Heart+of+Darkness+Essay

Heart of Darkness Essay

 * Prompt: Morally ambiguous characters-characters whose behavior discourages readers from dentifying them as purely evil or purely good- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. The write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.**

In Heart of Darkness, the character Kurtz is perhaps the most morally ambiguous character. Throughout his journey, Malow learns scraps of information about Kurtz that he finds fascinating. Kurtz was a leader, well respected, had immense influence, and was the Company's greatest ivory collector. Kurtz was "being groomed for a higher position" and more succesful than anybody in the Company. These traits inspire the reader to think highly of Kurtz, but these positive feelings last until the third installment. The less admirable side of Kurtz is met in the third installment, where the reader soon learns of the origin of Kurtz's success. Kurtz is savage, dismisses European "civility", and disreguards morality all together. Once an advocate of spreading "the light" and education to Africa, Kurtz now writes for the International Society for the Supression of Savage Customs to "Exterminate all the brutes!" The reader learns that Kurtz's ivory "trade" was in fact no "trade" at all. Kurtz would disappear with the local natives, raiding and taking ivory by brute force.

However, these evils cannot be pegged as pure evil. These acts of horror are slightly downsized by many factors. First, Kurtz was in fact neglected and forgotten in the Inner Station. his collegues, like the Manager, care very little about him. Instead of commending Kurtz on his success, people were plotting on how to bring him down. Secondly, Kurtz was surrounded by the hypocrisy of Imperialism. Kurtz eventually saw that his naive and idealistic approach to spreading civility, "light", and education to Africa was what made Europe the savages trying to spread civility to already civilized savages. This in turn caused Kurtz to disreguard all concepts of morality and European ideals. Thirdly, we, as the reader, are given sufficient information to believe that Kurtz was suffering from some degree of insanity. Marlow believes that Kurtz's extended periods of being alone in the wilderness forced Kurtz to look inside himself and ultimately go mad with the weight of his own conscience.

The moral ambiguity of kurtz interlaces with many of the themes and symbolism of Heart of Darkness. The decisions Kurtz made and the decisions of the Company are not that different, expect for their reasonings. Kurtz acted upon the belief that the Company lies about what's really happening in the Congo. He is tired of the lies and behaves openly about his actions. The moral dilema of Marlow is affected by Kurtz's moral ambiguity. Marlow is forced to choose etween the lesser of two evils; the Company or Kurtz. This battle between the two causes the reader to second-guess what is good and light vs. what is evil and dark. It collides with the dark/light symbolism and reverses the common/stereotypical beliefs of good and evil. It asks us to perceive things typically seen as light and good, as the true evil and darkness of the world. Kurtz's moral battle and desire to conquer the "heart of darkness" makes him the poster boy of Europe. Kurtz goes n the Congo believing he's being adventurous and civil, yet his disintegration of moral compass gives way to the underlying truth; that, for Europe, there was never a moral compass to begin with. Europe's desire for ivory outweighed any desire to "civilize" the Congo. All the decaying infrastructure, the sick Congo natives, and the warships fighting off the coast signify a losing battle. The moral ambiguity of Kurtz interlaces with the theme of Imperialistic corruption to savagely civilize already civilized savages. It's a painful veil of lies to cover Europe's own economic and greedy agenda, to turn what was once dark and evil into light and pure.