Heart of Darkness Essay: Kurtz's FailureIn the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, many different points of view on different topics have been taken. For me, what interested me most was to know and discover why and how Kurtz had failed or thought he had failed, and what external forces and conflicts had caused him to view his life as a failure. Now I'm on a little dig to unveil the answer(s) that would allow me and others to better understand Kurtz. One of the reasons that caught my attention was the part about why Kurtz came to Africa, who I understood was wanting to come. and leave as someone great, someone who had been capable of accomplishing something great, and who would then have the right to marry their beloved. But when he knew it was the end of his life and he had nothing else to give, he may have felt like everything he had tried to work for had failed. came to nothing, and he was not even able to return to his wife. and show her all the hard work he had done just for her. Another reason I think this might have been another reason why Kurtz might have viewed his life as a failure is because he might have learned that all of his work that he had done was for nothing, all that what he had accomplished in Africa was going to amount to nothing. What made me think of this was when Marlow said this: "...nothing underfoot, without anything around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat..." (p. 154). The whole quote made you try to feel what it would be like to die like Kurtz, that's how I interpreted, how much you put into your life, but all of that won't matter to anyone anymore, that he was just like everyone else, and he wasn't able to become someone special. My final explanation for why Kurtz might have considered his life a failure would be that he might not have actually considered it, but maybe he just sees that life is the way it is. , that you are born, that you live and then you die, "I lie here in the dark waiting for death"(p.