Explanation: “I had a vision of him on the stretcher, opening his mouth voraciously, as if to devour all the earth with all its mankind.”
Exp. This extract has been taken from Joseph Conrad’s short novel Heart of Darkness. Here, Marlow describes how he visualized Mr. Kurtz’s voracity as his dead body was being carried on a stretcher for burial.
After Kurtz’s death, Marlow is left with a packet of letters and a photograph of the girl who had been Kurtz’s Intended. From the photograph, Marlow imagines her to be a beautiful woman possessing truthfulness, honesty, and a capacity for sacrifice. He decides to meet her and hand over the packet of letters. In fact, he wishes to rid himself of everything that belonged to Kurtz. He even wants to erase Kurtz’s memory so that Kurtz may sink into oblivion.
At first, Marlow attempts to dismiss Kurtz’s memory as that of any other dead person—a vague impression of shadows falling upon the human mind. However, when he reaches the girl’s house, Kurtz almost springs back to life before Marlow’s startled gaze. Marlow envisions Kurtz on the stretcher, being carried by the stretcher-bearers and surrounded by obedient admirers and worshippers. He also imagines Kurtz’s mouth wide open, as if he were about to swallow the whole earth and all its people.
The ominous atmosphere of the impenetrable forest and the enveloping darkness return to Marlow’s memory. He relives Kurtz’s final moments and hears once again the anguished cry, “The horror! The horror!” uttered by Kurtz.
The extract highlights the fact that Marlow is continually haunted by the memory of Kurtz.
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