Marlow has heard positive comments about Kurtz, everyone believe Kurtz is a great man, for this reason Marlow start his journey to find Kurtz and see how great he is and what have he done. As the Story goes we learn about evil, Evil are the Europeans because they use and abuse the Africans for their own purpose but in reality they are in a journey to help them to become better, Europe doesn't know what is happening but mostly of them seek power.
Marlow says that this is the culminating point of his experience because everyday he had heard stories about Kurtz and what he's accomplished in Africa so he becomes very interested in Kurtz as a whole because he's very curious as to how he was able to do what he did. Meeting him is when all those stories came together and when he finally got the image of Kurtz he was craving for. Kurtz is evil in his essential nature because all he lived for was the ivory. That is evident when the Russian says that Kurtz almost shot him for a little stash of ivory. He would go through lengths to get the ivory and he didn't care who was endangered from his actions. If the modern man craves money it can make him become greedy and the thirst for the cash would eventually become part of his nature and what all his decisions are based on.
Marlow hears many amazing things bout Kurtz, that he is amazing, that he is amazing with people, that he is one of the best people ever, which is why his journey on his way to Kurtz remains such an important one. Everything has led up to that moment, however it in a sense peaks because Marlow then insists that Kurtz's "soul has gone mad." He knows he will not continue any further on his journey and that that is the end of the line, which means for his that is the deepest he would ever be into Africa. Kurtz is talked up back in Europe and then somewhat bashed as Marlow gets closer to him, which may be represented of the situation as well that Marlow was going through on his travels.
Marlow has heard stories of Kurtz through out the novella. Though out Marlow's adventures he has discovered lots of important things. But he has awls had a piece missing though out his journey. He has always heard about Kurtz and he was displayed as a legend. Kurtz represents imperialism and that too is praised by so many Europeans. By finally meeting Kurtz he is able to fully understand imperialism. He sees mans true intentions in the world are to better themselves and that humans are selfish by nature. This story is all about trashing man and trying to point out his flaws. Conrad tries his best to focus the blame of imperialism on man the Europeans. The truth is in history the man with the bigger stick always wins. Europe was the most advanced at the time so going after easy natural resources to fuel their empire was their main concern.
Throughout the entire book, Marlow has constantly brought up Kurtz and how badly he wanted to meet him. He had heard so many enticing stories about Kurtz and seemed almost obsessed. He finally meets Kurtz on his deathbed and is still entranced by how power and authority radiates off of him, but he also realizes that the true nature of man is bad. People are taken over by greed for wealth and fame and that is what ultimately lead to Kurtz's death. The book is about greed and Kurtz represents the evilness of mankind. It not only shows the effects of imperialism, but how all those terrors were brought upon by men.
Conrad is trying to show that the natural instinct of man is to be greedy and that it is a key survival trait for mankind as a species. Kurtz's actions are inhumane because of the greed that drives him to do such, but no one at the moment sees the craziness of his actions. Before Marlow meets Kurtz, he is told of Kurtz's great achievements and money made, but it is not until Kurtz dies that Marlow figures out that he was evil and greedy. Not even Kurtz himself really knew the truth until he died, screaming "the horror" of the actions he committed. The whole time, he put the actions behind him and told himself it was okay what he was doing, until the end when he could not take the guilt anymore.
Marlow's whole journey is based on ideas and imagination, light, so to speak. He is pushed to answer questions that these ideas and thoughts bring about. In example, who really is Kurtz? After he meets Kurtz, he thinks that he will be able to find out the truth about him, a solution to his ideas. He finds that Kurtz is not all that he is made out to be. Now that light has turned into darkness. This makes the reader wonder about human nature and human qualities, are the people we surround ourselves with really who we think they are or are they like Kurtz, and completely the opposite.
Marlows Journey through the heart of darkness in order to meet kurtz is representative of the two sides of kurtz through the personifications, metaphors, and other literary devices in the book. marlow realized that the wilderness, pulled the corruption and incivility in kurtz as his perception is as far as his mental state goes before the journey. while the colonists were more civilized and prepared at the beginning of the journey.
Marlow's encounter with Kurtz is considered the culminating point of Marlow's understanding of the nature of man because he was finally able to piece together who Kurtz was. Marlow, after hearing many stories of Kurtz, was able to make a clear opinion of Kurtz on his own. He was able to use the stories he heard and what he learned from meeting with him and figured out what he thought of him on his own. Marlow learns that Kurtz is not actually the god that he has been made out to be. Kurtz is very selfish and power hungry like the rest of Europe. This example of Kurtz shows that people in general are all greedy no matter what social setting they are put in.
Marlow has discovered that as he gets deeper and deeper into Africa the men have gone more and more back to their primal instincts. These are the instincts of life and death and every man for himself. Men will always be greedy and take more than they deserve and will never be fully satisfied. The disease is greed and the irony is Kurtz has been sick multiple times and eventually dies from this disease.
Meeting Kurtz is the culminating point of his journey because up until then he had only heard stories of his greatness but now he gets to meet him and direct who he really is. This helps Marlow understand the essential nature of man because he sees that Kurtz has some evident flaws and is very human despot the god-like descriptions that everyone gave him. I do not believe that the story is precisely about the evil nature of man but rather the evil nature of society. I believe the story focuses on how society negatively influences man and brings out the evil within him because despite the many flaws brought out in man in the story, there is still an underlying simplicity and good in certain characters. None such undertone is evident of society in the novel and so I believe that is the evil entity in the story.
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