GCELiterature in EnglishNon-African Prose2023

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Kurtz's last words, 'The horror! The horror!' are most accurately interpreted as

AHis fear of the African jungle and its inhabitants
BA dying man's delirious and meaningless utterance
CA final lucid recognition of the moral emptiness at the core of European imperialism and his own soulCORRECT
DHis regret at having abandoned his fiancée in Brussels
AI
Toaster Teacher
Why the answer is C, and why the others tempt you.
Kurtz's dying words are widely interpreted as a moment of profound self-awareness in which he confronts the true nature of his own corruption and the brutal reality of colonial exploitation he embodied. Marlow regards this as a form of moral honesty that distinguishes Kurtz from those who maintain comfortable illusions, making the phrase one of modernist literature's most debated utterances.
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