una tesina di M. Bortolotti

Introduzione 

La Maschera nella prima filologia nietzscheana

In Pirandello

La Maschera tra bene e male.

About the story....

Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job with the Company piloting a steamship in the Belgian Congo. 

He encounters widespread idiocy and absurd inefficiency in the Company's stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been impressed into service for the Company, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill-treatment at the hands of the Company's agents.

When Marlow arrives at the Central Station, under the control of the general manager, an unwholesome character, he finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. 

His interest in Kurtz grows during this period. The manager and his favourite, the brickmaker, seem to fear Kurtz as a menace to their position. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays all the more costly. 

Marlow gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents (called pilgrims from Marlow because of their strange habit of carrying wooden staves wherever they go) and a crew of cannibals on a long voyage up the river.

They come across a hut with firewood stacked and a note saying it's for them but to approach cautiously. They are attacked by natives and the helmsman is killed before Marlow frightens the natives away with the steam whistle. 

They come to Kurtz's Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a Russian trader assures them that everything is alright and reveals that he's the one who left the wood. The Russian claims that Kurtz has enlarged his mind and cannot be subjected to the same moral judgments as normal people. Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and gone out on brutal raids in the near territory in search of ivory. 

The pilgrims bring Kurtz out of the station-house on a stretcher, and a large group of native warriors exit out of the forest and surrounds them. Kurtz speaks to them and they disappear into the woods again.
They bring Kurtz aboard. A beautiful native woman appears on the shore and stares out at the ship; the Russian hints that she's somehow involved with Kurtz and has caused trouble before with her influence over him. 

The Russian reveals under promise of secrecy, that Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer in order to make them believe he was dead and turn back so he could stay. Then he leaves, as the pilgrims do not trust him, and the manager has plotted to have him hanged. 

Kurtz disappears in the night, and Marlow goes out to find him crawling on the native camp. Marlow stops him and convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river, but Kurtz's health is failing fast.

Marlow listens to his talk while he pilots the ship, and Kurtz entrusts him with a packet of personal documents, including an eloquent pamphlet about civilizing the savages which ends with the awful message that says, "Exterminate all the brutes!" The steamer breaks down and they have to stop for repairs. Kurtz dies, uttering his last words while Marlow is present: "The horror! The horror!" Marlow falls ill soon. 

He returns to Europe and goes to visit Kurtz's promised wife after over an year. She's still in mourning, and she praises him as an example of virtue and achievements. Obviously, the lady knew only the old partner, not the bloody monster that Kurtz became. He knew just the quiet and lovely side of him, and she could only know this mask, the idea that she created of him as a partner, before the shadows of the darkest jungle swallow the man in the pit of madness. 

She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her Kurtz's last word was her name.