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Heart of Darkness Good vs. Evil Quotes Page 26
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
"I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror - of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge?" (3.42)
Marlow is hypnotized by Kurtz’s slow and painful death. He sees all the negative emotions pass over Kurtz’s face as he dies – pride, ruthlessness, terror, and despair. Kurtz’s entire being is claimed by evil, and yet he still fights death.
"I know that the sunlight can be made to lie too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features." (3.48)
Marlow does not trust the sunlight anymore because he has learned from his experience in the interior that light can be deceitful or hellish. However, he trusts the Intended because he believes women are naïve.
"A grand piano stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a somber and polished sarcophagus." (3.52)
The light imagery here is rather paradoxical, coming in "dark gleams" on the surface of the grand piano. Though undoubtedly beautiful, the "gleams" have a sinister quality to them, reminding Marlow of a "polished sarcophagus," a repository for the dead. He still has not let go of the memory of Kurtz’s horrible death.
