Unit 8:

The Modern Novel

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
 Major Characters
• Marlow -  The protagonist of Heart of Darkness.
• Kurtz -  The chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow’s
quest.
• General manager -  The chief agent of the Company in its African
territory, who runs the Central Station.
• Brick maker -  The brick maker, whom Marlow also meets at the
Central Station, is a favorite of the manager and seems to be a kind
of corporate spy.
• Chief accountant -  An efficient worker with an
incredible habit of dressing up in spotless whites and
keeping himself absolutely tidy despite the squalor and
heat of the Outer Station, where he lives and works.
 Minor Characters
• Pilgrims -  The bumbling, greedy agents of the
Central Station.
• Cannibals - They all want to be appointed to a
station so that they can trade for ivory and earn a
commission, but none of them actually takes any
effective steps toward achieving this goal.
• Russian trader -  A Russian sailor who has gone
into the African interior as the trading representative
of a Dutch company.
• Kurtz’s African Mistress -  A fiercely beautiful
woman loaded with jewelry who appears on the
shore when Marlow’s steamer arrives at and leaves
the Inner Station.
 Minor Characters Con’t
• Kurtz’s Intended -  Kurtz’s naïve and long-suffering fiancée,
whom Marlow goes to visit after Kurtz’s death.
• Aunt -  Marlow’s doting relative, who secures him a position
with the Company
• The men aboard the Nellie -  Marlow’s friends, who are with
him aboard a ship on the Thames at the story’s opening. They
are the audience for the central story of Heart of Darkness,
which Marlow narrates.
• Fresleven -  Marlow’s predecessor as captain of the steamer.
 Themes
• The Hypocrisy of Imperialism
– i.e. As Marlow travels from the Outer Station to the Central
Station and finally up the river to the Inner Station, he
encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery. At the
very least, the incidental scenery of the book offers a harsh
picture of colonial enterprise.
• Madness as a result of Imperialism
– Madness has two primary functions. it serves as an ironic
device to engage the reader’s sympathies. Also functions to
establish the necessity of social fictions.
• Absurdity of Evil
– explodes the idea of the proverbial choice between the lesser of
two evils. As the idealistic Marlow is forced to align himself with
either the hypocritical and malicious colonial bureaucracy or the
openly malevolent, rule-defying Kurtz, it becomes increasingly
clear that to try to judge either alternative is an act of folly: how
can moral standards or social values be relevant in judging evil?
Is there such thing as insanity in a world that has already gone
insane?
 Motifs
• Observation and Eavesdropping - Marlow gains a great
deal of information by watching the world around him and by
overhearing others’ conversations, as when he listens from
the deck of the wrecked steamer to the manager of the
Central Station and his uncle discussing Kurtz and the
Russian trader.
• Interiors and Exteriors - Marlow is more interested in
surfaces, in the surrounding aura of a thing rather than in any
hidden nugget of meaning deep within the thing itself. This
inverts the usual hierarchy of meaning: normally one seeks
the deep message or hidden truth.
• Darkness – it is difficult to discern exactly what it might mean,
given that absolutely everything in the book is cloaked in
darkness.
 Symbols
• Fog - Fog not only obscures but distorts: it gives one just enough
information to begin making decisions but no way to judge the
accuracy of that information, which often ends up being wrong.
• The “Whited Sepulchre” - The “whited sepulchre” is probably
Brussels, where the Company’s headquarters are located. A
sepulchre implies death and confinement.
• Women - Kurtz’s Intended and his African mistress function as blank
slates upon which the values and the wealth of their respective
societies can be displayed.
• River - The Congo River is the key to Africa for Europeans. It
allows them access to the center of the continent without
having to physically cross it; in other words, it allows the white
man to remain always separate or outside.
 Historical Approach
• What specific historical events were happening when the
work was being composed? (See timelines in history or
literature texts.)
• What historical events does the work deal with?
• In what ways did history affect the writer's outlook?
• In what ways did history affect the style? language?
content?
• In what ways and for what reasons did the writer alter
historical events?
• HOD Criticism :Decrying Joseph Conrad as "a bloody
racist", Achebe asserted that Conrad's famous novel
dehumanizes Africans, rendering Africa as "a
metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable
humanity, into which the wandering European enters at
his peril."
 Cultural Perspective
• What Cultural facts has the author used in the text?
• What Cultural facts has the author changed? Why?
• What insights do we acquire about the author’s life
and culture by reading the text?
• How do these facts and insights increase (or
diminish) our understanding of the text?
• In what ways does the author seem to consider his
or her own cultural beliefs as "typical" or significant
• Conrad did criticize Culture and Imperialism, but
added: "As a creature of his time, Conrad could not
grant the natives their freedom, despite his severe
critique of the imperialism that enslaved them” –
Chinua Achebe
 Biographical Approach
• What biographical facts has the author used in
the text?
• What biographical facts has the author
changed? Why?
• What insights do we acquire about the author’s
life by reading the text?
• How do these facts and insights increase (or
diminish) our understanding of the text?
• In what ways does the author seem to consider
his or her own life as "typical" or significant
 Geographical Approach
• Which geographical features in the text are
actual?
• What aspects of the geography are essential to
the story? And which are nonessential?
• To what extent has the geography limited the
kind of story that can happen?
• In what ways has the writer altered the
geography to suit his or her purposes? Has the
writer made any geographical errors?
 Political Approach
• What political events are significant in the text?
• What political events were occurring at the time
the text was written? (See timelines in history
or literature texts.)
• What political events were occurring at the time
the text was written?
• What political beliefs does the author seem to
have? And how are those beliefs shown?
• What political beliefs does the author seem to
dislike? How can you tell?
 Religious Perspective
• What religious or ethical beliefs does the text deal with
directly? Are any religions or philosophies mentioned
specifically in the text?
• What religious or ethical beliefs or philosophies does the
author seem to favor? How can you tell?
• What religious or ethical beliefs or philosophies does the
author seem to disfavor? How can you tell?
• What behaviors do the characters display that the author
wants us to think are “right”? How can you tell?
• What behavior is “wrong”? How can you tell?
 Sociological Approach
• What sort of society does the author describe?
(How is it set up? What rules are there? What
happens to people who break them? Who
enforces the rules?)
• What does the writer seem to like or dislike
about this society?
• What changes do you think the writer would like
to make in the society? And how can you tell?
• What sorts of pressures does the society put on
its members? How do the members respond to
this pressure?
 Psychological Approach
• Are there any specific psychologists or
psychological theories mentioned in the text? In
what ways?
• What theories of human behavior does the writer
seem to believe? How can you tell?
• What theories of human behavior does the writer
seem to reject? How can you tell?
• How do people’s minds work in the text? How do
people think? How are their thoughts shown?
• In what ways do the structure and organization of
the text indicate the writer’s beliefs about the
workings of the mind?
 Applying Concepts
• Write a paragraph about Heart of
Darkness using one of the previously
mentioned analytically approaches.