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Why should you care about Kurtz's Painting in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness? We have the answers here, in a quick and easy way.
A noteworthy segment of Part 1 concerns Kurtz's painting, which Marlow sees hanging in the Brickmaker's room. The painting depicts a woman, blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. Clearly, this woman reminds one of the usual personification of justice, while the torch suggests the Company bringing the "light" of civilization into the "Dark ...
May 6, 2020 · I think that the character of Kurtz (and therefore our writer Joseph Conrad) is using the classical image of Lady Justice to represent the West, bringing the light of civilization, represented by the torch, to the dark continent of Africa, where she will enlighten the savages of the continent.
Kurtz is a central fictional character in Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. A trader of ivory in Africa and commander of a trading post, he monopolizes his position as a demigod among native Africans. Kurtz meets with the novella's protagonist, Charles Marlow, who returns him to the coast via steamboat. Kurtz, whose reputation ...
- Darkness and Light
- Women
- Kurtz’s Painting
- The Accountant
- The Knitting Women
- More Symbols
- This Post Is Part of The Series: Study Guide For Heart of Darkness
Darkness is so important a symbol that it is highlighted in the novel’s title. As is expected, darkness stands for ideas such as evil, madness, and depravity. Marlow travels into the dark, uncharted parts of the world and discovers that evil lives there in the form of the Europeans who should, in theory, bring enlightenment. However, in their pursu...
Marlow says about his aunt, “It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own . . . .” This is a point of view shared by Kurtz who says regarding women, “We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse.” Women symbolize decency and purity. It is their potential for representing...
Kurtz paints a picture of a woman who stands against a black background. She holds a torch and is blindfolded. While the image seems to resemble lady justice, there seems to be very little justice in Africa. Kurtz idealizes women and sees them as the keepers of all good things in the world. They must be kept from the truth of the dark world (thus t...
The Company’s accountant who Marlow encounters is interesting because he manages to stand outside of his surroundings. His physical appearance is elegant and pristine in an environment that is filthy and chaotic. He goes on with his work no matter what is happening around him, including people dying. He is the physical representation of the philoso...
When Marlow arrives at the offices of the Company, he encounters two women, “one fat and the other slim,” who sit knitting with black wool. Marlow sees the two figures as “guarding the door of Darkness.” While these women appear only briefly, they are important in their symbolic meaning. The women correspond to the mythological Fates who spin, meas...
Other symbols worth thinking about: The Eldorado expedition, ivory, the Congo river, the “whited sepulchre,” and fog.
A study guide for high school level students on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. 1. Role of Women in Heart of Darkness 2. Guide to Symbolism in “Heart of Darkness” 3. Comparing the Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness
Kurtz is related to figures like Faustus, Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Moby-Dick ’ s Ahab, and Wuthering Heights ’ s Heathcliff. Like these characters, he is significant both for his style and eloquence and for his grandiose, almost megalomaniacal scheming.
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Kurtz's Painting At the central station, Marlow sees a painting, "a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was sombre—almost black.
