What Is Kurtz's View Of Human Nature

Mankind is the only known species on Earth to study their behavior in order to control themselves. These continuous studies raise the question, can the human race control their own human nature? Through his novella, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad illustrates his view on humanity and its raw actions. The novella springs from his own experienced up the Congo River, where he personally saw the demise of human nature. Because he saw how dreadful the destruction of self is, he exemplifies his view through the actions of his characters, like the Europeans, Marlow, and Kurtz.
In the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows his authentic view of human nature that can simply be described as pessimistic. Conrad depicts the images he once saw when he
Kurtz represents the dark nature that is inside every man; Conrad uses this character to show that too much darkness can truly break any human down. To truly understand the importance of Kurtz as a character, one must have knowledge of his background. Kurtz is an ivory trader who was sent by to collect ivory in Africa. Because of his success within Africa and the African tribes, Kurtz is known all around the region- this leads to others plotting his demise. Although Kurtz is a successful tradesman, he represents man’s greed and power hungry mentality. For example, he let the natives believe he was a god in order to control them, “Well, I went near enough to it by letting the young fool there believe anything he’d like to imagine as to my influence in Europe” (129). What a cruel action for anyone to do? Kurtz’s love of power causes him to make decisions based on solely his greedy desires thus casing him to sacrifice the fundamentals of morality. He continues to use the savages for the benefit of him and him only and the sick part is that the natives allow it, e. “‘Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he?’ I suggested. He fidgeted a little. ‘They adored him’”(132). The true message Conrad was displaying within his novella was how a man can lose himself to his own desires. Kurtz was so focused on his own desires that his actual mission, to civilize the natives, like what was said prior, was incomplete. In an ironic turn of events, Kurtz’s was the one who turned out uncivilized, or savage. This is because of his selfish desires (fame, money, power) but these materialistic items failed to truly satisfy his human’s needs as said on page 137, “And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention”. “Kurtz—Kurtz—that means short in German—doesn’t it”(113), Kurtz ironically suits his