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Joseph Conrad, Heart Of: Darkness (1899 1902)
Joseph Conrad, Heart Of: Darkness (1899 1902)
Lesson 1
Conrad is sometimes
credited as one of the
fathers of the modern
novel.
His work is in many ways a
transition point between
(typically) Victorian
writing and the modernist
writing of the Edwardian
and WWI eras.
Victorian era
1837-1901
Edwardian
era
19011910/14
WWI
1914-1918
WWII
1939-1945
Literary Modernism
Sometimes associated with a period:
Possibly inter-war years (1918-1939)
Possibly 1910 1939 (Virginia Woolf: in or about
December, 1910, human character changed)
Possibly Edwardian era - 1939
Plot Summary
Work in groups to order the plot
summary.
Marlow hikes from the Outer Station to the Central Station, where he
discovers that the steamship he's supposed to pilot recently sank in an
accident. In the three months it takes Marlow to repair the ship, he learns
that Kurtz is a man of impressive abilities and enlightened morals, and is
marked for rapid advancement in the Company. He learns also that the
General Manager who runs Central Station and his crony the Brickmaker
fear Kurtz as a threat to their positions. Marlow finds himself almost
obsessed with meeting Kurtz, who is also rumored to be sick.
Marlow finally gets the ship fixed and sets off upriver with the General
Manager and a number of company agents Marlow calls Pilgrims because
the staffs they carry resemble the staffs of religious pilgrims. The trip is
long and difficult: native drums beat through the night and snags in the
river and blinding fogs delay them. Just before they reach Inner Station
the steamship is attacked by natives. Marlow's helmsman, a native
trained to steer the ship, is killed by a spear.
At Inner Station, a Russian trader meets them on the shore. He tells them
that Kurtz is alive but ill. As the General Manager goes to get Kurtz,
Marlow talks to the Russian trader and realizes that Kurtz has made
himself into a brutal and vicious god to the natives. When the General
Manager and his men bring Kurtz out from the station house on a
stretcher, the natives, including a woman who seems to be Kurtz's
mistress, appear ready to riot. But Kurtz calms them and they melt back
into the forest.
The Russian sees that the General Manager has it in for him, and
slips off into the jungle, but not before telling Marlow that Kurtz
ordered the attack on the steamship. That night, Marlow discovers
Kurtz crawling toward the native camp. Marlow persuades Kurtz to
return to the ship by telling him he will be utterly lost" if he
causes the natives to attack. The steamer sets off the next day.
But Kurtz is too ill to survive the journey, and gives his papers to
Marlow for safekeeping. His dying words are: "The horror! The
horror!" Marlow believes Kurtz is judging himself and the world.
Marlow also falls ill, but survives. He returns to the sepulchral city
in Europe and gives Kurtz's papers to the relevant people. The last
person he visits is Kurtz's Intended (his fianc). She believes Kurtz
is a great man, both talented and moral, and asks Marlow to tell
her Kurtz's last words. Marlow can't find it in himself to destroy her
beautiful delusions: he says Kurtz's last words were her name.
On the ship in the Thames, Marlow falls silent, and as the Narrator
stares out from the ship it seems to him that the Thames leads
into the heart of an immense darkness."
HoD: Opening
Marlow
Conrads best-known character; often viewed
as Cs alter-ego.
Also appears in the novels Lord Jim and
Chance; also in story Youth (first appearance)
A story-teller of his own and of others tales;
Conrads nameless narrator associates telling
yarns with the life of sea-faring men
Conrads narrative
technique
Frame narrator/Diegetic narrator: The main or primary
narrator. Beyond the diegetic or frame narrator there is
only the author.
Diegesis: the narrative frame. Imagine the diegesis as
the frame around a picture
Conrad makes frequent use of nested narratives, by using
intradiegetic narrators (characters within the story who
tell stories about others telling stories...)
We never know who the diegetic narrator is, or what his
relationship is to the others. The nameless narrator tells us a
story about Marlow telling a story. Marlows stories contain
frequent retellings of others stories...
This use of intradiegetic narrative can be confusing, but it
can also add layers to the narrative.
1. Early in the film, a speaker uses two Latin phrases to describe how
Europe viewed Africa: what are these phrases? Tabula rasa (blank
slate); terra incognita (unknown land)
2. How did European nations and leaders justify the scramble for
Africa; what did they say their mission was? Civilizing mission
3. Of which country was King Leopold II the king? Belgium
4. When was King Leopold IIs sovereignty over Congo recognized?
1835
5. What did he claim his reasons for going into Congo were? What were
they in reality? Education/philantropy (good/kindly deeds)
6. 1,308: to what does this figure refer? Number of hands cut off in
one day
7. What was the decrease in Congos population between 1880 and
1820? 50%, from 20 million to 10 million
8. What contributed to this massive decrease? Deaths due to violent
treatment; also meant that there was no one left to maintain
normal village/tribal life and routines
9. When Leopold was in charge, Congo was not a Belgian colony: what was
Leopolds relationship/involvement with Congo, and how long did it last? He
owned it privately
10.What word is used to describe the exhibiting of African people in the Museum
of Central Africa? Zoos
11.What reasons are given for preserving the Museum of Central Africa? There
is a need to preserve the collective memory of the genocide in
Congo. If the evidence and collective memory are lost, it paves the
way for people who say, Well, it wasnt really as bad as all that, was
it?
12.When were Leopolds crimes made public? What happened as a result? Did
things get better? How/why? What was the decisive factor in changing
things? 1908; control goes to Belgian state; cruelty continues; only
changes when the workforce and therefore potential for profit is
depleted
13.Roughly when did the words genocide, holocaust, and racism come into
common usage? In relation to what events did racism take on its current
meaning? Post WWII, in relation to Nazism and the Holocaust
14.Find the quotation from HoD (shortly after Marlow first speaks) and highlight
it.
Roger Casement
Speed Planning
Approach/Strategy
Content
Setting: Time
When is the story told?
What is the time frame for the telling
of Marlows story?
Significance of this?
Example Paragraph
The diegetic setting of the novel is the Gravesend stretch of the Thames, where
the river broadens into open water. The anonymous frame narrator and his
friends look out to the sea-reach of the river, which looks like an interminable
waterway, while Gravesend and London described as the biggest, and the
greatest, town on earth sits behind them. This use of setting establishes much
of the novellas symbolic framework: the friends look out to the openness and
boundlessness of the water, which seems to promise freedom perhaps this is
the bond of the sea that unites the friends and yet also leads towards a
mournful gloom, or what becomes in the final words of the novella the heart of
an immense darkness. This darkness may well be the colonies of Britain and
Europe, to which the Thames a major trade gateway in the Victorian and
Edwardian periods, leads. However, yet remain anchored against backdrop of
London which, as the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth, embodies
European modernity and industry. The difference between the river and the sea
is also significant: Marlows narrative also concerns a nameless river (which
readers take to be the Congo), and so the diegetic narrative mirrors the
intradiegetic narrative. fo are located at the point where the Thames estuary
begins to broaden into open water: as the friends look out
African Setting
Presentation of Race
Suggested Essay
Structure
1) Overview/intro.
Uneasy combination of:
anti-colonialist feeling
pro-imperialist feeling
anti-racism
Victorian primitivism and exoticism
2) Setting as symbolic of colonial history
London (modernity; profiting from colonialism; looks out to darkness of
colonial lands; light on water linked to map in European city)
European city as symbolic of death/destruction Europe takes to Africa
(colour symbolism; links to other part of Marlows story)
Presentation of African continent on first arrival
3) Contrasting and conflicting presentation of Africans (pages 4045/13-17)
Term 2
Beginning of Pt. II
Find the long paragraph that begins,
I was broad awake by this time
About two thirds of the way through,
the nephew/station Manager
complains of Marlow and the things
he said (And the pestiferous
absurdity)
What do you notice about this
section?
The journey
What similarities/differences do you
notice in the presentation/use of
setting early in Parts I and II?
In class, Tuesday: How are race and colonialism presented in the novella
so far?
1) Overview/intro.
Uneasy combination of:
anti-colonialist feeling
pro-imperialist feeling
anti-racism
Victorian primitivism/exoticism/racism
2) Setting as symbolic of colonial history
London (modernity; profiting from colonialism; looks out to darkness of colonial
lands; light on water linked to map in European city)
European city as symbolic of death/destruction Europe takes to Africa (colour
symbolism; links to other part of Marlows story)
Presentation of African continent on first arrival
3) Contrasting and conflicting presentation of Africans (pages 40-45/1317)
Planning Questions
1. Summary statement: how are women presented in
the novella? Or: what is the prevailing attitude towards
women?
2. Do you think this is more or less in keeping with
dominant attitudes of the day?
3. Review key extracts: can you group them together
according to any of the following?
Language
Imagery
Attitudes
Contrast
Kurtz
What do we know about Kurtz (or,
what can we remember about him)?
Language
Imagery
Attitudes
Contrast
Level
Level
Level
Level
Level
5: A
4+: B
4-: C
3+: D
3-: E
Common Issues
Pieces are too brief/not developed
enough (what is said is fine, but more
is needed)
Quotes used, but language not
analysed in (much) detail
Context needs to be used to clearly
support your points the rule with
context is, where possible, little but
often
Planning/Writing introductions.
You will do better if you try to engage with the
task in detail
Pick an argument/develop a thesis
Avoid bland responses that take up space
and time, but dont tell us much. E.g.:
Q: How does Conrad use X in HoD?
In HoD, Conrad uses X in many ways. He does this to
draw the reader in.
How questions
What is how asking you? How
many ways can answer it?
How are particular effects created?
What techniques are used to create
these effects?
What might the author be trying to
say/achieve/explore?
Effects of Marlow
Distancing effect (intradiegetic structure); but why
might Conrad want critical distance (context)?
Mask his own voice/experiences
Amplify his own voice/experiences
To give voice to moral ambiguities of the situation
To create sense of truth/verisimilitude
(realistic/close to the facts) Marlow, like
Conrad himself, is able to bear witness to the
horror of colonialism.
Someone who can comment not only historical
events, but also on the human condition
Intradiegetic narrator
Recurring character/best-known character in Conrad
Conrads alter-ego?
Nice way of
sign-posting
things for
your reader
Last Development:
I said I would outline three ways in
which Conrad uses Marlow:
1. Distancing effect (critical distance)
2. First-person witness
3. Moral ambiguities/uncertainties
Quick review
What does that introduction have
going for it?
Thinks to consider:
1. How does Marlow put critical
distance between Conrad the
author and the events depicted
in the novella? (Structure and/or
language)
2. Why might Conrad want this critical
distance? (Authorial
intention/context)
Marlo
w
Claim/Argument/Statement
Example(s) (quotes)
Explanation/Development/Exploration
Some critics among them Chinua Achebe believe that Marlow is little more than
Conrads alter-ego and mouthpiece. This is largely due to the similar seafaring careers that
Conrad and Marlow (his best-known storyteller) led. However, because Marlow is an
intradiegetic narrator, there is a sense of critical distance between the author and his
character, and this allows Conrad to raise questions rather than simply giving answers.
One important example of this is Marlows concern with truth, which word is mentioned
repeatedly across the novella. Marlow speaks often of searching for a truth that is
forever symbolically hidden, either in the literal and metaphorical heart of an
impenetrable darkness (which is both the mystery of colonial Africa and the mysterious
darkness of Kurtz) or beneath the surface of the oily and languid sea (the water being a
recurring symbol for time and memory in the novella). It may be, then, that Conrad was
still trying to interpret and understand the truth of his Congo experiences when he wrote
Heart of Darkness, and that by situating Marlow as an intradiegetic narrator, he was able
to examine his own experiences from a more critical distance. It is never entirely clear
what truth Marlow was and perhaps still is searching for. Perhaps Marlow himself is
not always quite sure. But it is hard not to think that it ends up being the horror of
European colonialism. After all, it is this horror that echoes in Kurtzs last words (The
horror! The horror!) and in Marlows memory for so many years. We know from Conrads
letters to Roger Casement that, so disgusted was Conrad with King Leopold IIs
colonization of the Congo and its people, that he was tempted to say there is no more
Europe. Through Marlows failed search for truth, then, and by using the intradiegetic
structure of the novella to make Marlow a somewhat distanced and obscure narrator,
Conrad symbolically and literally shows his readers rather than simply telling them about
the senseless horror and brutality of the colonial project and is able to gain critical
distance from his own experiences.