HEART of DARKNESS RapertAP Lit STYLE IMPRESSIONISTIC Like

HEART of DARKNESS Rapert/AP Lit

STYLE= IMPRESSIONISTIC • Like the painting movement, the goal of impressionism in writing is to capture the effect of an experience on one’s emotions and perception. Recall: Marlow is interested in the halo, not the object itself. – ~~an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and color.

Ch 1 • Point of View and Narrative Style-Precursor to Modern style – Framed Narrative Technique • Narrator 1 (unnamed passenger on Thames boat) sets up Marlow, who takes over as narrator 2 – Distances reader from experience » 2 x removed » Reader (indirect audience) gets filtered perspective through narrator (direct audience narrator) listening to Marlow’s tale » Marlow is recollecting his experience of several years prior (1890~) to present (1900) » Totally unreliable

Point of View and Narrative Style • Sequence-Circular – – Non-linear: jumps ahead in time, and then goes back Details are withheld or exposed without context Geographical circle-begins and ends in Europe Singular Effect (ala Poe) • • • Gloom, foreboding, heavy, dread Poetic writing style-LUSH with imagery and poetic device Impressionistic (effect and aura of things over reality) • Syntax and Paragraph Length – Absence of breaks (long sentences, long paragraphs) – Relentless, one scene blends with another – Effects reading speed-slow. Psychological effect is dreamlike or drugging, as experience is for Marlow

Ch 1 Plot & Conflicts 1. Belgium Company Office – 2 Knitting women “guarding the door of Darkness…”weavers of Fate/sentinels at gate of Hell. – Inscription- “Hail! Those who are about to die we salute you” – Doctor-measures heads (futile) and asks about madness. Changes take place “inside”-Indicates secondary interp as journey into mind. – Flash to M’s reflection on Kurtz-goal of his journey: “Emissary of light, … a lower apostle”- emissary means messenger or angel. Aunt sees M as messenger of civilization to savages 2. French steamer up African coast • • Shooting at land? No enemy…the land itself? Told of a suicide-no rational reason given

Ch 1 Plot & Conflicts 3. Outer (First) Station (grove of death & accountant) – Squalid and chaotic conditions, neglect and waste everywhere – Grove of death-natives chained together – “complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages…moribund shapes clinging to the earth” • M is “horrorstruck”, however does nothing – Contrast of Accountant-order amid chaos, cleanliness amid depravity • Dying man a mere irritant

Ch 1 Plot & Conflicts 4. Trek through wilderness to Congo Central Station – – 5. 60 men trekking-one carried Paths, abandoned villages, dead man-bones overcome by grass Pilgrims w/staves-IRONIC. They seek ivory. “the word rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed” Effect on all: Silence (“a great silence around above”), isolation (“a solitude, nobody, not a hut”, heat, disease— “I was becoming savage” Central Station – – – Insanity of brick maker’s position---no bricks Boat half sunk-no rivets. Boilermaker-only one M likes Fire-beating of savage-putting out w/leaky buckets Hippos on river Eldorado Ex. ”tear treasure out of the bowels of the land” (allusion to futile search for mythical gold)

Ch 1 Plot • • • & Conflicts Man vs Nature Man vs Self Man vs Society This can be read as a journey into the heart of man…a psychological journey into the core and base of our being. – From consciousness into subconscious – Or into primordial or Id

Ch 1 Characterization • Aunt: typifies Victorian ideals-bringing civilization to wretched, ignorant savages • Marlow: idol, observer • Accountant: efficient, immaculate, ignores dying man • Natives: degraded and voiceless, slowly dying • Manager: strong intestines, empty, brute, makes M uneasy- hates Kurtz • Manager’s Uncle: sleepy cunning, leader of Eldorado Expedition- hates Kurtz • Young Agent (brick maker): envies Kurtz as “emissary of light”-empty paper-mache Mephistopheles • Pilgrims: religion is IVORY-Euro traders $$ POWER, lazy, absurd, cowardly (pink pajamas)-Flabby Devils

Marlow’s thoughts • Detests a lie-says there is death in it • Difficulty in conveying ideas to another…”Do you see him (he asks the narrator on the boat) Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream. We live as we dream —alone. ” • Note his criticism of the others: philanthropic pretense”, “chattering idiot”, lack “moral purpose”, sees self as an outsider – Kurtz is an emissary, possesses a singleness of purpose, equipped with moral ideas in contrast • Jungle is primeval, great, expectant, mute…I felt how big, how confoundedly big…waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.

Symbols and Allusions in Part 1 • • • • Knitters = Fates Idol = Buddhism= goal elimination of desire & enlightenment Inscription Sepulcher city All movements are to left (see grove of death scene) Moribund shapes Gloomy circle of Inferno = Hell Devils: red-eyed, flabby, paper mache Eden Snake Emissary = angel Darkness River-barrier between worlds/life & death Light Painting: light in darkness, blind, draped in darkness