Kurtz character :
The most noteworthy character in Conrad’s ” Heart of Darkness ” , Mr. Kurtz, the ivory trader and colonial representative in Congo, resembles the archetypal “evil genius” : whose fall is the stuff of legend. He is a complete embodiment of Europe along with its cultural richness and humanitarian civilization and also with its imperialistic dark intentions. A great eloquent, a philanthropist turned colonialist, a charismatic leader and demi-god of the Africans, Kurtz’s metaphorical journey which began with hopes for salvation, eventually culminates in the shrieks of damnation. His suppressed avarice and superiority complex outdid his potential benevolence : ” Kurtz is a modern Faust who has sold his soul for power and gratification “(Cedric Watt).
What attracts our attention mostly regarding the characteristics of Kurtz, is his psychological dilemma. Recurrent oscillation between his conscious ethics and subconscious avarice coupled with the suppressed desire for colonialism expresses itself in the form of the resulting insanity. In Freudian terms, the continuous tussle between Kurtz’s id or unconscious desires and his superego or mortality and ethics set the stage for his degradation. His initial altruistic intention of “humanizing, improving, instructing” the native Africans gradually fades up and vanishes against the predominant repressed desire of ivory looting and colonial masterdom. He considered the innocent Africans to be the “black shadows of disease and starvation” and posed himself as their deity – a peerless demigod. The internal psychological duel he is fighting against himself manifests itself into his mental imbalance. His use of detached sentences and cut phrases proves his destabilized psyche. His physical torturing of the tired workers and his cruelty of using heads of Africans as “remarkable ornaments” clearly showcases Kurtz’s primordial motif.
However, this growing brutality comes to an end in a similarly inflicting manner to the perpetrator himself. His growing self contradiction and mental conflicts led to a “self-inflicted insanity” which eventually ended in his death. But the Freudian twist of epiphanic realisation made him self-scrutinize his errors, at least in the final moments prior to his demise. Seeing his own reflection, he screams a haunted monologue : ” The horror! The horror! “. This metaphorical journey from light to darkness came to an end with the victory of the superego over the id as Kurtz correctly recognized his brutal self in a frightful amazement. This stupendous epiphany – caused by his own reflection – enabled Kurtz to realise how miserably he had failed in his noble mission of bringing about enlightenment and had contributed to the accumulation of demonic instincts of avarice, exploitation and colonialism instead. His error of judgement caused a tragic fall to his initial benign intentions and brought him face to face with his doom. Sting of conscience indeed pricked the self of Kurtz at such a moment when he even had not enough time to repent and compensate for his flaws and wrongdoings.
The influence of primitive nature plays a great role in Kurtz’s colonial transformation. The dark river, the dark forest and the reinless primitivism of an uncivilized society has “got into his veins, consumed his flesh”. The darkest corner of the world prompted Kurtz to unleash his repressed dark desires. The personality habituated with the fetters of discipline and civilisation, more often than not, goes depraved and wayward with the vastness of primitive nature. Kurtz, too, surrendered to this vastness and “powers of darkness have claimed them for his own”. Nature, though, cannot be held guilty since it offered both unbridled instinct and magnanimity but Kurtz chose only the former one while the natives happily accepted the latter also. His own dark intentions relinquished the loving and innocent nature of the native Africans, which too, was the gift of nature. He became an omnipotent figure expecting tribal rites and worship and claiming the whole bountiful nature : ” My ivory… my Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my… “.
Kurtz functions like an ideological state apparatus in brainwashing the natives with his unchallenged convincing skills. Unlike Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” , the native Africans don’t rebel against their fair-skinned coloniser since he managed to extract awe from them. His cruelty also plays a great role in reigning his native colony unquestioningly but each and everyone who knows Kurtz, acknowledges his “heavenly mission” and generosity despite mentioning his flaws.
To conclude, Kurtz is a victim of the predatory colonialism exerted by himself. His mental tussles lead to his misplaced metaphorical journey and the unfulfilled mission of civilization mongering. Despite showing promises to become an ideal missionary, the inefficiency, atrocity and hypocrisy of Kurtz deprived him of the desired status of a magnanimous figure delivering salvation from darkness. Kurtz’s pseudo-Enlightenment enterprise is reduced into an eyewash for colonial oppression since “the civilisation was being corrupted by the influence of people who were morally degenerate” (Max Nordau) like Kurtz himself.
