How to Study a Conrad Novel Heart of Darkness How to Study a Conrad Novel

Reader Response Pages 3-5 What word dominates pages 3-4 Who are the five people on the deck of the Nellie? Quote the description of Marlow given on page 4. On page 5, who “had all gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearing the spark from the sacred fire”? What is the narrator talking about here? According to Marlow, what has also “been one of the dark places on the earth”?

Pages 7-9 What is the gist of Marlow’s discussion of the “Romans first (coming) here”? Marlow talks about the “fascination with the abomination.” What does this expression mean to you? The passage at the bottom of page 8 that begins “The conquest of the earth . . .” and ends at the end of the paragraph is both controversial and central to an understanding of the novella. What do you think Marlow means when he says “What redeems it is the idea only.”?

Pages 10-12 What is Marlow’s first name? Who gets Marlow his appointment? Who is Fresleven? How did he look when Marlow encountered him? What do the women knitting black wool suggest to you?

Pages 15-17 Why is Marlow’s cranium measured? What does Marlow’s aunt say that makes him uncomfortable? What is his reaction to her comments? What is your reaction to his comments about her comments? Note: “I felt as though, instead of going to the centre of a continent, I were about to set off for the centre of the earth.”

Pages 18-20 Personify the coast. What does it ask of Marlow/us? What is the “touch of insanity” Marlow discusses? What does Marlow say watching a coast is like? What happened to the Swede about whom another Swede tells Marlow? (This is an example of a stylistically challenged sentence)

In a Conrad novel you should always be able to discover an opposition between ideals and reality at the core of the text

Passage 1 p. 21(69) “I came upon a boiler . . . Indifference of unhappy savages.” Think about what the extract is showing us. At this stage in your reading, how do we relate the impression of these details to the novel as a whole?

Page 38 (84) Hollow Men “this papier-mâché Mephistopheles” The Jungle = Truth

Pages 41-43 (87) “What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven! . . . can never tell what it really means.” If we continue this idea of the central opposition being between idealism and reality, support this interpretation with specific details from the text. The idealized reality that Marlow was confident of when in Europe has been seriously challenged now that he is in Africa. Support this interpretation with details.

Women Pages 17 (65) & 72 (86) Consider how Marlow thinks about women. How does his attitude change by the time he meets the Intended?