Kurtz

Mr. Kurtz is a poacher of elephants for their ivory. He is also a character who progresses from, when we first meet him, just a regular man who resides in an interior post, to our last hearing of him, and a man who everyone envies. During the journey of the story he progresses in our minds to hero status, but is he truly a hero?
Mr. Kurtz was a poacher in the interior station of the British ivory expedition. He did his job very well and as a result acquired many enemies along the way. One such person was the manager of the Middle Station. He deliberately caused delays in the arrival of much needed parts for the repair of the boat to go and retrieve Mr. Kurtz. Chances are that he ordered the shots to be fired on the boat in the first place. He detested Kurtz and wanted him dead because Kurtz’s station was producing more ivory than his own. There were discussions about Kurtz’s health in the station and there seemed to be little concern whether he lived. In truth, the manager of the interior station was hoping that by the time that the boat was repaired that Kurtz’s illness would have progressed so much so that he would perish and not be the top producer of ivory any longer.
Mr. Kurtz is described as a great man from the Company’s perspective. He was indeed a great man. Perhaps the Company did not realize what a great man he was for them until his death, when the ivory stopped flowing down stream. Kurtz was obsessed with the land, the people and the ivory. When Marlowe, the storyteller, told the tale of meeting Kurtz it was obvious that when he actually met the man he was awe struck and impressed that such a man could produce the ivory that he produced.
When Marlowe met Kurtz he was ill to the point of not being able to walk and still in the night, when everyone on board was sleeping he crawled off towards the fires of the native people in order to be protected from the white men who wanted to take him out of the country. Marlowe was puzzled at what sort of man would want to stay in the wild and lonely jungle. Then he understands that even in the wild, lonely jungle Kurtz has found a purpose for being, no matter how cold it may seem to people in the cities of Britain. He even goes so far as to say that the people of the city may very well have other people to gossip with and to drink cold beer in the pubs but they lack a real purpose which Kurtz has found in the middle of the jungle.
Kurtz mentions his Intended when he was on the boat headed down the river towards home. However, he did not mention her in the way that Marlowe actually represented it to the woman. The question is why did Marlowe tell the woman that the last words he spoke were her name? One obvious answer could be that Marlowe did not want the woman to know how bad off he actually was at the end. In the end both Marlowe and Kurtz were caught up in being heroes of different sorts.