Transcript Heart of Darkness

Passage Analysis
HEART OF DARKNESS
“nineteen hundred years ago
– the other day…."
From homework
 What will we, as listeners of his story, need to
do in order to fully understand the meaning?
And, how is his manner of conveying
meaning appropriate to the description we
get of Marlow at the start?
“…a decent young citizen in
a toga…” (19-20/7)
 “The fascination of the abomination – you
know. Imagine the growing regrets, the
longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the
surrender, the hate.”
 What image of a person does he develop in these
lines?
Page 20/7
 “What redeems it is an idea only. An idea at
the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but
an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea…”
 What does this mean? Why “at the back of
it”? Why not a “sentimental pretense”?
 Who holds the “unselfish belief”?
Fresleven
 How does the description of what happened
to Fresleven (23/10) reflect what Marlow says
most likely happened to the “decent young
citizen in a toga” (19/7)? Knowing this link,
how then do we read Marlow’s comment,
“Mind, none of us would feel exactly like
this…” (20/7)
The women
 Consider Marlow’s opinion of his aunt. What
does he say about them? How is what they
say similar to or different than the “idea”
Marlow mentions earlier?
First view of natives
Copy the following quote into your notes
 “Now and then a boat from the shore gave one a
momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by
black fellows. You could see from afar the white of
their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their
bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces
like grotesque masks – these chaps; but they had
bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of
movement, that was as natural and true as the surf
along their coast. They wanted no excuse for being
there. They were a great comfort to look at” (30/16).
 Now analyze it…What is his initial view of the
natives. What language develops this idea?
Diction…
 “I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass,
then found a path leading up the hill. It
turned aside for the boulders, and also for an
undersized railway-truck lying there on its
back with its wheels in the air. One was off.
The thing looked as dead as the carcass of
some animal…”
 What image is created? What words develop
this image? What is the effect/purpose of
creating such an image?
In-Class work and HW for
10/5
 Read from page 33 bottom/19 top: “Instead of
going up, I turned and descended to the
left…” to end of part 1.
 Remember to read closely and thoughtfully,
annotating the book to facilitate your close
reading.
 Write responses to the following prompts in
your journal…develop responses fully,
reflecting insight into the text.
“Devils”
 Consider Marlow’s description of the “devils” he
has seen (34/19). What are the different types of
“devils” he describes? What seems to link these
“devils” and what separates them?
 Watch the text for other “devils”…
 the manager (40/25)
 The “faithless pilgrims” (44/27)
 The “manager’s spy” (45/28)/”papier-mache
Mephistopheles” (48/31)
 The “sordid buccaneers” of the Eldorado Exploring
Expedition (54/36)
Reread the description of
the chief accountant and
Marlow’s reaction to him
(36/21)
 “I shook hands with this miracle…I respected
the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast
cuffs, his brushed hair…”
 How are we to take Marlow? Why does he say
that he has a respect for the accountant?
What does this suggest about Marlow?
Copy the following quote into
your notes
 “In the steady buzz of flies the homeward-bound
agent was lying flushed and insensible; the
other, bent over his books, was making correct
entries of perfectly correct transactions; and
fifty feet below the doorstep I could see the still
tree-tops of the grove of death” (38/23).
 Now analyze it…what is going on and how does
the structure of this quote support the ideas
presented in the book so far?
Kurtz
 Although we have not met Kurtz yet, we have
been introduced to him. What do we know
about Kurtz, and what is Marlow’s impression
of him by the end of Part 1?
Self-Selected Sentence(s)
 Select a sentence(s) that stands out to you as
particularly artful for the use of language to
convey meaning. Explain why the line(s) is so
powerful and explore how Conrad’s use of
language creates an effect.
Narrative Present
 Reread page 50/32-33. How does the return to
the narrative present help shape the story
and Marlow’s view of Kurtz? How does the
unnamed narrator feel at this point in
Marlow’s narrative? Support with specifics.
10/6: Updated HW for Tuesday
 Read from where we left off on page 60/42 to
the paragraph on page 73/53 beginning “You
should have seen the pilgrims stare!”
 Answer the required three prompts on slides
19, 20, 21. The prompt on slide 18 is optional.
 Enjoy your weekend!
Copy the following quote
into your notes
 “The sun was low; and leaning forward side
by side, they seemed to be tugging painfully
uphill their two ridiculous shadows of unequal
length, that trailed behind them slowly over
the tall grass without bending a single blade”
(59/40-41).
 Now analyze it…how does this description
help us understand these two men?
Copy the following quote
into your notes
 “Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive,
immense, running up high; and at their foot,
hugging the bank against the stream, crept the
little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle
crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made
you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not
altogether depressing that feeling” (61,43) .
Now analyze it…how does the diction and syntax
convey Marlow’s feeling?
Portico / beetle
Paraphrase the following
lines…
 “…And this stillness of life did not in the least
resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an
implacable force brooding over an inscrutable
intention” (60/41).
 What does the personification in these lines
contribute to the setting? How does Marlow
avoid “seeing” it?
Page 62/44
 “We were cut off from the comprehension of
our surroundings; we glided past like
phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled,
as sane men would be before an enthusiastic
outbreak in a madhouse. We could not
understand, because we were too far and
could not remember, because we were
travelling in the night of first ages, of those
ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign –
and no memories.”
 How does this passage reflect the ideas about
“remote kinship”? What does Marlow mean?
“Catch ‘im” page 69/
 Chinua Achebe has cited this scene as one of
many that demonstrates the racism throughout
this novella.
 “[Conrad] projects the image of Africa as ‘the other
world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of
civilization, a place where man’s vaulted intelligence
and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant
bestiality…[Conrad is] a purveyor of comforting myths
[and] a bloody racist…That this simple truth is glossed
over in criticisms of his work is due to the fact that
white racism against Africa is such a normal way of
thinking that its manifestations go completely
undetected.”
 Idea of “Restraint” (71)
Narrative Break/Flash Forward
 The narrative breaks when Marlow believes
Kurtz to be dead (79/). We also get a
flashforward to his conversation with “The
Intended.” How does the inclusion of these
elements affect the reader’s understanding of
Marlow’s story about his time in Africa?
(remember, for Marlow, the “meaning of an
episode was not inside like a kernel but
outside, enveloping the tale which brought it
out only as a glow brings out a haze…” (18)
Imagery
 You should have heard the disinterred body of
Mr. Kurtz saying, “My Intended.” You would have
perceived directly then how completely she was
out of it. And the lofty frontal bone of Mr. Kurtz!
They say the hair goes on growing sometimes,
but this – ah –specimen was impressively bald.
The wilderness had patted him on the head, and
, behold, it was like a ball – an ivory ball; it had
caressed him, and – lo! – he had withered; it had
taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his
veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to
its own…
 What words stand out and what effect do they
have?
While reading...
 Mark in your text the sentences that stand
out to you as particularly artful for the use of
language to convey meaning.
 Complete the activity to follow….
A look at language and
syntax:
 “But this must have been before his – let us
say – nerves went wrong, and caused him to
preside at certain midnight dances ending
with unspeakable rites, which – as far as I
reluctantly gathered from what I heard at
various times – were offered up to him – do
you understand? – to Mr. Kurtz himself” (83/
 How does the language and syntax support
the meaning?
P.S.
 Explain the postscript in reference to the
“seventeen pages of close writing” that Kurtz
produced (83/).
“light heart”
 Why?
 Examine the description: “It appears he had
persuaded a Dutch trading-house on the
coast to fit him out with stores and goods,
and had started for the interior with a light
heart, and no more idea of what would
happen to him than a baby” (89/66).
 Why this description? What is the power in it?
“Shade” of Mr. Kurtz
 “I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie”
(80).
 “very little more than a voice” (80)
 “…for the shade of Mr. Kurtz” (82)
 Why is it appropriate for Marlow to describe
Kurtz in this fashion…as an ethereal being,
even after he met him?
Activity with self-selected
passage:
 Select one of the passages that you marked
that you like the most.
 Write out the lines CLEARLY on a separate
sheet of paper.
____________
 For the passage you are given, explain how
the language of the text supports or creates
the meaning of the text.
Part 3
 Marlow says, “I looked around, and I don’t
know why, but I assure you that never, never
before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the
very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so
hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to
human thought, so pitiless to human
weakness” (91) Why does he feel this way
now? Explain.
Rewrite this line…
 “The woods were unmoved, like a mask –
heavy, like the closed door of a prison – they
looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of
patient expectation, of unapproachable
silence” (93).
 Now, analyze it. What is the effect of these
images?
Ornamental knobs…
 What is Marlow’s response to the heads on
stakes, and how do you interpret it?
Reread the following:
 "After all, that was only a savage sight, while I
seemed at one bound to have been transported
into some lightless region of subtle horrors,
where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a
positive relief, being something that had a right
to exist--obviously--in the sunshine" (95)
 What does this sentence suggest? Examine how
light and dark are used – what is the
effect/meaning?
Peer Critique of Quote
Analysis
 Read the analysis that a peer did on the quote
that you selected.
 Reflect on and respond to the analysis.
Consider…What are your thoughts about the
points that the person made. Did you have
questions about the rationale behind an idea?
Did he/she point out something you hadn’t
considered but that they were able to support
with the text?
 Write a brief explanation of why, of all the
possible quotes, this one was the one you
selected.
Homework due Thursday 10/20
 Read until “When I woke up shortly after
midnight…” (103/79).
 Answer the prompts on slides 38 and 39. Slide
40 is now optional.
Return to Sweetheart…
 Revisit the description of Mary Anne in “The
Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong.” Compare the
description of Mary Anne to the description
of Kurtz (97-98/74-75). What parallels exist?
 What big ideas are suggested through these
descriptions?
The African Woman
"... And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and
gorgeous apparition of a woman.
'She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed
cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of
barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done
in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass
wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek,
innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things,
charms, gifts of witchmen, that hung about her, glittered and
trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several
elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and
magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her
deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon
the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal
body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her,
pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own
tenebrous and passionate soul'” (99/75-76).
 List all the contrasting images presented in this section. What do
these contrasts suggest about the woman? About the
wilderness? About civilization?
Marlow and Kurtz
 Marlow sides with Kurtz when the manager
says that Kurtz’s “method is unsound”
(101/77). And, Marlow says to the manager,
“that fellow – what’s his name? – the
brickmaster, will make a readable report for
you” (101/77). What does Marlow implying
with that comment? And what is the source
of Marlow’s feeling of kinship with Kurtz?
Support with the text.
11/20 -- Homework for Monday
 Read through page 118/92 (up to “The dusk
was falling…”).
 Respond to the questions indicated on the
slides
“Soul!”
 Marlow proclaims, “Soul! If anybody had ever
struggled with a soul, I am the man” (107/83).
Marlow goes on to explain, “Being alone in
the wilderness, [Kurtz’s soul] had looked
within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had
gone mad. I had – for my sins, I suppose – to
go through the ordeal of looking into it
myself” (107).
 Interpret this moment of crisis – for Kurtz
AND for Marlow.
“The horror! The horror!”
 No surprise. Kurtz dies. Marlow expects it.
But, the scene of death is interesting, both in
imagery and in his last lines.
 Examine the imagery of this scene. What do
you make of it?
 Why does Marlow call Kurtz’s final words “an
affirmation, a moral victory” (114/88)?
The drums…
 Compare
“The monotonous beating of a big drum filled the air
with muffled shocks and lingering vibration” (104/79).
to
“I confounded the beat of the drum with the beating of
my heart, and was pleased at its calm regularity”
(105/81).
What does this suggest? How might this explain
Marlow’s line, “I did not betray Mr. Kurtz – it was ordered
I should never betray him – it was written I should be
loyal to the nightmare of my choice. I was anxious to
deal with this shadow by myself alone…” (104-105/80)
[underlining mine – not Conrad’s].
“Barbarous and superb”
(109/84).
 Marlow describes the African woman who
had a relationship with Kurtz as a symbolic
representation of the wilderness. Some critics
have viewed her as a reflection of Freud’s id
(Freud’s levels of consciousness: id – impulse
driven, irrational; ego – realistic and
pragmatic; super-ego – self-restraint,
moralistic). What are your thoughts about
this? How do you see her functioning in this
novelella?
The women…
 Compare/contrast the African woman with the
Intended. How did you see the African woman
functioning in this tale earlier? How do you ideas
change or develop after seeing the parallel
description of the Intended?
 What purpose do they serve in this novella? What
level of consciousness from Freud’s theory would
the Intended be symbolic of? Explain.
 Consider what is significant in the way each are
described?


African woman: 99, 100, 109 / 75, 76, 84
Intended: 119-121 / 92-94
 What do they each signify?
“great and saving illusion”
 Reread the opening pages from “when the
Romans first came here” to “What redeems it is
the idea…” (18-20/6-7).
 Connect this “idea” to the Intended’s “mature
capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering” (119/92)
and “the faith that was in her,…that great and
saving illusion” (121/94). What is Conrad saying
about this idea through this character? The tale?
Return to frame
 The novel concludes by returning to the narrative
frame, set aboard the Nellie: the tide is now turning;
the unnamed narrator observes that "the tranquil
waterway [the Thames]" seems now "to lead into the
heart of an immense darkness" (124). Marlow is
described as sitting "apart...in the pose of a
meditating Buddha" (123): do you think Marlow has
achieved some sort of enlightenment? Have you?
Now that you, too, have experienced Marlow's story,
revisit and reinterpret the unnamed narrator's
description of where the meaning lies of one of
Marlow's tales on p. 18. What, for you, seem to be
the meaning(s) of Heart of Darkness?
Reread “The Hollow Men” by
T.S. Eliot
 After reading Heart of Darkness, what do
you understand about the poem?
 What is the “shadow”?
 Explain how particular lines / structure
help develop overall meaning.
 - How does this poem reflect the ideas in
The Great Gatsby?
Color
 White/black imagery: examine the usage of
color. When does it seem to fit the traditional
role of white=good and black=bad? When is it
reversed?
Marlow, as narrator
 What do you make of Marlow so far? Of the
opinions he shares, of his uncertainty, of his
tone?
Copy the following quote into your
notes
“The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and
entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves,
boughs, festoons, motionless in the
moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of
soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled
up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to
sweep every little man of us out of his little
existence” (54/36).
Now analyze it…what is going on and how does
it support the ideas presented in the book?