No other four word quote in literature has ever been so perplexing as the last words of Station Chief Kurtz. The horror, the horror. What was he speaking of? There is the obvious of course, the dread involved with losing one's sanity, the terror at what might happen when one's crimes come to light, despair over entire situations where one lies dying. Maybe this is what Conrad meant. That is the great thing about literature …showed first 75 words of 425 total…

…showed last 75 words of 425 total…of Kurtz, tearing out from The Station Chief, like a rusty jagged spear of the indigenous tribes. This is what was killing him, the fever was nothing compared to the agony of a crashing return to reality, that Kurtz must have experienced, this Godhood's end as Kurtz reverted back to mere mortal, indeed a moment of clarity. Kurtz was as vulnerable as anyone, and he lay there dying. This would be a horror. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**