How Does Heart Of Darkness Affect Humanity

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GREED AND MORALITY IN HEART OF DARKNESS In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad develops the idea that people will abandon their morals when there is no social obligation to follow them. Kurtz’s exceptional success is constantly referred to referred to throughout the book; Marlow first hears of him from the manager when he boasts that Kurtz is in charge of their most important trading post and that “he is a very remarkable person.” (Conrad, 1899:228). Before he came to the Congo, Kurtz was the epitome of a civilized European man; He was intelligent, refined, sophisticated and moral . After spending time in the jungle of The Congo however, this changes. In the primitive and uncivilized Congo, there is no ‘society’, and therefore no basic set of morals that all members of a society are socially obligated to follow. In this new social context,…show more content…
Kurtz’s utter lack of morality and principle is confirmed when Marlow see’s the heads of natives that Kurtz murdered in sacrificial killings. These sacrificial customs were exactly what Kurtz came to The Congo with the intention to abolish. When Kurtz’s greed for Ivory intensified, he needed the natives’ help in acquiring it, and since he was not bound to any social contract guiding his actions, he engaged in the sacrificial killings to instill fear and respect in the natives. Marlow see’s a further sign of Kurtz’s loss of morality when speaking to his Russian assistant. The Russian reveals to Marlow that that Kurtz once threatened to kill him if he did not give Kurtz a small amount of Ivory he owned. Kurtz declared that he would do this because “there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing who he jolly well pleased” (Conrad, 1899: 269). This assertion by Kurtz shows his awareness that he has no moral obligations. Unlike in European

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