Kurtz Last Words

Marlow was the only person who could reveal Kurtz’s last words to his mourning Intended. He could distinctly remember them, but why did he not tell her his actual last words? Marlow lied to Kurtz’s Intended to avoid negativity in various ways. By telling her what she would have wanted to hear instead, he did the easiest thing for himself by protecting both her and Kurtz.

Marlow was with Kurtz when he passed away and heard his last words. Kurtz’s last words to speak were: “The horror! The horror!” (Conrad 69). However, when Kurtz’s Intended begged Marlow to tell her his last words, he told her that Kurtz’s last words to speak were her name (77). Marlow told Kurtz’s Intended an altruistic lie. Merriam-Webster defines altruism as “unselfish regard
He would have had to explain the circumstances and lifestyle of the environment where Kurtz’s spent the last of his life. He would have had to relive the unpleasant experience again, himself. At this point, he likely wanted to just move on and forget the experience. Even though he hated lies, telling her what she wanted to hear was much easier than disclosing the truth. He also knew that it would be impossible for her to be able to understand what life was like there. The place was unpleasant and wicked in ways that she did not know of. Life there was not nearly as simple as she knew it to be. He also would not be able to convey to her the person that Kurtz had become. Marlow may not have confessed Kurtz’s actual last words because he felt pity for him. With his lie, he showed respect to Kurtz by conserving Kurtz’s dignity. She still saw him as the man he was before he left. She seemed to believe he was the greatest man in the world, even morally. She claimed it was impossible for anyone not to love him and his examples were always of goodness (75-76). The men there, however, were mostly envious or fearful of his ruthless efforts for success. As he was malevolent in his work and even had a mistress, his examples were far from moralistic. Marlow decided to let Kurtz’s Intended remember Kurtz as the person she admired. Not only did Marlow avoid hurting her, but he
Joseph Conrad wrote the book at a time when women were not exposed to or involved in the seriousness of the world. They were treated with more delicacy than men were. Women did not have the roles that men had, so they were generally less informed than men about most matters. There was a gender disparity in how Marlow handled revealing the truth of what he witnessed. When telling his story to the men, he revealed the unsettling truth of his adventure and Kurtz. By not telling her Kurtz’s true last words, he was protecting the innocence of her mind. He protected her from the darkness she did not know of—who Kurtz had become and the place that changed him. Marlow may have even believed that Kurtz’s Intended was incapable of understanding and handling the truth because she was a