Kurtz is a central fictional character in the Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness novel. An ivory trader in Africa and commander of a trading post, he monopolizes his position as a demigod among the native Africans. Kurtz meets with the novella protagonist, Charles Marlow, who returns him to the coast through a steamboat. Kurtz, whose reputation preceded him, was very impressive to Marlow, and during the return trip, Marlow witnessed Kurtz's last moments.
Video Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)
Dalam novella
Kurtz is an ivory trader, shipped by a dark Belgian company to the heart of an unnamed place in Africa (generally regarded as Congo-Free State). With the help of his superior technology, Kurtz has transformed himself into a charismatic god of all tribes that surrounds his station, and collects ivory in this way. As a result, his name is known throughout the region. General manager Kurtz was jealous of Kurtz, and planned his downfall.
Kurtz's mother was half English, his father was half French and thus "All Europeans contributed to Kurtz's making." When the reader discovers in the end, Kurtz is a multitalented man - painter, musician, writer, promising politician. He began, many years before the novel began, as an imperialist in the best tradition of "white man's burden". The reader was introduced to Kurtz's painting, depicting a blindfolded woman carrying a torch with a nearly black background, and was clearly symbolic from her earlier view. Kurtz is also the author of a pamphlet on indigenous civilizations. The presence of his admirer, "Harlequin" Russia, and what he expressed about Kurtz in his adulterous description raises questions about Kurtz's true faith and the sincerity of his progressive views.
However, during his stay in Africa, Kurtz became corrupt. He took his pamphlet and his doodle, at the very end, the words "Destroy all savage!" He persuaded the indigenous people to worship him, preparing a proper ritual and worship for a tyrant. At the time of Marlow, the protagonist, seeing Kurtz, he was sick of the forest fever and almost died. Marlow grabbed Kurtz and tried to bring him back to the river using his steamboat. Kurtz died on board with the last words, "Horror! Horror!" Kurtz was finally transformed by the forest. At first he wanted to bring civilization to the natives, as his paintings showed, but in the end he changed to want to "destroy all savage!"
Maps Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)
Base
Kurtz's personnel are generally understood to originate from the famous brutal history of the so-called "Congolese Free State", which was later taken over by Belgium and became Belgian colony in 1908. In his history book The King Leopold's Ghost , Adam Hochschild points out that LÃÆ' Â © on Rom, an administrator at King Leopold's Congo, the Congo-Free State, is the ultimate inspiration for Kurtz's character, citing references as heads on bets outside stations and other similarities. between both. Hochschild and other authors also state that the fate of the "back column" of the disaster of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1886-8) in Congo may also be an influence. The column leader Edmund Musgrave Barttelot, "went mad, started hitting, flogging, and killing people, and was eventually killed". Bloom notes that Kurtz's sophisticated brutality is closer to that of Barttelot's merchant trader, Tippu Tip. The overall leader of the expedition, Henry Morton Stanley, the main character involved in preparing the Congo for the Leopold government, may also have an influence.
A personal acquaintance of Conrad, Georges Antoine Klein, may also be the basis of real life for that character. Klein is an employee of a Brussels-based trading company Socià © à © Anonyme Belge pours le Commerce du Haut-Congo , and dies shortly after being picked up on a Conrad steamship piloted. Further, "Klein" means "small" in German, and as Marlow reflects in the novel, "Kurtz" means "short" in the same language.
Conrad also expressed admiration for the writings of the Pacific Ocean by Robert Louis Stevenson, especially the stories of "The Beach of FalesÃÆ'¡" and The Ebb-Tide , as well as Tembinok's non-fiction account of Gilbert Islands which appears in In The South Sea . The three texts contain megalomania that manipulates their state and remote settings to assert power over others. It is widely believed that Conrad drew the influence of these characters, as well as the lines of Stevenson's groove, when writing the Heart of Darkness.
In other works
Movies
In the loose adaptation of 1958 for the CBS television series anthology
The Vietnam War movie recognized by Francis Ford Coppola Apocalypse Now (1979) centers on the mission of the protagonist to find and kill Colonel Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando), based on Conrad's character, who has become very evil. river, deep in the forests of Southeast Asia. This script recognizes the Heart of Darkness as the source of information, and the last words of Colonel Kurtz, "Horror! Horror!", Echo people from namesake in novels.
In a largely unacceptable version of TNT 1994 from the story directed by Nicolas Roeg, Kurtz, who has gone mad and is now doing the most horrible and blasphemous act, is described by John Malkovich.
Games
Fallout video game Fallout: New Vegas (2010) shows characters in many ways similar to Kurtz; a man who calls himself Caesar. Caesar was originally a diplomat who went into a post-apocalyptic world in an effort to improve knowledge of the tribal population now and learn from their culture to facilitate understanding in the desert. Caesar eventually became mad with power after becoming the de facto leader of one tribe and leading them in dismantling the other tribes that were later assimilated into his group. Now, he is the ruler of the Caesar Legion, a large army of tribes who imitate the Roman Empire. Like Kurtz, Caesar is an educated, charismatic figure worshiped as a god by his subordinates; in the case of Caesar, his followers believed that he was a reincarnation of Mars, the Roman god of war.
The video game Spec Ops: The Line (2012), another loose modern Heart of Darkness (set in broken Dubai), has the same Kurtz figure named Colonel John Konrad.
Literature
The novel Timothy Findley Headhunter (1993) features Kurtz's escape from the Heart of Darkness and the subsequent reign of terror over the city of Toronto as chief psychiatrist at the Parkin Institute.
The "The Hollow Men" poem by T.S. Eliot started with the phrase "Mistah Kurtz - He Dead."
In Josef's novel? KvoreckÃÆ'Â <<> The Engineer of Human Souls Kurtz is seen as a symbol of colonialism of destruction.
Novel James Reich Mishah Kurtz! (Anti-Oedipus Press 2016) is an introduction to Heart of Darkness which presents a very thorough and controversial solution to Kurtz's messianic origins, mysteries and damage.
Notes and references
External links
- Sir. Kurtz in the Heart of Darkness
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments