Question+3

Each of the three main characters in this story -- Marlow, Kurtz, and the Intended -- represents a clearly different point of view on the nature of the world and perhaps even on the meaning of life. How can each of these views be described? To what extent are they mutually exclusive?

Marlow's view of the nature and the world is taken with a very cautious approach. Although he is overjoyed to go on his adventure on the river that "charmed" him, he takes everything in and tries to learn about it, such as with the natives that are "trained" to run the steamboat and become civilized, but does not rule out the possibilites that they are harmless, such as when he comes to understand that the natives that Kurtz was with were harmless and cared for the man.

Kurtz's view can be considered to be open and optimistic. Clearly,he is more in-tune with the jungle people and nature than the Europeans, even if he is lead by the greed for ivory and wealth and even the Intended assures Marlow that Kurtz always brought out the best in the men around him. He did enter into the Heart of Darkness in his misunderstanding of the world, and surely suffered for it, as he was not prepared. But even in his lack of preparation, he saw the best of the world around him, until the end when he was forced to face "the horrors" as he was drawn from the darkness that held his heart.

The views of the Intended can be classified as caring and possibly optimistic, as she only ever sees the greatness of Kurtz and never the darkness that surrounds him, and later saying to Marlow that no one will ever forget his greatness and that she is now "unhappy for like" without him; but while he was living, she was "too fortunate [and] too happy" (156).

They are mutually exclusive in the ideals of Marlow recognizing the darkness and knowing how to avoid it, although he does draw close to Kurtz via the stories he is told. Kurtz's ideas of the world are exclusive in the idea of he embraces the darkness and inevitably becomes part of it, leaving him unable to leave the jungle and return to modern civiliztion, such as no given person can live without their own heart. The Intended's veiws differ from the rest by her belief of Kurtz's greatness, and holding him so high on a pedestal that he could be considered (to her) as an equal to God. Marlow has a respect for the man, but after more than a year, unlike the Intended, he is not still in mourning, as she will do for her entire life, almost as people todsay still mourn for Christ.

-hrd

While Marlow is not as prey to the rampant optimism that we can assume Kurtz was, he does fall rather hard after the latter's death. He expected a miraculous and dynamic individual; what he finds is a broken man. In a way, his descent was cushioned because his expectations were not as great as opposed to Kurtz, who had absolutely no padding and fell very, very hard. While Marlow desires to know the meaning of life, he doesn't go out of his way to discover it.

Obviously, Kurtz threw himself into the fray as soon as he arrived at the station. Caution to the winds, he hunted with the natives and desperately sought for the meaning of life. Finding no meaning in the darkness is essentially what broke him; he could not live with the fact that life may not have any meaning at all, hence his last words "The horror! The horror!" (147).

As for the Intended, her views are rather superficial, but not in a pejorative sense. She chooses to believe in the goodness that was Kurtz because she appears to have no knowledge of his darker side. However, because //Heart of Darkness// is a frame narrative and there is evidence of Marlow having a bias towards women and how they must be protected, there is room for doubt. The Intended may perfectly well know that Kurtz had a darker side to him, but choose not to acknowledge it because it would conflict with her views and meaning of life, which is completely unhindered optimism without room for any doubts.

-BT

For each main character, a different view on life and the world is presented. Kurtz, for example, represents something darker since he has given in to many temptations. His Intended represents a more pure life. She is not able to understand the darkness that surrounds her beloved, which is evident when Marlow meets her. For example, she says that men looked up to him and "his goodness shone in ever act" (156). This is not completely true since toward the end, he did not appear to be that great of a person. She does not comprehend that, however. Marlow, on the other hand, is a combination of both. While he is not the hopeful optimist that Kurtz's Intended is, he also tries not to succumb to the darkness. He does not see life in an overly hopeful way because he sees how his journey has changed him, but he also does not want to go down the road that Kurtz did.

-Tessa Altman

Each of the three main characters presents a different point of view on life. Kurtz represents the part of humanity that has completely given in to temptation and instinct. He is the embodiment of the darkness within humanity. The Intended represents a more positive outlook on life. She is naive and cannot see the darkness within people. In the middle of the spectrum is Marlow. He sees both the dark and the light in people. He is aware of the darkness, but does not entirely succumb to it. -Liz

Kurtz, the Intended, and Marlow offer three widely different views on the world and of light and darkness. Kurtz has completely given himself into the dark side and becomes evil and demoniac: "It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart" (Conrad 68). Kurtz is seemingly good on the outside and most worship him as a God, but he possesses a black soul. Marlow, on the other hand, acknowledges the darkness and evil tendencies of the world but tries desperately to keep them at bay. In the end, though, he admits that he can barely hold on: "...the triumphant darkness from which I could not have defended her--from which I could not even defend myself" (Conrad 75). Lastly, Kurtz's intended is the epitome of light and heaven; Marlow says of her: "I know that sunlight can be made to lie too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features" (Conrad 72). The Intended never sees any darkness and is utterly protected from seeing the evil parts of humanity; however, her fiancé is not so lucky. ~OS~

I agree with what has been previously stated. Marlow is both good and bad. The Intended, however, is wholly good. She is representative of all that is light. Conrad describes her as: "guileless, profound, confident, and trustful" (Conrad 153). The woman is a foil to Kurtz, who appears to be an amazing man, but truly has a heart of darkness. ML