Heart of Darkness Part III
The Russian begs Marlow to take away Kurtz as quickly as he can. He tells Marlow about his first encounter with Kurtz, while they had been camping in the jungle. They had stayed up all night conversing, and it had appeared as if Kurtz was speaking through the mouth of the Russian. Marlow feels like an audience as the man sings praises of Kurtz. The Russian had nursed Kurtz through two illnesses, but their relationship had soured when Kurtz had ordered his death over a small bit of Ivory that the Russian had received as a gift from a local chief. The Russian explains that Kurtz wanders alone in the forest in search of ivory. Kurtz had won the obeisance of a local tribe who couldn’t help but believe he was a god, due to his weapons and apparel. The natives now help him in looting other villages and collecting ivory from them. Marlow is a little disheartened as he expected Kurtz to be someone with good morals but he is disgusted by learning about the violence that Kurtz had perpetuated.
Marlow notices the unshaken respect and admiration that the Russian has for Kurtz. The Russian doesn’t judge Kurtz, despite the maltreatment he had suffered at Kurtz’s hand. He continues to believe that Kurtz is a deeply accomplished individual who deserves to be venerated. Marlow attempts to reach for a building where he hopes Kurtz is lying ill with the help of his binoculars. He is startled to see that the fence posts are spiked with severed human heads facing Kurtz’s cabin and one of them faces him. Marlow begins to understand that he is not as magnificent as they had thought he would be. The Russian tries to defend Kurtz, saying that the heads belong to the people who rebelled against Kurtz and the company has abandoned him. Marlow finds the information to be unsatisfactory and laughs with disbelief.
The pilgrims visit the house to fetch Kurtz and bring him on a stretcher. Kurtz looked like an animated dead person made of ivory. The natives come forward in anger scaring the Russian man, who understands that the natives would kill them all at a single gesture from Kurtz. He rises from his stretcher and placates them by saying something to them that makes the natives fled into the jungle. They then gather around the shore with a beautifully dressed African woman at the forefront, and the Russian labels her as Kurtz’s mistress. The pilgrims carry Kurtz to the boat and place him in a cabin. Marlow is glad to meet Kurtz and hand him his mail. Kurtz retreats into the boat with General Manager, and Marlow overhears an argument between the two of them. Kurtz accuses him of being dead inside and caring less about his well-being than the ivory. He also warns him to stop meddling with his grand plans.
The Manager leaves the cabin and tells Marlow that Kurtz’s unsound methods have hindered the company’s performance. Marlow, disgusted at the manager’s hypocrisy, comments that Kurtz is sound because he has no method at all. Marlow is disgusted at the fake show that General Manager has over Kurtz’s methods. He believes that the manager is merely trying to manipulate the situation for his political advantage. The men start to consider that Marlow has taken sides with Kurtz. Spotting Marlow alone, the Russian approaches him and tells him that he is running away as he senses danger from General Manager and now there’s nothing left for him to serve Kurtz. He also tells Marlow that Kurtz asked the natives to attack the boat to scare General Manager away so he could live peacefully at his station. Marlow vows to take care of Kurtz’s reputation, who was abandoned shamefully, and provides some supplies to the Russian man. The Russian disappears from the camp at night.
Marlow falls asleep but wakes up to check for threats. A big fire on the hill illuminates the station house. The natives can be heard beating drums around it, mourning the loss of their deity. The music has a narcotic effect on him, keeping him half-awake throughout the night. He awakens suddenly to check on Kurtz and finds that the man has disappeared. Marlow finds a trail on the river bank and affirms that Kurtz must have crawled into the jungle. He finds wet grass and a trail that leads him to find a crawling Kurtz. He grabs hold of Kurtz, near a native camp. Kurtz could have got him killed if he wanted. Instead, he asks Marlow to hide. He asks Kurtz if he knows what he is doing. After talking to him, Marlow realizes that Kurtz has his sanity intact as he knows what he wants to do. Kurtz claims to have plans and presses Marlow to be quiet. Kurtz feels fearless and has no faith in any higher power. Marlow warns him that he will strangle him and in the end, Kurtz lets Marlow escort him back to the ship.
The ship leaves at noon the next day. The natives and his mistress gather as they watch Kurtz go, and the shamans recite incantations. As the locals begin to shout, Marlow watches his crew get their rifles and shoot in the forest. He pulls the steam whistle and all the natives flee away except Kurtz’s mistress, who remains to watch him leave. The rifle shots clear a smoky cloud, blocking the vision of Marlow. They return down the river at a swift pace along with the current. The Manager feels free from his anxieties now and assures himself that Kurtz will soon be dead and he will be free to do what he pleases. The Manager and the other crewmen wilfully ignore Marlow as he is now disfavoured because he supports Kurtz. Kurtz talks to Marlow about his ideas, career, hope, and European fame. Marlow is both pleased and disappointed at the man’s expressiveness. The ship breaks down as Marlow has expected and the repairs take a long time. Marlow is unable to help as he falls ill. The delay concerns Kurtz, who is worried he’ll probably die of illness before seeing Europe. He hands over some papers to Marlow to protect his legacy and one day tells him that he is waiting for death and cries out ‘The horror! The horror’. Marlow blows out the candle in the cabin and walks out. He reaches the dining room filled with flies and sits beside the manager. The Manager’s boy enters with the news that Kurtz is dead.
Soon after, Marlow himself falls ill. Marlow’s illness has made his memory vague. He admired Kurtz because that man had so much to say on his deathbed. He returns to Europe, the sepulchral city, where his aunt takes care of him and nurses him back to health but he can’t soothe his imagination. The bundle of papers given by Kurtz still lies with him, and he refuses to hand them over to the company. He gives them an article on the suppression of savage customs by Kurtz. He tears off Kurtz’s statement on exterminating all brutes before handing them the paper. Kurtz’s cousin, a musician, visits Marlow and tells him that Kurtz was also a musician. Soon, a journalist stops by. He tells Marlow that Kurtz was a great speaker who could have proved a great radical political leader as he could convince anyone of anything. The journalist takes his article on the suppression of savages for publication. At last, he gathers the courage to visit Kurtz’s fiance who has been mourning him for a year. She is still dressed in black and praises Kurtz. Marlow pities her lies to her that Kurtz had uttered her name with his dying breath and she begins to weep. He wouldn’t dare to tell her the truth as it would have been too dark for her. The story ends when Marlow sits quietly on Nellie, looking across the Thames as if it leads to immense darkness.
Analysis
The third section of the novel finally introduces us to the reality of Kurtz, and much of the exposition occurs through the narrator’s conversation with the Russian. Marlow discovers that Kurtz is not the exemplary man he had imagined, but rather the true personification of colonialism and its innate horror. Kurtz takes over a native village and makes them worship him as a God even as he uses them to violently snatch the ivory of others in the area. He abandons the moral objective of civilizing the natives and focuses instead on his material gain. Marlow comes to believe that this is due to an over-immersion into the culture of the natives. He continues to hold this view until the very end of the book, which is when he hands over Kurtz's essay for publication without the post-script. Essentially, Marlow and Kurtz are similar in that they both believe that the white man is superior to the native uncivilized man. They fail to recognize that the natives have a societal structure of their own, and consists of more than just savagery and bloodshed. Ultimately, Marlow asserts that colonization is a deplorable practice because proximity with the natives has a detrimental effect on the colonizer.
Marlow understands that Kurtz’s actions are the truest expression of imperial colonialism as they demonstrated the sheer brutality of the practice without a pretense of altruism. Company officials decided to remove Kurtz from his position because they denounce his measures to be immoral and against the spirit of their enterprise. While this may be the reason that is cited for his removal, the true reason relates to how Kurtz’s methods presented a problem for the Company’s expansion of Ivory trading into the region.
