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! the horror!” and did not have anything to do with her. Why? Why wouldn’t Marlow just be honest, we ask, without realizing that women of that time were treated with more of a delicacy. Gender roles and chivalry played an enormous role and had great impact on the way in which women were supposed to be treated by men. There was sort of a code that men abided by that prohibited them from speaking of things and using words or phrases that seemed disrespectful or offensive to mention in the presence of a lady. Also, Marlow could have possibly seen a sense of innocence in the woman that he did not want tarnish by exposing the true feelings that Kurtz expressed through his last words.
Along with not wanting Kurtz’s intended to feel saddened by the fact that her fiancee’s last words were not something sweet and thoughtful about her, but Marlow also chose to tell this lie to protect not only Kurtz but the ulterior motives of The Company. Maybe Marlow knew that by telling her what Kurtz really said, would be considered releasing the darkness into the world, exposing the actions of violence that they committed while in the Congo.
Another possible reason Marlow could have withheld the truth from Kurtz’s intended is because the story of Kurtz’s malicious actions were too complex to explain to her. If you think about it, Marlow had to travel all the way up the Congo to get information and insight on what it is Kurtz actually did there, the intended did not indulge in the trip with Marlow, she had not found out what Marlow had and she had not seen what he had seen, so she wouldn’t be able to efficiently comprehend what those words exactly were a symbol of.
-T'Nia Tention
I think this is significant because in today's society, it is rare to see men being "chivalrous". I'm not saying that they do not exist, but it isn't as common as it was back in the day. As T'Nia said, the men back then would avoid using words or phrases that seemed offensive or disrespectful but today you see men using foul language around women all the time. Sometimes you may even see them direct that type of behavior towards them.
ReplyDelete-Destiny Quinones
In addition to the complexity of having to explain to Kurtz intended the "horrors" Kurtz was referring to, Marlow probably thought if he did tell her the true last words she simply wouldn't believe him and all of the story that comes along with it. - Alicia Cornejo
ReplyDeleteI feel that because she was a woman he left out the details of the last words of Kurtz, and lied to her because she would not be able to handle the truth. This shows the undermining of women in the society that some were meant to know the whole truth and some only partial because of perspective.- Rakasha McIntosh
ReplyDeleteBy Marlow not telling the truth to the woman, I think that it tells us something about how their society is like. I feel that hiding the truth from her is Marlow's way of protecting her because whatever event happen already happened so I think that hiding the truth will be better than hurting her.
ReplyDelete- Vy Ly
An alternative viewpoint may be that he never told her is order to gain back a sense of conscience after everything he let happen/watched in Congo. But I definitely think that gender roles played a huge role as to why he did so.
ReplyDelete