Kurtz’s relationship with women in “Heart of Darkness”

In “Heart of Darkness”, the power-hungry ivory trader Kurtz has a constrained relationship with women. He has a beautiful fiancé living apart from him, but they are not allowed to get married due to Kurtz’s lack of status. Still, his intended/fiancé is madly and unconditionally in love with the talented man. Unlike Kurtz’s intended, Kurtz himself has a secret mistress. She is a gorgeous black lady with countless numbers of money spent on jewelry and clothes. Since the notorious mistress is a well-liked woman among the natives, she is the perfect golden key to their ivory. Kurtz have mentioned his business of stealing goods from the natives a lot of places in the novella.

Since Kurtz’s English fiancé has a family embossed by richness, good education and status, Kurtz sees him marrying her only because he wants a better reputation on the European continent. She is only a trophy, a first medal, and not someone he would share the rest of his life with. Mr. Kurtz is a selfish man, who only cares about having the power over the ivory in Africa and Congo. His mistress also works as a trophy, but in another way. The black goddess is what we can call a bait for the natives. No wonder why Kurtz has such a good tone with the natives and still works dirty behind their backs when he makes sweet love with their precious female.

The book, “Heart of Darkness”, is an old guide to how powerful men treated rich woman with status back in the late 1800s. They were objects and trophies all together. Kurtz’s sight on women was unfortunate, but necessary in his situation. At least that was what he thought. The worst thing was the book’s ending when Kurtz’s fiancé was tricked to thinking Kurtz loved her and that his last word was her name. In the end everything was just big game of love, money and conflicts. The game had no winners.