Hearts of Darkness Book Review

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Heart of Darkness

The Second to Last Paragraph of "Heart of Darkness"

The second to last paragraph of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" delivers the ultimate irony of the novella -- that the so-called "civilized" world, represented by Kurtz's Intended, has no idea of the "horror" that lies at the heart of man, when he gives himself over to his savage impulses.

Marlowe travels to pay his respects to the Intended and she, in her naivete asks Marlowe about Kurtz and how he died. Marlowe expresses his opinion earlier in words to the effect that Kurtz got what he deserved -- but the full meaning and significance of this expression is lost on the Intended, who remembers Kurtz fondly. She would not recognize the man that Marlowe met deep in the heart of Africa.

She begs Marlowe to tell her Kurtz's last words. Those last words -- "The horror! The horror!" -- he cannot say, because he hasn't the heart to shatter her perfect placid worldview. He lies and tells her that Kurtz uttered her name with his last dying breath.

The paragraph begins with her reaction to this false statement by Marlowe. The Intended sighs and says that she "knew it"! Marlowe ironically echoes her surety -- almost mockingly -- to himself. She has no idea of the revelation that Kurtz has been to him -- a revelation of the awful fall that man can suffer when he gives up his noblest parts. By denying the fall, Marlowe is denying the truth, and by denying the truth he fears he has denied Heaven its due, and thus he expects the heavens to fall on his head.

But nothing happens, as he himself quite candidly admits.

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And then he says with ironic dispassion: "The heavens do not fall for such a trifle," contradicting the immense passion he felt within himself as he hid the reality from the Intended. Marlowe is a realist, but he is sympathetic to the Romantic, which is why he lies here. Yet in his sympathy he is both annoyed and bored with himself. He considers the revulsion he felt at this girl's obvious out-of-touchness to be a trifle, when it was anything but. The intensity of his feeling was a reflection of the vision of Hell he had seen in Kurtz. It was that vision that he wanted to give the girl -- an epiphany of horror to shatter her quaint, placid, self-satisfied "love."

And why does Marlowe lie? Why does he not render Kurtz the "justice that was his due?" The answer is that he himself cannot quite stomach the darkness of that vision. "It would have been too dark -- too dark altogether…" But that was the point, after all! The point of the entire story is that there is a darkness within the human spirit that must be acknowledged because if it goes unannounced, unperceived, it can grow and overwhelm one when he least expects it. Unless he is on guard and fights against it, the darkness will swallow everything like the jungle swallows….....

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