Suffering In the Outer Station Marlow sees the truth of the empire He sees black men dying in chains They are lying under the trees At sea he sees the French warship It fires at nothing He says Incomprehensible firing into a continent There is none The empire kills without reason At the same time he meets the Chief Accountant The man is neat and white like a vision but around him are starving men The scene shows the irony beauty outside death inside Imperialism is waste cruelty and suffering Central Station Greed and Fear At the Central Station Marlow finds his steamboat wrecked Three months pass in repair At this time he hears the name of Kurtz again and again The Manager and the Brickmaker talk of ivory not of men The Central Station is not a workshop It is a shrine The god is ivory Marlow hears the word everywhere The word ivory rang in the air was whispered was sighed This is the true creed of empire Not law Not faith Only profit Here the Brickmaker praises Kurtz It sounds noble The Brickmaker calls Kurtz an Emissary of pity science and progress But Marlow knows it is empty talk The Manager fears Kurtz will take his power Imperialism here is only greed and rivalry no light no progress only selfish fear Inner Station The God of Ivory At last Marlow reaches the Inner Station The Russian trader in bright rags welcomes him He says Kurtz sends in as much ivory as all the others put together This is the truth of empire ivory Not Africa Not men Only ivory Kurtz is carried out on a stretcher The villagers cry Yet with a weak voice Kurtz silences them He is their demi-god Marlow sees the African mistress proud and decorated She is Africa wild strong feared Imperialism here is power by terror not by love The Horror The Final Truth On the return journey Kurtz dies His last words are The horror The horror This cry is the truth of imperialism It is not light It is not progress It is horror Back in Europe Marlow meets Kurtz s Intended She asks to know about his last word Marlow lies He says The last word he pronounced was your name She keeps her dream The empire keeps its mask But the reader knows the truth From the White Sepulchre of Brussels to the horror of Kurtz Conrad shows imperialism as a lie It wastes lives at the Outer Station produces fear in the Central Station and brings madness in the Inner Station Through Marlow s eyes we see the empire s face It is not light It is only darkness