Heart of Darkness: Mid-Journey
Joseph Conrad, Poster by Ade Arjona
Journey down the River
This is the first time Marlow explicitly tells the reader how he feels about meeting Kurtz, although from earlier descriptions this excitement is not all that surprising. Here he describes himself as excited to meet the person Kurtz, whereas later he reveals he wanted more to speak with him than to meet him, implying sometime in Chapter 2 Kurtz transforms from a person to a voice.
Marlow's single-track mind begins developing and his obsession with Kurtz is given form as his endgoal. No longer was this an expedition to explore for curiosity's sake, nor for science, but rather for the sole purpose of encountering this legendary 'Kurtz'.
Here Marlow's impatience to reach Kurtz is displayed. He, ironically, describes the effort of keeping one's eyes focused on one thing for so long as too much for human patience and yet he and Kurtz are single-minded in their goals and seem to hold as much patience as necessary to achieve them. Are they then not human? No, I feel Marlow is setting human limits at this point without the knowledge of actual human capacity which he learns later when Kurtz so obviously obsessed with his own goals pushes all and any previously set human limits.