Kurtz's Last Words Essay

Last words are looked at as something precious; they can be profound statements of wisdom or they can be reassuring statements of the love. The novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad shows the death of a character and his finals words. “He cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: ‘The horror! The horror!’” (Conrad 71) This phrase would seem to point out that Kurtz has had a revelation and is looking back at his time in Africa as the horror. This is shown through the way that Conrad details how Kurtz has become a god in the mind of the people and how he treats them and Marlow’s reluctance to tell the fiancé about the Kurtz’s real last words. The last phrase that comes out of Kurtz’s mouth is nothing more than a whisper, but it carries enough weight to shape the entire novel. …show more content…
This elevation of his status causes Kurtz to internalize that he is in fact a god, causing his reluctance to leave the natives because he has gained a legion of followers that are willing to work for him. The natives “don’t want him to go” and Kurtz has given the natives knowledge, “’I tell you,’ [the native] cried, ‘this man has enlarged my mind’” (Conrad 59, Conrad 59). In the beginning of the novel, Marlow says that London had been a dark place before the Roman light of civilization came on the island. The reason that these people worship Kurtz is not the way he looks; on the contrary, it would have been the way that he was trying to civilize the primitive culture that they had been living in. Kurtz is trying to spread civilization to the heart of darkness, just as the Romans did to England. The natives worship him for it, which makes him to want to stay and be worshiped instead of