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Conrad’s Heart of Darkness : Day Two

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness : Day Two. ENGL 203 Dr. Fike. Quiz. Please clear your desks. Question #1.

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Conrad’s Heart of Darkness : Day Two

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  1. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: Day Two ENGL 203 Dr. Fike

  2. Quiz • Please clear your desks.

  3. 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.")

  4. Question #2 • According to Marlow, how does one overcome darkness? 

  5. Answer: Work • Positive work: • Rivets on 1639/131; see also the end of the same par. • 1645/137: “surface-truth” • Towson’s 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….” • Kurtz’s methods: taking ivory and human heads (1662/154): “Mr. Kurtz’s 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

  6. Question #3 • What do you make of Kurtz's report on 1656-57?

  7. Answers • 1656-57/148-49. • It is opposed to Towson’s book: • Towson: constructive work • Kurtz: futile idealism • It shows Marlow’s 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.

  8. Question #4 • What does the presence of the Russian add in section III (1658ff./150ff.)? 

  9. 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 K’s 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 Towson’s book on 1660/152. Why is this a significant action?

  10. 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?

  11. Answers • It may suggest total self-awareness—awareness 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).

  12. 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: K’s 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!” • K’s avarice on “Live rightly, die, die…” (1670/164): What does K intend to complete the sentence?

  13. Question #6 • Marlow lies to Kurtz's fiancée, the Intended.  What do you make of this?

  14. Answers • 1655/146: “I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie.” • Here is the lie: “The last word he pronounced was—your 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).

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

  16. Question #7 • What has Marlow learned from his experience? • Write for 3 minutes: What is the moral of the story?

  17. 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

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