HoD Ch.3- Megan Burch

In the final chapter of “Heart of Darkness,” everything differs in comparison to how the book began. There were many changes throughout the book that were finalized in chapter three. This chapter began with a Russian man that Marlow and his crew picked up from the shore who worked with Kurtz and knew him well. He told Marlow many stories about Mr. Kurtz about how he likes to explore alone and goes off for weeks at a time, or the times he has threatened to kill the Russian man if he does not do exactly what he is asked. These stories made Marlow change his view on Kurtz even more, causing him more dislike for the man. Once Marlow met Mr. Kurtz in person, however, he was ordered while feeling obligated, that he needed to remain loyal to Mr. Kurtz. He stayed by his side pretty much until the very end when Mr. Kurtz died on the boat.

Marlow’s opinion on women seemed to change too. In the beginning they were looked at as being inferior, but now they are spoken of in a more superior manner. The native woman seems to hold much power in the woods, and is described as being able to silence everything around her. In the end, Marlow visited Kurtz’s fiancé a year after his death. She kept rambling on and on about how much she loved him, and longed to hear what he spoke as his last words. Marlow got agitated, and he decided that the actual words Kurtz had spoken were too terrible to repeat, so he lied to the mourning woman and told her that he spoke her name.