Well, if we examine what Kurtz has done based on his
actions alone, it is absolutely obvious that he has done enough to warrant the
description "evil." Consider his actions in dominating a tribe and then leading it on
raids to other tribes to get their ivory. Kurtz deliberately made the natives think that
he was a god to gain power and prestige and enable him to gain more ivory. At one stage,
Marlow comments:
Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the
better of the - what shall I say? - less material
aspirations.
Spot the note of
irony at the end of that sentence. Interestingly, this comment is made just before
Marlow examines the house of Kurtz and discovers that what at first he had considered to
be ornamentation were actually heads impaled on stakes and placed around the house.
Marlow interprets these heads by saying:
They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint
in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him -
some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his
magnificent eloquence.
So,
Kurtz, for all his "eloquence" and brilliance, clearly shows the evil nature of his
actions in the "heart of darkness" through his methods of being so successful and the
violence that he caused to gain that success.
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