Heart of Darkness Passage

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Heart of Darkness Passage

• Some Notes

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• Philanthropic desirecriminals
• Wanton smash up
• Gloomy circle of some Inferno
• Rushing noisemournful stillness of the
  grove..the tearing pace of the launched earth

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• Three parts this the entrance alludes to hell
• Repetition and triadic structure to emphasize the
  dehumanization of natives
• Ironic diction choices emphasize effects of
  colonialism and imperialism on group, but sarcasm
  which is evident in phrasing and punctuation
  shows narrator sympathizes

• Black shapes crouched, lay satleaning, clinging
  to the earth, half coming out of the earth, half
  effaced within the dim light in all the attitudes
  of pain, abandonment, and despair

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Diction?Pathos

• The work was going on. The work! And this was
  the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn
  to die.
• Punctuationsarcasm
• Nomination?reduced to mere shadows (lacking
  substance)

• They were dying.not enemiesnot
  criminalsnothing earthly now, nothing but black
  shadows of disease and starvation lying
  confusedly in the greenish gloom.

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Irony (sarcasm)Disapproval of Effects of
Imperialism

• Brought from all the recesses of the coast
• In all the legality of time contracts
• Lostfed on uncongenial food, they sickened,
  became inefficient and were allowed to crawl away
  and rest. (echo to die to rest (irony)

• These moribund shapes
• Free as airand nearly as thin.
• The black bones reclined..sunken eyes..enormous
  and vacantthe manalmost a boy
• Pathos as shift to second section individual
  suffering and helplessness

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Pathos individualized, a boy, free, reduced to
bones? Helplessness

• I found nothing else to do
• Fingers closed slowly
• No other movement no other glance
• Two more bundles of acute angles
• Stared at nothing in an appalling manner
• Al about others were scattered in every pose of
  contorted collapseas in a picture of massacre or
  pestilenceI stood horror struck

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Further helplessness and victimization

• One of these creatures
• On all fours
• Lapped

• General chaos (wanton smash up)
• ScatteredContorted
• Chaos and suffering caused by Imperialism
• Sympathy and Helplessness, horrified and appalled
• Complexity here is in Ironic choices

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TRANSITION juxtaposition but

• I didnt want any more loitering in the shade
• Made haste
• Unexpected elegance of get-up
• Mistook him for a sort of vision
• High starched collar

• White cuffs
• A light alpaca jacket.
• Snowy trousers
• A clean necktie
• Varnished boots
• Hair parted, brushed, oiled under a green lined
  parasol held in a big white hand

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Respect for appearances litotes and irony
undermine statements

• He was amazing and had a pen holder behind his
  ear.
• I shook hands with this miracle
• A breath of fresh air
• Wonderfully odd with its suggestion of sedentary
  desk life

• Moreover I respected the fellow. Yes. I
  respected his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His
  appearance was certainly that of a hairdressers
  dummy
• But in the great demoralization of the land he
  kept up his appearance

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Consider these statements on your college letter

• Thats backbone.
• His starched collars and got-up shirt fronts were
  achievements of character
• He had the faintest blushI have been teaching
  one of the womenit was difficult. She had a
  distaste for the work. ECHO from first section
  The work!)
• Verily accomplished something.devoted to his
  books
• Apple-pie order. Especially in context of
  hellish suffering (hes clueless and morally
  judged)

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Ironic Contrast

• Any respect only for appearances
• Labor of another (esp. when seen in context of
  the dying laborers just)
• Gloomy Inferno Vs breath of fresh air
• Marlow as complex narrator beyond style?
• You know with them it is hard to tell
• Are we invited into Racist complicity? Perhaps
• Does this negate horror? Sympathy?