How Are Marlow And Kurtz Alike

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow and Kurtz are tremendously similar, but their slight differences set them apart. Both Marlow and Kurtz traveled far into the Congo, leading them closer to darkness. But, where Marlow chooses restraint, Kurtz chooses to the temptation of the wilderness. Furthermore, both Marlow and Kurtz view the native people as unequal. Kurtz, driven by an obsessive goal decides to become their leader. Finally, as the story progresses Marlow finds telling lies to be easier. Exploring the similarities and differences of the main characters, Marlow and Kurtz, are important for understanding how one character becomes lost in the “heart” of darkness and the other character is able to resists it. The expedition into the jungle would have …show more content…
For Kurtz, being in the Congo for the time that he had been caused him to go insane. Where he was at one time “magnetically charming” and a “principled man of substance” (Bloom, 18). He now “rebels against the limitations and imperfections of the human condition. He sets himself up as a demigod and comes to grief partly as a consequence.” (Goonetilleke). Marlow, however, sees that he is headed in the same direction and “restrains” himself. The journey challenges Marlow to address Kurtz’s evil and the components of evil “within himself that are subject to the same temptations that affected Kurtz.” (Gale, 2004). “But Marlow reiterates often enough that he is recounting a spiritual voyage of self-discovery.” (Bloom, 41). Marlow is who Kurtz was before the expedition, and Kurtz is who Marlow will become if he