Heart of Darkness Mr. Kurtz

Heart of Darkness

Mr. Kurtz and the Absence of Method

Before Kurtz went insane, he was not only the best ivory agent the never-named trading company of Heart of Darkness ever produced; he was considered "the emissary of pity and science and progress, and the devil knows what else" (Conrad 1902, p. 94). But at some point, the devil overcame all the pity and science and progress -- a moral collapse rendered even more disturbing by its resemblance to recent abuses of power.

Indeed, the post-Abu Ghraib psychology of evil sheds new light on Conrad's much-discussed parable of civilization and its limits. Kurtz embodied the "system" of the company and European civilization to an exquisite degree as a gifted organist, a splendid orator and writer, a "universal genius" (Conrad 1902, p. 98). But in the absence of active moral supervision, alone in his upriver Inner Station, he indulged all the worst and most savage impulses of human nature. Marlowe attributes this degeneration to Kurtz' isolation from society, its laws, and the threat of punishment:

How can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammelled feet may take him into the way of solitude -- utter solitude without a policeman -- by the way of silence -- utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbor can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things make all the difference" (Conrad 1902, p. 126).

Cut off in this way from censure (Gerrig, Zimbardo, Desmarais & Ivanco 2009, p. 339) and given the prospect of substantial rewards for capturing ivory, he exercises his power in monstrous ways.

However, what is most chilling about this particular monster is the way his colleagues in the Company only condemn his crimes when his exercise of power -- his "method" -- becomes an impediment to their long-term interests. As the manager frets inappropriately to a Marlowe sickened by his trip up the river, Kurtz is only guilty of impatience, inefficiency, and perhaps indiscretion:

He did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously -- that's my principle. We must be cautious yet. The district is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade will suffer. […] Look how precarious the position is (Conrad 1902, p. 143).

Otherwise, he notes, the ivory Kurtz collected is perfectly good. But in the face of months of strange rumors, the Company's refusal to check his activities earlier amounts to moral complicity; as Phil Zimbardo notes in a different context, management "effectively gave [Kurtz] permission to do these things, and [he] knew nobody was ever going to come [up the river]" to take that permission away (Zimbardo 2008).

In this, the system itself becomes the mechanism through which Kurtz becomes corrupt. Conrad hints at the moral rot spreading beneath the Company's apparently well-ordered surface operations throughout Heart of Darkness. The doctor impassively tests his "theories" about those going upriver rather than attempting to dissuade them from the journey; the "brickmaker" never makes bricks; the accountant, most significantly of all, keeps the books in "apple-pie order" while everything else in the station sinks into chaos (Conrad 1902, pp. 76, 93, 85).