Top 4 Heart of Darkness quotes
“They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,—nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.”
Part 1
Shortly after landing on the land of Africa, at the Outer Station of the company, Marlow comes face to face with the consequences of colonial rule on the local population. He watches emaciated and severely overworked laborers lying at the doors of death as they huddle in the shadow of a tree. It is the first of several instances that reveal the truly exploitative and cruel nature of Colonial practices that judge cheaply the lives of men and women merely because their cultures haven’t achieved great technological achievement.
“To tear the treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.”
Part 1
Marlow’s description of the exploration group’s motives is comical in that he fails to recognize that little difference exists between him and those other explorers who openly state their desire to pillage and plunder. He makes himself feel better about his enterprise by comparing the company to the exploration group, without realizing that the company may be worse than the exploration group since their practices are enacted on a much larger scale. This also demonstrates his twisted view that Colonialism is essentially about educating the natives of Africa about the better and more evolved European way of life.
“Exterminate all the brutes.”
Kurtz, Part 2
Marlow describes an article that Kurtz had written during his time at the Inner station. In the article, he argues that the white man was responsible for leading the natives by adopting the roles of supernatural beings since the natives almost always viewed them in that light. The most disturbing part of the article is the postscript, as Kurtz indicates his view that the natives are unworthy of life and that the white man has the prerogative to decide whether the natives deserve to live or not. Interestingly, Marlow refuses to hand over the article to a journalist with the post-script and instead cuts off the section before giving it to him for publication.
“The horror! The Horror!”
Kurtz, Part 3
These are the dying words of the central antagonist of the novella, and also the most famous quote from the book. The readers, like Marlow, never truly discover what Kurtz is referring to when he utters these words. Irrespective of their true meaning, it is evident that Kurtz realizes that there is a greater power than him, and he dreads whatever awaits him on the other side of death.
