Marlow Lies To Kurtz S Fiance
Marlow lies to kurtz s intended to spare her the painful reality of her fiancé s descent into madness and evil.
Marlow lies to kurtz s fiance. It seems perfectly natural and appropriate that marlow should lie to kurtz s fiancee when she asks him to tell her kurtz s last words. Kurtz dies and his last words are the horror the horror marlow then lies toe kurtz s fiance and says his last words are your name why does he tell her that. The woman weeps in triumph. The horror and did not have anything to do with her.
Here is my thesis so far. When the woman asks marlow what kurtz s final words were he lies and says that kurtz spoke her name. Why did marlow lie to kurtz s intended about his final words. Heart of darkness was published over a hundred years ago.
Marlow s lie at the end of the story is both cruel and compassionate. It seems perfectly natural and appropriate that marlow should lie to kurtz s fiancee when she asks him to tell her kurtz s last words. She expresses a desperate need to keep his memory alive as well as guilt that she was not with him when he died. The question that many of us wonder about how come marlow didn t just come clean and tell kurtz s intended that his last words were in fact the horror.
He was an english gentleman high in social status as well as military status but unlike marlow he fell into the corruption hidden within the vines of the jungle. At the end of the heart of darkness marlow betrays his morals by telling a huge lie to kurtz s intended in order to protect the intended from the painful truth to prevent the darkness of the jungle from having a prolonged effect and to continue his own loyalty to kurtz and protect kurtz s reputation. The deeper he went into the jungle into the darkness the easier it became for him to be consumed by it. The intended has a naïve unshakeable faith in kurtz.
Marlow refers to this faith as a great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness. Heart of darkness was published over a hundred years ago. This is why he serves as the ideal foil character to marlow.