Heart of Darkness

Reading:   Alma 35-38

The Horror! The Horror! 

One of my favorite works of literature is The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  I am fascinated by the brooding momentum of the story and the density by which the characters are woven into the memory of Marlow and in his retelling of his journey.  The immortal, dying words of Kurtz, "The horror! The horror!" have been the cause of much intellectual debate and discourse as to their meaning.  I have had my own perspective of what Kurtz meant by his dying words but today I have found cause to tweak that perspective a bit.

First, for those of you unfamiliar with the story, Kurtz is a not a good person - a demigod of sorts in his charismatic control of natives in the Congo.  He makes them worship him and controls them with tyrannical rituals and bizarre, twisted ideals.  When the narrator of the tale, Marlowe, comes across Kurtz he is ill with jungle fever and Marlowe steals him away from the village in an attempt to get him home.  As Kurtz lies dying on a cot, alone, and in a hallucinatory state the end comes, "He cried in a whisper at some image, some vision - he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath -The horror!  The horror!"

So what do I think is meant? I will explain after the reading for the day...Alma is waxing old, nearing death, and is passing the torch (sort-of-speak) to his sons.  In his speech to Helamen he recounts his wickedness and the angel visiting him and the sons of Mosiah and how he was struck to the earth in a fearful state...

ALMA 36:12-14

12    But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. 

13    Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments. 

14    Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror. 

A couple of interesting things to note here; first the obvious connection between Alma and Kurtz in their relative states of wickedness.  Alma even says, "...I had murderd many of [God's] children, or rather led them away unto destruction (spiritual death)."  The other, most noteable, and the cause by which I made the comparison, is the last line of verse 14, "...the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror."  Are you kidding me? How much more connected could they be? Both men, harrowed up by their iniquities and tormented with the pains of hell, are racked with inexpressible HORROR!

So what did Kurtz mean by his barely audible whisper, what vision did he see, why did his dying breath come with the utterance, "The horror! The horror!" He, like Alma, feared his meeting with God.  Alma was given a second chance and definitely made the most of it...Kurtz died and reaped his brimstone benefit...

~Kipling