Question: Bring out the full significance of the last words of Kurtz: “The horror! The horror!” in Heart of Darkness.
Ans. Mr. Kurtz is one of the two dominating figures in the novel, the other being Marlow, the chief narrator. Kurtz is an agent of the Belgian Trading Company in the Congo. From the beginning to the end of the novel, he remains an enigma or a mysterious character to the readers. The Chief Accountant describes him as a “remarkable man,” extremely useful to the company for collecting ivory. The Manager of the Central Station and the Brick-maker also praise Kurtz for his efficiency, but Marlow ultimately regards him as an embodiment of evil.
In his early life, Kurtz was a man of sound judgment and noble ideals, and for this he was admired throughout Europe. However, his prolonged stay among the savages transformed him completely. Instead of civilizing the natives, Kurtz fell an easy prey to their influence and began to share their way of life and customs. While staying at the Inner Station, Kurtz was seized by the power of the wilderness. Ivory, which he was supposed to collect for the company, became his obsession. The word “ivory” was always on his lips.
Next to ivory, his greatest concern was his love for the woman he intended to marry. Yet even greater than his love for his fiancée, and greater than his passion for ivory, was the fascination which the wilderness exercised upon him. The wilderness seemed to consume his body and soul and transformed his entire personality.
Ultimately, Mr. Kurtz became extremely greedy. A time came when he wanted to keep all the ivory for himself instead of handing it over to the company. But greed was only one aspect of his evil nature. In many other respects, he became the very embodiment of evil. He began to identify himself completely with the native savages and, in effect, became one of them. Marlow tells us that Kurtz began to gratify his various lusts and monstrous passions and came to occupy a high place among the devils of the land. In other words, Mr. Kurtz became evil incarnate.
Thus, all the primitive instincts that lie dormant in human beings rose to the surface in the case of Mr. Kurtz because of his prolonged contact with savagery. Consequently, on his death-bed he found himself in a state of terrible moral awareness. He uttered the famous words, “The horror! The horror!” These words signify Kurtz’s sudden realization of the evil he had committed and the moral emptiness of his life. They express his horror at his own spiritual degradation and his awareness of the darkness within his soul.
To sum up, Mr. Kurtz represents imperial exploitation and the moral corruption of the so-called civilized white man. His transformation from a civilized idealist into a devilish figure conveys Conrad’s profound ideas about evil and the sinfulness hidden in the human heart.
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