“Heart of darkness” - Inglese, riassunto dei capitoli e analisi dei personaggi., Appunti di Inglese

Scarica “Heart of darkness” - Inglese, riassunto dei capitoli e analisi dei personaggi. e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! HEART OF DARKNESS part 1 • It opens with 5 friends (the director of companies, the lawyer, the accountant, Charlie Marlow- >seaman and an unnamed narrator) sitting on a yacht waiting for the tide to change on the Thames river so they can head out to sea. Marlow starts talking about the Romans who conquered Britain when it still was uncivilized and then he starts telling his tale: when he was a kid he wanted to explore Africa because on a map he saw a blank place, “place of darkness”, where there was a river that looked like a snake that remains mysterious (the dark and dangerous nature charmed hime just like the snake did to Eve); he remembers there's a trading company with business there so he seeks employment. • Marlow's aunt (thinks the Company will bring civilization, but they just want money)  introduces him to the Company. He applies for a position made vacant after the captain was killed by natives; at the Company offices he finds two women knitting with black wool, he signs papers and is examined by a doctor (asks if he is mentally ill because it would be interesting to see mental changes that happen to people who go to Africa, he is warning us of what could happen there and what happened to Kurtz z). • Marlow leaves on a French steamer that stops along the African coast. They see an armed sailing ship firing at native people; changes steamer and see a forced-labor camp where natives chained are building a railway, they are in terrible conditions(dying of disease and starvation). At the Outer station he meets the Company's accountant, who is the first perso to tell him about Kurtz z (first class agent who sends so much ivory). • Marlow walks a lot with a white man and 60 African men; when they arrive at Central Station, he finds that his steamer is lying at the bottom of the river. Marlow meets the general manager who tells him about Kurtz(exceptional man). An African man is accused of lighting a fire and is beaten. Marlow spends many months there and realizes that life there is absurd (there are people who are supposed to make bricks but there are no materials for that). The brick maker (who Marlow dislikes) talks really well about Kurtz and is friendly with Marlow. He meets a native and dances with him. Then arrives a group called Eldorado Exploring Expedition, they came to tear treasure out of the bowels of the land. Themes of hypocrisy, brutality of imperialism and absurdity (civilization is represented by a painting Kurtz did). part 2 • Marlow overhears the manager and his uncle talking: he says he wants to fire Marlow, talks badly about Kurtz z because the fact that he is sending more ivory than anyone makes him look bad and because Kurtz believes that the Company is there to bring civilization, the uncle says that Kurz might be dead because he spent so much time in the jungle. The Eldorado Expedition leaves the station with the manager's uncle. • The steamer is repaired and Marlow takes it up the river. Marlow picks up 20 natives ("cannibals") to do hard work-> push the steamer when the river was shallow; hearing the drums from the villages he feels as if he is dreaming. There is a hut with wood: they stop to take it and see a sign "approach cautiously" and a book(an inquiry into some points of seamanship). Theme of racism (they all view black people as animals). • They stop for the night but in the morning after a heavy fog and then are attacked. The crew (natives) is really hungry=> themes of hypocrisy and indifference; Marlow wonders why the crew didn't kill and eat the white people on board. His concern during the attack is that he doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet Kurtz.With a flash forward Marlow says that Kurz is actually depraved (he danced in rites, became like a god for the natives); he also discusses his background and the report he wrote to the society for the suppression of savage customs ("exterminate the brutes!"). • The steamer arrives, they see a young Russian man dressed like Harlequin (he lived in the hut they found). He says natives attacked them because they don't want Kurtz to go. part 3 • the Russian tells Marlow about Kurtz z and his illnesses; Marlow understands that Kurtz has become mad (he raids surrounding areas to steal ivory) and he sees the heads of the rebels hanged around his house. • Kurtz arrives on a stretcher because he is ill; the manager visits him and says he has done more harm than good, the Russian leaves and asks Marlow to protect Kurtz’s reputation. That night Marlow finds Kurtz crawling into the jungle and brings him back. The manager is a hypocrite because he condemns Kurtz, Marlow can now see the good and the bad in people and he takes Kurtz's side even if he is horrified with himself (the jungle draws Kurtz to the primitive roots of humanity). • The next day they leave with a hostile crowd of natives looking at them; the steamer breaks down, Kurtz is sad but steamer is repaired. Kurtz, after a shifting of emotions (pride and despair), cries out "the horror!" (recognizing his own fall into evil and the brutality of imperialism) and dies. • Return to Brussels and takes with him the report the letters and photographs Kurtz asked him to protect; after a while Marlow gives the report to a journalist removing the last part. Marlow is loyal to Kurtz because at the end he was honest enough to judge himself. • the year after Kurtz's death Marlow returns the photographs and the letter to Kurtz's fiancee (he wants to give up his memories of Kurtz, the jungle and the darkness), to whom he told his last words were her name=> this shows how much he has changed: he said he hates lies but understands that they are important if they are going to protect a heart. • The group of Marlow's listeners is silent (they are fascinated by the story) and the river seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness (linking all of Europe to the darkness of barbarity). CHARACTERS Marlow—>Charlie Marlow is the protagonist of this novella. He has been interested in maps since he was a boy. His boyhood fascination lies mostly in the empty, "unexplored" places of the African continent. He tells of the time he got a job piloting a steamer in what is presumably the Congo river basin. Through this journey Marlow is exposed to the brutality and hypocrisy of imperialism and meets the other main character of the story, the depraved and dying Kurtz, who has been unhinged by the darkness and solitude of the jungle. Kurtz—>Kurtz is the chief agent at the Inner Station. The Company wishes to relieve Kurtz from his duty, ostensibly because his unorthodox methods for obtaining more ivory than other agents have been questioned. Kurtz is a gifted and eloquent man. Some think he believes in the Company's stated goals of educating and enhancing the lives of the indigenous people. However, Kurtz has become as barbarous as any Company agent. Yet, he is still revered by the natives. Jungle—>The jungle acts as the antagonist of the novella. It corrupts Kurtz and comes close to corrupting Marlow. Marlow says in reference to the jungle in Part 1 that it is as if nature itself is trying to ward off intruders. Manager—>The manager of the Central Station is a cold, calculating man who has enslaved a great many native people and is completely indifferent to their suffering. He forces them to help him extract ivory, keeps them chained up, fails to feed them, and works them to exhaustion and death. He is jealous of Kurtz because Kurtz sends down more ivory than he does, and he makes plans to get Kurtz relieved of his post. His only motivations are greed and power. Russian—>The Russian is a young man who, in the spirit of adventure and the "need to exist," journeys to Africa. Marlow calls him "gallantly, thoughtlessly alive." When he encounters Kurtz at the Inner Station, the Russian becomes devoted to him, sitting at his feet and absorbing Kurtz's