Heart of Darkness Marlow

In Heart of Darkness Marlow and Kurtz set on opposite ends of the spectrum. In my opinion, neither men are heroes and I wouldn’t argue who was more of the hero, but rather who was more of the villain. I couldn’t tell you who was more of a hero, but I could tell you who wasn’t. Kurtz set out to do amazing and extraordinary things, but when it didn’t go the way he planned, and he came face to face with his own darkness, he had succumbed to the darkness.

He became a God-like figure to the natives and enforced his wishes upon them. The already, wild, uneducated, and gullible, natives had no problem carrying the wishes out. The use of two possible protagonist in this story are apparent because of their points of view.

The Two points of view help differentiate between familiarity with the darkness. Kurtz and Marlow’s perceptions are from opposite sides of the darkness. Their perspectives are unique and important because they are the complete inverses of each other. You have one man who is inexperienced in exploring the jungle i.e. the darkness, and life altogether. On the other hand, you have a man who has explored his darkness and the jungle and has given in to it. When Kurtz said his final words, he was most likely referring to the darkness within the heart of the jungle. Since the jungle is an equal representation of us as a society and us as individuals, that means that each and every one of us and us as a whole, have the capacity for absolute nightmarish darkness.

Kurtz says his final words to Marlow, not because they’re the only two “protagonists”, but because they are kindred spirits. They think the same and feel the same. They are the same but on opposite ends of the spectrum, so the same darkness that is inside Kurtz, can manifest in Marlow. This could be why they were the only ones in the novel with names. Kurtz and Marlow are a representation of each other and the also represent something to each other. Marlow represents what Kurtz was like before the darkness and Kurtz represents what Marlow is capable of with the darkness. 

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