There is no question that Marlow gains enlightenment and
knowledge in Joseph Conrad's Heart of
Darkness.
The reader can assume that Marlow is
experienced in the ways of the world: his career as a ship's captain would indicate that
he is able to handle himself on a ship, especially in that sailing could be treacherous
and deadly in the blink of an eye.
However, as the story
progresses, Marlow's rational mind can hardly comprehend what he sees. Arriving at the
Lower Station, a road is being constructed on a cliff, but the blasting of dynamite
there serves no logical purpose: the men working seem crazy to
Marlow.
A
heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and
that was all. No change appeared on the face of the rock...the cliff was not in the way
or anything...
Next he sees
machinery (we could infer that it is functional) just lying around on the ground rusting
and deteriorating.
...an undersized railway truck lying there on its
back with its wheels in the air. One was off. The thing looked as dead as the carcass of
some animal.
However, what
opens Marlow's eyes dramatically is his witness of how horrifically the natives are
treated. They are shackled like animals and there is a look of death in their eyes.
Their bones and joints protrude.
They passed me within six inches...with [a]
complete death-like indifference...
They were dying
slowly—it was very
clear.
Death here is
commonplace. What Marlow sees he cannot countenance—word of these kinds of conditions
have not reached "civilization," and he is unprepared for the horror he
encounters.
While these things provide enlightenment
regarding the ivory trade, nothing could have prepared Marlow for what remains of the
brilliant and impressive Kurtz: he has been greatly successful in exporting more ivory
than all the other agents combined.
Hadn't I been told in all the tones of jealousy
and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all
the other agents
together?
The madness, the
drive for money, has destroyed Kurtz.
[Kurtz] is revealed upon acquaintance to be a
dying, deranged, and power-mad subjugator of the African natives. Human sacrifices have
been made to him.
He has not
left the jungle in over a year: he is worshiped like a god, and the building Marlow
first sees when they arrive is surrounded by pikes with heads on the top of
each.
When Marlow finally meets Kurtz, the other man
frightens and amazes Marlow:
Anything approaching the change that came over
his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again...I saw on that ivory
face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror—of an intense
and hopeless despair.
Marlow
has heard of Kurtz's capacity for greatness, but now he witnesses man's capacity for
human desolation and corruption. The once-brilliant Kurtz is gone; he is waiting—he
tells Marlow—to die. Marlow tries to take Kurtz away—but Kurtz does not get far before
he does, in fact, die.
Marlow has learned the cost of
amassing a fortune. He has discovered that the quest for riches can rob a man not only
of his moral fiber, but also of his humanity and his mind—as seen with Kurtz. Marlow has
learned that the truth of the ivory trade is a well-kept secret, and ironically, he
carries on the lie at the end, finding it impossible to cause Kurtz's fiancee
("intended") any more pain with the truth of the man—the stranger?—she loved so
deeply.
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