In this section of Heart of Darkness, we see a contrast set up between the idea in
Marlow’s perceived version of Mr. Kurtz and who he actually is. Up until he meets Mr. Kurtz, the Marlow in
the story believes him to be an all-knowing and perfect man. However, the Marlow in the present, telling
the story, hints that Mr. Kurtz is only a voice, nothing more. The reader gets the sense that Marlow has
high expectations for Mr. Kurtz when he says: “Mr. Kurtz was a ‘universal
genius’” (86). This idea of a universal
genius goes to show that Marlow thought that Kurtz was perfect and knew
everything; there could not possible be any flaws to him. The reader starts to see the immense amount
of respect that Marlow has towards Kurtz but also the excitement and sense of
mystery that Kurtz brings to Marlow’s life in the Congo. Meeting Kurtz seems to be what Marlow’s
entire journey is building up to and the reader starts to see the role Kurtz
plays in Marlow’s tale when Marlow says: “I was rather excited at the prospect
of meeting Kurtz very soon” (94). This
is when the reader first starts to see Marlow’s excitement towards Kurtz and
the sense of mystery that is brought into his life. With all of the statements made about Kurtz
before the reader actually meets him, the reader starts to imagine him as the
stereotypical rich, white European dressed in suits and well built. However, when Marlow first meets Kurtz, he is
in complete contrast to this image: Kurtz’s “body emerged from [the covering]
pitiful and appalling…his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving” (130). When the reader and Marlow first meet Kurtz
he is carried in on a stretcher by the natives and seems to be a physical
disaster. The way Kurtz is described
here displays him as a lost cause who is useless, but the reader knows that to
not be true based on the present-day Marlow’s insights, providing for a
contrast in the way Kurtz in perceived by those who have never met him and how
he actually is. Present-day Marlow
recounting his story sums up this idea stating that Kurtz “presented himself as
a voice…[with] the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the
most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the
deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness” (113). Here, when Marlow is telling his story with
insight into the man Kurtz actually is, not how he is originally perceived. Marlow
believes the most impressive part about Kurtz is the message he sends, not how
he looks. The “pulsating stream of
light” shows that Kurtz, at times, gives insight into the truth but also, “the
deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness” shows how some of
the information coming form Kurtz is nonsense used to hide what is really going
on in the center of the Congo.
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