This description of Kurtz’s death is disturbing in many ways. In the final moments before his passing, Kurtz goes through moments of uncomfortable pain that causes Marlow to ask “Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge?”. However this led me to wonder what happened during Kurtz’s life that truly made him feel all these emotions of pride, anger, shame, and despair? How had the experiences in the Congo affected his past to the point that looking back on it would cause him to scream out his infamous last words “The Horror!, The Horror!” Had it been his ultimate downward spiral into disease and his eventual death that caused him to scream out these chilling final words? Or was it something else? Something darker and even more corrupt then his methods of ivory collection, and his relationship with the natives? Were there moments that had affected Kurtz in such a way that we could only dream of what happened, and how he was able to live through them? Who knows? However what I know for certain is that with a man like Kurtz, who is filled with Megalomaniacal ideals, yet is utterly lacking in substance, any sort of set back, would certainly drive him over the metaphorical deep end.
posted by Eddie D.
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At first I did not know what to make of Kurtz's last words either. But then I began to think that perhaps he was reflecting on his life, and the effects that imperialism had on him, and those around him. I'm not quite sure yet that this is the meaning of this line, maybe discussing it in class will clear things up.
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