JOSEPH CONRAD – HEART OF DARKNESS, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica JOSEPH CONRAD – HEART OF DARKNESS e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! JOSEPH CONRAD – HEART OF DARKNESS Poland, 1857 – England, 1924. Conrad lost his parents during his youth. When he was 17, he begun a carrer as a sailor and travelled widely. In 1886 he becomes a british citizen and in 1894 he settled down in England and started write. He used his own experience to write some of his most important novels. Heart of Darkness is a long short story. It is a: • Journey of exploration into the dark recesses of the African Jungle; • Quest into the inner self and the “heart of darkness” it hides; Talks about the journey up the Congo River of Marlow, in serch of a Mr. Mistah Kurtz. This journey becomes a quest for him and the final discovery of his real nature. Five men on the boat are talking while they wait for the tide to returne; Marlow narrates his journey deep into Africa along the Congo River to find Kurtz, who is sick and dies during the journey downriver, with the frightening words “the horror!” on his lips. Back in Europe, Merlow meets Kurtz’fiancée, but hides from her the real nature of the man she loved: he was not an explored devoted to the civilization of the African natives, but a cruel tyrant. The charm exploration Marlow has desired to travel around the world since he was young; one region of the Earth, Africa, is the most fascinating as it is still an undiscovered country to him. But this place has a connotation of obscurity, which for Marlow is associated to its river. The Congo looks like a snake on the map, and he wants to sail ita s a steamboat captain; he keeps thinking of the river as he walks along the street. The journey upwards The narrator describes what he sees in his voyage; the river with its banks and islands, vegetation and animales, immersed in darkness and silence, although the sun shines in the sky. The meandering path of the river makes him feel lost, alienated from both present and past. He keeps an eye on the rive ras he sails on and fulfils his duties as a steamboat captain, but a deep sense of mystery and unreality sets in. For Marlow, the river is a humanized oppressive prescence full of menace and mysterious intentions.