Examples of Outstanding Student Efforts...
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Jan 30, 2011 12:47 pm
The Docks-
According to Freud, characters aren’t just people in a story, but come from the author’s psyche. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow doesn’t just come from Conrad’s head, but is Conrad’s projection of himself. In a literal sense, they are both sailors with no one home who’ve been to Congo. However, Conrad projects himself so perfectly that they even have the same mind. When Conrad says, “The worst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too” and openly says, “But Marlow was not typical” he’s not trying to say that Marlow is strange, but that he, Conrad, is not the same as everyone he knows. His experiences under Russian oppression in Poland, the death of his parents, gun-running, and his time in the Congo separate him from other sailors. Marlow, (who is Conrad) describes the tales of an ordinary sailor as the kernel of a nut. Just crack the shell and you’re done. Marlow, on the other hand, is more complicated. “To him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.” Conrad describes Marlow’s tales with things such as misty halos and moonshine to show what he believes to be a mystique surrounding his own past, that his experiences are a haze barely visible through the darkness.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 1, 2011 6:33 am
Psychoanalytical theory analyzes stories and texts by observing them as a dream and abstracting a hidden feeling or significant event that has happened within the writers (story tellers) life. In the very beginning of the passage, the opening line says "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth.” I believe Marlow is talking about his own mind, his own conscience and the trauma (that we uncover later in the book) that has affected his views towards his own kind, and perhaps, Marlow fears the darkness that could corrupt his own mind. Further down the passage Conrad begins to speak of the shell of a cracked nut, and how many attempt to see and understand what is within the cracked nut. However, Marlow proceeds to say “the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside”. I see the kernel as a symbol of the horrors he witnessed within the Congo. The Congo (the shell) was out and in the open for people to see, however, people pushed it away and continued to search deeper for a noble cause of being in the Congo (looking within the cracked nut). In the second to last paragraph of the passage, Marlow talks about conquers of the Romans, and past savages, how “They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind -as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.” When I read this line I came to the conclusion that he was attempting to justify his own reason for entering the Congo, and that he really found no reason why he or any other European (white) had the right to be in the Congo. Perhaps he hated himself for it, felt guilt, disgust, and shame for his own kind.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 1, 2011 10:02 am
‘The Docks’ Response
In this passage, much is revealed about the minds, thoughts, and attitudes of the characters in the book; specifically Marlow. In the segment, the author not only discloses the story through Marlow’s narration, but masks that story behind the perspective of another third person. This allows us not only to gain an understanding of who Marlow is, but what people think of him and how he associates with others. This style reeks a strange, onion-like feeling. It’s suffocating, really, to have so many layers wrapped around the meat of the story. Only those that truly pursue meanings in this text will find them. Even in the phrasing of sentences and in the choice of words everything is given through a funnel—everything is strained.
Marlow obviously feels very strongly about those that steal ‘from the weakness of others’, this phrase and the few others around it hint at his perspective that their should be minimal amount of leadership in any governing type of situation, especially when it becomes oppressive. Marlow is also a deep man. According to the narrator, “to him the meaning of an episode was not inside...but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze.” Marlow is an introspective thinker, and it can be assumed that he will present his story with the following bias: that the audience on the boat, and therefore the reader, will be expected to see his tale in this same light, as something with a deeper meaning. In this passage, the reader is given permission to dig deeper into the story and to see it how Marlow saw it.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 3, 2011 1:41 pm
Outer Station- The beginning of this passage is, in essence, one large nightmare. All rationality is missing. First, there’s a giant hole in the ground and, “a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.” At first, Marlow couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Eventually, he reasoned that the pit was a mundane task given to the workers for no reason. He didn’t even attempt to explain the pit. To Conrad, these represent the backwards and irrational world that is the Congo. Everything is either defective or useless. Also, he describes the workers as, “nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” yet the accountant is dressed in fine and clean clothes. In this irrational world Conrad created, (or retold) one man has more than an entire nation, yet the rotting corpses that are driven like slaves fund an empire while the few men in charge are completely lazy and incompetent.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 3, 2011 4:28 pm
In this passage Conrad produces many feelings of damage, scarring, and gloom. It states, "Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside." This quote shows the readers the effects of the experiences Conrad went through in the Congo. His heart, being the hillside, and the scar being the ever present feeling and memories of what took place in the Congo. That scar is going to forever be on his heart; a constant reminder of what he saw and experienced. It also states in the passage, "...a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there." This symbolizes all the darkness and evil that had been dumped into Conrad's mind and heart. Everything that he witnessed is going to be in his memory for the rest of his life; just like all of those drainage-pipes will be in that ravine sitting there, untouched, ignored and unmoved. It also states in the passage, "He had a bit of white worsted around his neck...it looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the sea." This is how Conrad felt, he was the white thread from beyond the sea. He came from a whole other world into this abyss of darkness and gloom. He felt out of place, different, despised. He was the white thread that stood out in the darkness. The passage also states, "...a stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads, and brass wire set into the depths of darkness and in return came a precious trickle of ivory." Conrad is trying to show us that, in the journey to the Congo men set off into the sea as good, innocent, caring men. Simple beings, just like the beads, cotton and wire. But in their journey into and through the darkness they changed into greedy, selfish, self-centered men. They turn into a corruptive force, just like the ivory. He fears that he will end up just like all the other men; corruptive, uncaring, and self-centered. In this excerpt about the Outer Station Conrad is trying to show us all the evil and destructive forces in the Congo and how they effect him and his way of life even after he returned home.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 4, 2011 4:31 pm
Outer Station
This section paints a grotesque yet insightful image into the Belgians’ actions in the Congo. As Marlow journeys forward, he notices a hole with a “purpose of which I found it impossible to divine…” This oddity is not a lone marker of the eerie and outlandish in this scene. Soon after, Marlow finds “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair... They were dying slowly -it was very clear”. Certainly this could not be the byproduct of the mere pursuit of monetary gain? Surely this atrocious place isn’t another side effect of an addiction to ivory? A shrine to the wondrous works of that ‘chosen’ part of human kind, always stronger, and always gaining, even to the extent of innocent lives.
This place represents a lot of things. On the surface, the hole could be a fissure to stash the bodies of the Congolese, sure, but deeper still, it speaks of the hearts of the Imperialists--hearts that are empty and without true purpose. The holes are bleak scars, left exposed in the empty land. They are empty, barren, and used, just like the broken individuals, strewn and decaying on the earth.
The confusion and mystery behind Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is comparable to the world of the unconscious, which is the focus of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. Conrad’s writing style does not lay out the facts in a direct manner that is easy for the conscious mind to analyze, but instead leaves hints to direct the reader towards certain interpretations, like the unconscious. Marlow follows his unconscious mind, which is curious about the world. Marlow is described as a wanderer who follows the sea, unlike most seamen who stay with what is familiar to them. Readers of Heart of Darkness also have to stray from their comfort zones to better understand the meaning of the story. The narrator says the ocean is “the mistress of his (a seaman’s) existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.” The sea controls a seaman’s life, but it is still dark and mysterious to him, like the unconscious according to Freud’s theories. Marlow also tells of the journeys of men on land as, “Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.” A psychoanalytical theorist would say that Conrad is trying to describe the wilderness as a nightmare, which eventually gains complete control over the “wild men,” who could not overcome the battle between their curiosity and fear in the midst of darkness and confusion.
The Docks- Psychoanalytical criticism looks at reality as a dream, or a dream as reality for most cases but in this passage we look back upon Conrad's past in the Congo Jungle. Conrad describes his experience from Marlow's point of view and shows emotions through the words and topics he speaks about. Psychoanalytical criticisms liked to Freud see the emotions with relationships to sexuality or death. The reading shows some emotions of uncertainty, which could be linked to death when Conrad speaks of "foreign shores, face changing throughout the immensity of life." This relates to darkness and death because of the unknowingness towards what is coming next. Also, Conrad uses descriptive terms like, "sea the color of lead, and sky the color of smoke," which also portrays dark and dull emotions. It is interesting how Conrad is successful in conveying these emotions through Marlow's character, without disrupting the intended clarity of the novel
The Outer Station-Once again, in the beginning of the passage from the outer docks, a perfect insight to Marlow’s mind is shown. Marlow has arrived in the Congo and is quickly brought to the realization that this place is nothing shy of Hell. "I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don't know.” Marlow refers to a hole in the ground and its insignificance; I see that Marlow is talking of the metaphoric “hole” Europeans were digging them self’s into for the search of a “get rich quick scheme” and how soon the hole of immediate satisfaction will soon reach a dead end, with no way out. Further down Marlow crosses paths with the book keeper, he is infatuated with this man of power and proceeds to say “Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone.” Marlow himself feels inferior to this man of superb stature. This image Marlow creates for us describes the stereotypical European, and how Marlow (even though a white European) does not represent the stereotype.
Outer Station
This section paints a grotesque yet insightful image into the Belgians’ actions in the Congo. As Marlow journeys forward, he notices a hole with a “purpose of which I found it impossible to divine…” This oddity is not a lone marker of the eerie and outlandish in this scene. Soon after, Marlow finds “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair... They were dying slowly -it was very clear”. Certainly this could not be the byproduct of the mere pursuit of monetary gain? Surely this atrocious place isn’t another side effect of an addiction to ivory? A shrine to the wondrous works of that ‘chosen’ part of human kind, always stronger, and always gaining, even to the extent of innocent lives.
This place represents a lot of things. On the surface, the hole could be a fissure to stash the bodies of the Congolese, sure, but deeper still, it speaks of the hearts of the Imperialists--hearts that are empty and without true purpose. The holes are bleak scars, left exposed in the empty land. They are empty, barren, and used, just like the broken individuals, strewn and decaying on the earth.
In this excerpt, we are given another look into Conrad’s mind. In the beginning of this part of the story, Marlow has just stumbled into a ravine full of drainage pipes. He describes it as a small scar that wasn’t very noticeable. This is Conrad attempting to try and find a way to bury this memory, or something like it out of his mind. Or maybe he describes it as this because to others, it is nothing but a small scar that can easily be forgotten but is indefinitely more important to him. “There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.” After he speaks of the broken drainage pipes, he begins to talk about the broken Congolese people in the clearing, those who went there to die. “Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.” I think that he groups the drainage pipes and the Congolese people together; both have been broken, and carelessly thrown away by the Europeans. How could the work go on, with so many people hurting and helpless and dying in the clearing? The people are no more than “black shadows.” It’s interesting wording, it could go in a direction where the people are not important to the point where people barely notice them fading away into the trees, or it could show them in a light where they never go away. They could be representative of shadows in Conrad’s mind, gloomy figures that never truly leave but are always plaguing him with guilt. I think that guilt is something everyone represses; there are always certain memories or actions we will always regret and feel at fault for. Perhaps this passage is his way of an apology. I think this guilt is also stemming from fear; he could have been scared he would end up just like the dying Congolese, the fact that he could be thrown away just as these people were. He could be forgotten. Although he was not Congolese, the Europeans still had no problem leaving them to lie in the clearing. Could that happen to him as well?
The Central Station- The part from this excerpt that sparked my interest was the last paragraph, where Marlow is describing the Eldorado Exploring Expedition. The Eldorado Exploring Expedition is Conrad’s way of smiting the Europeans. They acted under the façade of an exploring expedition, searching for the ever-elusive city of gold, but Conrad knows their true intentions. “To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.” Everyone in the station seemed to know what they did, and this seems to be Conrad’s way of showing that everyone knew what colonizers were doing in the back of their mind, whether they accept it or not. The EEE is Conrad’s projection of European colonists as a whole, describing them as, “reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them.” His experiences give him an undying hatred for colonizers in both his heart and mind. (All 3 parts of it.)
The confusion and mystery behind Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is comparable to the world of the unconscious, which is the focus of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. Conrad’s writing style does not lay out the facts in a direct manner that is easy for the conscious mind to analyze, but instead leaves hints to direct the reader towards certain interpretations, like the unconscious. Marlow follows his unconscious mind, which is curious about the world. Marlow is described as a wanderer who follows the sea, unlike most seamen who stay with what is familiar to them. Readers of Heart of Darkness also have to stray from their comfort zones to better understand the meaning of the story. The narrator says the ocean is “the mistress of his (a seaman’s) existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.” The sea controls a seaman’s life, but it is still dark and mysterious to him, like the unconscious according to Freud’s theories. Marlow also tells of the journeys of men on land as, “Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.” A psychoanalytical theorist would say that Conrad is trying to describe the wilderness as a nightmare, which eventually gains complete control over the “wild men,” who could not overcome the battle between their curiosity and fear in the midst of darkness and confusion.
The Docks- Psychoanalytical criticism looks at reality as a dream, or a dream as reality for most cases but in this passage we look back upon Conrad's past in the Congo Jungle. Conrad describes his experience from Marlow's point of view and shows emotions through the words and topics he speaks about. Psychoanalytical criticisms liked to Freud see the emotions with relationships to sexuality or death. The reading shows some emotions of uncertainty, which could be linked to death when Conrad speaks of "foreign shores, face changing throughout the immensity of life." This relates to darkness and death because of the unknowingness towards what is coming next. Also, Conrad uses descriptive terms like, "sea the color of lead, and sky the color of smoke," which also portrays dark and dull emotions. It is interesting how Conrad is successful in conveying these emotions through Marlow's character, without disrupting the intended clarity of the novel
The Outer Station-Once again, in the beginning of the passage from the outer docks, a perfect insight to Marlow’s mind is shown. Marlow has arrived in the Congo and is quickly brought to the realization that this place is nothing shy of Hell. "I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don't know.” Marlow refers to a hole in the ground and its insignificance; I see that Marlow is talking of the metaphoric “hole” Europeans were digging them self’s into for the search of a “get rich quick scheme” and how soon the hole of immediate satisfaction will soon reach a dead end, with no way out. Further down Marlow crosses paths with the book keeper, he is infatuated with this man of power and proceeds to say “Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone.” Marlow himself feels inferior to this man of superb stature. This image Marlow creates for us describes the stereotypical European, and how Marlow (even though a white European) does not represent the stereotype.
Outer Station
This section paints a grotesque yet insightful image into the Belgians’ actions in the Congo. As Marlow journeys forward, he notices a hole with a “purpose of which I found it impossible to divine…” This oddity is not a lone marker of the eerie and outlandish in this scene. Soon after, Marlow finds “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair... They were dying slowly -it was very clear”. Certainly this could not be the byproduct of the mere pursuit of monetary gain? Surely this atrocious place isn’t another side effect of an addiction to ivory? A shrine to the wondrous works of that ‘chosen’ part of human kind, always stronger, and always gaining, even to the extent of innocent lives.
This place represents a lot of things. On the surface, the hole could be a fissure to stash the bodies of the Congolese, sure, but deeper still, it speaks of the hearts of the Imperialists--hearts that are empty and without true purpose. The holes are bleak scars, left exposed in the empty land. They are empty, barren, and used, just like the broken individuals, strewn and decaying on the earth.
In this excerpt, we are given another look into Conrad’s mind. In the beginning of this part of the story, Marlow has just stumbled into a ravine full of drainage pipes. He describes it as a small scar that wasn’t very noticeable. This is Conrad attempting to try and find a way to bury this memory, or something like it out of his mind. Or maybe he describes it as this because to others, it is nothing but a small scar that can easily be forgotten but is indefinitely more important to him. “There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.” After he speaks of the broken drainage pipes, he begins to talk about the broken Congolese people in the clearing, those who went there to die. “Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.” I think that he groups the drainage pipes and the Congolese people together; both have been broken, and carelessly thrown away by the Europeans. How could the work go on, with so many people hurting and helpless and dying in the clearing? The people are no more than “black shadows.” It’s interesting wording, it could go in a direction where the people are not important to the point where people barely notice them fading away into the trees, or it could show them in a light where they never go away. They could be representative of shadows in Conrad’s mind, gloomy figures that never truly leave but are always plaguing him with guilt. I think that guilt is something everyone represses; there are always certain memories or actions we will always regret and feel at fault for. Perhaps this passage is his way of an apology. I think this guilt is also stemming from fear; he could have been scared he would end up just like the dying Congolese, the fact that he could be thrown away just as these people were. He could be forgotten. Although he was not Congolese, the Europeans still had no problem leaving them to lie in the clearing. Could that happen to him as well?
The Central Station- The part from this excerpt that sparked my interest was the last paragraph, where Marlow is describing the Eldorado Exploring Expedition. The Eldorado Exploring Expedition is Conrad’s way of smiting the Europeans. They acted under the façade of an exploring expedition, searching for the ever-elusive city of gold, but Conrad knows their true intentions. “To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.” Everyone in the station seemed to know what they did, and this seems to be Conrad’s way of showing that everyone knew what colonizers were doing in the back of their mind, whether they accept it or not. The EEE is Conrad’s projection of European colonists as a whole, describing them as, “reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them.” His experiences give him an undying hatred for colonizers in both his heart and mind. (All 3 parts of it.)
Central Station
In this passage, one finds Marlow in his most jubilant state in the Congo so far. He is elated and is enjoying the company of one of the mechanics. For the first time we are presented with a laid back, nonchalant version of Marlow. This shows that he has become comfortable enough in these dark lands to enjoy him self. Some type of change has occurred. Marlow respects the mechanic, although his position may not be the highest in society, Marlow notes his success as a family man and a hard worker. After they banter back and forth for a while, “A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway… vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished, too.” They soon joke about the abrupt image and continue on. Next, he sees the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, whom he calls an “invasion, an infliction, a visitation”. Obviously, this somber group took the life of the party. Marlow seems almost offended by these Europeans, now criticizing their lack of apparent purpose and that they would dare walk into his moment. The most important moment in the scene, however, was when Marlow changes his perspective about Kurtz, "I had given up worrying myself about the rivets…I said Hang! -and let things slide. I had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then I would give some thought to Kurtz. I wasn't very interested in him. No." While reading the passage, we are presented with a new Marlow, unconcerned about the trivial things in the Congo. Perhaps Marlow’s moment of joy, which he experienced here, will make it possible for him to face the greater darkness that still lurks ahead
Inner Station-
In this section Marlow describes Kurtz mental instability and how the darkness (hypothetically) adopted him, “it had caressed him, and -lo! -he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.” However, I see this statement as a direct description of imperialism during the novels era, rather than Kurtz. It states that the darkness (imperialism) had become part of him (Eastern Europe), ruling his (their) life. Another quote that intrigued me was “It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him -but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.” Marlow saw that the darkness, the wild, the unknown, Mother Nature, ruled the human race. The humans whether the natives or pilgrims; all occupied a space on the surface of a greater force. No man can harness its power, Marlow saw the white European attempting to control the darkness, but it was an impossible task that would end in madness.
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” The end. Done, right? Not for Conrad. The Heart of Darkness stretches to the ends of the earth, throughout the world and throughout time. It never ends. Conrad saw the brutal abilities of primitive man, and the savageness of “civilized” man. The evils of colonialism aren’t limited to the Congo, and Conrad knows this. He knows the truth behind South Africa, India, Algeria, and the Opium War. The reason why Conrad doesn’t bring the story to a clean end is because there is no clean end. The Heart of Darkness spreads throughout the world, and the black clouds linger through time. If you were to tell Conrad about Rwanda, the holocaust, or the apartheid, he wouldn’t be surprised. Conrad knows that what he saw in the Congo will haunt him for life, and the Heart of Darkness always haunt mankind.
The Sepulchral City
This passage shows the ending of the darkness Marlow has encountered in the Congo, and perhaps even the beginning of a new one. When he goes to talk to Kurtz’s Intended, she is so convinced that she was the one person who knew him best. She’s unapologetically delusional in the idea that he was simply so talented. In her head, she’s telling herself what she has to believe to justify his death without her, even if she hadn’t known him as well by the end. People change, people come and go. Kurtz’s Intended is still so in love with Kurtz, and the person he was that she has to believe he was just and good in order to validate herself. She needed to tell herself the same thing over and over, that he was good and oh-so-talented in order to continue in such fortitude. “Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark -too dark altogether...." Marlow feels he owes it to her, and her already apparent heartbreak to spare her mind another stress by telling a small white lie. Sometimes people must lie to themselves or one another to overcome parts of their lives, and perhaps this passage represents to Conrad his acceptance of his own darkness, and his moving on from that stage of his life. For him, this lie is the end of the road for him and Kurtz; he needed to create some form of light to drown out the darkness. However, at the end of his story, the director says they’ve lost the first ebb. “I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” This doesn’t recreate the darkness to inundate one with sadness or depression, but is a reference to all of the darkness and trials one faces over the course of their lives. There will always be some form or shape of “darkness,” but it is never impossible to overcome.
The Sepulchral City
This passage represents the burst of phenomena which one would experience while nearing the fringes of a dream. Conrad teaches us that everything has a consequence, not an antidote, and repeatedly we see the characters’ obsessions replaced with other obsessions. This is almost a spitting image of the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality. As one begins to wake up from the dark sleep, we see the imprint of the shadow of Kurtz, and the illusion of the idea of the glorious Kurtz fade away. Kurtz’s words continue to resound in Marlow’s mind. It seems that the obsession that Marlow once had with Kurtz is replaced with his obsession with the things which Kurtz left behind. We also see Kurtz’s lover, a phantom from his life before the madness of the Congo. She notes that he 'drew men towards him by what was best in them…It is the gift of the great…', but at the sound of her voice, Marlow replaces it with the sights, sounds and smells of the Congo with “I had ever heard -the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness.” Kurtz’s beauty is eclipsed by the darkness he had become. Marlow lies to the woman, in order to, in his own mind, quell the madness of the man. However, he trades the peace he leaves with the woman with an increase of his own psychic discomfort. This man, Kurtz, was a placebo to the nations, a drug from which Marlow and all others who loved him must now withdrawal. Darkness is mentioned six times in the passage, and for good reason. For although the reader may be slipping away from the story, it is not into illumination or into some deep epiphany, no. It is into confusion, into a looming psychosis, into oblivion.
In this passage, one finds Marlow in his most jubilant state in the Congo so far. He is elated and is enjoying the company of one of the mechanics. For the first time we are presented with a laid back, nonchalant version of Marlow. This shows that he has become comfortable enough in these dark lands to enjoy him self. Some type of change has occurred. Marlow respects the mechanic, although his position may not be the highest in society, Marlow notes his success as a family man and a hard worker. After they banter back and forth for a while, “A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway… vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished, too.” They soon joke about the abrupt image and continue on. Next, he sees the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, whom he calls an “invasion, an infliction, a visitation”. Obviously, this somber group took the life of the party. Marlow seems almost offended by these Europeans, now criticizing their lack of apparent purpose and that they would dare walk into his moment. The most important moment in the scene, however, was when Marlow changes his perspective about Kurtz, "I had given up worrying myself about the rivets…I said Hang! -and let things slide. I had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then I would give some thought to Kurtz. I wasn't very interested in him. No." While reading the passage, we are presented with a new Marlow, unconcerned about the trivial things in the Congo. Perhaps Marlow’s moment of joy, which he experienced here, will make it possible for him to face the greater darkness that still lurks ahead
Inner Station-
In this section Marlow describes Kurtz mental instability and how the darkness (hypothetically) adopted him, “it had caressed him, and -lo! -he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.” However, I see this statement as a direct description of imperialism during the novels era, rather than Kurtz. It states that the darkness (imperialism) had become part of him (Eastern Europe), ruling his (their) life. Another quote that intrigued me was “It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him -but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.” Marlow saw that the darkness, the wild, the unknown, Mother Nature, ruled the human race. The humans whether the natives or pilgrims; all occupied a space on the surface of a greater force. No man can harness its power, Marlow saw the white European attempting to control the darkness, but it was an impossible task that would end in madness.
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” The end. Done, right? Not for Conrad. The Heart of Darkness stretches to the ends of the earth, throughout the world and throughout time. It never ends. Conrad saw the brutal abilities of primitive man, and the savageness of “civilized” man. The evils of colonialism aren’t limited to the Congo, and Conrad knows this. He knows the truth behind South Africa, India, Algeria, and the Opium War. The reason why Conrad doesn’t bring the story to a clean end is because there is no clean end. The Heart of Darkness spreads throughout the world, and the black clouds linger through time. If you were to tell Conrad about Rwanda, the holocaust, or the apartheid, he wouldn’t be surprised. Conrad knows that what he saw in the Congo will haunt him for life, and the Heart of Darkness always haunt mankind.
The Sepulchral City
This passage shows the ending of the darkness Marlow has encountered in the Congo, and perhaps even the beginning of a new one. When he goes to talk to Kurtz’s Intended, she is so convinced that she was the one person who knew him best. She’s unapologetically delusional in the idea that he was simply so talented. In her head, she’s telling herself what she has to believe to justify his death without her, even if she hadn’t known him as well by the end. People change, people come and go. Kurtz’s Intended is still so in love with Kurtz, and the person he was that she has to believe he was just and good in order to validate herself. She needed to tell herself the same thing over and over, that he was good and oh-so-talented in order to continue in such fortitude. “Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark -too dark altogether...." Marlow feels he owes it to her, and her already apparent heartbreak to spare her mind another stress by telling a small white lie. Sometimes people must lie to themselves or one another to overcome parts of their lives, and perhaps this passage represents to Conrad his acceptance of his own darkness, and his moving on from that stage of his life. For him, this lie is the end of the road for him and Kurtz; he needed to create some form of light to drown out the darkness. However, at the end of his story, the director says they’ve lost the first ebb. “I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” This doesn’t recreate the darkness to inundate one with sadness or depression, but is a reference to all of the darkness and trials one faces over the course of their lives. There will always be some form or shape of “darkness,” but it is never impossible to overcome.
The Sepulchral City
This passage represents the burst of phenomena which one would experience while nearing the fringes of a dream. Conrad teaches us that everything has a consequence, not an antidote, and repeatedly we see the characters’ obsessions replaced with other obsessions. This is almost a spitting image of the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality. As one begins to wake up from the dark sleep, we see the imprint of the shadow of Kurtz, and the illusion of the idea of the glorious Kurtz fade away. Kurtz’s words continue to resound in Marlow’s mind. It seems that the obsession that Marlow once had with Kurtz is replaced with his obsession with the things which Kurtz left behind. We also see Kurtz’s lover, a phantom from his life before the madness of the Congo. She notes that he 'drew men towards him by what was best in them…It is the gift of the great…', but at the sound of her voice, Marlow replaces it with the sights, sounds and smells of the Congo with “I had ever heard -the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness.” Kurtz’s beauty is eclipsed by the darkness he had become. Marlow lies to the woman, in order to, in his own mind, quell the madness of the man. However, he trades the peace he leaves with the woman with an increase of his own psychic discomfort. This man, Kurtz, was a placebo to the nations, a drug from which Marlow and all others who loved him must now withdrawal. Darkness is mentioned six times in the passage, and for good reason. For although the reader may be slipping away from the story, it is not into illumination or into some deep epiphany, no. It is into confusion, into a looming psychosis, into oblivion.
Jan 30, 2011 12:47 pm
The Docks-
According to Freud, characters aren’t just people in a story, but come from the author’s psyche. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow doesn’t just come from Conrad’s head, but is Conrad’s projection of himself. In a literal sense, they are both sailors with no one home who’ve been to Congo. However, Conrad projects himself so perfectly that they even have the same mind. When Conrad says, “The worst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too” and openly says, “But Marlow was not typical” he’s not trying to say that Marlow is strange, but that he, Conrad, is not the same as everyone he knows. His experiences under Russian oppression in Poland, the death of his parents, gun-running, and his time in the Congo separate him from other sailors. Marlow, (who is Conrad) describes the tales of an ordinary sailor as the kernel of a nut. Just crack the shell and you’re done. Marlow, on the other hand, is more complicated. “To him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.” Conrad describes Marlow’s tales with things such as misty halos and moonshine to show what he believes to be a mystique surrounding his own past, that his experiences are a haze barely visible through the darkness.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 1, 2011 6:33 am
Psychoanalytical theory analyzes stories and texts by observing them as a dream and abstracting a hidden feeling or significant event that has happened within the writers (story tellers) life. In the very beginning of the passage, the opening line says "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth.” I believe Marlow is talking about his own mind, his own conscience and the trauma (that we uncover later in the book) that has affected his views towards his own kind, and perhaps, Marlow fears the darkness that could corrupt his own mind. Further down the passage Conrad begins to speak of the shell of a cracked nut, and how many attempt to see and understand what is within the cracked nut. However, Marlow proceeds to say “the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside”. I see the kernel as a symbol of the horrors he witnessed within the Congo. The Congo (the shell) was out and in the open for people to see, however, people pushed it away and continued to search deeper for a noble cause of being in the Congo (looking within the cracked nut). In the second to last paragraph of the passage, Marlow talks about conquers of the Romans, and past savages, how “They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind -as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.” When I read this line I came to the conclusion that he was attempting to justify his own reason for entering the Congo, and that he really found no reason why he or any other European (white) had the right to be in the Congo. Perhaps he hated himself for it, felt guilt, disgust, and shame for his own kind.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 1, 2011 10:02 am
‘The Docks’ Response
In this passage, much is revealed about the minds, thoughts, and attitudes of the characters in the book; specifically Marlow. In the segment, the author not only discloses the story through Marlow’s narration, but masks that story behind the perspective of another third person. This allows us not only to gain an understanding of who Marlow is, but what people think of him and how he associates with others. This style reeks a strange, onion-like feeling. It’s suffocating, really, to have so many layers wrapped around the meat of the story. Only those that truly pursue meanings in this text will find them. Even in the phrasing of sentences and in the choice of words everything is given through a funnel—everything is strained.
Marlow obviously feels very strongly about those that steal ‘from the weakness of others’, this phrase and the few others around it hint at his perspective that their should be minimal amount of leadership in any governing type of situation, especially when it becomes oppressive. Marlow is also a deep man. According to the narrator, “to him the meaning of an episode was not inside...but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze.” Marlow is an introspective thinker, and it can be assumed that he will present his story with the following bias: that the audience on the boat, and therefore the reader, will be expected to see his tale in this same light, as something with a deeper meaning. In this passage, the reader is given permission to dig deeper into the story and to see it how Marlow saw it.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 3, 2011 1:41 pm
Outer Station- The beginning of this passage is, in essence, one large nightmare. All rationality is missing. First, there’s a giant hole in the ground and, “a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.” At first, Marlow couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Eventually, he reasoned that the pit was a mundane task given to the workers for no reason. He didn’t even attempt to explain the pit. To Conrad, these represent the backwards and irrational world that is the Congo. Everything is either defective or useless. Also, he describes the workers as, “nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” yet the accountant is dressed in fine and clean clothes. In this irrational world Conrad created, (or retold) one man has more than an entire nation, yet the rotting corpses that are driven like slaves fund an empire while the few men in charge are completely lazy and incompetent.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 3, 2011 4:28 pm
In this passage Conrad produces many feelings of damage, scarring, and gloom. It states, "Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside." This quote shows the readers the effects of the experiences Conrad went through in the Congo. His heart, being the hillside, and the scar being the ever present feeling and memories of what took place in the Congo. That scar is going to forever be on his heart; a constant reminder of what he saw and experienced. It also states in the passage, "...a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there." This symbolizes all the darkness and evil that had been dumped into Conrad's mind and heart. Everything that he witnessed is going to be in his memory for the rest of his life; just like all of those drainage-pipes will be in that ravine sitting there, untouched, ignored and unmoved. It also states in the passage, "He had a bit of white worsted around his neck...it looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the sea." This is how Conrad felt, he was the white thread from beyond the sea. He came from a whole other world into this abyss of darkness and gloom. He felt out of place, different, despised. He was the white thread that stood out in the darkness. The passage also states, "...a stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads, and brass wire set into the depths of darkness and in return came a precious trickle of ivory." Conrad is trying to show us that, in the journey to the Congo men set off into the sea as good, innocent, caring men. Simple beings, just like the beads, cotton and wire. But in their journey into and through the darkness they changed into greedy, selfish, self-centered men. They turn into a corruptive force, just like the ivory. He fears that he will end up just like all the other men; corruptive, uncaring, and self-centered. In this excerpt about the Outer Station Conrad is trying to show us all the evil and destructive forces in the Congo and how they effect him and his way of life even after he returned home.
re: Webquest: Psychoanalytical theory message board
Feb 4, 2011 4:31 pm
Outer Station
This section paints a grotesque yet insightful image into the Belgians’ actions in the Congo. As Marlow journeys forward, he notices a hole with a “purpose of which I found it impossible to divine…” This oddity is not a lone marker of the eerie and outlandish in this scene. Soon after, Marlow finds “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair... They were dying slowly -it was very clear”. Certainly this could not be the byproduct of the mere pursuit of monetary gain? Surely this atrocious place isn’t another side effect of an addiction to ivory? A shrine to the wondrous works of that ‘chosen’ part of human kind, always stronger, and always gaining, even to the extent of innocent lives.
This place represents a lot of things. On the surface, the hole could be a fissure to stash the bodies of the Congolese, sure, but deeper still, it speaks of the hearts of the Imperialists--hearts that are empty and without true purpose. The holes are bleak scars, left exposed in the empty land. They are empty, barren, and used, just like the broken individuals, strewn and decaying on the earth.
The confusion and mystery behind Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is comparable to the world of the unconscious, which is the focus of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. Conrad’s writing style does not lay out the facts in a direct manner that is easy for the conscious mind to analyze, but instead leaves hints to direct the reader towards certain interpretations, like the unconscious. Marlow follows his unconscious mind, which is curious about the world. Marlow is described as a wanderer who follows the sea, unlike most seamen who stay with what is familiar to them. Readers of Heart of Darkness also have to stray from their comfort zones to better understand the meaning of the story. The narrator says the ocean is “the mistress of his (a seaman’s) existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.” The sea controls a seaman’s life, but it is still dark and mysterious to him, like the unconscious according to Freud’s theories. Marlow also tells of the journeys of men on land as, “Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.” A psychoanalytical theorist would say that Conrad is trying to describe the wilderness as a nightmare, which eventually gains complete control over the “wild men,” who could not overcome the battle between their curiosity and fear in the midst of darkness and confusion.
The Docks- Psychoanalytical criticism looks at reality as a dream, or a dream as reality for most cases but in this passage we look back upon Conrad's past in the Congo Jungle. Conrad describes his experience from Marlow's point of view and shows emotions through the words and topics he speaks about. Psychoanalytical criticisms liked to Freud see the emotions with relationships to sexuality or death. The reading shows some emotions of uncertainty, which could be linked to death when Conrad speaks of "foreign shores, face changing throughout the immensity of life." This relates to darkness and death because of the unknowingness towards what is coming next. Also, Conrad uses descriptive terms like, "sea the color of lead, and sky the color of smoke," which also portrays dark and dull emotions. It is interesting how Conrad is successful in conveying these emotions through Marlow's character, without disrupting the intended clarity of the novel
The Outer Station-Once again, in the beginning of the passage from the outer docks, a perfect insight to Marlow’s mind is shown. Marlow has arrived in the Congo and is quickly brought to the realization that this place is nothing shy of Hell. "I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don't know.” Marlow refers to a hole in the ground and its insignificance; I see that Marlow is talking of the metaphoric “hole” Europeans were digging them self’s into for the search of a “get rich quick scheme” and how soon the hole of immediate satisfaction will soon reach a dead end, with no way out. Further down Marlow crosses paths with the book keeper, he is infatuated with this man of power and proceeds to say “Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone.” Marlow himself feels inferior to this man of superb stature. This image Marlow creates for us describes the stereotypical European, and how Marlow (even though a white European) does not represent the stereotype.
Outer Station
This section paints a grotesque yet insightful image into the Belgians’ actions in the Congo. As Marlow journeys forward, he notices a hole with a “purpose of which I found it impossible to divine…” This oddity is not a lone marker of the eerie and outlandish in this scene. Soon after, Marlow finds “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair... They were dying slowly -it was very clear”. Certainly this could not be the byproduct of the mere pursuit of monetary gain? Surely this atrocious place isn’t another side effect of an addiction to ivory? A shrine to the wondrous works of that ‘chosen’ part of human kind, always stronger, and always gaining, even to the extent of innocent lives.
This place represents a lot of things. On the surface, the hole could be a fissure to stash the bodies of the Congolese, sure, but deeper still, it speaks of the hearts of the Imperialists--hearts that are empty and without true purpose. The holes are bleak scars, left exposed in the empty land. They are empty, barren, and used, just like the broken individuals, strewn and decaying on the earth.
In this excerpt, we are given another look into Conrad’s mind. In the beginning of this part of the story, Marlow has just stumbled into a ravine full of drainage pipes. He describes it as a small scar that wasn’t very noticeable. This is Conrad attempting to try and find a way to bury this memory, or something like it out of his mind. Or maybe he describes it as this because to others, it is nothing but a small scar that can easily be forgotten but is indefinitely more important to him. “There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.” After he speaks of the broken drainage pipes, he begins to talk about the broken Congolese people in the clearing, those who went there to die. “Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.” I think that he groups the drainage pipes and the Congolese people together; both have been broken, and carelessly thrown away by the Europeans. How could the work go on, with so many people hurting and helpless and dying in the clearing? The people are no more than “black shadows.” It’s interesting wording, it could go in a direction where the people are not important to the point where people barely notice them fading away into the trees, or it could show them in a light where they never go away. They could be representative of shadows in Conrad’s mind, gloomy figures that never truly leave but are always plaguing him with guilt. I think that guilt is something everyone represses; there are always certain memories or actions we will always regret and feel at fault for. Perhaps this passage is his way of an apology. I think this guilt is also stemming from fear; he could have been scared he would end up just like the dying Congolese, the fact that he could be thrown away just as these people were. He could be forgotten. Although he was not Congolese, the Europeans still had no problem leaving them to lie in the clearing. Could that happen to him as well?
The Central Station- The part from this excerpt that sparked my interest was the last paragraph, where Marlow is describing the Eldorado Exploring Expedition. The Eldorado Exploring Expedition is Conrad’s way of smiting the Europeans. They acted under the façade of an exploring expedition, searching for the ever-elusive city of gold, but Conrad knows their true intentions. “To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.” Everyone in the station seemed to know what they did, and this seems to be Conrad’s way of showing that everyone knew what colonizers were doing in the back of their mind, whether they accept it or not. The EEE is Conrad’s projection of European colonists as a whole, describing them as, “reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them.” His experiences give him an undying hatred for colonizers in both his heart and mind. (All 3 parts of it.)
The confusion and mystery behind Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is comparable to the world of the unconscious, which is the focus of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. Conrad’s writing style does not lay out the facts in a direct manner that is easy for the conscious mind to analyze, but instead leaves hints to direct the reader towards certain interpretations, like the unconscious. Marlow follows his unconscious mind, which is curious about the world. Marlow is described as a wanderer who follows the sea, unlike most seamen who stay with what is familiar to them. Readers of Heart of Darkness also have to stray from their comfort zones to better understand the meaning of the story. The narrator says the ocean is “the mistress of his (a seaman’s) existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.” The sea controls a seaman’s life, but it is still dark and mysterious to him, like the unconscious according to Freud’s theories. Marlow also tells of the journeys of men on land as, “Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.” A psychoanalytical theorist would say that Conrad is trying to describe the wilderness as a nightmare, which eventually gains complete control over the “wild men,” who could not overcome the battle between their curiosity and fear in the midst of darkness and confusion.
The Docks- Psychoanalytical criticism looks at reality as a dream, or a dream as reality for most cases but in this passage we look back upon Conrad's past in the Congo Jungle. Conrad describes his experience from Marlow's point of view and shows emotions through the words and topics he speaks about. Psychoanalytical criticisms liked to Freud see the emotions with relationships to sexuality or death. The reading shows some emotions of uncertainty, which could be linked to death when Conrad speaks of "foreign shores, face changing throughout the immensity of life." This relates to darkness and death because of the unknowingness towards what is coming next. Also, Conrad uses descriptive terms like, "sea the color of lead, and sky the color of smoke," which also portrays dark and dull emotions. It is interesting how Conrad is successful in conveying these emotions through Marlow's character, without disrupting the intended clarity of the novel
The Outer Station-Once again, in the beginning of the passage from the outer docks, a perfect insight to Marlow’s mind is shown. Marlow has arrived in the Congo and is quickly brought to the realization that this place is nothing shy of Hell. "I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don't know.” Marlow refers to a hole in the ground and its insignificance; I see that Marlow is talking of the metaphoric “hole” Europeans were digging them self’s into for the search of a “get rich quick scheme” and how soon the hole of immediate satisfaction will soon reach a dead end, with no way out. Further down Marlow crosses paths with the book keeper, he is infatuated with this man of power and proceeds to say “Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That's backbone.” Marlow himself feels inferior to this man of superb stature. This image Marlow creates for us describes the stereotypical European, and how Marlow (even though a white European) does not represent the stereotype.
Outer Station
This section paints a grotesque yet insightful image into the Belgians’ actions in the Congo. As Marlow journeys forward, he notices a hole with a “purpose of which I found it impossible to divine…” This oddity is not a lone marker of the eerie and outlandish in this scene. Soon after, Marlow finds “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair... They were dying slowly -it was very clear”. Certainly this could not be the byproduct of the mere pursuit of monetary gain? Surely this atrocious place isn’t another side effect of an addiction to ivory? A shrine to the wondrous works of that ‘chosen’ part of human kind, always stronger, and always gaining, even to the extent of innocent lives.
This place represents a lot of things. On the surface, the hole could be a fissure to stash the bodies of the Congolese, sure, but deeper still, it speaks of the hearts of the Imperialists--hearts that are empty and without true purpose. The holes are bleak scars, left exposed in the empty land. They are empty, barren, and used, just like the broken individuals, strewn and decaying on the earth.
In this excerpt, we are given another look into Conrad’s mind. In the beginning of this part of the story, Marlow has just stumbled into a ravine full of drainage pipes. He describes it as a small scar that wasn’t very noticeable. This is Conrad attempting to try and find a way to bury this memory, or something like it out of his mind. Or maybe he describes it as this because to others, it is nothing but a small scar that can easily be forgotten but is indefinitely more important to him. “There wasn't one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.” After he speaks of the broken drainage pipes, he begins to talk about the broken Congolese people in the clearing, those who went there to die. “Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.” I think that he groups the drainage pipes and the Congolese people together; both have been broken, and carelessly thrown away by the Europeans. How could the work go on, with so many people hurting and helpless and dying in the clearing? The people are no more than “black shadows.” It’s interesting wording, it could go in a direction where the people are not important to the point where people barely notice them fading away into the trees, or it could show them in a light where they never go away. They could be representative of shadows in Conrad’s mind, gloomy figures that never truly leave but are always plaguing him with guilt. I think that guilt is something everyone represses; there are always certain memories or actions we will always regret and feel at fault for. Perhaps this passage is his way of an apology. I think this guilt is also stemming from fear; he could have been scared he would end up just like the dying Congolese, the fact that he could be thrown away just as these people were. He could be forgotten. Although he was not Congolese, the Europeans still had no problem leaving them to lie in the clearing. Could that happen to him as well?
The Central Station- The part from this excerpt that sparked my interest was the last paragraph, where Marlow is describing the Eldorado Exploring Expedition. The Eldorado Exploring Expedition is Conrad’s way of smiting the Europeans. They acted under the façade of an exploring expedition, searching for the ever-elusive city of gold, but Conrad knows their true intentions. “To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.” Everyone in the station seemed to know what they did, and this seems to be Conrad’s way of showing that everyone knew what colonizers were doing in the back of their mind, whether they accept it or not. The EEE is Conrad’s projection of European colonists as a whole, describing them as, “reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them.” His experiences give him an undying hatred for colonizers in both his heart and mind. (All 3 parts of it.)
Central Station
In this passage, one finds Marlow in his most jubilant state in the Congo so far. He is elated and is enjoying the company of one of the mechanics. For the first time we are presented with a laid back, nonchalant version of Marlow. This shows that he has become comfortable enough in these dark lands to enjoy him self. Some type of change has occurred. Marlow respects the mechanic, although his position may not be the highest in society, Marlow notes his success as a family man and a hard worker. After they banter back and forth for a while, “A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway… vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished, too.” They soon joke about the abrupt image and continue on. Next, he sees the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, whom he calls an “invasion, an infliction, a visitation”. Obviously, this somber group took the life of the party. Marlow seems almost offended by these Europeans, now criticizing their lack of apparent purpose and that they would dare walk into his moment. The most important moment in the scene, however, was when Marlow changes his perspective about Kurtz, "I had given up worrying myself about the rivets…I said Hang! -and let things slide. I had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then I would give some thought to Kurtz. I wasn't very interested in him. No." While reading the passage, we are presented with a new Marlow, unconcerned about the trivial things in the Congo. Perhaps Marlow’s moment of joy, which he experienced here, will make it possible for him to face the greater darkness that still lurks ahead
Inner Station-
In this section Marlow describes Kurtz mental instability and how the darkness (hypothetically) adopted him, “it had caressed him, and -lo! -he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.” However, I see this statement as a direct description of imperialism during the novels era, rather than Kurtz. It states that the darkness (imperialism) had become part of him (Eastern Europe), ruling his (their) life. Another quote that intrigued me was “It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him -but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.” Marlow saw that the darkness, the wild, the unknown, Mother Nature, ruled the human race. The humans whether the natives or pilgrims; all occupied a space on the surface of a greater force. No man can harness its power, Marlow saw the white European attempting to control the darkness, but it was an impossible task that would end in madness.
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” The end. Done, right? Not for Conrad. The Heart of Darkness stretches to the ends of the earth, throughout the world and throughout time. It never ends. Conrad saw the brutal abilities of primitive man, and the savageness of “civilized” man. The evils of colonialism aren’t limited to the Congo, and Conrad knows this. He knows the truth behind South Africa, India, Algeria, and the Opium War. The reason why Conrad doesn’t bring the story to a clean end is because there is no clean end. The Heart of Darkness spreads throughout the world, and the black clouds linger through time. If you were to tell Conrad about Rwanda, the holocaust, or the apartheid, he wouldn’t be surprised. Conrad knows that what he saw in the Congo will haunt him for life, and the Heart of Darkness always haunt mankind.
The Sepulchral City
This passage shows the ending of the darkness Marlow has encountered in the Congo, and perhaps even the beginning of a new one. When he goes to talk to Kurtz’s Intended, she is so convinced that she was the one person who knew him best. She’s unapologetically delusional in the idea that he was simply so talented. In her head, she’s telling herself what she has to believe to justify his death without her, even if she hadn’t known him as well by the end. People change, people come and go. Kurtz’s Intended is still so in love with Kurtz, and the person he was that she has to believe he was just and good in order to validate herself. She needed to tell herself the same thing over and over, that he was good and oh-so-talented in order to continue in such fortitude. “Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark -too dark altogether...." Marlow feels he owes it to her, and her already apparent heartbreak to spare her mind another stress by telling a small white lie. Sometimes people must lie to themselves or one another to overcome parts of their lives, and perhaps this passage represents to Conrad his acceptance of his own darkness, and his moving on from that stage of his life. For him, this lie is the end of the road for him and Kurtz; he needed to create some form of light to drown out the darkness. However, at the end of his story, the director says they’ve lost the first ebb. “I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” This doesn’t recreate the darkness to inundate one with sadness or depression, but is a reference to all of the darkness and trials one faces over the course of their lives. There will always be some form or shape of “darkness,” but it is never impossible to overcome.
The Sepulchral City
This passage represents the burst of phenomena which one would experience while nearing the fringes of a dream. Conrad teaches us that everything has a consequence, not an antidote, and repeatedly we see the characters’ obsessions replaced with other obsessions. This is almost a spitting image of the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality. As one begins to wake up from the dark sleep, we see the imprint of the shadow of Kurtz, and the illusion of the idea of the glorious Kurtz fade away. Kurtz’s words continue to resound in Marlow’s mind. It seems that the obsession that Marlow once had with Kurtz is replaced with his obsession with the things which Kurtz left behind. We also see Kurtz’s lover, a phantom from his life before the madness of the Congo. She notes that he 'drew men towards him by what was best in them…It is the gift of the great…', but at the sound of her voice, Marlow replaces it with the sights, sounds and smells of the Congo with “I had ever heard -the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness.” Kurtz’s beauty is eclipsed by the darkness he had become. Marlow lies to the woman, in order to, in his own mind, quell the madness of the man. However, he trades the peace he leaves with the woman with an increase of his own psychic discomfort. This man, Kurtz, was a placebo to the nations, a drug from which Marlow and all others who loved him must now withdrawal. Darkness is mentioned six times in the passage, and for good reason. For although the reader may be slipping away from the story, it is not into illumination or into some deep epiphany, no. It is into confusion, into a looming psychosis, into oblivion.
In this passage, one finds Marlow in his most jubilant state in the Congo so far. He is elated and is enjoying the company of one of the mechanics. For the first time we are presented with a laid back, nonchalant version of Marlow. This shows that he has become comfortable enough in these dark lands to enjoy him self. Some type of change has occurred. Marlow respects the mechanic, although his position may not be the highest in society, Marlow notes his success as a family man and a hard worker. After they banter back and forth for a while, “A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway… vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished, too.” They soon joke about the abrupt image and continue on. Next, he sees the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, whom he calls an “invasion, an infliction, a visitation”. Obviously, this somber group took the life of the party. Marlow seems almost offended by these Europeans, now criticizing their lack of apparent purpose and that they would dare walk into his moment. The most important moment in the scene, however, was when Marlow changes his perspective about Kurtz, "I had given up worrying myself about the rivets…I said Hang! -and let things slide. I had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then I would give some thought to Kurtz. I wasn't very interested in him. No." While reading the passage, we are presented with a new Marlow, unconcerned about the trivial things in the Congo. Perhaps Marlow’s moment of joy, which he experienced here, will make it possible for him to face the greater darkness that still lurks ahead
Inner Station-
In this section Marlow describes Kurtz mental instability and how the darkness (hypothetically) adopted him, “it had caressed him, and -lo! -he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.” However, I see this statement as a direct description of imperialism during the novels era, rather than Kurtz. It states that the darkness (imperialism) had become part of him (Eastern Europe), ruling his (their) life. Another quote that intrigued me was “It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him -but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.” Marlow saw that the darkness, the wild, the unknown, Mother Nature, ruled the human race. The humans whether the natives or pilgrims; all occupied a space on the surface of a greater force. No man can harness its power, Marlow saw the white European attempting to control the darkness, but it was an impossible task that would end in madness.
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” The end. Done, right? Not for Conrad. The Heart of Darkness stretches to the ends of the earth, throughout the world and throughout time. It never ends. Conrad saw the brutal abilities of primitive man, and the savageness of “civilized” man. The evils of colonialism aren’t limited to the Congo, and Conrad knows this. He knows the truth behind South Africa, India, Algeria, and the Opium War. The reason why Conrad doesn’t bring the story to a clean end is because there is no clean end. The Heart of Darkness spreads throughout the world, and the black clouds linger through time. If you were to tell Conrad about Rwanda, the holocaust, or the apartheid, he wouldn’t be surprised. Conrad knows that what he saw in the Congo will haunt him for life, and the Heart of Darkness always haunt mankind.
The Sepulchral City
This passage shows the ending of the darkness Marlow has encountered in the Congo, and perhaps even the beginning of a new one. When he goes to talk to Kurtz’s Intended, she is so convinced that she was the one person who knew him best. She’s unapologetically delusional in the idea that he was simply so talented. In her head, she’s telling herself what she has to believe to justify his death without her, even if she hadn’t known him as well by the end. People change, people come and go. Kurtz’s Intended is still so in love with Kurtz, and the person he was that she has to believe he was just and good in order to validate herself. She needed to tell herself the same thing over and over, that he was good and oh-so-talented in order to continue in such fortitude. “Hadn't he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark -too dark altogether...." Marlow feels he owes it to her, and her already apparent heartbreak to spare her mind another stress by telling a small white lie. Sometimes people must lie to themselves or one another to overcome parts of their lives, and perhaps this passage represents to Conrad his acceptance of his own darkness, and his moving on from that stage of his life. For him, this lie is the end of the road for him and Kurtz; he needed to create some form of light to drown out the darkness. However, at the end of his story, the director says they’ve lost the first ebb. “I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky -seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” This doesn’t recreate the darkness to inundate one with sadness or depression, but is a reference to all of the darkness and trials one faces over the course of their lives. There will always be some form or shape of “darkness,” but it is never impossible to overcome.
The Sepulchral City
This passage represents the burst of phenomena which one would experience while nearing the fringes of a dream. Conrad teaches us that everything has a consequence, not an antidote, and repeatedly we see the characters’ obsessions replaced with other obsessions. This is almost a spitting image of the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality. As one begins to wake up from the dark sleep, we see the imprint of the shadow of Kurtz, and the illusion of the idea of the glorious Kurtz fade away. Kurtz’s words continue to resound in Marlow’s mind. It seems that the obsession that Marlow once had with Kurtz is replaced with his obsession with the things which Kurtz left behind. We also see Kurtz’s lover, a phantom from his life before the madness of the Congo. She notes that he 'drew men towards him by what was best in them…It is the gift of the great…', but at the sound of her voice, Marlow replaces it with the sights, sounds and smells of the Congo with “I had ever heard -the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness.” Kurtz’s beauty is eclipsed by the darkness he had become. Marlow lies to the woman, in order to, in his own mind, quell the madness of the man. However, he trades the peace he leaves with the woman with an increase of his own psychic discomfort. This man, Kurtz, was a placebo to the nations, a drug from which Marlow and all others who loved him must now withdrawal. Darkness is mentioned six times in the passage, and for good reason. For although the reader may be slipping away from the story, it is not into illumination or into some deep epiphany, no. It is into confusion, into a looming psychosis, into oblivion.