r one simple reason... "The man presented himself as a voice...of all his gifts, the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words---the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating...(79)." Kurtz was "little more than a voice"(80), but there was no one with a voice like his. He could speak with remarkable eloquence, he could write with such precision... he could name with true meaning! "You don't talk with that man[Kurtz], you listen to him"(90)! Marlow has heard enough about Kurtz, in this case from his devoted pupil, to know that it is he who can provide Marlow with the authority to offer "correct and substantial names"(Johnson. 76). Indeed, Kurtz gives Marlow everything Marlow is looking for. However, he does it in a very unconventional way. Kurtz teaches Marlow the lesson with his last words. "The horror! The horror!"(118). These last words are Kurtz's own judgment, judgment on the life which he has lived. He is barbarous, unscrupulous, and possibly even evil. However, he has evaluated at his life, and he has "pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth"(118). Marlow sees Kurtz "open his mouth wide---it gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though he wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him..."(101). Kurtz takes everything in. He takes his life, and puts it all out on the table. "He had summed up--- he had judged...The horror!"(119). Kurtz's last words is his way of teaching Marlow the essence of a name. A name is not merely a label. It is one man's own judgment of an isolated event. However, unlike the Europeans who judge based on already existing principles which they have 'acquired', Kurtz taught Marlow to look inside of himself and to judge based on his own subjective creeds. While Marlow is recounting the story, he says to his comrades: "He must meet that truth with his o...
