The Changing Personality of Kurtz in Joseph Conrads...

Heart of Darkness - The Changing Personality of Kurtz Kurtzs character is fully facet (in Conrads Heart of Darkness), not because of his conventional roll of antagonist, but for his roll in a historical fiction as a character with important roll in society, influenced by those close to him. Kurtz makes some key developments in the way he interacts with others, in large part due to the words and actions of society and Kurtzs acquaintances. Heart of Darkness is a novel based on European imperialism in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. During the turn of the century in 1900, the more significant countries in Europe (i.e. England, France, Germany, et al.) had gotten to a point where expansion†¦show more content†¦This was not the case with Kurtz. Kurtz took advantage of his position, but did so at the cost of the people of the Congo. He acted in locum Diem, (in place of god) to the Africans, exploiting necessary resources at his expense. He often abused these natives not for pleasure, but for the advancement of his journey motif, much to the same degree Victor bent the rules of society to achieve a goal in Frankenstein. He did not see it as necessarily wrong, but unavoidable, that he eventually came to live by. Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course but also for humanizing, improving, instructing. (Page 107) Kurtz says to the Ivo ry Company as means of motivation and explaining that their cause is just. This is similar to Americas position on Iraq, with the difference being the realities of the actual occurrences, where America seeks to liberate Iraq; Kurtz seeks to use the Africans. This alteration did not happen simply because Kurtz wanted more money. Kurtz was caught up in outside influence from society to be the best. In modern terms, peer pressure. No one directly told him to control the natives; he just did so to further his goal as a member of imperialism, much the same way Cortez did in the Americas centuries before. One could make the argument that Kurtz was a victim of his time, which would take some blame away from Kurtz. It is often wrong to put blame on someone else,Show MoreRelated Colonialism and Imperialism - A Post-colonial Study of Heart of Darkness3270 Words   |  14 PagesA Post-colonial Study of Heart of Darkness         Ã‚  In this paper, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness will be examined by using a recent movement, Post-colonial Study that mainly focuses on the relationship between the Self and the Other, always intertwined together in considering one’ identity.  Ã‚   The Other is commonly identified with the margin, which has been oppressed or ignored by Eurocentric, male-dominated history.  Ã‚   Conrad is also conscious of the Others interrelated status with the SelfRead More Achebe’s Inability to Understand Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Essay3028 Words   |  13 PagesAchebe’s Inability to Understand Conrad’s Heart of Darkness A fierce Achebe radically condemns Conrad as a thoroughgoing racist in his article, arguing that Heart of Darkness is not a piece of great literature, but an offensive and deplorable book (Achebe 1791). He structures his argument around a few central ideas, such as the grotesque perception of the Africans by the protagonist, the antinomy between the Thames and Congo River, the lack of historical fact, and the parallel between theRead More Stevenson and Conrad: The Duality of Human Nature 1793 Words   |  8 Pagesnature has been found at the heart of many Victorian works. The theme of the duality of man can be found in the works of two famous English authors, Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad. Stevenson and Conrad both incorporate the theme of the duality of human nature within their own novellas. Stevenson employs this theme throughout his novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and similarly Conrad employs this theme throughout his novella Heart of Darkness. In both novellas the themeRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesconflict. The conflict may be either external, when the protagonist (also referred to as the focal character) is pitted against some object outside himself, or internal, in which case the issue to be resolved is one within the protagonist’s psyche or personality. External conflict may reflect a basic opposition between man and nature (such as in Jack London’s famous short story â€Å"To Build a Fire† or Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"The Old Man and the Sea†) or between man and society (as in Richard Wright’s â€Å"The Man