E214
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03/28: Heart of Darkness 4
Death scene
I. Review
Kurtz — All Europe Made Him
A veil rent —> reference to resurrection/ revelation of divine knowledge
He cried out — the horror! the horror!
“I had wrestled with death. It’s not as glorious as one imagines.”
II. The Intended
Marlow has said all along that he hates lies.
“I would not have gone so far as to fight for Kurtz, but I went for him near enough to a lie. You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies . . .” (1973).
But he is required to either tell the truth or lie to the Intended.
The presences of the darkness is in the sepulchre city as it is in the jungle (2009)
“His last word he pronounced was—your name.”
“I heard a light sigh and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. ‘I knew it — I was sure!’ . . . She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn’t he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark — too dark altogether. . . .”
Marlow learns that God does not/cannot care. Despite all he has gone through, none of it really matters.
The problem is not in Africa—it is within the heart of man.
“Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. “We have lost the first of the ebb,” said the Director suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky — seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”
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