Å"hero† hero. He is a tragic hero; because of his bad deeds, he is corrupted and died from it. He is cruel and brutal to the†¦show more content†¦All the death and brutality around him made him lose hope; he didn’t embrace that brutality like Kurtz did; he didn’t become the tragic hero, he stayed with tradition. Kurtz is spared by Marlow because he could see the bit of good that was once in him, but also the madness that corrupted him. Marlow stated, â€Å". . . his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness. . . I tell you, it had gone mad. I had—for my sins, I suppose—to go through the ordeal of looking into it myself. No eloquence. . . so withering to one’s belief in mankind as his final burst of sincerity† (Conrad 111). Marlow doesn’t want to kill him. He sees that his soul, him madness, has already killed him. Being the hero he is, he carries Kurtz back to the pilot-house. Tragic heroes are usually from noble birth. When Marlow reads Kurtz’s pamphlet, he describes it as, â€Å". . . the unbounded power of eloquence. . .† and the words as, â€Å"burning noble words† (Conrad 82). This observation shows that Kurtz probably had an education, and that education gave him connections to the ivor y trade to assert his â€Å"power of eloquence† more. His lust for power and greed were the flaws that led to his demise. The Russian even stated, â€Å". . . he would shoot me unless I gave him the ivory. . .† (Conrad 94), Marlow has started to see Kurtz’s true colors. When Kurtz dies, he finally