Ms. Losen's British Literature Class 2008-9

All of the following quotes will be taken from your textbooks and the page numbers here will indicate that.

Conrad:

Know when he was born and when he died. Know about his background (born Polish, for example). Know how his life is reflected in his various works of fiction, including this one.

Know about Belgian King Leopold II.

Know the name of the person on whom the character Kurtz is based. Know what that name means (translated into English).

Part One:

What do you make of the protagonist's name--Charlie Marlow? Think of "Doctor Faustus."

Note the atmosphere of "brooding gloom."

Where does the story begin (geographically)? What is significant about this?

Be able to describe Marlow as he begins his tale on pages 948-949. He sits very much like the Buddha and Conrad makes a number of allusions to this.

Buddhism: From The World's Great Religions, Henry R. Luce, ed., Time: New York: 1957, pp. 41-44.

Siddhartha Gautama was born near what is now Nepal around 563 B.C. He was "the son of an aristocratic chieftain of the second, or warrior caste,...[and] brought up in luxury." He was a great athlete, and particularly good in archery. He won his wife in an archery contest. "The life of luxury and domestic happiness...was not enough....he...rode out into the world where, for the first time, he saw the spectacle of human suffering. After observing an old man, a sick man, and an ascetic, Guatama returned to his palaces profoundly troubled by the misery that lay around him. Then, one night, in the spirit of...renunciation,, he left...his luxurious home to take up the life of the wandering mendicant. He shaved his head and put on the distinctive saffron robes of a monk."

Only 29 years old, he wanted "to solve the riddle of life." He meditated for six years. He tried various other forms of asceticism. "Finally, he seated himself under...the sacred Bodhi tree...to think and vowed that he would not move until he attained the secret of enlightenment." He meditated for 49 days and was able to achieve enlightenment, and was "thereafter...known as the Buddha, or 'the Enlightened One.'"

Buddhists believe in reincarnation, "that all living beings go through countless cycles of birth, death, and rebirth." They also believe in Karma, "the cosmic law of cause and effect by which virtuous conduct is rewarded in future reincarnations and bad conduct leads to retribution."

"Another was the conception of the world as an abode of ignorance and sorrow from which wise men should seek release. Still another was the idea of renunciation: that the path to wisdom lay in taming the appetites...of the flesh."

Buddha "preferred what he called the Middle Way between asceticism and self-indulgence and believed that he wise man avoided both these extremes in a life of calm detachment."

The Four Noble Truths:

1. Suffering is universal
2. The cause of suffering is craving, or selfish desire
3. The cure for suffering is the elimination of craving
4. The way to eliminate craving is to follow the Middle Way, the Noble Eightfold Path.

"The Noble Eightfold Path consists of 1) right knowledge, 2) Right intention, 3) Right speech, 4) Right conduct, 5) Right of livelihood, 6) Right effort, 7) Right mindfulness, 8) Right concentration."

"For Buddhists, the practice of the virtues indicated in these short phrases forms a method of self-discipline that will lead to a life of good works and inner peace of mind....The third and forth of these phrases [include] the Five Precepts:

1. To abstain from taking a life
2. To abstain from the taking of what is not given
3. To abstain from certain physical intimacies
4. To abstain from lying
5. To abstain from intoxicants "because they tend to cloud the mind."

"Nirvana is...impersonal ultimate reality."

Cycles--Fire, Flood, Life.

Consider how the concepts of Buddhism are applied in the novel. Consider how ignoring these ideas lead to despair.

Know which characters sit with him. They are labeled, rather than named.

Note the references to the following "great men" and "great ships" and "great stories." What are they supposed to represent? What values?
Sir Francis Drake
Sir John Franklin
The Golden Hind
Erebus
Terror

Why does Marlow talk about the Romans?

Falerian Wine: a wine celebrated by Roman poet and satirist, Horace.

Marlow is described almost like a Buddha. Take note of that, especially later.

Marlow is immediately set apart from the rest, and from other sailors:

He was the only man of us who still "followed the sea." 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, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a
sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is
always with them--the ship; and so is their country--the sea. One ship is very
much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their
surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of
life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful
ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea
itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.
For the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on the
shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole continent, and
generally he finds the secret not worth knowing. The yarns of seamen have
a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked
nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted),
and 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 (950).

Pay attention to all the light and dark images. Consider light and enlightenment.

Marlow's words are almost meditative, and resonant with allusions. He describes the Congo River as "'an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked tat the map of it in a shop window, it fascinated me as a snake would a bird--a silly little bird. Then I remembered there was a big craft on that lot of fresh water--steamboats! Why shouldn't I try to get charge of one? I went on along Fleet Street, but could not shake off the idea. The snake had charmed me" (952).

How is Marlow's aunt portrayed? Why is this ironic?

Who was Freslaven? Where was he from? What happened to him? Over what circumstances?

What happened to the Africans during this incident?

Marlow describes which city as "a whited sepulcher"?

Sepulcher: n. a burial vault of rock or stone.

Notice the way the two women are portrayed and what they are doing.

Somnambulist: sleep-walker.

Think of the Three Fates.
Think of this, in the heroic cycle, as "the jumping-off place."

Note the religious connotations of this language. The white haired secretary "beckoned me into the sanctuary" (953).

Do you remember Charon, the first river-pilot that Dante encounters early in the Inferno?

I AM THE WAY TO THE CITY OF WOE
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE
I AM THE WAY TO ETERNAL SORROW.
SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.
I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,
PRIMORDIAL LOVE, AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.
ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR
WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.
These great mysteries I read cut into stone
above a gate. And turning I said, "Master,
what is the meaning of this harsh inscription?"
And he then as initiate to novice:
"here you must put by all division of spirit
and gather your soul against all cowardice.
This is the place I told you to expect.
Here you shall pass among the fallen people,
souls who have lost the good of intellect."
Here sighs and cries and wails coiled and recoiled
on the starless air, spilling my soul to tears.
A confusion of tongues and monstrous accents toiled
in pain and anger. Voices harsh and shrill
and sounds of blows, all intermingled, raised
tumult and pandemonium that still
whirls on the air forever dirty with it
as if a whirlwind sucked at sand. And I,
holding my head in horror, cried: "Sweet Spirit,
what souls are these who run through this black haze?"
And he to me: "These are the nearly soulless
whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise.
They are mixed here with that despicable corps
of angels who were neither for God nor Satan,
but only for themselves. The High Creator
scourged them from Heaven for its perfect beauty,
and Hell will not receive them since the wicked
might feel some glory over them." And I:
"Master, what gnaws at them so hideously
their lamentation stuns the very air?"
"They have no hope of death," he answered me,
"and in their blind and unattaining state
their miserable lives have sunk so low
that they must envy every other fate.
No word of them survives their living season.
Mercy and Justice deny them even a name.
Let us not speak of them: look, and pass on."
I saw a banner there upon the mist.
Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause.
So it ran on, and still behind it pressed
a never-ending rout of souls in pain.
I had not thought death had undone so many
as passed before me in that mournful train.
And some I knew among them; last of all
I recognized the shadow of that soul
who, in his cowardice, made the Great Denial.
At once I understood for certain: these
were of that retrograde and faithless crew
hateful to God and to His enemies.
These wretches were never born and never dead
ran naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets
that goaded them the more they fled,
and made their faces stream with bloody gouts
of pus and tears that dribbled to their feet
to be swallowed there by loathsome worms and maggots.
Then looking onward I made out a throng
assembled on the beach of a wide river,
whereupon I turned to him: "Master, I long
to know what these souls are, and what strange usage
makes them eager to cross as they seem to be
in this infected light." At which the Sage:
"All this shall be known to you when we stand
on the joyless beach of Acheron." And I
cast down my eyes, sensing a reprimand
in what he said, and so walked at his side
in silence and ashamed until we came
through the dead cavern to that sunless tide.
There, steering toward us in an ancient ferry
came an old man with a white bush of hair,
bellowing: "Woe to you depraved souls! Bury
here and forever all hope of Paradise:
I come to lead you to the other shore,
into eternal dark, into fire and ice.
And you who are living yet, I say begone
from those who are dead." But when he saw me stand
against his violence he began again:
"By other windings and by other steerage
shall you cross to that other shore. Not here! Not here!
A lighter craft than mine must give you passage."
And my Guide to him: "Charon, bite back your spleen:
This has been willed where what is willed must be,
and is not yours to ask what it may mean."
The steersman of that marsh of ruined souls,
who wore a wheel of flame around each eye,
stifled the rage that shook his woolly jowls.
But those unmanned and naked spirits there
turned pale with fear and their teeth began to chatter
at sound of his rude bellow. In despair
they blasphemed God, their parents, their time on earth,
the race of Adam, and the day and the hour
and the place and the seed and the womb that gave them birth.
But all together they drew to that grim shore
where all must come who lose the fear of God.
Weeping and cursing they come for evermore,
and demon Charon with eyes like burning coals
herds them in, and with a whistling oar
flails on the stragglers to his wake of souls.
As leaves in autumn loosen and stream down
until the branch stands bare above its tatters
spread on the trustling grounds, so one by one
the evil seed of Adam in its Fall
cast themselves, at his signal, from the shore
and streamed away like birds who hear their call.
So they are gone over that shadowy water,
and always before they reach the other shore
a new noise stirs on this, and new throngs gather.
"My son," the courteous Master said to me,
"all who die in the shadow of God's wrath
converge to this from every clime and country.
And all pass over eagerly, for here
Divine Justice transforms them and spurs them so
their dread turns wish: they yearn for what they fear.
No soul in Grace comes ever to this crossing;
therefore if Charon rages at your presence
you will understand the reason for his cursing."
When he had spoken, all the twilight country
shook so violently, the terror of it
bathes me with sweat even in memory:
the tear-soaked ground gave out a sigh of wind
that spewed itself in flame on a red sky,
and all my shuttered senses left me. Blind,
like one whom sleep comes over in a swoon,
I stumbled into darkness and went down" (1-134).

Note the passive language used when the white-haired secretary "beckons" the narrator.

Note the irony: "From behind that structure came out an impression of pale plumpness in a frock coat. The great man himself. He was five feet six, I should judge, and had his grip on the handle-end of ever so many millions" (953).

Pall: a velvet cloth for spreading over a coffin. Something that covers, especially with darkness or gloom.

All of these people seem to have a kind of other-worldly or under-worldly appearance.

Why does the doctor measure Marlow's head?

Note that Marlow asks if the doctor is an alienist.

Phrenology: a study based on the outmoded idea that a person's mental faculties are indicated by the shape of his/her head or skull.

Alienist: a physician who treats mental disorders, especially one who specializes in related legal matters.

Why does the doctor ask Marlow about madness in his family?

Who is this?:

I found her triumphant. I had a cup of tea--the last decent cup of tea for many days--and in a room that most soothingly looked just as you would expect a lady's drawing room to look; we had a long quiet chat by the fireside. In the course of these confidences it became quite plain to me I had been represented to the wife of a high dignitary, and goodness knows to how many more people besides, as an exceptional and gifted creature--a piece of good fortune for the company--a man you don't get hold of every day.... (955).

Passive again!

Something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle. There had been a lot of such rot let loose in print and talk just about that time, and the excellent woman, living in the rush of all that humbug, got carried off her feet. She talked about "weaning all those ignorant millions from their horrid ways," till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the company was run for profit.

"You forget, dear Charlie, that the laborer is worthy of his hire," she said, brightly. It's queer how out of touch women are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is to beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before
sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over (955).

Emissary: an agent, especially of a national government, sent on a misson.

Apostle: One of 12 disciples sent forth by Christ to preach the gospel. A pioneer of any reform movement.

Describe Marlow's first experience on the French steamer. How does it live up to his expectations or how does it disappoint him?

What is this saying about bureaucracy?

How does Marlow react to the first black men he sees?

Note all the "slimy" images. Consider the imagery in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

The fair breeze flew, the white foam flew, /The furrow followed free; / We were the first that ever burst /Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, / Twas sad as sad could be, / And we did speak only to break/The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon, /Right up above the mast did stand, /No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day, / We stuck, no breath nor motion;As idle as a painted ship/Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water every where, /And all the boards did shrink;/ Water, water every where, / Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ! / That ever this should be! / Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs / Upon the slimy sea.

About, about in reel and rout / The death-fires danced at night; /The water, like a witch's oils, / Burnt green, and blue and white (103-130).

from Part III

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, / We could nto laugh nor wail; / Through utter drought all dumb we stood! / I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, / And cried, A sail! a sail!

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, / Agape they heard me call: / Grammercy! they for joy did grin /And all at once their breath drew in, / As they were drinking all.

See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more! Hither to work us weal; / Without a breeze, without a tide, / She steadies with upright keel!

The western wave was all a-flame. / The day was well nigh done! /Almost upon the western wave / Rested the broad bright Sun; / When that strange ship drove suddenly / Betwixt us and the Sun (157-176).

from Part IV:

Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea! / And never a saint took pity on /
My soul in agony.

The many men, so beautiful! / And they all dead did lie:/ And a thousand thousand slimy things / Lived on; and so did I.

I looked upon the rotting sea, /And drew my eyes away; / I looked upon the rotting deck,/And there the dead men lay.

I looked to Heaven, and tried to pray; / But or ever a prayer had gusht, /A wicked whisper came, and made / My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close, / And the balls like pulses beat; / For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky / Lay, like a load, on my weary eye, /And the dead were at my feet (232-252) .

from Part V:

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still /The Moon was at its side: / Like waters shot from some high crag, /The lightning fell with never a jag, / A river steep and wide.

The loud wind never reached the ship, /Yet now the ship moved on! /Beneath the lightning and the Moon / The dead men gave a groan.

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, /Nor spake, nor moved their eyes; /It had been strange, even in a dream,/ To have seen those dead men rise.

The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;/Yet never a breeze up blew;/ The mariners all 'gan work the ropes, / Where they were wont to do; / They raised their limbs like lifeless tools--/ We were a ghastly crew (322-340).

from Part VII:

Since then, at an uncertain hour, / That agony returns: /And till my ghastly tale is told, / This heart within me burns. /I pass, like night, from land to land;/I have strange power of speech; /That moment that his face I see, /I know the man that must hear me:/ To him my tale I teach (582-590).

He went like one that hath been stunned,/And is of sense forlorn: / A sadder and a wiser man, / He rose the morrow morn (622-625).

lugubrious: mournful or gloomy, especially exaggeratedly so.

Droll: amusing in an odd way.

Dance of Death: a medieval belief htat the figure of Death led people off to their fate of Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory.

Catacomb: an existing underground cemetary, especially one consisting of tunnels with recesses for tombs.

Why does Marlow describe the first part of his journey as "a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares" (957)?

What does "pilgrimage" connote? Why is that ironic?

The next ship, the "little seagoing steamer," is captained by a man of what nationality?

What does this man tell Marlow that he has seen? How does Marlow react to this? How does the European speak? What does he reveal about his predecessor? Why should this information worry Marlow?

Describe the waste that Marlow sees at the next station. What is the significance of this?

What does Marlow see in the middle of a field?

What "looked as dead as the carcass of some animal"?

How are the Africans described on page 957-958?

What do the Europeans call them? Why does this bother Marlow?

Alacrity: 1. cheerful readiness. 2. liveliness or briskness.

Rapacious: 1. giving to stealing for plunder. 2. inordinately greedy. 3. subsisting on living prey.

Oblique: indirectly stated or expressed

Despair: loss of hope.

Efface: to remove by or as if rubbing out; to make oneself conspicuous.

Moribund: in a dying state.

What does Marlow offer the first suffering African he sees?

What is that African wearing about his neck? What is significant about that?

Describe the Chief Accountant.

How does Marlow react to this man?

What is ironic about the way this man is dressed?

How does the Chief Accountant act when the sick man is brought inside?

Why are we surprised by this?

What does the Chief Accountant say about Mr. Kurtz?

What does the Chief Accountant say about his own female servant?

Describe the roads in this section of the book.

Describe the body Marlow finds on one of these roads.

Describe the man who is supposedly in charge of the upkeep of these roads.

What does Marlow find when he reaches the Central Station?

Describe the man who tells Marlow that the "manager himself" is actually at the Central Station (962).

Describe the manager. Describe the "curious" interview that Marlow has with the manager. What makes it "curious"? Is that how you would describe it?

Why is it that "'Men who come out here should have no entrails'"?

Entrails: the internal parts of an animal, especially the intestines.

What does the manager reveal about Mr. Kurtz?

Redeem: 1. to buys something back, as something pawned. 2. to buy off, as a mortgage. 3. to exchange bonds, trading stamps, etc. for money or goods. 4. to discharge or fulfill (a pledge, etc. 5. to make amends for (some fault). 6. to obtain the release of, as by paying a ransom. 7. to set free or save, as a sinner.

Imbecile: 1. a dull, stupid person. 2. obsolete: a person lacking the capacity to develop beyond a mental age of seven or eight years. adj. Mentally feeble; mentally absurd.

Stave: n. 1. one of the thin, narrow pieces of wood that form the sides of a cask, barrel, etc. 2. a stick or a rod. 3. v. to prevent or to keep off. To break a hole in, especially a boat.

Staves have other connotations as well. They are carried by shepherds. So there is that potential allusion to Christ or to various saints. In Tarot archetypes, staves or wands generally portend something negative. The Magician carries one.

There are also a number of fools in the novel. The fool is the initiate, the one who must fall in order to learn, in order to become a hero.

From Nichols, Sallie. Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1984:

The Fool is a wnderer, energetic, ubiquitous, and immortal....the most powerful of all the Tarot Trumps. Since he has no fixed number he is free to travel at will, often upsetting the established order....His vigor has propelled him across the centuries where he survives in...playing cards as the Joker. Here he still enjoys confounding the Establishment. In poker he goes wild, capturing the king and all his court....In Greece it was believed that keeping a fool about the premises warded off the evil eye....The Joker connects two worlds--the everyday, contemporary world...and the nonverbal land of imagination....To act as the king's spy was...an important function fo the court jester. Being a privileged character, the fool could easily mingle with any group nosing out gossip and assessing the political temper (23).
....Symbol...for the union of many kinds of opposites is...the Fool's motley. Its variegated colors and haphazard design might...[suggest] a discordant spirit; yet within this apparent chaos, a pattern is discernible. Thus the Fool presents himself as one bridge between the chaotic world of the unconscious and the ordered world of consciousness. In this way he is related to the Trickster archetype (24).
The Fool's French name, Le Fou, cognate with the word "fire," echoes his connection with light and energy. As the Jester himself might put it, "I am light and I travel light"....A symbol of Promethean fire, the archetypal Fool personifies the transforming power which created civilization--and which can also destroy it. His potential for creation and destruction, for order and anarchy, is reflected in the way he is presented in the old Mareilles Tarot. He is pictured walking his own way, free of all encumbrances of society, without even a path to guide him; yet he wears the conventional dress of the court jester, indicating that he holds an accepted place within the ruling order. At court he plays a unique role as the king's companion, confidant, and privileged critic....His presence serves the ruling powers as a constant reminder that the urge to anarchy exists in human nature and that it must be taken into account (30).
In our journey toward individuation, the archetypal Fool often demonstrates both the resistance and the initiative inherent in his nature by influencing our lives in less drastic and more creative ways. His impulsive curiosity urges us on to impossible dreams while at the same time his playful nature tries to lure us back to the laissez-faire childhood days. Without him we would never undertake the task of self-knowledge; but with him we are always tempted to dawdle by the wayside. Since his is part of ourselves cut off form ego-consciousness, he can play tricks on our thinking mind....(34).
The Fool's costume connects him...with the primal power of the Creator and the innocence of the newly created. Despite the precipice yawning before him Waite's young Fool prances along without a care. His head is wrapped in cloudy dreams of a perfect world free of all mishap, and his heart yearns for romance and adventure. He looks as naive as Parsifal. Like Parsifal, the Great Fool, he has no notion what question to ask of life or even that one is required; but he has a little dog who can smell out danger and help him to avoid it (35-36).
As with Parsifal, the Fool's connection with his instinctual side has the potential to save not only himself but all mankind as well. In this connection, Joseph Campbell has often [said] that it was precisely Parsifal's complete reliance on his naive intuition that prompted him to disregard conventional good manners and the advice of his elders, so that in the end he asked the one simple question needed to redeem the Waste Land (36).
The fool is a loner, his method is secretive. He pops up suddenly crowing
"April Fool" and is gone again. The Magician will include us in his plans. He
welcomes our attendance at his magic show, sometimes even inviting us on stage
as his accomplice. Some degree of cooperation on our part is necessary for the
success of his magic (46).
The Fool is the happy-go-lucky amateur; the Magician is a serious professional. As the Fool's magic is wholly spontaneous, he is as surprised as we at its result. If it fails, he is unconcerned, bounding along to the next adventure with a shrug. With the Magician, it is quite othewise, for he is a dedicated artist....The Magician, being Tarot Trump number one...is interested in discovering the one creative principle behind diversity. He wants to manipulate nature, to harness its energies. The most primitive magic rites were connected with fertility (46).
The Marseilles Magician holds his wand in one hand and in the other a gold coin. The hand is central to all magic. It is symbolic of man's power to tame and shape nature consciously, to put its energies to creative use. Quicker than the eye, the Magician's hand creates illusion more rapidly than our thinking mind can follow it. His hand is also quicker in the sense of "more alive" than man's plodding intellect. The human hand seems to have an intelligence of its own; it has been called "The fleeting moment of creation that never stops" (46) .
The Magician's gift for miracle and for deception is manifold. By directing our attention away from the golden coin, he can ensnare and befuddle us with his sleight of hand. Like human consciousness itself, an aspect of which he symbolilzes, the Magician can create maya, the magic illusion of "the ten thousand things." For, by making the objects on his table disappear, he can dramatize the simple truth that every object every thing, is but an appearance of reality. It is we who create the world which appears to exist. By transforming one object or element into another, the Magician reveals another truth; namely that underneath the "ten thousand things," all manifestations are one; all elements are one and all energy is one (46).

What happens to the grass shed at the Central Station?

What is ironic about the actions taken to ameliorate or to mitigate this situation?

What happens to the African that happens to be nearby?

Supercilious: adj. Haugtily aloof. Syn." arrogant, disdainful, scornful.

Prevaricate: v. To speak falsely with deliberate intent.

Describe the image painted by Mr. Kurtz. What is significant about the subject matter? What does it tell us about Kurtz?

Does the brickmaker describe Kurtz with envy or with admiration:

He was silent for a while. "He is a prodigy," he said at last. "He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else." "We want," he began to declaim sudddenly, "For the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose" (964).

Kurtz is described as "a prodigy" (964). What is a prodigy? What is ironic about that description?

What is significant about the brickmaker in the Central Station?

What is Mr. Kurtz's station called?

What does the brickmaker mean when he refers to Marlow as "'of the new gang--the gang of virtue. The same people who sent him specifically also recommended you'" (964)?

Who complains about "'What a row the brute makes'" (964). Who is the "brute"?

The pilgrims could be seen in knots gesticulating, discussing. Several had
still their staves in their hands. I truly believe they took these sticks to bed
with them (965).

Why does Marlow describe the bricklayer as "'this paper-mache Mephistopheles'" (965)?

What does Marlow say about lying?

Where is Marlow's ship?

Describe the foreman / boilermaker.

Mr. Kurtz is "a universal genius" (966).

What is said about hippos?

Part II

1. What does Marlow learn from overhearing the conversation between the Station manager and his nephew?

2. Who is the "half-caste"?

3. How does a man survive in this environment--excluding not having entrails?

"The extraordinary series of delays is not my fault. I did my best." The fat man
sighed. "Very sad." "And the pestiferous absurdity of this talk," continued the
other; "He bothered me enough when he was here." "Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade, of course, but
also for humanizing, improving, instructing" (969-970).

4. How does Marlow react to these words? Why?

5. "The manager was switching his leg with a slender twig; his sagacious relative lifted his head" (970). Is Marlow being sarcastic here? Explain.

6. What causes the nephew and his uncle to become aware of Marlow's presence?

7. What happened to the Eldorado Expedition? Why is it mentioned?

8. Compare the whole of Marlow's journey to Beowulf's encounter in the murky waters with Grendel and his mother.

9. Note the constant references to blindness: "And I didn't do badly either, since I managed not to sink the steamboat on my first trip. It's a wonder to me yet. Imagine a blindfolded man set to drive a van over a bad road" (971).

10. Why does Marlow seen to prefer the cannibals to the pilgrims?

11. Note the images. What does the passage below reveal about the pilgrims? What does it reveal about Marlow? What is the "grimy beetle" to which he refers? What do the cannibals have to eat? What makes this scary?:

Fine fellows--cannibals--in their place. They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them....I had the manager on board and three or four pilgirms with their staves--all complete. Sometimes we came upon a station close by the bank, clinging to the skirts of the unknown, and the white men rushing out of a tumbledown hovel, with great gestures of joy and surprise and welcome, seemed very strange--had the appearance of being held there captive by a spell. The word ivory would ring the air for a while--and on we went again into the silence, along empty reaches round the still bends, between the high walls of our winding way, reverberating in hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern wheel. Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very
small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing that feeling. After all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on--which was just what you wanted to do. Where the pilgrims imagined it crawled to I don't know. To some place where they expected to get something, I bet! For me it crawled towards Kurtz--exclusively; but when the steam-pipes started leaking we crawled very slow. The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there (971).

12. What does the following tell us about Marlow's feeling a this point of the journey?

We were wanderers on prehistoric earth, on that earth that wore the aspect of an unkown planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking posession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil (971).

13. What do you make of the following description:

The steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black incomprehensible frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us--who could tell? We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly apalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. We could not understand because we were too far and could not remember, because we were traveling in the night of the first ages, of those ages that are gone by, leaving hardly a sign--and no memories (971-972).

14. What does Marlow mean by the following passage:

The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there--there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were--No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it--this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity--like yours--the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar (972).

15. Why does the thought of their humanity disturb him? Note the passiveness and the denial (with the double-negative--"not inhuman"). What is the psychological reason behind this?

16. Pay attention to the psychological part of Marlow's journey in the passage below. What does it say about him?

Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of the noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you--you so remote form the night of the first ages--could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of everything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage--who can tell?--but truth--truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder--the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff--with his own inborn strength. Principles won't do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags--rags that would fly off at the first good shake. O, you want a deliberate belief. An appeal to me in this fiendish row--is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice, too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced. Of course, a fool what with sheer fright and fine sentiments, is always safe (972).
17. Why is the fool "always safe"?
18. How does Marlow feel about the fireman?
19. What do Marlow and his crew come across some fifty miles from the Inner Station? How does Marlow react to all this?
20. Note all the "mists" in this section. Mists often suggest a kind of passageway to another world, unseen by most of us, perhaps the world of the unconscious.
21. Why did the pilgrims throw the hippo meat overboard? What does Marlow think of this?
22. What does Marlwo make of his African shipmates' sense of "restraint"? Why is this ironic, in terms of how Europeans view Africans?
23. What is ironic about the manager's words: "'I would be so desolated if anything should happen to Mr. Kurtz before we came up'" (976)?
I looked at him, and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere. He was just the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances. That was his restraint (976).
24. Why does Marlow believe that the natives wil not attack?
25. Why do the Pilgrims presume that Marlow has gone mad?
Forbear: v. 1. to refrain patiently from. 2. to hold back. 3. to be patient and self-controlled.
Bow: n. the forward end of a vessel or airship.
Scow: n. a large boat with square ends and a flat bottom.
26. Describe the helmsman. How does Marlow feel about him?
27. What happens to the ship at this point (pp. 978-979)? What is the first sign that something is going on?
28. What do the Pilgrims start to do in reaction?
29. What eventually happens to the helmsman?
30. How does Marlow physically and emotionally react?
31. Notice Marlow's increasing obsession with Kurtz. He is both drawn to him and reviled by him:
A voice. He was very little more than a voice. And I heard--him--it--this voice--other voices--all of them were so little more than voices--and the memory of that time itself lingers around me, impalpable, like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly attrocious, sordid, savage, or simply mean, without any kind of sense. Voices, voices--even the girl herself--now--" (980).
32. What do you make of the reference to voices?
33. What do you make of Kurtz's references to "my Intended? What is the parallel between "my Intended" and "My ivory, my station, my river"?
34. What do you make of the fact that Kurtz collects fossil ivory?
35. What do you make of the folowing:
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. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. It was impossible--it was not good for one either--trying to imagine. He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land--I mean literally (981).
36. Note all the excess, the waste.
37. Why can't fools be assaulted by "the powers of darkness" (981)?
38. Why does he describe Mr. Kurtz not as one would describe a man but as "the shade of Mr. Kurtz"? Shades are ghosts.
39. Where was Kurtz educated?
40. What is Kurtz's nationality?
41. What is significant about these facts?
42. What does the International Society for the Suppression of Savage CUstoms ask Kurtz to do?
43. How does Marlow react to this artifact?
44. In the end, what does Kurtz suggest that whites must do?
45. Of Kurtz's document: "The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know."
Peroration: n. the concluding part of a speech or discourse.
46. Who is the fellow who looks like a harlequin?
Harlequin: n. 1. a character incomicv theater, usually masked, dressed in parti-colored tights, and carrying a wooden sword. 2. a clown or buffoon.
Parti-colored: adj. Having different colors in different segments. Medieval origin--usually on the leggings worn by court jesters.
47. How does this harlequin react to their visit?
48. How does this harlequin feel about Mr. Kurtz?
49. What is the harlequin's country of origin?
50. What does Marlow give to this man?
Part III
I looked at him, lost in astonishment. There he was before me, in motley, as though he had absconded from a troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous. His very existence was improbably, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was an insoluble problem.
1. Who is dressed in motley? Why is he an insoluble problem?
Motley: n. of different colors combined. Something that exhibits a great diversity of elements.
Insoluble: adj. 1. Incapable of being dissolved. 2. Incapable of being solved.
For months--years--his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearance indestructible solely by the virtue of his few years and of his unreflecting audacity [the Archetypal Fool or Trickster?] I was seduced into something like admiration--like envy. Glamor urged him on, glamor kept him unscathed. He surely wanted nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push through. His need was to exist, and to move onwards at the greatest possible risk, and with a maximum of privation. If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this bepatched youth. I almost envied him the possession of his modest and clear flame. It seemed to have consumed all thought of self so completely, and even while he was talking to you, you forgot that it was he--the man before your eyes--who had gone through these things. I did not envy him his devotion to Kurtz, though. He had not meditated over it. It came to him, and he accepted it with a sort of eager fatalism. I must say that to me it appeared about the most dangerous thing in every way he had come upon so far (985).
Audacious: adj. 1. extremely bold or daring. 2. insolent or brazen.
Privation: n. 1. Lack of the usual necessities of life. 2. the state of being deprived.
2. Why is Marlow envious of this man? What does this man represent to Marlow?
3. How do the natives appear to feel about Mr. Kurtz?
4. Why hasn't Kurtz left this station?
5. Now that he is closer, what does Marlow see in the ornaments on sticks?
6. Why is Marlow not revealing any trade secrets as he tells his story?
7. Mr. Kurtz lacks restraint. What is ironic about this description of Kurtz? Where have we heard it before?
8. What does Marlow mean when he says that "The wilderness had found him out early, and taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion" (987)?
9. Why, according to Marlow, was Kurtz more susceptible to this madness?
10. Who did the shrunken heads represent? How does that resonate with part I, where the African natives are described as "enemies" and "criminals"?
11. Note that the Russian is described as "Kurtz's last disciple" (988).
12. Why is the Russian afraid when the natives come out of the bush?
13. Kurtz arrives with these natives, and lying on what?
14. The Name "Kurtz" means what? What is significant about this?
15. Be able to describe Kurtz.
16. "I was struck by the fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression. It was not so much the exhaustion of disease. He did not seem in pain. The shadow looked satiated and calm, as though for the moment it had its fill of emotions" (989). What do you make of Kurtz's demeanor here?
Languor: adj. 1. physical faintness or weakness. 2. lack of energy or vitality.
Satiate: v. to supply with anything to excess, so as to disgust or weary.
17. Here, Marlow references "that voice" again. Why? "A voice! a voice! It was grave, profound, vibrating, while the man did not seem capable of a whisper. However, he had enough strength in him--facetious, no doubt--to very nearly make an end of us, as you shall hear directly" (989).
Facetious: adj. not spontaneous or natural.
18. Examine Marlow's of Kurtz's African mistress, "a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman" (989). Is it a positive or negative image? Explain:
She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the
shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witchmen, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent;
there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land ,the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul (989).
Ominous: adj. portending something evil.
Stately: adj. 1. imposing in magnificence or elegance. 2. extremely dignified.
Fecund: adj. satisfactorily prolific or fruitful; fertile.
Pensive: adj. dreamily or wistfully thoughtful, often in a deep, sad way.
Tenebrous: adj. archaic: dark and gloomy.
She stood looking at us, without a stir, and like
the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose (989-990).
Inscrutable: adj. 1. incapable of being searched or scrutinized. 2. Not easily understood or known.
19. What does the Russian say he would do if Kurtz's mistress had tried to come aboard? Why?
20. What do you make of Kurtz's rantings to save him--no, to save his ivory?
21. Why does Marlow think that in spite of Kurtz's madness, he remains a "remarkable man"?
22. What is (ironically), Kurtz's "method"?
23. Why does Marlow say that Mr. Kurtz was "as good as buried" and that "for a moment it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast grave of unspeakable secrets" (990)?
24. For the Russian, Mr. Kurtz is one of the immortals. On some level, does he not occupy this position with Marlow? Explain.
25. When Kurtz says that he suspects there is a conspiracy among the white men--directed at him--how does Marlow respond?
26. How does Kurtz react to Marlow's response?
27. What does the Russian reveal about the attack on the steamer?
28. Why does Marlow resolve not to "betray" Kurtz?
29. What sights does Marlwo see as he appraches Kurtz?
30. Remember the poem, "Ulysses"? Tennyson ends his poem with "Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' / We are not now that strength which in old days / Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; / One equal temper of heroic hearts, / Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" (65-70).
Now, take a look at page 993:
"'You will be lost,' I said--'utterly lost.' One gets sometimes such a flash of inspiration, you know. I did say the right thing, though indeed he could nto have been more irretrievably lost than he was at the very moment, when the foundations of our imtinacy were being laid--to endure--to endure--even to the end--even beyond."
31. Why do Kurtz's words, "'I was on the threshold of great things'" make Marklow' "blood run cold"?
32. How does Kurtz protect Marlow in this section. Why does he protect him?
33. Why, according to Marlow, is Kurtz not crazy?
34. How do the natives react when the sailors put Kurtz in the pilot house in order to take him away?
35. Once aboard ship:
“Kurtz discoursed. A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. Oh, he struggled! He struggled! The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now—images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift
of noble and lofty expression. My Intended, my station, my career, my ideas—these were the subjects for the occasional utterances ofelevated sentiments. The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mold of primeval earth. But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power” (995).
Obsequious: adj. Servilely compliant or deferential.
Lofty: adj. Elevated in dignity or character; consciously superior or dignified.
Sham: n. 1. spurious imitation. 2. a person who assumes a false character. Adj. false or counterfeit.
Diabolic: adj. Outrageously wicked or fiendish.
Avid: adj. 1. greedily desirous. 2. enthusiastic or dedicated.
36. WHat does Kurtz say about meeting kings. Why will they be impressed by him? Does this remind you a little of Faustus and his "magic shows" with Mephistophelis? It should.
37. What delays the return journey?
38. What does Kurtz ask for Marlow to keep? Why? What does Kurtz fear and from whom?
39. Describe what Marlow sees in Kurtz's face as Kurtz is about to die.
40. What are Kurtz's last words? What does he mean by those words? What do the words mean to Marlow?
41. Who announces Kurtz's death? How does he do so?
42. How do the Pilgrims react to this news? What do you think that their reaction means?
43. How is Marlow to show his loyalty to Kurtz after his death?
44. What knowledge "trespasses" on Marlow's thoughts and dreams and even perceptions when he returns to Brussells?
45. Note this: "I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance" (997). What is he talking about?

46. Marlow meets one of Kurtz's blood relatives? What is the relation?

47. The relation is an "Old chap," an organist, who also reveals that Kurtz was a great __________________________.

48. The old chap says that Kurtz had been "'a universal genius'" (998).

49. The old man says that Kurtz had faith.
"'He could get himself to believe anything--anything. He would have beeen a splendid leader of an extreme party.' 'What party?' I asked. 'Any party,' answered the other. 'He was an--an--extremist.' Did I not think so? I assented. Did I know, he asked, with a sudden flash of curiosity,
'what it was that had induced him to go out there?' 'Yes,' said I, and forthwith handed him the famous Report for publication, if he thought fit. He glanced through it hurriedly, mumbling all the time, judged 'it would do,' and took himself off with his plunder" (998).
50. What does the word "plunder" imply?
51. How does Marlow react to the portrait of Kurtz's Intended?

52. What does the following description of the actual Intended tell us about Marlow? Consider, when we see others, especially in psychological novels like this, we are often seeing aspects of ourselves. What does this description reveal about Marlow's character?
She came forward, all in black, with a pale head,
floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning. It was more than a year since his death, more than a year since the news came; she seemed as though she would remember and mourn for ever. She took both my hands in hers and murmured,[have you noticed all the murmuring in this novel?] 'I had heard you were coming.' I noticed she was not very young--I mean notgirlish. She had a mature capatiy for fidelity, for belief, for suffering.[Don't these words also describe how Marlow sees either Kurtz or himself?] The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light of the cloudy eveninghad taken refuge on her forehead. This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. Their glance was guiless, profound, confident, and trustful. She carried her
sorrowful head as though she were proud of that sorrow, as though she would say, I--I alone know how to mourn for him as he deserves. But while we were still shaking hands, such a look of awful desolation came upon her face that I perceived she was one of those creatures that are not the playthings of Time. For her he had died only yesterday (999).
53. What is Marlow's answer to the Intended's request for Kurtz's last words?
54. Why do you think that he does this?
55. How does the novel end? What do you make of the ending?

Ms. Losen's British Literature Class 2008-9

Friday, June 5, 2009

Seniors Taking the Exam

Monday, June 1, 2009

Week of June 1, 2009

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Your British Literature Test

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Quick Note for Week of May 18th

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Week of May 11th, 2009-CHANGE

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"Heart of Darkness" notes and questions

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