human nature at its lowest and cruelest form. The book centers around Marlow‚ an introspective sailor‚ and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz‚ reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities‚ as if he was a deity. Ultimately Kurtz’s mental collapse and subsequent monstrosities culminate into a tragic anti-climatic death in which Kurtz utters the dying words “The horror! The horror!” His dying words seem to reflect Kurtz own feelings and realizations of his very being‚ his demise and his
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story‚ Marlow‚ a company agent‚ travels to the Congo and witnesses abuse of slaves‚ naiveté of other agents‚ and the truth of the company’s best man: Mr. Kurtz.
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of neglecting or misunderstanding the novelist’s purpose. Consider‚ for example‚ the criticism leveled against Heart of Darkness by Paul O’Prey in his introduction to the Penguin edition. He writes: "It is an irony that the failures’ of Marlow and Kurtz are paralleled by a corresponding failure of Conrad’s technique--brilliant though it is--as the vast abstract darkness he imagines exceeds his capacity to analyze and dramatize it‚ and the very inability to portray the story’s central subject
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Conrad through Marlow reviews the memories of his journey to the Congo: personal nightmare is mixed with his own psychological complexities. He is looking for self-understanding‚ and showing his own mental picture of the conflicts between savagery and civilization. Many critics have called it the best short novel written in English. The text involves the reader in dramatic and decisively difficult moral judgements‚ which are in parallel with the central characters: Marlow and Kurtz. It is a dramatic
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between Aeneas and Kurtz‚ whom he puts into a role of a failed Aeneas and he gives the reader the example of unmerciful human sacrifices for a meagre reason or no reason at all‚ made (or ordered) by the character‚ which appears in both Aeneid and Heart of Darkness. Bowers also sees Marlow as a predicament of the modern hero‚ when compared to Odysseus and Aeneas. When returned home‚ Odysseus finds suitors in his house‚ eating his food and seducing his wife “similarly‚ when Marlow returns to Brussels
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Instead of saying Kurtz’s true words “the horror‚ the horror.” Marlow states that “The last word he pronounced was your name.” (149). Marlow keeps the secret of Kurtz’s state of mind at death‚ his ‘god’ like figure to the natives‚ and the tragedies of the Congo hidden from the Intended in hopes to keep her world peaceful. Even though‚ within the first half of the book Marlow mentions that he despises lying. As Marlow believes “the women are out of it‚ should be out of it. We must help them
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Heart of Darkness: Literary Vocabulary Journal Directions: As you read Heart of Darkness‚ you will note examples of important literary devices used by Conrad in the text. First‚ find the definition and fill them in the table below. Then‚ find and example from the text. You can find definitions on the internet (using a literary terms dictionary). Or in a Literary Dictionary. Online Literary Dictionary: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_A.html Term/Definition: Example from the text: Brief
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exploited in every regard and forced to work in the interest of the Europeans. The natives were subject to ill treatment‚ over-work‚ and malnutrition. Marlow had embarked on his journey with the preconceived notion that it was a mission of goodwill and trade. However‚ he is quickly subjected to the horror that is the reality of the colonial system in Africa. Marlow quickly realizes that the interest of the colonists was far from the spread of civilization but instead to exploit the natives for greed. The
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Conrad utilizes strategic ambiguity in his characters and setting to impact the reader on the deepest‚ personal level. Conrad structures his setting in a way that removes its identity and emphasizes its essence. Better said‚ as one journeys with Marlow deeper into the dense jungle‚ the setting becomes less of a Belgian-colonized Congo and more of a savage‚ chaotic‚ murky labyrinth. In an art gallery‚ Conrad’s setting would more likely be represented as obscure modern art than a realistic portrait
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of Contents Introduction Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was published in 1902 and was one of the first modern novels of that time. Heart of Darkness is a psychological journey to Africa on a ship named the Nellie. One of the characters‚ Marlow‚ an agent for a Belgian Ivory Trading firm‚ recounts his journey into Africa. This journey is shared with a grim account on imperialism. Hunt Hawkins believes that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was an anti-imperialism novel‚ as opposed to what some
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