Who Is Kurtz Dehumanize Imperialism

Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, offers key insight into the debate of what constitutes a civilized society compared to an uncivilized one, highlighting the ideals of European imperialism and colonialism that led to great dehumanization among both the oppressed and oppressors. Sigmund Freud’s, Civilization and its Discontents, incorporates the basis of psychoanalytic theory to offer justification for the imperialistic actions portrayed in Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s story is based off a narrative by Marlow, a reticent sailor, who experiences a journey up the Congo River in search of a well-known, idealistic man named Kurtz. The Company, the Belgian organization for which Marlow works, sends he and several other seamen to Africa

As stated throughout much of the novel, Kurtz is a very sick man, not only physically, but also mentally. When Marlow and his crew reached him, it was revealed to them by the Russian that the natives admired Kurtz as a form of deity. He stated, “They adored him…he came to them with thunder and lightning, you know—and they had never seen anything like it—and very terrible. He could be very terrible” (CITATION 65). From this statement, it can be confirmed that Kurtz’s life has been completely taken over by the native land. He has deviated from all morality and been overtaken by such lust that he has natives kill each other over ivory. Marlow references Kurtz’s loss of morality and transition to the love of power and monetary advances on page 71, when he states, “At the moment I heard Kurtz’s deep voice behind the curtain, ‘Save me!—save the ivory, you mean. Don’t tell me. Save me! Why, I’ve had to save you. You are interrupting my plans now, Sick! Sick!” (CITATION, 71). This statement reveals how Kurtz has become so caught up in the hunger for power, greed, and overall superiority that he assumes the other men find the ivory to be more important than his own life, as he felt toward the Africans. This assumption is, of course, correct because the men know that their job is to please the Company

Freud states, “The bit of truth behind all this--one so eagerly denied--is that men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked, but that a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endowment” (CITATION). This statement, derived from the theory of the Id, reveals Freud’s beliefs that aggression is an ineffaceable action of human nature in which all men lust to fight and/or kill others. If this were to be true, then even the “civilized” European colonialists would not be exempt from the psychological control of aggressive drives, providing justification for their harsh treatments toward the African natives. Furthermore, Freud offers clarification as to why colonial oppression served as a factor of dehumanization not only among the oppressed, but also the oppressors. To back the initial actions of Kurtz, Freud states, “Men clearly do not find it easy to do without satisfaction of this tendency to aggression that is in them; when deprived of satisfaction of it they are ill at ease” (CITATION 26). This reveals the driving factor of what drove Kurtz into complete madness. When abandoning European society, he left behind all