Heart of Darkness Pages 54-64

In pages 54 to 64, we learn more about Kurtz from the Russian. We learn how raided the country in his search for ivory. Kurtz thinks he can shoot and kill whomever he wants if they had something he wants (aka ivory). He starts wanting more and more ivory. Also, we learn how Kurtz has lost himself in all of this. He forgot himself around these people and would get lost in all the adoration the people had towards him since he was seen as some sort of god. The wilderness had started to take over him and started to “whisper” things to him. You see Kurtz insanity when the Russian talks about how he went to his house. There were savage heads on stakes with their heads turned towards the house. The Russian even talks about how the first one he saw was a “black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids…and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of teeth, was smiling too” (57). This contrasts black and white. In addition, earlier in the book it said how Marlow’s helmsman died with a frown. However, this black man died with a smile.

Also, in this section we see that Kurtz is sick and he comes aboard Marlow’s ship. By doing this, Marlow gets to see Kurtz’s “mistress”. The crew doesn’t like the idea of this since she is a black woman and Kurtz is white. Marlow notices how magnificent she is as she is covered with ornaments. It seems that she could be covered in wealth because Kurtz has given her the possessions to show off his success and wealth from the ivory. From the book, we have seen that Marlow believes that women represent the ideals of civilization. Their beauty is supposed to symbolize the way of life and their country.