Heart Of Darkness Outline

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Prompt: Marlow selects what he considers the lesser of two evils in supporting Kurtz instead of the Company. Why does he consider Kurtz the lesser of two evils? 

Marlow sides with Kurtz over the company because, while both of them are morally reprehensible, Kurtz’ intentions and desires are clear, and the company hides behind a flimsy façade of civility and benevolence.

1. Marlow makes his perception of the two sides clear when he distinguishes them using a description of two different kinds of devils.
1. "I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire;... but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men--men, I tell you...."
2. "I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly."
2. Marlow's opinion of the company is formed by his distaste for the lies and justifications that go hand in hand with its operation. 
1. “as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river, it didn't enter anybody's head to trouble how they would live”
2. "She talked about `weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable."
3. “Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts”
4. There were either no villages, or the people were hostile, or the director, who like the rest of us fed out of tins, with an occasional old he-goat thrown in, didn't want to stop the steamer for some more or less recondite reason. So, unless they swallowed the wire itself, or made loops of it to snare the fishes with, I don't see what good their extravagant salary could be to them.
3. Kurtz' actions are best defined by the overtly cruel treatment that he demonstrates towards the natives.
1. "'To speak plainly, he raided the country,' I said.... He had been absent for several months--getting himself adored, I suppose-- and had come down unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance of making a raid either across the river or down stream." 
2. “`Exterminate all the brutes!'"
3. “They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts”
4. Ultimately, Marlow decides to side with Kurtz because, despite his evil acts, he has more integrity than the company
1. “`weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,'” (Conrad 77).
2. “It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief” (Conrad 144).