In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Kurtz’s final words as he lay dying are, “The horror! The horror! ” (pp. 1415) Some interpret these final words as the horror of one culture decimating another in the name of religion, civilization or greed. Others may believe that Kurtz had at that moment fully recognized what he had become, “the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, or craven terror… ” (pp. 1415) But later in Heart of Darkness I believe that Conrad tells us what the real horror is-life.
Droll thing life is-that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself-that comes too late-a crop of unextinguishable regrets… ” (pp. 1415) To the very end Kurtz was proud and unrepentant. It was not the recognition of just his wrongs, but the recognition of life’s wrongs, terrors, and disappointments that caused Kurtz to cry out.
The recognition of life’s horrors is what Marlow terms “a moral victory”. (pp. 1416) In the course of Marlow’s travels, he saw countless people too dull or too blinded by their greed or their “cause” to take the time to stop and think about who they were becoming; about what they were doing to others; about why they were doing the things they were doing. Kurtz’s identification of “the horror! ” is the “moral victory”.
Yes, he had plundered and killed and destroyed, but in the end he acknowledged the cruelty of life and had judged it-more than can be said about the countless others that die daily in the “heart of darkness”. The “heart of darkness” is not Africa. It is not England or Belgium or the United States. The “heart of darkness” is the unexamined heart of man. Through the narration of Marlow, Conrad challenges his readers to examine themselves to gain the “moral victory” before it is too late.
