2008-毕业论文范文

摘  要

 

 

在英国现代文学史上，康拉德是个特殊的人物。他早年热衷于航海事业，直到19世纪90年代，即他投身航海生涯20年之后，才开始从事文学创作。然而他也是一位多产的作家，这些作品为他赢得了世界性的声誉。其代表作有《台风》，《吉姆爷》及《黑暗之心》。  《黑暗之心》是约瑟夫·康拉德的重要小说作品之一。它于1899年以连载的形式在英国的一家杂志首次发表。自从它问世以来，《黑暗之心》的影响逐年上升。这部小说本身是一部复杂的小说，是冒险故事，心理分析，政治讽喻，黑色幽默，和怀疑主义沉思的杂合体。在这篇论文中，通过使用弗洛伊德心理分析法以及多角度分析的方法，我试图分析出库尔兹在黑暗中闪现出的人性。通过以上方法，我试图使一个完整的库尔兹呈现出来。我的论文可分为五个部分。第一部分是对作者和他的作品《黑暗之心》的介绍。第二部分在对库尔兹人性的分析中，借用了精神分析学派的“我”的三重划分，指出库尔兹的堕落在于本我的肆意扩张，超我(社会性的道德、规范)失去了约束能力，自我沦丧。在第三部分中，我们可以看到一个迷失，残暴以及贪婪的库尔兹。第四部分指出库尔兹是一个多才多艺的理想主义者，他徘徊于西方文明与非洲文化之间。通过分析库尔兹表现出的人性，我们可以看出人性的神秘性，同时，我们可以把库尔兹整个人生的抗争看成是当时整个社会文明与个体道德的斗争。

 

 

 

 

关键词： 康拉德 柯兹 人性

 

 

 

说明：

1、要求用300字的篇幅简要叙述论文的主要内容，关键词一般选择3--5个为宜。

2、“摘要”下空二行写摘要内容，摘要内容与关键词之间空四行。

3、“摘要”用一号黑体，摘要内容用小四号黑体（见上例）。

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

 

 

In English literature, Conrad is a special man. As a young man, he is fond of sailing. He is not engaged in the literature until the 90’s in 19^th century. However, he writes many novels and gets the world prestige. His representative works are Lord Jim, Nostromo and Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness is one of Joseph Conrad's celebrated novels. It was first serialized in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1899. Since its publication, Heart of Darkness has become progressively more influential during the following decades. Heart of Darkness itself is a complicated novel, since it is a mixture of adventure story, psychological case study, political satire, black humor comedy, and skeptical meditation. In the paper, I try to present Kurtz 's nature in the darkness, using Freudian psycho analysis and multi-angles analysis. With those approaches, I try to show an intact Kurtz.  My paper can be divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction to Joseph Conrad and his novel Heart of Darkness. In the second part, this thesis borrows the three layers' division of "I'' in psycho analytics. This thesis indicates that the degeneration of Kurtz lies in his wantonly expanded ego while as his superego (social moral and regulation) lost binding force and his ego was mined. In the third part, we find a lost, cruel and greedy Kurtz. The fourth part presents a versatile idealist who stands between Western civilization and African culture. By analyzing Kurtz 's nature, we can find the mystery of human nature and the conflict of social civilization and individual moral. The fifth part is conclusion.

 

 

 

 

Keywords: Conrad  Kurtz  nature

 

说明：

1、外文摘要与中文摘要的内容和篇幅基本一致。

2、“摘要”下空二行写摘要内容，摘要内容与关键词之间空四行。

3、“摘要”用一号Times New Roman，摘要内容用小四号Times New Roman（见上例）。

 

 

Kurtz’s Nature In the Darkness

 

 

Introduction

Joseph Conrad did not begin to learn English until he was 21 years old. He was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857, in Polish Ukraine. When Conrad was quite young, his father was exiled to Siberia on suspicion of plotting against the Russian government. After the death of the boy’s mother, Conrad’s father sent him to his mother’s brother in Kraków to be educated, and Conrad never again saw his father. He traveled to Marseilles when he was seventeen and spent the next twenty years as a sailor. He went to an English ship in 1878, and eight years later he became a British subject. In 1889, he began his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, and began actively searching for a way to fulfill his boyhood dream of traveling to the Congo. He took command of a steamship in the Belgian Congo in 1890, and his experiences in the Congo came to provide the outline for Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s time in Africa wreaked havoc on his health, however, and he returned to England to recover. He returned to sea twice before finishing Almayer’s Folly in 1894 and wrote several other books, including one about Marlow called Youth: A Narrative before beginning Heart of Darkness in 1898. He wrote most of his other major works—including Lord Jim, which also features Marlow, Nostromo, and The Secret Agent, as well as several collaborations with Ford Madox Ford—during the following two decades. Conrad died in 1924.

Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous jungle novels, is created on the basis of Conrad’s diary in 1890 when he was on the journey to Congo. On a cruising yawl at rest on Thames, the narrator, Marlow is telling his story about his travel along another river and the legend of an agent down in the jungle. He is appointed by a company that gathers ivory in Congo. Even though the journey seems quite arduous and somewhat elusive, Marlow, who has always had a passion for travel and exploration, sets out his adventure. From beginning to end, what he sees and hears are the dark Africa where the trade agents are greedily gathering ivory, seizing and grabbing the natives brutally. Especially when he witnesses the fable about Kurtz. As a  well-educated white, Kurtz, who has the talent of eloquence as his trump card, is arbitrarily ruling his empire but blindly worshipped by the natives as a saint. The works provides a bridge between Victorian values and the ideals of modernism. Like much of the best modernist literature produced in the early decades of the twentieth century, Heart of Darkness is as much about alienation, confusion, and profound doubt as it is about imperialism. Imperialism is nevertheless at the center of Heart of Darkness. By the 1890s, most of the world’s “dark places” had been placed at least nominally under European control, and the major European powers were stretched thin, trying to administer and protect massive, far-flung empires. Cracks were beginning to appear in the system: riots, wars, and the wholesale abandonment of commercial enterprises all threatened the white men living in the distant corners of empires. Things were clearly falling apart. Heart of Darkness suggests that this is the natural result when men are allowed to operate outside a social system of checks and balances: power, especially power over other human beings, inevitably corrupts. At the same time, this begs the question of whether it is possible to call an individual insane or wrong when he is part of a system that is so thoroughly corrupted and corrupting. Heart of Darkness, thus, at its most abstract level, is a narrative about the difficulty of understanding the world beyond the self, about the ability of one man to judge another.

Darkness is the theme of this story. It is the clue to find out the context of the story. Conrad    makes an integral connection between mind, body and nature by this application. Darkness is also the color of the places where explores and colonialists settled, and the color of the black’s skin. In contrast to the darkness, the white seems extremely outstanding. But inside their white skin, the colonists have a heart of profound darkness, evil and dread.

1 Id, superego, ego of Kurtz by psycho analysis

1.1   Definitions of terms

This thesis intends to make a Freudian psycho analysis of Kurtz’ s nature in the darkness in terms of Sigmund Freud's theory---the structures of mind. Therefore, it is necessary to make clear two definitions: Freudian and psychoanalysis first of all. Freud, is the recognized founder of modern psychoanalysis, who has exerted an influence far beyond his own field. His theory of the workings of human mind and its descriptive terminology find application in almost all branches of humanities and social sciences. Psychoanalysis is a systematic structure of theories concerning the relation of conscious psychological processes. Or it is a technical procedure for investigating unconscious mental processes. Psychoanalytic theory is Freud's theory that the origin of personality lies in the balance between the id, the ego, and the superego. One's personality is the total sum of all of the ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that are typical for that person and make that person different from all other individuals.

1.2 Three structures of mind---the id, the ego, and the superego

The 1926 edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica described Freud's concept of the elements of personality as follows:

    The mental apparatus is composed of the "id," which is the reservoir of the instructive impulses, of the "ego" which is the most superficial portion of the id and the one which is modified by the influences of the external world, and of the "super-ego," which develops out of the id, dominates the ego and represents the inhibition of instinct characteristic of man.   

The id, according to Freud, is the inborn part of the unconscious mind that uses the primary process to satisfy its needs and that acts according to the pleasure principle. Someone further explains that the id is a cauldron of seething excitement. In the id, there is nothing corresponding to the idea of time, no recognition of the passage of time. The id knows no values, no good and evil, no morality, and blindly strives to gratify its instincts in complete disregard of the superior strength of outside forces.

In his essay "The Ego and the Id", Freud presents the id as follows: an individual is looked upon as a psychical id, unknown and unconscious. The id attracts all kinds of instinctive forces in order to find their mental representation. The instincts in the id press for immediate satisfaction, regardless of all else, and in this way either fail of achievement or actually do damage. From the point of view of instinctive control, of morality, it may be said of the id that it is totally non-moral. The ego is that portion of human personality experienced as the "self' or "I," which perceives, remembers, evaluates, plans, and in other ways is responsive to and acts in the surrounding physical and social world. The 1974 edition of Encyclopedic World Dictionary defines it as "that part of the psychic apparatus which experiences the outside world and reacts to it, thus mediating between the primitive drives of the id and the demands of the social and physical environment." While someone points out why the ego is formed, that's because the id has to find realistic ways of meeting its needs and avoiding trouble caused by selfish and aggressive behavior. The ego operates according to the reality principle. The ego can be thought of as the executive of the personality because it uses its cognitive abilities to manage and control the id and balance its desires against the restrictions of reality and the superego.   

According to Freud, the ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world. It seeks to bring the influence of the external world to bear upon the id and its tendencies, and endeavors to substitute the reality principle for the pleasure  principle which reigns unrestrictedly in the id. It strives to be moral, representing what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions. The ego is placing itself at the service of the opposing instinctual impulses. It is the representative of the external world to the id. And it tries to mediate between the world and the id. When the ego finds itself in an excessive real danger, where it believes itself unable to overcome by its own strength, it sees itself deserted by all protecting forces and makes itself die.

The superego holds up certain norms of behavior, and does not regard to any difficulties coming from the id and the external world. It is the part of the mind that opposes the desires of the id by enforcing moral restrictions and by striving to attain a goal of "ideal" perfection. The Encyclopedic World Dictionary defines it as "that part of the psychic apparatus which mediates between ego drives and social ideals, acting as a conscience, which may be partly conscious and partly unconscious." In other’s angle, the superego represents the internalization of parental standards and authority. In the normal male child, it replaces the Oedipal desire for the mother. The developing superego thus absorbs the traditions of the family and the surrounding society, serving chiefly to control sexual and aggressive impulses that threaten social structures.   

In his "The Ego and the Id", Freud assumes the existence of a grade in the ego, a differentiation within the ego, which may be called the "ego ideal" or "superego". The superego derives from the first object of the id, from the Oedipus complex. The ego ideal has the task of repressing the Oedipus wishes. Therefore, the superego "retains the character of the father." Freud points out that the ego ideal is the heir of the Oedipus complex, that it is also the expression of the most powerful impulses and most important libidinal vicissitudes of the id, and that it exercises the moral censorship in the form of conscience. It can be super-moral and then become as cruel as only the id can be. Then how is it that the superego develops such extraordinary harshness and severity towards the ego? Freud proposes, “The excessively strong superego which has obtained a hold upon consciousness rages against the ego with merciless violence. The destructive component had entrenched itself in the superego and turned against the ego.”

What is the relationship between the id, the ego and the superego? "The ego is a poor creature owning service to three masters and consequently menaced by three dangers: from the external world, from the libido of the id, and from the severity of the superego." It has to reconcile between the id and the external world, to make the id pliable to the world and to make the world fall in with the wishes of the id. Whenever possible, it tries to remain on good terms with the id; it pretends that the id is showing obedience to the admonitions of reality, even when in fact it is remaining obstinate and unyielding; it disguises the id's conflicts with reality and, if possible, its conflicts with the superego too.

In my thesis, I will apply the theories of the id, the ego, and the superego to the psycho analysis of Kurtz’ s nature.

1.3 The application of the psycho analysis

In civilized society, on the basis of the superego, the ego harmonizes the relationship between the id and society, so people's id can only be satisfied to a certain extent. In Europe, Kurtz lives in the civilized society. Everything is set in a formed way which assumes the implement of civilization. He grows up in the atmosphere and acts according to the accepted yardstick. When he has no money, his id drove him to get money. But he will not rob from others because of the existence of the superego. In such condition, the ego can deal with the relationship between the id and the superego well. In Africa, when people are far away from the civilized society, in order to meet the id’s demand, they will act by any kind of means. Colonists can do anything they want to do. They ignored the superego and did things at will. There also existed the conflict between white colonists apart from the contradiction between the black and the white. Kurtz was a great man in the Congo River. After being far away from the ethic of the civilized society, the function of the id was greater and greater .As we know, the desire of the id is limitless and he was totally controlled by the id in the end. The following state is that Kurtz regarded himself as the dominator and the desire of going in for the ivory was more endless. In order to take the ivory, he put the local’s heads on the guardrail to warn the public after massacring the local in large quantities. Marlow wrote: " I have no opinion on that point, but I want you clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him—some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew of this deficiency himself I can't say."[1] The description displays Kurtz’s miserliness along with the expansion of the id. From his last words “the horror, the horror”[2], I think the knowledge came to him at last—only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had carried out a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think that it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know and the whisper had proved irresistibly to be fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core. A follower of Kurtz said " This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away. When I had a chance I begged him to try and leave while there was time; I offered to go back with him. And he would say yes, and then he would remain; go off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks; forget himself amongst these people—forget himself—you know." [3]Kurtz forgot himself, which means he lost himself and the ego didn’t work any more. Though he wanted to return to the civilized society very much, he cannot get rid of the control of the id. In the end, he was unable to flee from Africa. Appearance of Marlow wanted to draw Kurtz back to the civilized society, though within short time. His desperate cry expressed that he had already understood the evil completely, but he was unable to change his own destiny. His final result of destiny was the inevitable consequence, which was caused by the expansion of the id in the human natural instincts. Without doubt, another reason is the depletion of the superego.

In the novel, Conrad did not make us know the destructive effect of the id, but show us the existence of the ego. We will explore the ego of Kurtz in Marlow’s view. Marlow was described as another Kurtz. They understood and trusted each other. Marlow’s road to Kurtz can also be thought to be the road to finding himself. Apart from the dark side, Conrad wants to express a positive view of life by portraying Marlow. From beginning to end, Marlow put the ego in the right place, so he kept himself under the control of reason and never lost himself. Marlow realised that the Congo River had ineluctable magic power, which brought the enlargement of the id. From Kurtz, Marlow knows the effect of the id and brings the ego into play. He never lost himself in the remote uncivilized forest. Marlow got regeneration after going through one shake, but Kurtz moved towards extinction under the control of the id.

2 Kurtz in the center of darkness

2.1 Helpless man in the indifferent world

It is said that each person is alone and without assistance in a monstrous silence, and his presence is simply an accident in the universe where everything is superfluous. As a common person, we have to face the inevitability of death, the necessity of working for a living, and everything known and unknown. With the development of the modern sciences, man possesses more and more advanced technologies and knows more and more about the universe. Yet he sees more and more his own limitation as well. He sees now clearly how small and powerless and of no importance he himself is, compared with the vastness of the universe and all kinds of powerful instruments that man himself invents. The idea that man is the primate of the highest order and God has created everything in the world just for the service of man appears false and could not support itself any more. Thus man feels lost and has to study himself once again and tries to find out his own position in the universe and his own identity. Industrialism, science, new philosophy of life based upon science, social problems, and the wars between European countries made people feel the world was out of order and in chaos. Living in a cold, indifferent, and essentially Godless world, man was no longer free in any sense of the word. He was completely thrown upon himself for survival. People cannot hope to fall back on divine help and guide, and feel irretrievably lost. Life just became a struggle for survival. Thus a self-conscious movement with its belief that the world is absurd and life is meaningless came into being. Heart of Darkness reveals to the author of this thesis that Conrad observes the relationship between man and the world just in the same way as the twentieth-century existentialists do. In this novella he has Kurtz describe an existential world, “the earth … is a place … where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells … — breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated”[4]. Nature usually appears as an opposite force which fights against man constantly in the novel. To Kurtz ,the universe is purposeless and indifferent to human wish to which all his experience points to. Kurtz was described as a man that was not rich enough, so his engagement with a girl was disapproved by her parents. The hurt man tried to realize his own value in a remote and hostile environment. During the struggle against the wilderness, he exhausted himself. Before death, he was left alone and only the laugh of wilderness existed around him. In the heart of a conquering darkness, “It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush which, it seemed to me, I would have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul. And the memory of what I had heard him say afar there, with the horned shapes stirring at my back, in the glow of fires, within the patient woods, those broken phrases came back to me, were heard again in their ominous and terrifying simplicity.”[5]

And in this indifferent world, human actions to Kurtz are always restricted, frustrated and stopped right in the air. Apart from his own restriction, like poverty and physical health, he had to go into the forest and communicated with the local people. In the meantime, Kurtz had to deal with his companions. It is no wonder that Marlow comments in the story “we live, as we dream-alone.” [6]

2.2 Degeneration

“I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze. I saw him open his mouth wide—it gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him. You should have heard him say, `My ivory.’ Oh, yes, I heard him. `My Intended, my ivory, my station, river, my---’everything belonged to him." [7]  

Here Marlow is talking about a voracious and weird Kurtz, a man driven by a hunger to engorge the universe. The fiction displays the conqueror who despoils the planet he craves to possess, and points to his fate as victim of its terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion.

In the descriptive paragraphs related to Kurtz, we find him a real mysterious, cruel, greedy figure. When Marlow first caught sight of Kurtz's surroundings through his glasses, he sees the slope of a hill interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free from undergrowth. A long decaying building on the summit is half buried in the high grass. And near the house half-a-dozen slim posts remains in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented with round carved balls. When getting nearer Kurtz, Marlow takes up his binoculars again, looks at the shore and had a clear view of the ornamented upper ends of the posts: "They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. Only one, the first I had made out, was facing my way. I was not so shocked as you may think. The start back I had given was really nothing but a movement of surprise. I had expected to see a knob of wood there, you know. I returned deliberately to the first I had seen---- and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling, too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber."[8] From these descriptions, we obtain a clear vision of a cruel and totally corrupted Kurtz like the decaying building and ruined house.  For more ivory he could do anything as the harlequin Russian, the man of patches says: “Nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom and there was he jolly well pleased. And it was true, too.” These heads are the heads of the "rebels" who stand in the way of his ivory obtaining. This is the Kurtz, an ivory-stricken demoniac Kurtz. The opening paragraph of his report about the "suppression of savage customs" is most representative to show his white supremacy. He began with the argument that “We white, from the point of development we had arrived at, must appear to them savages. In the nature of supernatural beings, we approach them with the might as of a deity. By the simple exercise of our will, we can exert a power for good practically unbounded, etc.” [9]What we read from Kurtz are very complicated feelings of the author. Like what we have read from Marlow, Kurtz is another evidence of Conrad's conflicting visions, because he is both marvelous for all his good qualities as a white man, and malicious for his lack of restraint in an alien culture.

3 A desolate messenger

3.1 A talent.

In the works, Kurtz is described as a perfect talent, which can be reflected in many aspects. His mother is half-English and his father is half-French. Advanced European civilization provides well educational situation for him. “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz.”[10] He is a remarkable politician with outstanding eloquence. “The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words—the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness.”[11] Kurtz is also very good at trade. With the great moral crusade of bringing lights to the backward people of the world, he became a first-class agent, who was in charge of a very important trading post. The ivory he sent in is as much as all the others put together.

In contrast with Kurtz, the manager is described as a fool. The manager got his position just because he was never ill in the remote and hostile environment. “He had served three terms of three years out there . . . Because triumphant health in the general route of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. When he went home on leave he rioted on a large scale—pompously. Jack ashore—with a difference—in externals only. This one could gather from his casual talk. He originated nothing, he could keep the routine going—that's all of.”[12]

Conrad doesn’t show us a clear and overall impression of Kurtz. For Kurtz’s cousin, Kurtz is a great musician. For Marlow, Kurtz is an artist. For the journalist, he is a journalist who could paint or a paint who wrote for the papers. Kurtz is regarded as a representative of all the highest aspiration of nineteenth-century individualism. Above all, Kurtz is a universal genius.

3.2 An idealist

A majority of Western colonists went to Africa for gold or fame. Those men’s ideal was to pursue wealth and power. “To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.”[13] A funny Dane hammered the chief of a village because he thought himself wronged in the bargain, when he bought two black hens. His life and the whole village disappeared because of the two black hens. Different from the above guy, Kurtz has his own ideal that is "Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing."[14] Of course, Kurtz’s ideal seems reasonable. According to Marlow’s narration, the Congo River is so similar with the old Thames. The Romans first came to the Thames, nineteen hundred years ago. “Light came out of the river since—you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine—what d'ye call 'em?—trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries,—a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been too—used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read. Imagine him here—the very end of the world, a sea the color of lead, a sky the color of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina—and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sandbanks, marshes, forests and savages,—precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay—cold, fog, tempests, disease.”[15] However, the Thames has changed a lot and the Congo River is still there.

From the Russian, we can know that Kurtz surely wanted nothing from the wilderness. He wanted to prove his own value and realize his ideal. Kurtz had grown out of the lower stage, which can conclude that all that was necessary to raise up the people of Africa was to introduce European culture and technology to them. This perceived responsibility to lift up the nations of Africa came to be known as the “white man’s burden”. This feeling of responsibility gave rise to the fervor to bring Christianity and commerce to Africa. However, in reality, his ideal is so uncalculating and unpractical, though absolutely pure. After all, a man can’t change the whole tendency of society. Facing the indifferent society, the only thing he can do is to stick to his own ideal and be an idealist.

3.3 A man in the edge, who strives to struggle

3.3.1 A man, abandoned by European civilization

As we know, Kurtz receives European civilization. Inspired by the “noble and impartial” occasion, the European went to the centre of Africa. But Kurtz had instinct differences from other European colonists. They had different ideals and different attitudes towards the vast wilderness and the black. On one hand, Kurtz suffered a lot in the remote and hostile environment. He dedicated himself to the “great” occasion. Of course, he received remarkable achievement. On the other hand, his companions, like the manager, can’t bear the existence of such a unique and remarkable companion. Although Kurtz contributed a lot to the occasion and sent a large amount of ivory to their trade station, He was also regarded as an obstacle. Kurtz threatened European leaders’ position and wealth. From the works, we can know that Kurtz’s thought and action went against the whole European, who are to enslave the black and extort wealth. So, it is unavoidable that Kurtz will be abandoned by European civilization. As soon as he died, his companions gave up Kurtz , and gave up the station.

3.3.2 A man, fails to sculpture African wilderness

In contrast with the vast African wilderness, Kurtz is so small and powerless. Even though African culture has been there for thousands of years, Kurtz still wants to humanize and improve it, using European civilization. The moment Kurtz came to Africa , he began a war against the African wilderness. He was even infatuated with the battle against the wilderness. The Russian said “This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away. When I had a chance I begged him to try and leave while there was time; I offered to go back with him. And he would say yes, and then he would remain; go off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks; forget himself amongst these people—forget himself—you know, and can’t escape.”[16] 

At last, he used up himself. The wilderness had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite. Kurtz failed to remake the African wilderness. He was conquered in the heart of darkness. When the wilderness cried out the voice of triumph, he would feel unbearable. He even can’t bear seeing the forest outside. The wilderness conquered his soul. Kurtz just left himself an ivory body. After his death, African remains the same. Those big powerful guys, with iron chains and not much capacity to weigh the consequences, crept around Africa for the conqueror, which composed the scenery imperialistic Africa.

3.4 A victim of the cultural conflict

Whatever is, is right. Every culture has its own background, including customs, geography, and humanities. When one culture is forced to be replaced by another culture, the fierce struggle is unavoidable. Kurtz stands between Western civilization and African culture. He is abandoned by Western civilization that he should have belonged to. As a white man and the representative of Western civilization, he is not a part of African culture. It is unchangeable that he will be the victim of the cultural conflict, no matter what the result of the cultural conflict is. The "powerful" European civilization seems so helpless, confronting the African wilderness. Several white men were surrounded by black forest, black men and black river. The white wanted to use advanced weapons to conquer the old continent. In the works, a section that " It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long eight-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen."[17] That description is so funny and cruel. The western, thought to be saints by themselves, took part in an invisible war. The war exists everywhere. Kurtz’s tragic reminds me of a movie "Black Hawk Down" that I have seen. In Somalia, thousands of refugees starved to death and civil war still went on. Hundreds of American soldiers, like saviors, went there to carry on a "sacred" occasion. The course was fierce and cruel. I was astonished by the scene that several refugees pulled an American soldier’s body in the street. Those refugees yelled and laughed. Apart from American politicians’ intention, those soldiers, I think, came to Somalia with their belief that originated from their religion or nature, just like Kurtz. They couldn’t get anything from refugees. However, cultural difference between American and the Somali seems apparent. Hundreds of soldiers carried a war against not only some refugees but also the whole country. American president had to withdraw American troops, and let the Somali solve their own problems. Those innocent youth became victims of the meaningless conflict, just like Kurtz. Those American politicians, like European leaders, didn’t hurt a piece of hair vellus.

Conclusion

Heart of Darkness is one of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)'s celebrated novels. It was first serialized in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1899. Since its publication, Heart of Darkness has become progressively more influential during the following decades. Kurtz, the main character, is the most controversial in the novel. Conrad makes Kurtz the representative of the European colonist, but he also shows that Kurtz is the sufferer of the colonialism. So different people have different attitudes towards Kurtz. Some say he is mad to pursue wealth and paper, while others say he is loyal to his belief all his life. As we know, human's nature is extremely hard to define exactly. We can get different understanding in different angles. In the dissertation, I expound Kurtz ' s nature in different angles in order to present a humanistic Kurtz.

To sum up, my dissertation can be divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction to Joseph Conrad and his novel Heart of Darkness. In the second part, this dissertation borrows the three layers' division of "I'' in psycho analytics. This dissertation indicates that the degeneration of Kurtz lies in his wantonly expanded ego while as his superego (social moral and regulation) lost binding force and his ego was mined. In the third part, we find a lost, cruel and greedy Kurtz. The fourth part presents a versatile idealist who stands between western Civilization and African culture. By analyzing Kurtz ' s nature, we can find the mystery of human nature and the conflict of social civilization and individual moral and ego. The fifth part is conclusion.

I base my study of Kurtz's nature conveyed in Heart of Darkness on the author's own perspective. Therefore the direct references I use in this dissertation are mainly Conrad's own works and other relevant materials, the philosophy that influenced him most, his life experience, and the text of Heart of Darkness itself. With this approach, I hope I can make it clear that what Conrad tried to convey to his readers as truth when he wrote this novel.