Finally, Marlow led Kurtz back to his room. They left the Inner Station the next day. As they floated downstream, three natives covered in bright red earth shouted some form of spell; they next saw Kurtz's native mistress run to the riverbank and begin shouting something that the rest of Kurtz's 1, followers began repeating.
The Whites on the steamboat began pointing their rifles at the shore; to avoid a massacre, Marlow began blowing the whistle to scare the natives away. Many of them ran, but the "wild woman" did not. The Whites on deck then opened fire on Kurtz's followers. As they made their way to the sea and Europe , Kurtz continued to talk of his ideas, plans, station, and career.
Kurtz gave Marlow a packet of papers and a photograph and asked him to keep it for him, out of reach of the Manager. One evening, after repairing the engine, Marlow entered Kurtz's room and heard him whisper his final words: "The horror! The horror! Eventually, the Manager's servant boy peeked into the mess-room and announced, in a contemptuous voice, "Mistah Kurtz — he dead. Stricken by Kurtz's death, Marlow almost considered suicide, and the remainder of his journey back to Europe is omitted from his narrative.
Back in Brussels, Marlow's aunt tried to nurse him back to health. An unnamed representative of the Company then visited Marlow and wanted the papers that Kurtz had given to Marlow. As he did when pressed by the Manager on their voyage home, Marlow refused. The novel depicts Marlow's slow decay and transformation into the corrupted Kurtz , but stops one vital step short: he stays sane.
What's the difference? As far as we can tell, only that Marlow actually leaves. The superficial themes of the novel are imperialism and cruelty of the European powers. However, the theme of the lack of truth lies at the heart of the text. All the European powers engaged in Africa are occupying their land and plundering resources while propagating it as a civilizing mission. Marlow and Kurtz are the only ones named because they do not hide who they are, everybody else does not see the truth, and they are the only ones who achieve enlightenment.
The two men are not afraid to openly show themselves. What society does Kurtz write a report for? Category: music and audio country music. Kurtz 's report for the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs is a seventeen-page treatise written in "eloquent" but "high-strung" language.
It is, Marlow says, a "beautiful piece of writing " that speaks of the "benevolence" the imperialists must bestow upon the natives. Why does Marlow admire Kurtz? Why does Marlow think Kurtz is a remarkable man? Why does Kurtz say the horror the horror? What does Marlow do with the helmsman's body?
What did Conrad want from Kurtz? Heart of Darkness. What does Kurtz mean by Exterminate all the brutes? What does Kurtz recommend in the final line of his report concerning the natives? Why is Marlow obsessed with Kurtz? Who is the true hero of Heart of Darkness? For this alone, Marlow feels the need to safeguard Kurtz's reputation, because no one who had not made such a journey into himself could ever possibly understand Kurtz's. What Kurtz himself thinks of his own actions and "kicking the earth to pieces" is much more difficult to pinpoint; his final words — "The horror!
The horror! Marlow suggests that these words reflect Kurtz's "supreme moment of complete knowledge" — an epiphany in which Kurtz saw exactly what succumbing to his own darkness had done to him. Care should be taken, however, not to read Kurtz's finals words as an apology or deathbed retraction of his life.
Heart of Darkness is not a fable, and one of its themes is that the darkness courted by Kurtz is potentially in everyone's heart — not just the one belonging to this "voracious" demagogue. Kurtz may be commenting on the force for which he has given his life, or the fact that he will not live long enough to finish his "great plans. Like Africa, Kurtz is mysterious, and the workings of his heart at his "supreme moment" remain mysterious as well. Still, the only character remotely aware of what Kurtz did and what drove him is Marlow, which is why, upon his return to Europe, he finds the people there to be "intruders whose knowledge of life" is "an irritating pretence.
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