Your question clearly points to four of the most
well-known words in the English language when we think of literature! I think it is
important to discuss what Marlow thinks of what Kurtz says and how he interpreted it. As
the boat travels swiftly down the river, Kurtz's life is fast running out, and it seems
that almost to the end he remains self-deceived. However, just before he dies, it is "as
though a veil had been rent" and Marlow reads on his face contradictory emotions of
pride and ruthless power on the one hand, but on the other hand, terror and hopeless
despair. Kurtz's last moment is one of "complete knowledge" we are told, when he
exclaims "The horror! The horror!" Marlow tells us that he interprets Kurtz's final
words as "a judgement upon the adventures of his soul on this earth." Whatever the truth
Kurtz has glimpsed, Marlow sees its perception as a "moral victory". In other words, he
approves of Kurtz's achievement of consciousness; that is why he keeps thinking of him
as a remarkable man and remains loyal to him.
Of course,
there are critics that use Marlow's position as an unreliable narrator to question his
interpretation of these final words, but to me, they do present a moment of
self-knowledge where Kurtz comprehends the depths into which he had fallen, and also
presents a damning condemnation of the whole colonial
enterprise.
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