Heart of Darkness Major Works Data
Author: Joseph Conrad
Date of Publication: 1899 Genre: novel, fiction |
Characteristics of the genre:
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Biographical information about the author:
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Plot Summary:
A sailor by the name of Marlow travels up the Congo River to meet with Kurtz. Marlow is a riverboat captain through 'the Company', and as he is on his journey he sees the cruelty and brutality toward the African natives. Kurtz has a plan to civilize the native Africans, but dies before it is able to be implemented. Marlow deals with an internal conflict in deciding what he believes is right throughout the story. Author's Style:
The author's style is generally long, lengthy syntactical structure with lots of detail. (Ex: "We pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom-house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a God-forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag-pole lost in it: landed more soldiers - to take care of the custom-house clerks, presumably" (16).) |
Memorable Quotes:
This quote is significant because it portrays the idea of civil vs savagery.
This quote is significant because he is convincing himself out of reality and seems confused, which further enhances the inner conflict that he deals with throughout the story.
This quote is significant because it shows the idea of civil vs savagery, where he is thinking that they are living like savages due to all of the negative factors that the wilderness entails.
- "While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all fours towards the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone" (22).
This quote is significant because it portrays the idea of civil vs savagery.
- "He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams" (35).
This quote is significant because he is convincing himself out of reality and seems confused, which further enhances the inner conflict that he deals with throughout the story.
- "Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay - cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death, - death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush" (7).
This quote is significant because it shows the idea of civil vs savagery, where he is thinking that they are living like savages due to all of the negative factors that the wilderness entails.
Main Characters:
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Setting:
Significance of Opening Scene:
The narrator retells stories of other voyagers and their achievements, showing that these journeys are meaningful. Significance of Closing Scene:
The narrator shows that the journey was overall beneficial, for Marlow through the experience and for everyone else through imperialism. |
Symbols:
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Themes:
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