Conrad

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Conrads Heart of Darkness Day Two

• ENGL 203
• Dr. Fike

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Quiz

• Please clear your desks.

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Question 1

• References to women appear on 1623, 1624, 1626,
  1630, 1655, 1665, 1671, and 1675ff.  Do you agree
  with Johanna M. Smith that "the whole of his
  Marlow's story is seen to be a manful effort to
  shore up imperialism through patriarchy, through
  the nineteenth-century ideology of separate
  spheres"?  (The quotation is from her essay "'Too
  Beautiful Altogether'  Patriarchal Ideology in
  Heart of Darkness.")

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Question 2

• According to Marlow, how does one overcome
  darkness? 

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Answer Work

• Positive work
• Rivets on 1639/131 see also the end of the same
  par.
• 1645/137 surface-truth
• Towsons book on 1646-47/138-39.
• Story telling is also a kind of work.
• Destructive work
• EEE on 1640/132 To tear treasure out of the
  bowels of the land was their desire.
• Kurtzs methods taking ivory and human heads
  (1662/154) Mr. Kurtzs methods had ruined the
  district.
• Futile work
• The man-of-war on 1627/119
• The pilgrims gunfire on 1652/144
• The pail on 1635/127
• Other
• Director
• Accountant
• Brick maker
• Helmsman
• Laundress

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Question 3

• What do you make of Kurtz's report on 1656-57?

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Answers

• 1656-57/148-49.
• It is opposed to Towsons book
• Towson constructive work
• Kurtz futile idealism
• It shows Marlows fascination with Kurtz (Marlow
  skips ahead because he is so enthusiastic about
  the report).
• It shows how the road to hell can be paved with
  good intentions.
• It shows the stupidity of the colonial
  enterprise.
• It underscores the shadow/darkness that is common
  to all persons there is a murderer inside each
  one of us.

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Question 4

• What does the presence of the Russian add in
  section III (1658ff./150ff.)? 

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Possible Answer

• Without an omniscient narrator, Conrad has to
  have someone tell us the important background.
• Here is what the Russian tells us about Kurtz
• Reverent attitude toward Kurtz
• Respect for Ks intellectual powers
• this man enlarged my mind (1660/152)
• K has suffered two illnesses (1661/153).
• K was alone until he got the natives to follow
  him.
• K raided the country and treated the Russian
  ruthlessly (1661/153).
• K, like Jove, is associated with thunder and
  lightning (1661/153).
• K tried to leave but was unable to make it out
  (1660).
• Marlow gives the Russian Towsons book on
  1660/152. Why is this a significant action?

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Question 5

• What do you make of "The horror!" on 1672/164? 
  What does Kurtz mean? Is Marlow right to call it
  "a moral victory" on 1673/165?

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Answers

• It may suggest total self-awarenessawareness of
  his Satanic service
• It may look backward but also forward to
  eternal horror, torment in hell. (Dying people
  sometimes see a ways into the afterlife.)
• It is probably not a last-minute conversion
  Kurtz is overcome by the enormity of his evil
  deeds, but he probably does not repent.
• It is what Marlow has journeyed/descended to
  discover the heart of darkness.
• Marlow is not necessarily right to call it a
  moral victory (1669).

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Kurtz and the Ars Moriendi Traditiion

• The art of dying well
• Unbelief devilish initiation (1655/146)
  certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable
  rites (1656/148) witchcraft (1669/161)
• Pride Ks assumption that he can impress
  European ideals on the natives
• Impatience Using extreme methods
• Avarice My Intended, my station, my career, my
  ideas. (1671/163)
• Despair The horror!
• Ks avarice on Live rightly, die, die
  (1670/164) What does K intend to complete the
  sentence?

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Question 6

• Marlow lies to Kurtz's fiancée, the Intended.
   What do you make of this?

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Answers

• 1655/146 I laid the ghost of his gifts at last
  with a lie.
• Here is the lie The last word he pronounced
  wasyour name (1678/170).
• Marlow hates lying 1638/130.
• Lady Justice on 1636/128 Marlow does not give K
  justice. See justice also on 1679/171.
• Love is mentioned on 1677/169.
• Pity appears on 1678/170.
• The lie now becomes that great and saving
  illusion (1677/169).

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Point

• If Marlow had told the Intended the truth (i.e.,
  if he had said that Ks last words had been The
  horror), he would have missed the entire point
  of his experience in Africa.

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Question 7

• What has Marlow learned from his experience?
• Write for 3 minutes What is the moral of the
  story?

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Answers

• Work is a saving grace.
• Human solidarity is important.
• Good and evil are together in the human heart.
  It has potential for both.
• Love and compassion trump justice.
• If you want to survive a difficult situation, you
  have to be mentally tough.
• Material gain cannot assuage inner
  darkness/hollowness.
• Telling a story about darkness is a way to come
  to terms with it.
• A healthy life is a compromise between ignorance
  and total indulgence.
• You must integrate the unconscious into your
  conscious life.
• Jesus, speaking in the Gospel of Thomas  If you
  bring forth what is within you, what you bring
  forth will save you.  If you do not bring forth
  what is within you, what you do not bring forth
  will destroy you. 
• END