Scarica riassunto heart of darkness dal libro only Connect new directions e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Heart of darkness Plot The novel consist on 3 parts and it’s set at the end of 19th century. The narrator is Marlow, a sailor that is on the ‘Nellie’ a ship that will sail from London. His first commission is in Congo where he is involved in the ivory trade for a Belgian company, he had to catch the ivory from the heart of the continent and bring it to the ship to Europe. In Africa he encountered a French gun-boat firing into the jungle but he could’t see anyone, then he went to the Company Station where he noticed big disorganisation and the cruelty of the colonial exploitation. Here he heard the name of Kurtz for the first time, he was a company agent who managed to supply more ivory than the others and had become an idol for the natives. There an expedition to find Kurtz and bring him back to civilisation because he was very ill. Marlow met several people who refers to Kurtz as a very remarkable person, emissary of pity and science and progress. Kurtz had to write a report where he put down the noble ideals that brought him there for the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs and Kurtz end his report by saying ‘exterminate all the brutes’. Marlow met Kurtz and he wants to speak to him on board but Kurtz dies whispering the words ‘the horror! The horror!’. Marlow returns to Belgium and there he meet Kurtz’s fiancé and lies to herby saying that his last words where her name. Historical context Conrad talks about the colonial imperialism of king Leopold II of Belgium that considered Congo free state as a possession and says that he is interested in Congo for a philanthropic aim and anti-slavery. He says that the agents of the State had to accomplish the mission of continuing the development of Africa and reducing the barbarism and fighting their sanguinary customs and accustom the population to lows like the work. He just wanted to exploit the wealth of the Congo state. Conrad was writing against imperialism, he considered it as a political and economical system of dominance. He knows about the brutal exercise of low on the natives and the search of profit is generalised to all forms of imperialism by calling Marlow’s company ‘Continental trading company’ or by giving Kurtz German name, a half French father and a half English mother. Structure The novel is composed by a series of stories one embedded to the other. There is the frame provided by an anonymous narrator who is on board the Nellie on the Thames and introduces Marlow. Also minor characters tells their story and their view of Kurtz. There is a continuer shift backwards and
