destroyed by the excesses he craved, the very excesses that drove him to the top of the tribes and peoples he conquered. When the superficiality of society was erased, made null and void, it had to be replaced with the brutality of the wild. Kurtz was unable to deal with this, his mind had been devoted to society for too long. After quickly rising to the top by using fear and adoration, he was destroyed by the excesses he attained.Marlow sought truth, he was disgusted by the pieces of blackness he glimpsed through the manager’s waste and senseless cruelty. He didn’t know white truth to the extent Kurtz did, neither did he live the black truth. He merely observed, and what he saw deeply disturbed him. He only saw the blackness fully in Kurtz, however, and only slightly within himself. He seemed to be merely an observer, but in watching the decline of Kurtz, he saw the power of the black truth. The reason he was able to resist it, though, was that he had basic integrity. Kurtz lacked that, and so fell into the deep abyss of corruption in his heart. Marlow went to the edge, looked down, but was able to retreat. Kurtz realized his black truth, Marlow only saw his wild and savage potential. They were light and dark sides of the same coin; Kurtz was what Marlow might have become, and Marlow what Kurtz might have been. Kurtz’s Intended knew only the white truth about him, while his black Mistress knew only his blackness. Each loved him for what they knew, and each would have been destroyed by the other’s knowledge. When Marlow lied to Kurtz’s Intended, he allowed her to keep her delusions about him, he let her continue to believe her white truths about him. This let her begin healing, and it showed Marlow a new depth within himself, a depth that might have gone unrealized without experiencing the blackness of Africa.Kurtz’s Intended and his Mistress had no desire to know the truth, they were...
