A Novella by Joseph Conrad: Prereading presentation

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Heart of Darkness

• A Novella by Joseph Conrad Prereading
  presentation

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• "Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the
  upper reaches , became more sober every minute,
  as if angered by the approach of the sun...

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• And at last, in its curved and imperceptible
  fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white
  changed to a dull red without rays and without
  heat, as if about to go out suddenly, stricken to
  death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a
  crowd of men

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• Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the
  serenity became less brilliant but more profound"
  (p. 100).

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Background
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(No Transcript)
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Joseph Conrad Author of Heart of Darkness

• Spent time as a steamboat pilot on the Congo
  river about 12 years before he wrote Heart of
  Darkness. He observed first hand the brutality
  and injustice of European colonialism in Africa.

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(No Transcript)
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Heart of Darkness

• Heart of Darkness is a novella longer than a
  short story but shorter than a novel.
• The story takes place in the late 19th century
  and over time the action moves from the Thames
  river in London to Brussels but the bulk of the
  story occurs in the Belgian Congo.

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Heart of Darkness is a framework narrative.

• The story begins with an anonymous narrator who
  is listening to Marlow tell his story about Kurtz.

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Characters
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Major Characters Marlow

• He was the only man of us who still "followed
  the sea." The worst that could be said of him was
  that he did not represent his class. He was a
  seaman, but he was a wanderer, too (p. 101).

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Major Characters Kurtz

• a remarkable man (p. 162).
• I am unable to say what was Kurtzs profession,
  whether he ever had any--which was the greatest
  of his talents. I had taken him for a painter who
  wrote for the papers, or else for a journalist
  who could paint--but even the cousincould not
  tell me what he had been--exactly. He was a
  universal genius (p. 172-3).

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Other Characters

• The two major characters in Heart of Darkness are
  Marlow and Kurtz but there are a number of other,
  minor characters that make an appearance.

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The Manager and the Brickmaker

• The General Manager- He was obeyed, yet he
  inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect.
  He inspired uneasiness (p. 118).
• The Brickmaker- as we chatted in there it
  suddenly occurred to me the fellow was trying to
  get at something (p. 122).

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The Accountant, Helmsman, and Pilgrims

• The Chief Accountant- I met a white man, in such
  an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the
  first moment I took him for a sort of vision (p.
  114).
• The Helmsman- He was the most unstable kind of
  fool I had ever seen (p. 143).
• Pilgrims- these men strolling aimlessly about in
  the sunshine of the yard (p. 120).

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Cannibals and the Russian

• Cannibals- Fine fellows cannibals in their
  place (p. 133).
• The Russian- smiles and frowns chasing each
  other over that open countenance like sunshine
  and shadow on a windswept plain. (p. 152).

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Kurtzs women

• Kurtzs mistress- She was savage and superb,
  wild-eyed and magnificent there was something
  ominous and stately in her deliberate progress
  (p. 160).
• Kurtzs intended- She came forward, all in
  black, with a pale head, floating towards me in
  the dusk (p. 174).

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As you read
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Look for

• What Heart of Darkness says about
• Imperialism
• Hypocrisy
• Madness
• Evil

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Keep a few questions in mind

• Is Heart of Darkness racist?
• Does Conrads work merely reflect the attitudes
  of the time in which it was written or is it a
  reflection of a deeper bias?
• Whose story is it?
• Marlow? Kurtz? The conquering colonists? The
  abused Africans?

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Keep a few questions in mind

• What is the climax of the story?
• When, where, and why?
• What are the similarities and differences between
  Kurtzs mistress and his intended?
• What do they mean and what does the story say
  about women? Is Heart of Darkness sexist?
• What symbols, motifs, and foreshadowing do you
  see in Heart of Darkness?

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Perhaps most important of all

• Is Kurtz evil? Is Marlow?
• Why or why not?
• Try to define what is evil?
• Is anyone in Heart of Darkness evil?
• Is anyone good?
• What does Heart of Darkness say about human
  nature?
• And who, if anyone, is the hero of Heart of
  Darkness?

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Important Passages
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Important passages. What do they mean? (p.120 1/2)

• The word 'ivory rang in the air, was whispered,
  was sighed. You would think they were praying to
  it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it
  all, like a whiff from some corpse...

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 120
2/2)

• By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in
  my life. And outside, the silent wilderness
  surrounding this cleared speck on the earth
  struck me as something great and invincible, like
  evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing
  away of this fantastic invasion (p. 120)

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 131
1/2)

• In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into
  the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as
  the sea closes over a diver

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 131
2/2)

• Long afterwards the news came that all the
  donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate
  of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt,
  like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I
  did not inquire (p. 131).

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 134
1/4)

• The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to
  look upon the shackled form of a conquered
  monster, but there--there you could look at a
  thing monstrous and free

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 134
2/4)

• It was unearthly, and the men were--No, they
  were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the
  worst of it--this suspicion of their not being
  inhuman. It would come slowly to one

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 134
3/4)

• They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made
  horrid faces but what thrilled you was just the
  thought of their humanity--like yours--the
  thought of your remote kinship with this wild and
  passionate uproar

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 134
4/4)

• Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough but if you were
  man enough you would admit to yourself that there
  was in you just the faintest trace of a response
  to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim
  suspicion of there being a meaning in it which
  you--you so remote from the night of first
  ages--could comprehend. And why not? (p. 134)

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 168
1/3)

• "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

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 168
2/3)

• I saw the time approaching when I would be left
  alone of the party of 'unsound method.' The
  pilgrims looked upon me with disfavor. I was, so
  to speak, numbered with the dead

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 168
3/3)

• 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 (p. 168).

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 170-1
1/4)

• I was within a hair's-breadth of the last
  opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with
  humiliation that probably I would have nothing to
  say

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 170-1
2/4)

• This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was
  a remarkable man. He had something to say. He
  said it

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 170-1
3/4)

• Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I
  understand better the meaning of his stare that
  could not see the flame of the candle, but was
  wide enough to embrace the whole universe

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 170-1
4/4)

• piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that
• beat in the darkness. He had summed up--he had
  judged. 'The horror!' He was a remarkable man
  (p. 170-1).

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 178
1/2)

• I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice
  which was his due?...

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Important passages. What do they mean? (p. 178
2/2)

• Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I
  couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have
  been too dark--too dark altogether (p. 178).

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Citations and Resources
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Images, Audio, Video, and Text

• Image Citations
• http//travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/images
  /photos/photo_lg_congo.jpg
• http//english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2006/06/16/c
  ongo500.jpg
• Joseph Conrad. Corbis. 2006.Discovery Education.
  4 November 2008http//streaming.discoveryeducatio
  n.com/
• http//static.guim.co.uk/Guardian/environment/gall
  ery/2008/jul/15/wildlife/AB001974-9210.jpg
• http//www.zimconservation.com/Images/ivory.jpg
• http//arnotq.com/pages/20/ieleivorytusk.jpg
• http//www.bonobos.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/200
  8/02/congofull.jpg
• http//kim.uing.net/files/media_file_11458.jpg
• http//www.unchartedoutposts.com/resource/slidesho
  ws/africa/tanzania/Mahale20Greystoke-Lake20Tanya
  nika/0820congo20jungle.JPG
• http//users.telenet.be/be.bartlog/media/congo_jun
  gle_12-2007_005.JPG
• http//ianshive.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/rainfo
  rest2.jpg

• Video Citations
• The Congo and The Heart of Darkness. Discovery
  Channel School. 2004.Discovery Education. 4
  November 2008http//streaming.discoveryeducation.
  com/
• Marlow Returns to Europe. Discovery Channel
  School. 2000.Discovery Education. 4 November
  2008http//streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
• Full Video Great Books Heart of Darkness
• Great Books Heart of Darkness. Discovery Channel
  School. 2000.Discovery Education. 5 November
  2008http//streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
• Text
• Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and Other
  Tales. Borders Classics, Ann Arbor, MI 2007.
• Audio of Heart of Darkness
• http//www.loudlit.org/works/heartofdarkness.htm
• http//librivox.org/heart-of-darkness-by-joseph-co
  nrad/