Characteristic of Marlow and Kurtz in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Charlie Marlow
Marlow is the protagonist of the story, who ventures to Africa looking to sail a steamboat, but finds much more.
The only physical description of Marlow is this: Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, and ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of his hands outwards, resembled an idol (Conrad1615).
Marlow was a professional seaman and the captain of the Congo Rive Steamboat. He seems to possess a good work ethic: working hard is a means of achieving sanity. Marlow dislikes lies and therefore tells only two of them, both in extraordinary circumstances. In the middle of the story, Marlow interrupts himself to say, “You know I hate, detest, and can t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality in lies- which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world-what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do.” (1633). Marlow never vocalized a lie; he simply allowed others to continue to believe an untruth. First, the brick-maker thought Marlow was more influential than he actually was, and Marlow allowed him to continue to believe this. Secondly, the intended thought her fiancé was a good man so Marlow allowed her to continue to believe this also.
As a child, Marlow had a passion for maps and it appears that he still does. He has a particular ambition to investigate the blank space of delightful mystery, indicating Africa, which was gradually being filled in with names and features as it was explored and colonized.
For Marlow, the journey up the Congo becomes a pilgrimage to meet Kurtz, the man of reputedly brilliant talent and eloquence who sends down more ivory than all the company s other traders put together(90 Reilly). Gradually, as the people that Marlow despised began to defame Kurtz, he (Marlow) became more interested in meeting him (Kurtz). Marlow, desperate to retain his illusions, wanted to meet a man reputed to be an emissary of pity, and science and progress (124Schwarz). Marlow tried to put the best possible interpretations on his motives: Perhaps he was simply a fine fellow who stuck to his work for his own sake. The more Marlow became more disillusioned, the more Kurtz became the goal of his quest.
The more Marlow learns about Kurtz, he fears that he might turn into Kurtz, he is nonetheless able to emerge from the Congo with his ideals, morals and his civilized character intact, although somewhat sure of himself(159Meyer). After Kurtz’s death, Marlow takes with him the knowledge of human nature that he gains from him. He says, I remembered his abject pleading, his abject threats, the colossal scale of his vile desires, the meanness, the torment, the tempestuous anguish of his soul.

In many respects, the view of Marlow is that of a typical European. Still, he is intended to be a versatile character, one of the few who does not belong to a distinct class, and can thus relate to different kinds of people with more ease than his peers in the story.
Kurtz
Kurtz is the unique victim of colonization; the wilderness captures him and he turns his back on all customs and people that were a part of him.
Kurtz himself is a German. His mother was half-English, his father was half-French.
Kurtz is an ivory trader, sent by a shadowy Belgian company into the heart of the Congo Free State. Everyone who knows Kurtz agrees that he has all the ambition, charisma, and eloquence to achieve greatness. Although he cranks out more ivory than all the stations combined, we have reason to believe he has turned rogue. He has yielded to the implacably hostile nature of the African wilderness and it has caused him to go mad.
In Europe Kurtz was perceived as a “universal genius,” (Conrad, 157) who could paint, play music, write and “electrify large meetings.”(Conrad, 157)
In the Congo, he was revered by most, and hated by some; he was an “extremist” who was charismatic, and capable
When he arrived in the Congo, he had noble intentions; he like Europeans saw what the Belgians were doing in the Congo as spreading civilization and education the savages
Kurtz stayed a genius, accumulating more ivory then any of the other stations but his methods were unsavory even from the perspective of the Belgians. He experienced more then perhaps anyone else in the colony had experienced the calamities caused by Europeans. Kurtz conquered the natives in his area and used them to collect ivory from the other tribes in that area, anyone who stood up to him, was beheaded; his way of subduing the revolvers. Kurtz didn’t stop at taking the ivory from the natives when the Russian procured a small amount Kurtz “declared he would shoot me (the Russian) unless I gave him the ivory… because he could do so…there was nothing on earth to prevent him from killing whom he jolly well pleased.” (Conrad, 136) There was no limit to kurtz’s cruelty, he was driven mad by the jungle and the isolation and as he died he was able to reflect and witness his acts and the acts of those around him and home in Europe, this realization caused him to pronounce his now famous quote “the horror the horror.”
Kurtz is in charge of the Inner Station, the company station deepest in the interior of the Congo. Kurtz is noted for his ability to obtain more ivory than all of the other station managers together. At the same time he is feared for his connections within the upper levels of the company and his unsound methods of operation. When Marlow encounters Kurtz, Kurtz is in very poor health. Kurtz dies before he can be returned to Europe. Initially Kurtz has noble intentions, believing that Europeans can help to bring culture to the region and its inhabitants; however, his experiences in the interior radically transform him and his philosophy.