Heartofdarkness New Shorter

7/29/2019 Heartofdarkness New Shorter

1/32

Joseph Conrads Life

Born Josef Teodore KonradNalecz Korzeniowski, in Poland

(now in Ukraine), in 1857; anobleman

Conrad's father had studied lawand languages at St PetersburgUniversity and wrote radicalpoems and plays.

His father and mother werepolitical activists. They wereimprisoned 7 months and

eventually deported

(1857-1924)


2/32

His father introduced him to the work of Dickens

and Fenimore Cooper in either Polish or Frenchtranslations.

Her mother died of pneumonia; his father died oftuberculosis

Conrad was raised by his uncle; attended school (he

was disobedient) In 1874, Conrad went to Marseilles France and joined

the Merchant Navy

In short, a political exile and then an expatriate, a homo

duplex: a Pole, became a naturalised Englishman in 1886


3/32

Widely read, spoke French and Polish, then

learnt English

As a writer, used a language which wasnt

his own

His being a foreigner using a foreign

language provided him with a doubleperspective ( inside + outside events)


4/32

He travelled widely in the Far East ,Australia, Africa (1890, Congo)

Conrad retired from sailing and tookup writing full time.

Writing took a physical andemotional toll on him. Theexperience was draining

Everything here is repellent to

me ... Men and things, butabove all men


5/32


6/32

Congo in the 1890s

Inner Station


7/32


8/32


9/32


10/32

Kinsagani

Stanleyville


11/32

TheRoi des Belges, the

ship Conrad used to travel

up the Congo


12/32

Speaking I (first narrator)

unnamed; it is through his point of viewthat we learn of Charlie Marlow and his

journey.

Marlow, second narrator

On a yawl on the Thames waiting for the

tide to come in


13/32

We learn about "reality" through other

people's accounts of it, many of which are,themselves, twice-told tales.

= the filter of

memory might bebiasing everything.


14/32

In the first station MARLOW meets the accountant who keeps track of

the funds in Kurtzs company.

The man is interesting to Marlow since hes been on the continent for

three years, yet he keeps himself clean and well dressed. He is the exact

picture of respectability and elegance.

Marlow finds the blacks being poorly treated and ordered to do

meaningless work by the whites.


15/32

Central Station - This is the station where Marlow meets where he

meets the Manager, who for now will oversee his work. The Manager

smiles in a manner that is very discomfiting. The ship that Marlow is

supposed to sail is currently broken. While they await the delivery of

rivets that is needed to fix it, Marlow frequently hears the name"Kurtz"


16/32

It is rumoured that Kurtz is ill. Soon the entire

crew will depart for a trip to Kurtz's station.

The Manager's uncle arrives with his own

expedition. Marlow overhears them sayingthat they would like to see Kurtz and his

assistant hanged so that their station could

be eliminated as ivory competition.

After a day Marlow sets out for Kurtz's

station with the Pilgrims, the cannibal crew,

and the Manager.


17/32

The Inner Station was a Belgian outpost beside a series of cataracts

called Stanley Falls. This natural obstacle marked the last navigable

point on the Congo river.

This is the station where Kurtz works and where Marlow finds him

being worshipped by the savages. Kurtz, having distinguished

himself as a collector of rubber and ivory, loses his mind and ends up

impaling human heads on fence posts around the Inner Station.


18/32

At the end of his journey, Marlow will return to civilization

(London), where he will meet Kurtzs ffiance


19/32

. . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey

the life-sensation of any given epoch of onesexistencethat which makes its truth, its

meaningits subtle and penetrating essence. It is

impossible. We live, as we dreamalone. . .


20/32

English was alien to Conrad, and English was alien to thispart of Africa. English therefore reveals him as anoutsider.

Marlow narrates the story in highly educated language(marking him as a member of civilization, rather than the

"savagery" that defined Africa) and high figurative,symbolic language. This last reveals his subconscious andgives the story its tone and deeper meaning

Heart of Darkness -

Language


21/32

Interrelated interpretative levels

1. Purely narrative adventure story

2. Conrads biography

3. Contemporary history

4. Wider historical perspective (explorers/journeys)

5. Moral issues

6. Psychological point of view7. Philosophical mythical or religious


22/32

Survey of various interpretations of Heart of Darkness

1. Realism the real journey the Congo River Brussels description of Stanleyville Marlow (Conrad) return toAutobiography expectation main office condition in the Inner Station close to dying civilisation

colony

2. Anticolonialismjourney do absurd bureaucracy criticism of Europes so-called alienationPolitics alienation colonialism civilising influence inability to

turned upside down communicate

3. Myth quest expectation delegation of task learning process culmination cleansing return, mission(Arthurian) departure temptation, trial purification accomplished

4. Mythology quest Styx, Lethe ? Nornes, Fates Hades, Hel dnouement danger of the for- homecomingClassical, Norse journey descent into Hades the underworld climax bidden, nemesis

5. Christian A Pilgrims Pro- Snake, tomb, descent lost souls inner Sanctum punishment forgivenessMythology gress, Everyman temptation memento mori limbo of Hell, Inferno purgatory salvation

6. Psychology analysis, method first scary learning process final step into the crisis curePsychiatry introspection revelations desperation Id

7. War movie mission circuit cable staff office, absurdity of the civilisation and Willard alive on mission accom-plugged into Kurtzbureaucracy war, arsehole of morality dissolved Kurtz terms plished, return

the world


23/32

Level 2 Conrads biography

Letters from the Congo

the experience very nearly robbed him of all taste forlife and human kind

Everything here is repellent to me ... Men and things,but above all men

the reader has not got the right to equate Conrad, thewriter, and Marlow, the protagonist and narrator.


24/32

Level 3 Contemporary history

Stanley'sIn Dark Africa was published the

same year as Conrad went to the Congo

To Conrad's contemporaries, European

expansion was seen as a biological

necessity.


25/32

Level 4Wider Historical Perspective

great explorers = brave dedicated men, who hadset their minds to find truth, no matter the cost

conquering a bit of truth here and a bit of truth

there and they were sometimes swallowed up bythe mystery their hearts were so persistently seton unveiling

very few names are mentioned; Conradaims at universality

L l 5 M l i


26/32

Level 5Moral issues

culture and primitive/brutal instincts

Conrad is pessimistic: temptations, evil, hate and

disgust cannor be faught by means of what we callculture and civilization.

Possibility of salvation, for the individual and for

society: restraint. "What saves us is efficiency

Marlow chooses to concentrate on the bearable and

the superficial in order not to see and hear, not to

become involved in something that would affect hispersonality in an extremely unpleasant and thoroughmanner.


27/32

Level 6 Psychological point of view

a journey towards self-knowledge and insight

Jungian individuation process

Jungian terminology: Kurtz =

Marlow's "shadow", the dark side of his

personality, his second self, the side that

Marlow has to acknowledge in order to

become a whole individual.


28/32

Level 7 Philosophical Mythical Religious

Buddhism, ancient myths +archetypal patterns, thenotion of illumination, allusions to classical epic

journeys into the realm of death, to Hades and theunderworld.

allegory of a journey through the various circles ofhell to meet Lucifer at the Inner Station. (Lucifer, theLight bringer)

Virgil'sAeneid, particularly the Sixth Song dealingwith Aeneas' descent into the realms of death.


29/32

Faustus legend: Christopher Marloweinspired thename of the narrator + Faustus and Kurtz = kindredsouls, heroes challenging the unknown, seeking their

own benefit and satisfaction, thereby bringingdisaster to themselves and others

Mythical heroes of the Grail legend looking for

something symbolizing truth and the deepest insight ahuman being can achieve, illuminatio.

The Grail legend speaks of a wounded King on thebanks of a river who has to be saved by the knight insearch of truth.

Marlow reminding us of Buddha,preparedto reachcontact with his subconscious, apart from the others


30/32

Modernism

Heart of Darkness was published in the LateVictorian-Early Modern Era but exhibits mostlymodern traits:

1. an interest in an exploration of the psychological

2. a belief in art as a separate and somewhatprivileged kind of human experience

3. a desire for transcendence mingled with a feelingthat transcendence cannot be achieved


31/32

4. an awareness of primitiveness and savageryas the condition upon which civilization isbuilt, and therefore an interest in theexperience and expressions of non-Europeanpeoples

5. skepticism that emerges from the notionthat human ideas about the world seldom fitthe complexity of the world itself.Consequently, a sense that multiplicity,ambiguity, and irony -in life and in art- are

the necessary responses of the intelligentmind to the human condition.


32/32

EUROPEAN vs AFRICANCIVILIZATION SAVAGERY

Use of deceitful violenceExchanging roles: civilized

whites can be more savage

than primitives

loss of innocence as

members of a civilization

Land of wilderness

savagery and

abomination

Heartofdarkness New Shorter

Documents

Transcript of Heartofdarkness New Shorter