Marlowe Found

This thesis illustrates that Marlow's journey is the discovery of Kurtz and Marlowhimself through the exploration of Kurtz's transformation, Marlow's change underKurtz's influence and the relationship between them. Kurtz's transformation revealsthe nature of white Europeans. Because of Marlow's white European identity, eventhough he is shocked by Kurtz's corruption, he feels kinship with Kurtz. But Marlowdoes not experience the same transformation as that of Kurtz.The first part of the thesis is the literary review of Joseph Conrad's works in generaland Heart of Darkness in particular. The second part is Kurtz's transformation.Behind Kurtz's fall there are both social and personal reasons. In the last twenty yearsor so of the nineteenth century imperialism gripped the public imagination in England.The European sense of superiority over other races and European greed forpower—financial, political and cultural are the social cause for Kurtz's transformation.The personal reason includes his poverty and ambition, marital and otherwise. Afterexperiencing the psychological disturbance, Kurtz's insatiable appetites and delusionscarry him farther and farther until beyond the last flimsy external restraints. The lastmoment of his life is dramatized by his discovery of the horror, the true shape of hispersonality, the true names for his motives. The third part is about Marlow's changeunder Kurtz's influence. His emotion for Kurtz changes with the journey extendingdeeper and deeper. The most obvious change in Marlow is his view of the role theAfricans play in Kurtz's transformation. At the beginning, he does not involve theAfricans in Kurtz's transformation. Later on, his personal feelings toward Kurtzchanges, therefore, the role the Africans play in Kurtz's transformation also changesin his eyes. In the end, Marlow's white lie can be viewed as to manifest his kinshipwith Kurtz and his defense for him. The fourth part is the relationship betweenMarlow and Kurtz along the journey and further explains why Marlow does notexperience the same transformation as that of Kurtz. He has come as an explorer, notan exploiter, and his motives are inquisitive not acquisitive ones. But once Marlowwere unfettered by inhibitions, he would become the great, white colonizer, like Kurtz.Based on the above analysis, a conclusion might be drawn that Marlow discovers inKurtz the possible destiny of all white colonialists including himself.