Pay attention to how the language sets an atmospheric tone that is almost more important than the plot. See how that tone affects you on the ride up-river. See how Marlow's narration gets difficult and choppy in places: what does that show about the difficulty for him about telling the tale? What is his psychological state in retelling it? Does he have PTSD? Why does his ironic sense of humor seem to increase as he goes deeper into the mystery? Is it a defense mechanism against feeling the savagery? Is Marlow changed by this innner journey? Improved? More self-knowing? Do we want to know the dark side we all contain or is it better not to?
PAGES & PARAGRAPHS TO NOTE:
367 How much does culture influence who we are?
367 Do we create an identity or inherit one?
367 What is the impact of colonial domination on the oppressed and oppresor?
371 parag 9 to him the meaning of an episode is not inside
372 parag 11 imagine a Roman in England (why start with this?) destabilize preconceptions
373 parag 18 white patch becomes darkness (color symbolism?) destabilize preconceptions
374 parag 21 Fresleven's remains (M's tone here? why?) is it funny? defense mechanism?
376 parag 27 MD: 'Good for there.' (why slightly comic?) is it funny? defense mechanism?
377 parag 28 like an emissary of light (does M believe this?)
377 parag 29 women
378 parag 31 French steamer: tiny projectiles (analyze this whole section, note adjectives)
379 parag 36 railway-truck (what does this say about efficiency in Africa?)
380 parag 38 strong lusty red-eyed devil vs flabby one (remember this)
381 parag 42 and before: diction: 'loitering in the shade' Note cynical tone
381 parag 43 Accountant is miracle. . . hairdresser's dummy: really admired? why juxtaposed to death? see #6 p.431
383 200 mile tramp; clipped style of sentences and wry tone: 'Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body...'
384-5 par 53 Manager uneasiness, no external checks
385 observe and describe M's narrative style: Hang Kurtz, I thought.
Q#5 on p. 430: what does no illness represent?
386 first class agent: no bricks (absurd)
387 prg 58 analyze Kurtz's oil painting: symbols?
387 prg 60 Kurtz is a 'prodigy'; gang of virtue
389 i hate detest and can't bear a lie.... then impossible to continue the story
389 does the frame narrator have a different style? describe it.
389-90 obsession with rivets: less narrative coherence
391 Eldorado Exploring Expedition
392 prg 75 overheard remarks of manager and uncle while drowsy: impressionistic
393 'anything can be done in this country' (no consequences)
'each station should be like a beacon'
394 'Going up that river'
395 'Fine fellows--cannibals'
396 'suspicion of their not being inhuman' kinship
397 'Wood for you.'
399 White Fog; don't eat helmsman
400 9" brass wire 'extravagent salary'; Restaint!
401-402 'the blind whiteness of the fog'
403 'Sticks, little sticks, were flying about'; 'Arrows, by Jove!'
404 helsman gripping the spear like something precious
405-6 'even the girl herself--now--' (breakdown of sequential storytelling)
406 "a lie"; 'butcher and the policemen'
407 Kurtz's report: 'Exterminate all the brutes'
409 'ornamented with round carved balls' (remember this)
409-410 The Russian (convert/disciple to Kurtz)
412 'cartridges' not trade (violent secret hinted at by Russian)
413 re-examining the balls on posts! heads on stakes (hollow at the core) (crawl)
414 'rebels' distant view of Kurtz on stretcher;
415-416 the female appears;
416-17 manager: unsound method; Marlow's 'choice of nightmares'
417 Kurtz had ordered the attack
418 Waking from or TO a dream?
419 I don't know why I was so jealous;
419-420 Marlow confronts Kurtz to save his soul (and his own?)
420 'but what's the good?' Narrative despair (again): 'words heard in dreams'
421 women, rifles and whistles
422-423 Kurtz's ramblings and last words, burial "something"
423 self-knowledge comes too late
424 Marlow's reaction to the city (illness)
425 journalist: 'a splendid leader of an extreme party'
426-429 (end) The Brussels Intended: lying about Kurtz's last words
THE END!
Pages in Murfin/Karl to note:
37 (also 113) 'Conrad penetrated the darkness entered into when people sleep, when they are free to pursue secret wishes)
38 (114) 'We are all Freudians, really.' id, ego, superego explained
38 theory of repression: it doesn't go away, though
38 (115) social taboos
40 (119) definitions of condensation and displacement
41 (120) focus shifts to reader's psychology: drawn to our desires, though we protest
41 (121) Dreams as language; Kurtz as Marlow's projection, alter-ego, evil twin
42 (122) Kurtz's psyche as the 'collective neuroses' of European colonialism
42 Nietzsche's 'will to power': every man's wish
FREDERICK KARL 123-136
123 edge toward an abyss and return different
123 uniquely modern: dreams or in war: discontinuous, inexplicable, absurd
123 Conrad: Kurtz 'too symbolic'
124 Conrad and Freud both explore irrational human behavior
125 Marlow's talking therapy on the Nellie as a defense
125 qualities in Kurtz that horrify him are those he finds masked in himself, but restrained
125 absurd gap between what we profess to be and what we are
126 Marlow is different than Conrad, moral, accepting contradictions
126 Congo as microcosm of the world
126 'a law-abiding morally sensitive man enters an avaricious, predatory, almost psychopathic world'
127 everything is absurd, dream-like
128 art and piano keys are trivial
128 'megalomaniac'; represents all Europe; nothing is taboo
129 Conrad's insight into 20th century politics
130 Leopold II:
130 Kurtz's last words for us are ambiguous, though Marlow doesn't think so
131 Marlow can't admit the truth that Conrad sees: women's illusions
132 Jungle is not peaceful nature, not even a jungle, but a repository for our fears
132 the color black, Romans, white city, blindfold, color symbolism
132 compare to Kafka, dream like and Dostoevsky and Camus
133 Russian: every disciple needs a god to worship
134 Marlow's broken, failed narrative: precise words are impossible
134 Marlow's role: gain aesthetic distance, reader can identify with average man
135 doubling of scenes, two fiancees, two rivers, choice of two kinds of nightmares
136 Kurtz-Marlow polarity as the definition of our times
Freud's Interpretation of Dreams (p.24-26 in our College Reader)25 Explain 'dreams of convenience' as in satisfying thirst in a dream
26 Explain anxiety dreams as actually wish fulfillment
Freud's Civilization and its Discontents (p.29-32 in our College Reader)
29 how does civilization solve the conflict between erotic love and society's demands?
29 How do we view our neighbors?
30 How does man's inherest hostility threaten society?
student essay: Shedding some light on Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness allows the reader to join the narrator, Marlow, in his retelling of a journey through the Congo. Just as Marlow is captivated by the "darkness" of Africa and what secrets lay in its midst, we too find ourselves drawn to its mystique. Frederick Karl claims that, “what draws us as readers to a text is the secret expression of what we desire to hear, much as we protest we do not." He goes on to say that these repressed wishes and desires, ironically, become evident in the darkness—through its symbolism and through cryptic dreams. Indeed, Karl is correct in suggesting that just as Marlow enters the "heart of darkness," the reader cannot help but wonder about their own darkness, as though they are joining him on his journey.The concept of darkness is, in itself, a paradox. Though Marlow fears the darkness, he still possesses an innate sense of awe and even an ironic attraction to it.
