Most of the descriptions of characters narrators provide for us will let the readers distinguish a positive or negative feeling towards that person or event. However, in some cases, the narrator creates an ambivalent feeling using literary elements throughout a passage. In the “Heart of Darkness,” the narrator has ambivalent feelings of pity and hatred about Kurtz and uses point of view, diction, tone and paradoxes to help represent these feelings. The narrator uses point of view to help create the ambivalent feelings. The narrator used a first person point of view to create pity and hatred for Kurtz. The narrator uses the phrase, “Oh, he struggled! He struggled!” to ultimately represent the pity the narrator feels for Kurtz and makes us …show more content…
The narrator’s overall tone had two different feelings towards Kurtz. Not only does he feel bad but also feels a sense of jealousy due to the success Kurtz has had, but also hatred because of how he created his cussess. The narrator uses diction to help support this. For example, words such as “Eloquence,” meaning he is persuasive, and “elevated sentiments,” meaning he had very highly important opinions about topics, creates a feeling of power. With the word, “struggle,” in the beginning of the passage, it makes the reader believe that someone of higher power is struggling, which makes the narrator seem to pity Kurtz. The narrator uses the phrases as well to describe the hatred and jealousy. For example, the phrases, “unearthly hate,” “diabolical love,” “lying fame,” and “darkness of his heart,” shows the pure hatred the narrator feels for Kurtz. Although there are multiple instances where the narrator shows hatred and jealousy, at the end he gives a feeling of pity again. Using the phrase, “appearances of success and power,” shows how the narrator defends Kurtz. This explains how although this man is fake, unreliable and overall a horrible person, he did work for his success and