Kurtz is undeniably one of the most significant, and fascinating, characters in Heart of Darkness. Whilst on paper he appears a moral authority – a paragon of Western civilisation and intellectual refinement – in person he is little more than a vessel of utter brutality, voracity and desire. It is important to be careful when analysing Kurtz – students are often tempted to refer to Kurtz as mad or deranged, but this is often too simplified a reading. What makes Kurtz so unsettling is that he is not mad at all. His affliction is one that could be suffered by every coloniser made “hollow” at the core by the moral bankruptcy of the imperial enterprise. As Marlow expounds, “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz.”
