Read the following passage from Heart of Darkness carefully before you choose your answer. (1) "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. (2) The manager was very placid, he had no vital anxieties now, he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance: the 'affair' had come off as well as could be wished. (3) I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of 'unsound method.' (4) The pilgrims looked upon me with disfavour. (5) I was, so to speak, numbered with the dead. (6) It is strange how I accepted this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms.

(7) "Kurtz discoursed. (8) A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. (9) Oh, he struggled! he struggled! (10) The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now—images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression. (11) My Intended, my station, my career, my ideas—these were the subjects for the occasional utterances of elevated sentiments. (12) The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of primeval earth. (13) But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power."

Sentence 11 ("My intended… elevated sentiments") best illustrates Marlow's perception that:

a) Kurtz is a selfish man who views himself as the owner of people and objects
b) Kurtz feels the end of his own life coming and is regretting his choices
c) Kurtz is still a man of accomplishment, worthy of respect and esteem
d) Kurtz's achievements were pretentious, cruel, and often fabricated
e) Kurtz still views himself as a man of great significance and accomplishments