Heart of Darkness Kurtz
by Joseph Conrad

Kurtz is the most successful ivory trader in the Company, and is envied by all other employees of the Company except Marlow. He takes advantage of the natives, who consider him divine, and gives in to subsequent temptations that eventually consume him. Kurtz is described as being hollow (like the other members of the Company), but he allows the darkness of the jungle to fill him. His surrender to his appetites and the forces of darkness grant him a hidden knowledge, but leaves him awed by the horror of it all. He spends his last moments suffering in complete isolation—a nightmare existing in the absence of light.