Heart Of Darkness Marlow Lies To Kurtz S Wife
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At the end of the heart of darkness marlow betrays his morals by telling a huge lie to kurtz s intended in order to protect the intended from the painful truth to prevent the darkness of the jungle from having a prolonged effect and to continue his own loyalty to kurtz and protect kurtz s reputation.
Heart of darkness marlow lies to kurtz s wife. Marlow refers to this faith as a great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness the darkness described here. The text heart of darkness looks into what embodies a lie by giving the accounts of charles marlow an englishman working as a ferryboat captain in africa soon after the death of kurtz. Why does marlow lie to kurtz s intended in joseph conrad s heart of darkness. Another possible reason marlow could have withheld the truth from kurtz s intended is because the story of kurtz s malicious actions were too complex to explain to her.
Marlow s experiences both in africa and europe may have shaped him and led him to lie to kurtz s intended. Marlow praises her for her mature capacity for fidelity for belief for suffering suggesting that the most valuable traits in a woman are passive. Marlow lies to kurtz s intended wife about his actions and death. Kurtz s intended like marlow s aunt and kurtz s mistress is a problematic female figure.
Marlow lies to kurtz s intended to spare her the painful reality of her fiancé s descent into madness and evil. Maybe marlow knew that by telling her what kurtz really said would be considered releasing the darkness into the world exposing the actions of violence that they committed while in the congo. The intended has a naïve unshakeable faith in kurtz. Heart of darkness was published over a hundred years ago.
Kurtz s fiancée is marked like the harlequin by her absolute devotion to kurtz. In those days women were treated with more deference and delicacy than they are in our modern times. It seems perfectly natural and appropriate that marlow should lie to kurtz s fiancee when she asks him to tell her kurtz s last words. He was an english gentleman high in social status as well as military status but unlike marlow he fell into the corruption hidden within the vines of the jungle.
Marlow has much more in common with kurtz s intended than he would like to admit. When marlow visits her after his return from africa he finds that she has been dressed in mourning for more than a year and still yearns for information about how her love spent his last days. This is why he serves as the ideal foil character to marlow.