heart of darkness analisi, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica heart of darkness analisi e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Heart of Darkness Author Joseph Conrad Genre Symbolism, colonial literature, adventure tale, almost a romance in its insistence on heroism and the supernatural and its preference for the symbolic over the realistic Language English Narrator There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to Marlow’s story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ship’s captain. Point Of View The first narrator speaks in the first-person plural, on behalf of four other passengers who listen to Marlow’s tale. Marlow narrates his story in the first person, describing only what he witnessed and experienced, and providing his own commentary on the story. Tone Ambivalent: Marlow is disgusted at the brutality of the Company and horrified by Kurtz’s degeneration, but he claims that any thinking man would be tempted into similar behavior. Tense Past Setting (Time) Latter part of the nineteenth century, probably sometime between 1876 and 1892 Setting (Place) Opens on the Thames River outside London, where Marlow is telling the story that makes up Heart of Darkness. Events of the story take place in Brussels, at the Company’s offices, and in the Congo, then a Belgian territory. Protagonist Marlow Major Conflict Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as “civilized” Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context of European society. Climax Marlow’s discovery, upon reaching the Inner Station, that Kurtz has completely abandoned European morals and norms of behavior Themes The hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a result of imperialism, the absurdity of evil Motifs Darkness (very seldom opposed by light), interiors vs. surfaces (kernel/shell, coast/inland, station/forest, etc.), ironic understatement, hyperbolic language, inability to find words to describe situation adequately, images of ridiculous waste, upriver versus downriver/toward and away from Kurtz/away from and back toward civilization (quest or journey structure) Symbols Rivers, fog, women (Kurtz’s Intended, his African mistress) Foreshadowing Permeates every moment of the narrative—mostly operates on the level of imagery, which is consistently dark, gloomy, and threatening Heart of Darkness 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. Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, Marlow encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents. The cruelty and squalor of imperial enterprise contrasts sharply with the majestic jungle that surrounds the white man’s settlements, making them appear to be tiny islands amidst a vast darkness. Marlow arrives at the Central Station, run by the general manager, a conspiratorial character. He finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. His interest in Kurtz grows during this period. The manager and his favorite, the brickmaker, seem to fear Kurtz as a threat to their position. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays in repairing the ship more costly. Marlow eventually gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the river. The dense jungle and the oppressive silence make everyone aboard a little nervous, and the occasional glimpse of a native village or the sound of drums works the pilgrims into a frenzy. Marlow and his crew come across a hut together with a note saying that the wood is for them but that they should approach cautiously. Shortly after the steamer has taken on the firewood, it is surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is attacked by an unseen band of natives. The African helmsman is killed before Marlow frightens the natives away with the ship’s steam whistle. Not long after, Marlow and his companions arrive at Kurtz’s Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a half-crazed Russian trader, who meets them as they come ashore, assures them that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who left the wood. The Russian claims that Kurtz has enlarged his mind and cannot be subjected to the same moral judgments as normal people. Apparently, Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and has gone on brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. The collection of heads adorning the fence posts around the station attests to his “methods.” The pilgrims bring Kurtz out of the station-house, and a large group of native warriors pours out of the forest and surrounds them. Kurtz speaks to them, and the natives disappear into the woods. The manager brings Kurtz, who is quite ill, aboard the steamer. A beautiful native woman, apparently Kurtz’s mistress, appears on the shore and stares out at the ship. The Russian implies that she is somehow involved with Kurtz and has caused trouble before through her influence over him. The Russian reveals to Marlow, after swearing him to secrecy, that Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer to make them believe he was dead in order that they might turn back and leave him to his plans. The Russian then leaves by canoe, fearing the displeasure of the manager. Kurtz disappears in the night, and Marlow goes out in search of him, finding him crawling on toward the native camp. Marlow stops him and convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river the next morning, but Kurtz’s health is failing fast. Marlow listens to Kurtz talk while he pilots the ship, and Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents, including an eloquent pamphlet on civilizing the savages which ends with a the man for maintaining a semblance of civility even in the wilderness. Such an image of civilization in the jungle—or of light in the darkness—represents another contradiction of the European civilizing mission. Antagonist The primary antagonist in Heart of Darkness is Kurtz, whose descent into madness makes him the clearest embodiment of corruption and evil in the novel, and ultimately the character that fully disillusions Marlow in regard to European conquests. Even though Kurtz does not make his brief appearance until late in the story, his specter haunts Marlow long before and long after their encounter. As a representative of a Belgian colonial enterprise, Kurtz symbolizes a larger, more abstract antagonist: European imperialism. By extension, the corrosion of Kurtz’s psychology also mirrors the breakdown of the logic behind European imperialism: supposedly a civilizing mission, yet conducted with savage violence; supposedly an enterprise based on the efficient extraction of resources, yet grossly inefficient and corrupted by greed. In the end, Kurtz fully embodies the moral bankruptcy of Europe as a whole. Motifs Observation and Eavesdropping Marlow gains a great deal of information by watching the world around him and by overhearing others’ conversations. This phenomenon speaks to the impossibility of direct communication between individuals: information must come as the result of chance observation and astute interpretation. Words fail to capture meaning adequately, and thus they must be taken in the context of their utterance Interiors and Exteriors Comparisons between interiors and exteriors pervade Heart of Darkness. Marlow is confronted with a series of exteriors and surfaces—the river’s banks, the forest walls around the station, Kurtz’s broad forehead—that he must interpret. These exteriors are all the material he is given, and they provide him with perhaps a more profound source of knowledge than any falsely constructed interior “kernel.” Darkness Darkness is important enough conceptually to be part of the book’s title. However, it is difficult to discern exactly what it might mean. Africa, England, and Brussels are all described as gloomy and somehow dark, even if the sun is shining brightly. Darkness thus seems to operate metaphorically and existentially rather than specifically. Darkness is the inability to see: this may sound simple, but as a description of the human condition it has profound implications. Failing to see another human being means failing to understand that individual and failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with him or her. Setting Heart of Darkness primarily takes place in the late nineteenth century in the Belgian-controlled Congo Free State. At that time, Europe controlled immense empires around the world, meaning places like the Congo were subject to horrific violence in the service of stripping away and exporting massive amounts of natural resources. In the case of the Belgian Congo, traders forced Africans into slavery to support the extraction of ivory for a quickly expanding global market. Marlow’s journey into the Congolese interior progressively exposes the violence and greed of fellow representatives of the Company, the Belgian enterprise Marlow works for. However, even though European empires were at their peak, many Europeans remained in the dark about the colonies and what happened there. Most of the action happens in Africa, but Heart of Darkness begins and ends in a boat on the River Thames, just outside of London. In the novel’s second paragraph, the narrator describes a dark, ominous cloud that hangs over London 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. Symbols Fog Fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures but distorts. Marlow’s steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has no idea where he’s going and no idea whether peril or open water lies ahead. The 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. Africa is thus reduced to a series of two-dimensional scenes that flash by Marlow’s steamer as he travels upriver. The river also seems to want to expel Europeans from Africa altogether: its current makes travel upriver slow and difficult, but the flow of water makes travel downriver, back toward “civilization,” rapid and seemingly inevitable.