The Darkness Within

"I am not disclosing any trade secrets. In fact, the manager said afterwards that Mr. Kurtz's methods had ruined the district. I have no opinion on that point, but I want you to clearly understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. 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. Whether he knew of this deficiency himself I can't say. I think the knowledge came to him at last -- only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude -- and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core." (133)

This passage reveals the inner darkness of Kurtz. It shows his weaknesses, and it shows the means by which he covered these shortcomings. Marlow is looking back on Kurtz from the future, so the depiction that we get of Kurtz here is one that has been considered and that is influenced by all of Marlow's experiences with him. In this passage, we see the reason for Kurtz's madness, and we see the nature of his soul, as experienced by Marlow.

Marlow suggests that Kurtz' nature is one of layered personality and goals. On the surface, Kurtz is a persuasive and charismatic man of "magnificent eloquence." He has an idea, which is something that characterizes him as greater than other Europeans, by Marlow's standards. He has a goal and a purpose, and he is able to use him natural charm to influence other people. Beneath this surface personality, Kurtz is a man of greed and "lust." He craves power and wealth, as shown by his construction of a miniature empire in the Congo and Marlow's observation that "it was his impatience with comparative poverty that drove him" to go to Africa for wealth (155). He "lacked restraint in the gratification" of his desires, and this is what pushes him to behead native people and use them as warnings. These actions give him the power that he needs, without which he would be unable to attain the wealth that he also craves.

The power and wealth that Kurtz seeks are simply ways to fill a void inside of him. Marlow says that "there was something wanting in him," that he sought the things that he did in order to replace an emptiness that could not be covered up by his charisma. This emptiness is exploited by the "solitude" and terrifying mystery of the jungle. By possessing a "deficiency," Kurtz is vulnerable to be filled by the darkness. Not only does the darkness inhabit him; it makes him confront "secrets about himself that he did not know till he took counsel with this great solitude." Kurtz is fascinated by this "whisper," however, rather than feeling repelled by it as Marlow is. Kurtz allows the darkness to fill him, especially because it continues to make his power and wealth grow.

Marlow establishes that the jungle of the Congo forces one to come face-to-face with one's own darknesses. For Kurtz, he found himself to be "hollow at the core" and he allowed his emptiness to be filled by his greed and covered by his power. Marlow suggests that this is the jungle's way of taking revenge on Kurtz for all that Kurtz has stolen from it ("the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion"). Marlow himself confronts his own darkness, but finds himself able to pull away from it. I believe that this is the purpose of the novel; the reader is asked to examine another person's demons and, in the process, realize her own.