HEART
OF DARKNESS—Part I
Close
Reading (total points: 72)
Instructions: Answer in detail on a separate sheet of
paper using complete sentences.
1.
The setting in this story is nautical. List at least three terms that
suggest the narrator is a seaman.
2. What mood is conveyed in the second paragraph? Through what words and literary device does the author achieve this mood?
3.
How is Marlow described? To whom is he compared? What might this
comparison suggest?
4.
The narrator refers to the sun as being “stricken to death” and to the
tidal current’s “crowded . . . memories.” What mood is created by this
imagery/personification?
5.
Explain why the narrator alludes to several vessels of former days.
6.
Conrad reinforces the mood of darkness, of timelessness, of Marlow’s
transcendental insights. Cite examples of this reinforcement.
7. Images of
light and darkness help to establish the initial atmosphere of this tale.
However, instead of acting as contrasts for each other, the light and dark
combine to produce a more muted, almost hazy effect. Quote an instance of this
use.
8. Marlow
observes that he felt uneasy about his adventure even at the beginning. His
sense of foreboding is obvious in his impressions of the Company’s office and
the preliminaries he attended to prior to being commissioned. Cite at least
four passages that convey this sense of foreboding.
9. Describe
at least two of the more noticeable or disquieting events that mark Marlow’s
passages to and arrival at the Company’s station.
10. One of the
clearest instances of foreshadowing occurs just prior to Marlow’s descent into
the ravine and grove. Cite this passage, and explain its effect.
11.
Marlow’s description of the grove of death is a powerful, compelling
invective against imperialism. What effect is achieved by Marlow’s abrupt
departure from the grove and his meeting with the Company’s chief accountant?
12.
How is Mr. Kurtz first introduced? What does this introduction suggest
about Kurtz?
13.
As Marlow proceeds farther upstream—farther into the heart of
darkness—men’s motives, along with what it takes to survive, become clearer.
Specifically, what are these motives?
14.
What does Kurtz’s oil painting personify? What does this painting tell
you about “the chief of the Inner Station”?
15.
Literally and symbolically, what is the “dumb thing” that Marlow finds
so troublesome?
16.
What frustrates Marlow in his telling of this story?
17.
What is the connection between the hippopotamus story and Marlow’s
mentioning Mr. Kurtz?
18. Quote Marlow’s description of
the Eldorado Expedition. What does his description reflect about his own
attitude?
Instructions: Choose one
1. Conrad avoids using the word Congo to describe the river. Instead, he refers to it as “resembling an
immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar
over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land . . . it
fascinated me as a snake would a bird—a silly little bird.”
In a brief analytical essay explain why he
does not name the river, what literary device he uses to describe the river,
and what he means to convey by his description.
2.
Consider Marlow’s observation about lying (“there is a taint of death, a
flavor of mortality in lies”) and his feelings about the nature of work (”No, I
don’t like work . . . what it really means”).
After examining both quotations above, choose one and write a brief analytical essay expressing your understanding of what Marlow means and how it connects to the story as a whole.