Having now travelled the distance through the rest of the book, I feel that I am not only capable of supporting my initial hypothesis but also capable of bringing a new notion to this definition of darkness. The new notion introduced at the end of the third book is Kurtz’s “horror”; I believe this “horror” is the very darkness I had previously searched for.[...]Marlow has thus both the chance and the misfortune to hear Kurtz’s last word; “The horror! The horror!” I had stopped myself at defining the darkness as the re-grouping of the forest, the natives and their treatment, the old woman’s wool and Marlow’s passivity, in other words, as the setting both physically, historically and mentally of the characters in Marlow’s narrative.
When Kurtz pronounces his last words, he does so as one would make a general statement; “the horror” is not re-attached to anything in particular, it is Kurtz’s last report on the Congo, on humanity. To fit my purpose, I like to consider that these words are used by the dying man to make a final resume of what he has seen, smelled, tasted, felt and lived throughout his Congolese experience. It is this horror, that regroups the dark forest, the unspoken rituals, the heads on sticks, the ivory, the “devils”; the darkness. Following this logic, we can infer that “The Heart of Darkness” is a heart of horrors; where all of the world’s horrors go to be swept under the carpet of the earth, in Kurtz’s Congo.
For this reason, if this hint is not invalid, these words are quite possibly the book’s most important words. Indeed they sum up not only the setting the characters evolve in, but also the state of mind of the characters and to some extent, the historical state of the narrative.
I agree with this mostly in the sense that Kurtz, no doubt, was referring to the fact that he realized the horror of the actions taking place in Africa, and more importantly the actions of the company in Africa. By saying "the horror, the horror" I feel it is also a way for Kurtz to face what he has done, the crimes he has committed. It might not show a hint of regret, but it still shows that Kurtz has the capability of realizing what he has done and what his company hopes to acheive (not to mention their futility).
ReplyDeleteThe horror here, is maybe not as much the "companies horror" or the manager's "horror", since Kurtz is able to look back on HIS actions and give them, and his life, a final judgement.
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