Who wrote the book and when?
Joesph Conrad, 1899
Kurtz
Kurtz, is a painter, a musician, and a writer. He is the chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow's quest. He is also sick and is considered a "Prodigy".
Marlow
The protagonist of Heart of Darkness. Marlow is philosophical, independent-minded, and generally skeptical of those around him. He is also a master storyteller, eloquent and able to draw his listeners into his tale.
Brickmaker
is a favorite of the manager and seems to be a kind of corporate spy. He never actually produces any bricks, as he is supposedly waiting for some essential element that is never delivered.
The Accountant
An efficient worker with an incredible habit of dressing up in spotless whites and keeping himself absolutely tidy despite the squalor and heat of the Outer Station, where he lives and works. He teaches his native worker to do his Linens.
Aunt
Marlow's doting relative, who secures him a position with the Company. She believes firmly in imperialism as a charitable activity that brings civilization and religion to suffering, simple savages. She, too, is an example for Marlow of the na�vet� and illusions of women
The men on board
The Director, The Accountant, The Lawyer, Marlow and the unnamed narrator. All have been sailors at one time or another, but all now have important jobs ashore and have settled into middle-class, middle-aged lives. They represent the kind of man Marlow would have likely become had he not gone to Africa: well meaning and moral but ignorant as to a large part of the world beyond England.
Fresleven
Marlow's predecessor as captain of the steamer. Fresleven, by all accounts a good-tempered, nonviolent man, was killed in a dispute over some hens, apparently after striking a village chief. He was trying to uphold his image with the natives so as not to be "laughed at", just like George in Shooting an Elephant.
The Hypocrisy of Imperialism
Heart of Darkness explores the issues surrounding imperialism in complicated ways. As Marlow travels from the Outer Station to the Central Station and finally up the river to the Inner Station, he encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery. For example, the starving black people under the tree, or the grove of death, or the six chained black men eachwith a basket on their heads.
What does Marlow do when he sees the starving black person under the tree?
He throws the guy a buscuit. Which tells us, he has a 'soft spot'.
I am not particularly tender
anaphora
anaphora
repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses
3 Devils
Greed, hot desire, flabby
Ties the devils together
Those men put chains around their neck
A neglected.....
Flabby Devil
Folly
ridiculous act
MESSAGE OF HOD
when you are taken to a savage wilderness lacking rules etc..your heart of darkness comes out.
Extra answer
Somber
The Journey into the Congo is what?
a metaphor for the 'journey' into your own heart of darkness.
The Romans
The Romans went to London when it was a savage country. The Romans stole what they could because they could get away with it. It was nothing but violent robbery, aggravated murder on a grand scale, and the robbers were blind, which is fitting since they were attacking a land of darkness. It showed their Heart of Darkness.
Darkness
England, and Brussels are all described as gloomy and somehow dark, even if the sun is shining brightly. Darkness thus seems to operate metaphorically and existentially rather than specifically. Darkness is the inability to see: this may sound simple, but as a description of the human condition it has profound implications. Failing to see another human being means failing to understand that individual and failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with him or her.
whited sepulchre
A sepulchre implies death and confinement, and indeed Europe is the origin of the colonial enterprises that bring death to white men and to their colonial subjects; it is also governed by a set of reified social principles that both enable cruelty, dehumanization, and evil and prohibit change. The phrase "whited sepulchre" comes from the biblical Book of Matthew. In the passage, Matthew describes "whited sepulchres" as something beautiful on the outside but containing horrors within (the bodies of the dead); thus, the image is appropriate for Brussels, given the hypocritical Belgian rhetoric about imperialism's civilizing mission. (Belgian colonies, particularly the Congo, were notorious for the violence perpetuated against the natives.)
Women
. Marlow frequently claims that women are the keepers of na�ve illusions; although this sounds condemnatory, such a role is in fact crucial, as these na�ve illusions are at the root of the social fictions that justify economic enterprise and colonial expansion. In return, the women are the beneficiaries of much of the resulting wealth, and they become objects upon which men can display their own success and status.
The Congo River
The snake that charmed Marlow! it is one of the two reasons he went to the Congo in the first place. he was charmed in the street, infront of a store while looking at a map."But there was one special river in it, a huge river that looked like a giant snake with its head in the sea, its body curling over a vast land, and its tail disappearing somewhere deep in the country. I stared at a map of this land in a store window, looking something like a silly bird staring at a snake. That's when I remembered that there was a big company that did business on that river. Well, hell, I thought, they can't buy and sell anything on the river without using steamboats, and I could sail one of those. As I walked away I couldn't stop thinking about it. The snake had charmed me.
London
one of the dark places of the earth." He notes that when the Romans first came to England, it was a great, savage wilderness to them. He imagines what it must have been like for a young Roman captain or soldier to come to a place so far from home and lacking in comforts.
How did Marlow get his job?
Marlow recounts how he obtained a job with the Belgian "Company" that trades on the Congo River (the Congo was then a Belgian territory) through the influence of an aunt who had friends in the Company's administration. The Company was eager to send Marlow to Africa, because one of the Company's steamer captains had recently been killed in a scuffle with the natives.
where does the doctor say the changes take place?
inside the head, so measuring it again is not necessary. The doctor says only stupid people go into the Congo
The Thames
Thames conjures up images of famous British explorers who have set out from that river on glorious voyages. The narrator recounts the achievements of these explorers in a celebratory tone, calling them "knight-errants" of the sea, implying that such voyages served a sacred, higher purpose. The narrator's attitude is that these men promoted the glory of Great Britain, expanded knowledge of the globe, and contributed to the civilization and enlightenment of the rest of the planet.
Marlow's take on Britain and the Thames
Britain was not the heart of civilization but the savage "end of the world." Likewise, the Thames was not the source of glorious journeys outward but the ominous beginning of a journey inward, into the heart of the wilderness.
metonomy
a term from the Greek meaning "changed label" or "substitute name" __ is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it. For example: a news release that claims "The White House declared" rather than "The President declared
The Two black clothed women represent?
The Fates in Greek mythology
Stupidities and pointless actions in Part 1
The French steamer takes Marlow along the coast of Africa, stopping periodically to land soldiers and customshouse officers, WHEN THERE IS NOBODY THERE TO TAX. Marlow finds his idleness vexing, and the trip seems vaguely nightmarish to him. At one point, they come across a French man-of-war shelling an apparently uninhabited forested stretch of coast AT the "ENEMIES" WHEN MORE SOLDIERS ARE DYING THAN MEN. also MOVING THE BOULDER that wasnt even IN THE WAY of the railroad is POINTLESS.
First Station
Marlow disembarks at the Company's station, which is in a terrible state of disrepair. He sees piles of decaying machinery and a cliff being blasted for no apparent purpose. He also sees a group of black prisoners walking along in chains under the guard of another black man, who wears a shoddy uniform and carries a rifle. He remarks that he had already known the "devils" of violence, greed, and desire, but that in Africa he became acquainted with the "flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly.
Setting
The Thames River. Belgium. Africa. The Outer Station. Central Station.
Quote of Note: "And this also has been ones of the dark places of the Earth." ~ Marlow
Adjectives describing tone
'mournful', 'gloom', 'dark'.
flabby devil
apparent in the travesties of administration and the widespread decay in the Company's stations. The colonials in the coastal station spend all their time blasting a cliff for no apparent reason, machinery lies broken all around, and supplies are poorly apportioned, resting in abundance where they are not needed and never sent to where they are needed.
Who is on the boat? How does the narrator feel about the different people? What details support that?
The people on the boat, are the accountant, the director (helmsman), the lawyer, the narrator and Marlowe. Narrator feels that the director is like their leader and they can all trust in him, because he says,"We four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward." The narrator feels the lawyer is the wisest and the most virtuous because he says "The Lawyer--the best of old fellows--had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug." He thinks the accountant is very mechanical in his ways like when he says, 'The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones.' He thinks Marlow is
where is the good and evil?
Because of the darkness and gloom over the city, I can infer that there is light or good on the ocean and there darkness on civilization.
metonymy
The metonymy found in this paragraph occurs twice; once with the bodies of water, and once with the titles of authority towards the bottom. The titles of the bottom directly relate to 'the company'
Paragraph 10 "Mind, he began..." establishes the ideas behind colonialism. Explain this in your own words. How is Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest (1859) appropriate here?
Survival of the fittest, Strength is just liting from different from others. Conquest of the earth, is the Fact that stronger people take over weaker people.
Women are out of touch with?
reality
Brooding gloom
are the words used over and over in the first paragraph
They were men enough to face the darkness" the darkness there means
The Unknown
Type of work?
Novella
Imperialism
is when they take over the country through the use of power, however when the system is colonialism, they would "Tare the treasure out of the land", they would send their people and forces to take over a country inside and out.
Lugubrious
mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree
Alacrity
liveliness and eagerness
Abomination
something that causes great horror or disgust
Venerable
Respected
Enigma
something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
Insipid
not pleasing to the sense of taste
Somnambulist
someone who walks about in their sleep
Sedentary
characterized by or calling for continued sitting; remaining in one place
Placid
taking life easy
How far does Marlow travel?
Marlow travels overland for two hundred miles with a caravan of sixty men. He has one white companion who falls ill and must be carried by the native bearers, who start to desert because of the added burden. After fifteen days they arrive at the dilapidated Central Station
What does Marlow learn about his Boat in the central station?
The general manager of the Central Station had taken the boat out two days before under the charge of a volunteer skipper, and they had torn the bottom out on some rocks and sunken the ships. In light of what he later learns, Marlow suspects the damage to the steamer may have been intentional, to keep him from reaching Kurtz.
What is the painting in the GM shack of?
blindfolded woman with a lighted torc
The Eldorado Expedition
The Eldorado Exploring Expedition, a group of white men intent on "tear[ing] treasure out of the bowels of the land," arrives, led by the manager's uncle, who spends his entire time at the station talking conspiratorially with his nephew