Appunti del libro Heart of darkness di Joseph Conrad, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Appunti del libro Heart of darkness di Joseph Conrad e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Heart of darkness= a plage Africa where people lived in small villages, people are black and they are exploited by the Europeans. These used to see Africa as an uncivilized place so they exploited it and enslaved its population. Here people live in a way that is considered wild, organized in tribes, in poor conditions, in small villages and they also practice cannibalism. Liken when the man kind was born. Moreover h.0.d. represents the heart of people, cause we are all evil and there are deep feelings that we can't understand. This is the unconscious, the deepest part of our souls whose Freud talked about. Freud was a philosopher and psychiatrist. Page 2 «At the beggining there is a third personl internal narrator, one of the sailors in the boat. -we don't see any person, no one is talking except the narrator -Nelly is the Boat, considered as a woman -No setting in time, only setting in place--> in the River Thames, atmosphere gloomy, scary and mysterious (description of the landscape) Page 5 -Marlow is not physically described but he is introduced by his voice (like Kurtz, who is introduces by others who talk about him) -“and this also has been one of the dark places of the earth”-> BRITAIN IS THE CENTER OF THE METHAFORICAL DARKNESS The first words Marlow says, referring to London (center of the British empire) since also Britain was once colonized by the Romans, Julius Cesar. Roman commanders were scared, confused; they found the a who were an uncivilized population. They used to paint themselves, live in tribes, do sacrifices warriors, cannibals, naked, live in forests, theywere dangerous. Their heart was wild and dark. They represent the evil because they killed, destroyed etc.= Wilderness and darkness are personified, they are incomprehensible but at the same time fascinating because they are unusual and forbidden.[[af:\N{S Yi: ale]\lalia na 15 IABOMINATIONI]| frhis refers to the main theme: the Imperialism. The British empire is very powerful and has a lot of colonies. This is the criticism to the imperialism (dark), in particular against the countries that have imposed an imperialistic policy in other countries. Belgium with king Leopold who became very rich by exploiting Congo were he took rubber and ivory. Marlow is described as a seaman, a sailor who explores the world, he feels very free. He was different from the other men because he spread more time in the sea than on the earth. He was strong, free with different routines, with no stability, continuously travelling. Sailors can't control the sea so they know it could become very dangerous. As metter of fact he sea is inscrutable, mysterious. Marlow is atypical because usually sailors live a sedentary life because life on a ship is always the same. The only mystery is the sea itself. Page 6 a! = itain was a mysterious place.A place were everything is wild, scary, mysterious (mystery, enemies, strange things, darkness). the Romans faced the wilderness. Britain was an uncivilized colony. Page 7 Marlow talks about the Romans, who faced a the wilderness of Britain when it was an uncivilized place (jungle, forests, marshes). Now the wild place is no more Britain but Africa, which represents not only a place but also the heart of darkness itself, which is linked to the a Marlow introduces an important idea: difference between a colonialist and a conqueror. Conqueror = conquers, dominates a place Colonist = gives his culture, spreads civilization. Marlow is talking about the British empire because English people wanted to colonize but instead they conquered, like Romans did. Page 9 = Marlow was attracted by the wilderness of Africa, in particular the river was described as an immense snake. He says “the snake charmed me”. Page 10 The river is personified and Africa too. II is_a charming woman that attracts everyone who goes there. As metter of fact people miss Africa so much that they want to go beck to it. In Africa they are in contact with nature. It's like a return to the past, to the origin of the human specie. Africa is like agime machine. People live in huts, no industrialization, wilderness. Page 11 was a white danish man who worked in Africa for the Company. Originally he was the gentlest and quietest person on earth, according to a man of the Company, but then unconsciously he became violent because he lived for two years into the violence and the pressure in Africa. He fought with the chief of the tribe because of a misunderstanding regarding two hens. Fresleven beat the chief with a stick to death . Then the son of the chief, filled with anger, killed the white man with an arrow. Page 12 In the novel it is constantly used a contrast between At first white had a positive meaning, in fact it was used to symbolize the roman colonizers, civilized populations in contrast to the Celts. Celts were a populations organized in tribes, who lived in huts and they used to paint themselves. They were savages. As the novel continues the color white changed its meaning, acquiring a negative one. In particular, when Marlow arrived in Brussels he described the city as a white sepulchre; first of all because when a person died due to plague epidemic they used to put a white cloth on them not to spread the epidemic. Secondo of all Marlow saw Belgian people not as real people because in reality they were evil because of the atrocities they commit in Africa. [and] seemed condensed into a mournful gloom brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest town on earth.” There is clear irony here, with the insistence on London's greatness, paired with the “mournful gloom” that has condensed above it. The meaning of the narrator's irony becomes clearer by the novella's concluding sentence, which returns to the brooding darkness over the city: “The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” By opening and closing the novella in this way, Conrad suggests that Africa may not be the real heart of darkness after all. Perhaps London—and, by extension, all of Europe's great towns—are the real centers of darkness. Brussels is defined as a white sepolcre, because in the past people used to dye the sepolcre of ... people with white. Used this metafore to express that people in Brussels were dead inside, because they've lost their humanity because they exploited people. Kurtz’s last words—“The horror! The horror!”—can be interpreted in various ways. -Firstly, and most simply, they could be a response to a fever dream as Kurtz's body and mind were dying. -More likely, these words reflect Kurtz's failure to achieve his many lofty goals and fulfill his destiny, and he cannot help but utter in despair as the emptiness of his own life envelopes him. -These final words could also broadly symbolize the horror of Belgian (and European) colonialism. For Marlow's part, he interprets the exclamation as Kurtz's response to his impending death. Each of these meanings coexist uneasily in Kurtz's last words. Pages 95-97Kurtz's house is described as a hut sorrounded by a fence full of skulls which were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing- food for thought and also for vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but at all event for such ants were industrious enough to ascend the pole. They would have been more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. He was not afraid to kill. Kurtz Kurtz, like Marlow, can be situated within a larger tradition. Kurtz resembles the archetypal “evil genius”: the highly gifted but ultimately degenerate individual whose fall is the stuff of legend. Kurtz is related to figures like Faustus, Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, Moby-Dick's Ahab, and Wuthering Heights's Heathcliff. Like these characters, he is significant both for his style and eloquence and for his grandiose, almost megalomaniacal scheming. In a world of mundanely malicious men and “flabby devils," attracting enough attention to be worthy of damnation is indeed something. Kurtz can be criticized in the same terms that Heart of Darkness is sometimes criticized: style entirely overrules substance, providing a justification for amorality and evil. In fact, it can be argued that style does not just override substance but actually masks the fact that Kurtz is utterly lacking in substance. Marlow refers to Kurtz as “hollow” more than once. This could be taken negatively, to mean that Kurtz is not worthy of contemplation. However, it also points to Kurtz's ability to function as a “choice of nightmares” for Marlow: in his essential emptiness, he becomes a cipher, a site upon which other things can be projected. This emptiness should not be read as benign, however, just as Kurtz's eloquence should not be allowed to overshadow the malice of his actions. Instead, Kurtz provides Marlow with a set of paradoxes that Marlow can use to evaluate himself and the Company's men. Indeed, Kurtz is not so much a fully realized individual as a series of images constructed by others for their own use. As Marlow's visits with Kurtz's cousin, the Belgian journalist, and Kurtz's fiancée demonstrate, there seems to be no true Kurtz. To his cousin, he was a great musician; to the journalist, a brilliant politician and leader of men; to his fiancée, a great humanitarian and genius. AIl of these contrast with Marlow's version of the man, and he is left doubting the validity of his memories. Yet Kurtz, through his charisma and larger-than-life plans, remains with Marlow and with the reader. Although Marlow appears in several of Conrad’s other works, it is important not to view him as merely a surrogate for the author. Marlow is a complicated man who anticipates the figures of high modernism while also reflecting his Victorian predecessors. Marlow is in many ways a traditional hero: tough, honest, an independent thinker, a capable man. Yet he is also “broken” or “damaged,” like T. S. Eliot's ). Alfred Prufrock or William Faulkner's Quentin Compson. The world has defeated him in some fundamental way, and he is weary, skeptical, and cynical. Marlow also mediates between the figure of the intellectual and that of the “working tough.” While he is clearly intelligent, eloquent, and a natural philosopher, he is not saddled with the angst of centuries’ worth of Western thought. At the same time, while he is highly skilled at what he does—he repairs and then ably pilots his own ship—he is no mere manual laborer. Work, for him, is a distraction, a concrete alternative to the posturing and excuse-making of those around him. Marlow can also be read as an intermediary between the two extremes of Kurtz and the Company. He is moderate enough to allow the reader to identify with him, yet open- minded enough to identify at least partially with either extreme. Thus, he acts as a guide for the reader. Marlow's intermediary position can be seen in his eventual illness and recovery. Unlike those who truly confront or at least acknowledge Africa and the darkness within themselves, Marlow does not die, but unlike the Company men, who focus only on money and advancement, Marlow suffers horribly. He is thus “contaminated” by his experiences and memories, and, like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, destined, as purgation or penance, to repeat his story to all who will listen. Heart of Darkness is a very complex novel. Analyse the main themes and symbols, starting from its title and giving evidence from the passages we have read. Heart of Darkness is a very complex novel written by Joseph Conrad, a Polish writer who lived between the Victorian Age and modernism. This novel tells about Marlow's journey in Africa but also in his own self, in the deepest parts of his unconscious. As a matter of fact the people and the experiences that he had in the black continent changed completely his entire point of view about life and human nature. Starting from the title we can see how many meanings it has. First of all Heart of Darkness is referred to a place, Africa, which is an uncivilized and wild place, where people are extremely poor, they live in huts, they are organized in tribes, and also practice cannibalism. Africa in fact was like when the man king was born but on the other hand it was, and it is still now, a very rich area, that's why the Europeans wanted to colonize it at all costs. Africa is considered “a God-forsaken wilderness” because it was thought that God doesn't see or take in consideration poor people that suffer in Africa. The second meaning is instead metaphorical, it represents the unconscious, the heart of people, because in each human being there is a evil part and there are deep feeling we are not aware of, which are contained in the unconscious. Freud was the first one to talk about this concept. One of the most important and relevant themes in the novel is the dualism between black and white. At first white had a positive meaning, it was used to symbolize the roman colonizers who arrived in Britain and colonized the Celts. This population was, like people in Africa, organized in tribes , organized in tribes, they lived in huts and also used to paint themselves. As the novel continues the color white changed its meaning, acquiring a negative one. In particular, when Marlow arrived in Brussel he described the city as a white sepulchre: first because when people died due to plague epidemic they used to put a white cloth on them not to spread the epidemic; second because Marlow perceived belgian people not as real people because in reality they were evil becuase of the atrocities they committed in Africa. White was also the color of the company accountant's clothes. The accountant was criticized by Conrad, who speaks through Marlow, but he was also appreciated, and respected for his respect of his role, position and job, but in the end the Marlow thinks that he is stupid. While black became a positive color because it symbolized the black natives colonized. The white color is used in another context. In fact a native decided to commit a suicide using a white worsted around his neck. This white worsted is once again compared to a white sepulchre to underline the fact that people are dying without dignity or humanity. Marlow at a certain point of the novel talks about demons he had met in his travels around the world. He met violent demons, greed demons etc but in Congo there is a totally different demon he had never met before, it is an unknown demon. This demon per The character that best represents this idea is Marlow's aunt. She was an imperialism and colonialism supporter and she was in favour of the Belgian civilization mission in Africa. She represents the colonialists' point of view. Marlow doesn't agree and he feels uncomfortable because in his opinion the Company was run only for king Leopold's profit.