By the time Marlow, the protagonist, sees Kurtz, he is ill with jungle fever and almost dead. He takes his pamphlet and scribbles in, at the very end, the words "Exterminate all the brutes!" He induces the natives to worship him, setting up rituals and venerations worthy of a tyrant. However, over the course of his stay in Africa, Kurtz becomes corrupted. The presence of his admirer, the Russian "Harlequin", and what he reveals about Kurtz in his adulatory descriptions of him raises questions about Kurtz's actual beliefs and the sincerity of his progressive views. Kurtz is also the author of a pamphlet regarding the civilization of the natives. The reader is introduced to a painting of Kurtz's, depicting a blindfolded woman bearing a torch against a nearly black background, and clearly symbolic of his former views. He starts out, years before the novel begins, as an imperialist in the best tradition of the " white man's burden". Kurtz's mother was half English, his father was half French and thus "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz." As the reader finds out at the end, Kurtz is a multitalented man-painter, musician, writer, promising politician. Kurtz's general manager is envious of Kurtz and plots his downfall. As a result, his name is known throughout the region. With the help of his superior technology, Kurtz has turned himself into a charismatic demigod of all the tribes surrounding his station and gathered vast quantities of ivory in this way. Kurtz is an ivory trader, sent by a shadowy Belgian company into the heart of an unnamed place in Africa (generally regarded as the Congo Free State). Kurtz, whose reputation precedes him, impresses Marlow strongly, and during the return journey, Marlow is witness to Kurtz's final moments. Kurtz meets with the novella's protagonist, Charles Marlow, who returns him to the coast via steamboat. He monopolises his position as a demigod among native Africans. He is a trader of ivory in Africa and commander of a trading post, and previously a colonel. Kurtz is a central fictional character in Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness.
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