Marlow’s
encounter with the Intended shows that fantasy of Kurtz will live on rather
than the reality of Kurtz. When Marlow visits Kurtz’s finance she mourns as
though Kurtz died yesterday. She has an unwavering love for him, and she
believes that Kurtz was a pure, virtuous, perfect man. I believe she looks up
to him as a god like figure. She believes “it was impossible to know him and
not admire him” (161). In her eyes Kurtz was a man of perfection.
She
wrongfully believes that she is the one that knew him best and that he confided
everything in her: “I had all his noble confidence. I knew him best” (161).
Yet, Kurtz never mentions his finance in the novel. As the girl speaks of Kurtz
as godlike describing how his words and example will live on, Marlow begins to
grow angry. He becomes angry because this girl is so disillusioned. Marlow
instead knows that Kurtz is an “eloquent phantom” (163) an evil man whom
everyone is drawn to. In this scene Marlow’s anger turns to pity for the
finance. His pity shows that the girl is living in a fantasy and has no idea of
the true man Kurtz was. She has barely any confidence of him. Kurtz was a
suffering man who last words were “the horror, the horror”, and the girl knew
nothing of that. When Marlow lies and tell his finance that in his last words
he spoke her name, he allows her to continue her fantasy which she knows Kurtz
well and he is perfect. Marlow wants to spare the girl of the darkness that lay
inside of Kurtz. By doing this, the girl will not know the truth.
Conrad
shows that this girl lives in an absolute fantasy, and Marlow cannot bear to
tell her the truth because he pities her. This shows that the fantasy of Kurtz
perfection will live on as his legacy. Conrad shows that the truth is sometimes
very difficult to find because it is usually very dark and depressing. This
relates back to the Congo Free State. Many people did not know the truth about
it because it was not published in the open. The truth about what happened is
not commonly known to this day, and the truth is absolutely horrid.
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