Question: What impression about the Intended do you have from your reading of Heart of Darkness?
Ans. The Intended, Kurtz's fiancée in Heart of Darkness, is largely symbolic, as her name suggests. She represents the ideal—the unchanging, absolute perfection that men can imagine but never truly attain. It is difficult to think of her as a flesh-and-blood woman who loves a real man more than the ideas he expounds.
The Intended is a spiritual person who cherishes an angelic illusion of the beauty of Kurtz's character. This illusion highlights for Marlow, even more vividly, Kurtz’s final invocation—"The horror! The horror!"—emphasizing the meaninglessness and futility of the truth to a woman who has no real self and who has sacrificed all that is living in order to believe in a dead ideal.
The Intended is a shadowy figure, always dressed in black. The imagery associated with her reflects the world of the dead, and at moments Marlow even perceives her not as a creature of light but as a wild woman of the Congo. In contrast to the negress, the Intended is more pathetic than tragic. She is a shade and, in some respects, as hollow as the white agents in the Congo. Unlike the negress, she disclaims any kinship with ugliness or evil and shows an unwillingness to face reality. Despite Marlow's dull anger at her self-assurance, she skillfully maneuvers him into telling her what she wants to hear.
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