Heart of Darkness- Conrad, Appunti di Inglese

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HEART OF DARKNESS (JOSEPH CONRAD, UKRAINE 1857-KENT 1924) ● The very thing that makes his books unique is never the story itself, which is just a pretext to analyse deeper truths, such as the condition of the human being. ● Keywords that describe his vision of life: pessimism, guilt, brutality, alienation, exploitation and primitive instincts. ○ These elements emerge in moments of crisis, when man loses control and reveals his true nature. ● The importance of exotic settings and uncivilised populations, is to be found in the idea that a lack of civilisation leads to degeneration and moral failure, because social norms save us from our deep instincts. ● Life is complex, mysterious and contradictory, so everyone risks insanity and can save themselves by using restraint, because self-control and hard work keep men away from madness. ● Narrative devices: ○ Multiple narrators (different points of view on different aspects of life) ○ Symbols (represent life’s negative and positive aspects) ○ Contrast between sanity and insanity, knowledge and superstition, wilderness and civilization. ● Conrad is the link between the Victorian age and Modernism. ○ He introduces the psychological in-depth analysis that precedes Freud’s psychoanalysis. ○ The narration has a lot of flashbacks and flashforwards. HEART OF DARKNESS PREMISE ● Historical contest: ○ European colonialism was at its height (defined as “the Scramble for Africa”), European countries invaded African territories in search of raw materials and trading opportunities. ○ Local populations were exploited in the name of progress and civilization. ○ The Belgian ivory trade is a symbol of the horrors of European Colonialism. ● The quest: ○ Is represented by Marlow’s journey on the river Congo. ○ Other journeys in literature lead the characters to self-knowledge. ■ Homer and Virgil, the Holy Grail, Dante’s Divine Comedy. ● The double: ○ The novel is based on parallels and contrasts. ○ Duality of human nature (inspired by Stevenson). ○ The Jekyll-Hyde duality can be compared to the relationship between Marlow and Kurz, who are two faces of the same coin, two people who identify with one another and who represent self control and lack of restraint. ○ Opposite ideas: darkness and light, black and white, reason and madness, men and women, nature and machines.. ● The journey: ○ Leading to the unconscious ○ To the underworld, the reign of death (classical literature) ○ Moral one, which looks into the nature of evil. Carlotta Cecchini 5E a.s.2021/22 Fonte: Heart of Darkness, Liberty Classics by J.Conrad SUMMARY BY CHAPTERS CHAPTER 1 - PART 1 It is a quiet evening on the river Thames and a boat called Nellie is waiting to sail. There are five people on board: the captain, a lawyer, an accountant, the narrator and Marlow. As the sun sets, the narrator thinks about the glorious ships and men who had sailed along the Thames, while Marlow defines this part of England “one of the darkest places on the Earth”. He speaks about ancient times, when the Romans conquered British territories and defines them as conquerors who were probably scared and fascinated at the same time. But after all they were little more than robbers. Then Marlow says that he was once looking for a job on a ship and decided to ask for his aunt’s help, because he wanted to become captain of a steamboat for a continental company, to fulfill his dream to explore the River Congo. He has an appointment in Brussels: the Company offices are deserted. Marlow is visited by a doctor, who wants to take measurements of his head, because he thinks the size of the brain to be related to the possible madness that affects people in Africa. Marlow then visits his aunt, who speaks about his job as a sort of apostlic mission. CHAPTER 1 - PART 2 Marlow leaves on a French boat, which frequently stops in ports along the way. After more than a month, Marlow arrives at the mouth of river Congo and sails along it in a smaller boat, chatting with the Swedish captain. Marlow gets to the company station, where he sees some black men in chains and a group of other black men who are sitting in agony. Then he meets the Company’s chief accountant, an extremely elegant man whose appearance contrasts with the desolation of the station, where he hears about Kurtz for the first time. Marlow leaves the station with a white companion and arrives at the Central Station, where he discovers that his ship has sunk. He meets the manager, who inspires uneasiness, and who talks about Kurtz and predicts that repairing the ship will take three months. Marlow works at his ship and one night he chats with a brick-maker who thinks Marlow is very influential, he takes advantage of this misunderstanding and asks him for rivets, which will never arrive, but an Exploring Expedition invades the station, its leader is the manager’s uncle. CHAPTER 2 - PART 1 One evening Marlow overhears a conversation between the manager and his uncle: they’re talking about Kurtz, his power and pride, his poor health and the fact that he was about to return to the station with a lot of ivory but then changed idea and went back into the forest. They also speak about the difficult health conditions in the country, and the uncle tells his nephew to keep calm, because he never gets ill and so he will win over the others. Marlow finishes to repair the steamboat and leaves in search of Kurz with a crew of cannibals, the manager and some pilgrims. His fireman is a local who has been taught how to do the job. After 50 miles they find a hut and a message saying that there is wood for them and they should approach cautiously. Marlow finds a sailor’s manual with coded notes. They take the wood and leave, but near their destination there is a lot of fog, and they hear scary cries from the shore: white people are scared, while the natives want to capture them to eat them. Carlotta Cecchini 5E a.s.2021/22 Fonte: Heart of Darkness, Liberty Classics by J.Conrad