Select a quote from Heart of Darkness that describes nature. Then, in 3-5 sentences discuss how the natural setting affects Marlow (or another character). Think about how Conrad uses nature as a symbol.
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark." (pg. 80)
Before, Marlow had viewed The Congo has a place of hope, but now he sees it is actually hopeless. He is no longer as curious about the land, for he doesn't believe there is anything beneficial he can do for it. There is a constant battle between good and evil among the people, and it is evident, even in nature, that the evil is clearly the more superior.
"The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time." (page 97)
The natural setting affects Marlow and Kurtz. In this passage, the steamer is beginning to leave the Congo and Marlow is on his journey home. Kurtz is also affected by leaving the Congo, not only because it is the beginning of his journey home but, also because he is leaving the people of the Congo that are so dedicated to him. Conrad uses nature as a symbol of the time Kurtz has left to live. Specifically, comparing that to the current of the water.
"The woods were unmoved, like a mask -- heavy, like the closed door of a prison -- they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence." Pg.82 Heart of Darkness
This quote above about the heavy masked forest tells me that Marlow had a very uneasy feeling about being surrounded by the forest which he knew was filled with savage natives watching him. Also, Marlow feared that the natives would suddenly decide to leave the forest and attack them for trying to take Kurtz. I feel that Conrad is using the masked forest filled with savage natives symbolically as the unknown or secrets that the Congo still has hidden from the civilized world that exists outside of the jungle.
"His voice lost itself in the calm of the evening. The long shadows of the forest had slipped downhill while we talked, had gone far beyond the ruined hovel. All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendour, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore. The bushes did not rustle." (85)
Conrad uses nature and the setting of the passage above to portray the fear Marlow has being unaware of what could occur. Marlow has heard so many things about Kurtz he cannot determine what is exactly true. He has no clue what to expect and the dazzling landscape covered with gloom creates the idea that Marlow doesn't know what to expect. That is how the setting affects Marlow in the passage.
"The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could at a thing monstrous and free." (Page 51) Marlow felt very uneasy during this part of the story when he goes to get the firewood that was left behind. The environment around him seems strange, foreign, and unsafe. This quote foreshadows the native attack that unfortunately kills the helmsman of Marlow's boat while also foreshadowing the attitude of the rest of the book when Kurtz finally comes into the story as a character instead of a tale that people tell about him. Nature symbolizes the unfamiliar circumstances and situations that the characters enter and the reader might also enter.
"The woods were unmoved, like a mask-heavy, like the closed door of a prison-they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence." (132)
Here Marlow feels that the nature around him is unknown. He sees the woods where Kurtz is, and he knows that he can't predict what will happen when he finds him. The nature around Marlow makes him fearful and cautious. Conrad uses the darkness of nature to show the characters' fears. The river and the trees and the landscape around them is for the savage. They must learn how the savage operate to survive in this nature.
"I tried to break the spell - the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness - that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by awaken of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions." (Pg.95) Here Marlow is seeing this effect that nature is having over Kurts. It seems to have unlocked a primal/carnal instincts that resides in all men souls. This symbol of nature is a metaphor saying that when some ones enters into the wild, weather it be natural or the wild of ones mind, one will return as a Savage.
"When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night.It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all around you like something solid."
Here I believe the pilgrims feel trapped and helpless because of the fog. They can't see anything around them and it gives them an eerie feeling. They start to act without thinking and pull out their guns when there is no real sign of danger. Fear drives people to do crazy things I believe and that's true for many occasions throughout the book like when Marlow is trying to get Kurts out of the Congo and tells him he would smash his head in. He is thinking of doing savage like things because of the situation he is in.
"The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted,into the gloom of overshadowed distances.... you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against the shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once." (pg 48) Conrad is describing Marlow's uncertainty and fear of what is to come though this description of the Congo. He has "lost his way" on the river like he has lost a reason to find Kurtz. He believes that matching a face to this mysterious voice isn't worth the trials he fears he is about to face.
"It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush, which it seemed to me, I would have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul." (pg 105)
As Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, he realizes how being that deep in the Congo truly does impact a person physically, mentally, and emotionally. No longer are judgments able to be made rationally because of the distance away from civilized and logical people. Kurtz has immersed himself so fully in the jungle of the Congo and the business of ivory trading that he is not able to see what it is doing to him and how it is slowly killing him. The jungle represents everything savage, dark, and selfish, all of which are traits that Kurtz adopts and ultimately suffers because of.
"An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, think, heavy, and sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine... cut off for ever from everything you had known one." (pg 48) Here Marlow is realizing he is in a very different place than England or any other country he has been to before. The Congo is unknown to himself and everyone else around him. People can guess what is out there, but no one is certain. Conrad uses nature to symbolize that Marlow fears the unknown. The nature around Marlow is beautiful, but he only sees the gloom of the unknown around him.
“Suddenly round the corner of the house a group of men appeared, as though they had come up from the ground. They waded waist-deep in the grass, in a compact body, bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of human beings—of naked human beings—with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the dark-faced and pensive forest. The bushes shook, the grass swayed for a time, and then everything stood still in attentive immobility. (page 85)
This description directly links Marlow and nature by using detailed imagery. As the group of men come from out of nowhere and "waist-deep in the grass" it shows that these men resemble a predator out lurking for its victim and how the Congo, just like what happened with Kurtz, can swallow you. Marlow's growing knowledge of the dangerous Congo displays "the emptiness" and as the Congo catches its prey, it becomes quiet and the grass halts.
"All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendour, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore. The bushes did not rustle." (pg 85)
The setting of nature in the story was quiet and murky. It led Marlow to think that something wasn't right. He began to question what he was about to encounter as he is finally about to meet Kurtz. With the tales of Kurtz and the uneasy nature happening throughout the story, it doesn't seem like it will be too good of an experience.
"The woods were unmoved, like a mask -- heavy, like the closed doors of a prison -- they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence," (82). This quote shows how much being in the Congo has changed Marlow's perspective of the place. Marlow started out his journey excited, ready to explore an unknown world and learn new things, but after he spends time in the Congo, with it's savages and gloomy fog and murky river, he realizes that it isn't at all what he expected it to be. Marlow's excitement over the freedom of the Congo turns into him thinking of it as "unapproachable" and a "prison." Nature in this part of the book turns into a symbol of an evil and inescapable trap.
"the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness" (110) He felt it was a place that was very unforgiving. There was so much that could happen and was represented by Marlow. The wilderness, to him, was a very deep and consuming place. It could be scary to be there alone. It was like he wondered how people survived out there.
"No sooner had we fairly entered it than I became aware it was much narrower than I had supposed. To the left of us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to the right a high, steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes. Above the bushes the trees stood in serried ranks. The twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream. It was then well on in the afternoon, the face of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of shadow had already fallen on the water." (62)
Here again "gloom" comes back as Conrad describes another threshold Marlow must cross to get to his objective. Marlow and his mes approach this heavy shadow slowly, indicating that they are cautious of what is to come. This nature is intimidating in a way, with its gloom and trees standing tall, showing no remorse, and giving sight to Marlow on what the Congo really is like.
"The curtain of trees" Pg. 96 This quote shows how Conrad uses the landscaping around Marlow to make it seem as if something else is there. The forest is always hiding something and this makes Marlow start to examine himself. He starts to see another side of himself that he hasn't ever explored. The landscaping makes it seem as if something is always hiding always waiting to get the best of you.
"All this was in the gloom, while we down there was yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, and with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below." (pg 85) During the book Marlow usually describes the world and nature as dark and evil. However, in this quote he actually talks about his splendor and beauty of the river. I think this shows that he is beginning to realize that not everything in the congo is dark and ugly; that he is changing his point of view towards it.
"The night was very clear; a dark blue space, sparkling with dew and starlight, in which black things stood very still." (93)
In this quote, Marlow seems to look closely at the nigh sky and at his surroundings. He goes on to say he spots movement in the darkness but is unsure of it. It affects Marlow in a way that he seems moved because of what he can't see outside, it all blends together and so his vision cannot set apart the things outside. It's almost defines what the unknown is like, because he was not expecting his trip to turn out how it did and now he must continue on unknowing of what the future will be like.
"Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world." Pg. 48
Conrad uses nature here to represent the savagery of the congo. The people Marlow comes in contact with are primitive. Conrad uses the river to describe the extremes of the primitive nature of the people in the Congo, and of the Congo itself.
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the arch of the blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." (80)
Nature has taken a bad toll on Marlow. He has sunken into a deep depression and the nature surrounding him doesn't help. When a person is depressed, they can find the slightest bit of darkness in anything.The nature makes it easy for him to see darkness and a lot of it. He think the nature is unsympathetic to him. He views nature negatively.
"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, for the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide. The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of the interminable waterway." (page 1)
The beginning of the book is calm, and it has a relaxed feel, as if everything the sailors are doing is at peace. As the book progresses and flashes back to the past, the nature and surroundings become a very vital part of the story. When Marlow reaches the Congo, it is completely different than what he is used to in England, and the land is different as well, and it takes a toll on Marlow. I find the story to be metamorphosing because in the beginning, Marlow is out in the peaceful sea telling a story about how non peaceful the nature, life, and rivers were at some point in his life, as in a symbol that it is all going to be okay in the end, sort of, no matter what may be happening at some point in one's life.
"The Earth seemed unearthly" (Pg.62) This quote showed that being away from home and civilization, on a completely different continent, had quite an effect on Marlow. It changed his perspective on everything, making him see everything in a way he never expected. The trip changed everything for Marlow.
"The curtain of trees" Pg. 96 This curtain symbolizes the "unknown" past the trees. Much as a curtain does at a play or musical. This puts a sense of fear around Marlow of what the savages could be doing past the unknown curtain. The nature of these curtains is the theme of the whole Congo through the book.
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the arch of the blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." (pg. 80)
Experiencing the Congo was much different than anything Marlow had experienced. The jungle was a dark, aggressive place that gave Marlow great fear and depression. The "impenetrable darkness" seemed to consume him, and he had nobody to turn to for comfort, considering the lack of humanity and his dominating fear that resided in him. In this case, Conrad uses nature as a symbol of an evil darkness where no comfort is found.
"It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush." (105) Marlow realized just how deep the Congo was. He saw that it could change a person and it wasn't always for the better. For him, he left enlightened, but not Kurtz. The wilderness took him over and he was no longer able to really function like he used to.
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark." (pg. 80)
ReplyDeleteBefore, Marlow had viewed The Congo has a place of hope, but now he sees it is actually hopeless. He is no longer as curious about the land, for he doesn't believe there is anything beneficial he can do for it. There is a constant battle between good and evil among the people, and it is evident, even in nature, that the evil is clearly the more superior.
"The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time." (page 97)
ReplyDeleteThe natural setting affects Marlow and Kurtz. In this passage, the steamer is beginning to leave the Congo and Marlow is on his journey home. Kurtz is also affected by leaving the Congo, not only because it is the beginning of his journey home but, also because he is leaving the people of the Congo that are so dedicated to him. Conrad uses nature as a symbol of the time Kurtz has left to live. Specifically, comparing that to the current of the water.
"The woods were unmoved, like a mask -- heavy, like the closed door of a prison -- they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence." Pg.82 Heart of Darkness
ReplyDeleteThis quote above about the heavy masked forest tells me that Marlow had a very uneasy feeling about being surrounded by the forest which he knew was filled with savage natives watching him. Also, Marlow feared that the natives would suddenly decide to leave the forest and attack them for trying to take Kurtz. I feel that Conrad is using the masked forest filled with savage natives symbolically as the unknown or secrets that the Congo still has hidden from the civilized world that exists outside of the jungle.
"His voice lost itself in the calm of the evening. The long shadows of the forest had slipped downhill while we talked, had gone far beyond the ruined hovel. All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendour, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore. The bushes did not rustle." (85)
ReplyDeleteConrad uses nature and the setting of the passage above to portray the fear Marlow has being unaware of what could occur. Marlow has heard so many things about Kurtz he cannot determine what is exactly true. He has no clue what to expect and the dazzling landscape covered with gloom creates the idea that Marlow doesn't know what to expect. That is how the setting affects Marlow in the passage.
"The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could at a thing monstrous and free." (Page 51)
ReplyDeleteMarlow felt very uneasy during this part of the story when he goes to get the firewood that was left behind. The environment around him seems strange, foreign, and unsafe. This quote foreshadows the native attack that unfortunately kills the helmsman of Marlow's boat while also foreshadowing the attitude of the rest of the book when Kurtz finally comes into the story as a character instead of a tale that people tell about him. Nature symbolizes the unfamiliar circumstances and situations that the characters enter and the reader might also enter.
"The woods were unmoved, like a mask-heavy, like the closed door of a prison-they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence." (132)
ReplyDeleteHere Marlow feels that the nature around him is unknown. He sees the woods where Kurtz is, and he knows that he can't predict what will happen when he finds him. The nature around Marlow makes him fearful and cautious. Conrad uses the darkness of nature to show the characters' fears. The river and the trees and the landscape around them is for the savage. They must learn how the savage operate to survive in this nature.
"I tried to break the spell - the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness - that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by awaken of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions." (Pg.95)
ReplyDeleteHere Marlow is seeing this effect that nature is having over Kurts. It seems to have unlocked a primal/carnal instincts that resides in all men souls. This symbol of nature is a metaphor saying that when some ones enters into the wild, weather it be natural or the wild of ones mind, one will return as a Savage.
"When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night.It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all around you like something solid."
ReplyDeleteHere I believe the pilgrims feel trapped and helpless because of the fog. They can't see anything around them and it gives them an eerie feeling. They start to act without thinking and pull out their guns when there is no real sign of danger. Fear drives people to do crazy things I believe and that's true for many occasions throughout the book like when Marlow is trying to get Kurts out of the Congo and tells him he would smash his head in. He is thinking of doing savage like things because of the situation he is in.
"The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted,into the gloom of overshadowed distances.... you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against the shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once." (pg 48)
ReplyDeleteConrad is describing Marlow's uncertainty and fear of what is to come though this description of the Congo. He has "lost his way" on the river like he has lost a reason to find Kurtz. He believes that matching a face to this mysterious voice isn't worth the trials he fears he is about to face.
"It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush, which it seemed to me, I would have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul." (pg 105)
ReplyDeleteAs Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, he realizes how being that deep in the Congo truly does impact a person physically, mentally, and emotionally. No longer are judgments able to be made rationally because of the distance away from civilized and logical people. Kurtz has immersed himself so fully in the jungle of the Congo and the business of ivory trading that he is not able to see what it is doing to him and how it is slowly killing him. The jungle represents everything savage, dark, and selfish, all of which are traits that Kurtz adopts and ultimately suffers because of.
"An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, think, heavy, and sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine... cut off for ever from everything you had known one." (pg 48)
ReplyDeleteHere Marlow is realizing he is in a very different place than England or any other country he has been to before. The Congo is unknown to himself and everyone else around him. People can guess what is out there, but no one is certain. Conrad uses nature to symbolize that Marlow fears the unknown. The nature around Marlow is beautiful, but he only sees the gloom of the unknown around him.
“Suddenly round the corner of the house a group of men appeared, as though they had come up from the ground. They waded waist-deep in the grass, in a compact body, bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of human beings—of naked human beings—with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the dark-faced and pensive forest. The bushes shook, the grass swayed for a time, and then everything stood still in attentive immobility. (page 85)
ReplyDeleteThis description directly links Marlow and nature by using detailed imagery. As the group of men come from out of nowhere and "waist-deep in the grass" it shows that these men resemble a predator out lurking for its victim and how the Congo, just like what happened with Kurtz, can swallow you. Marlow's growing knowledge of the dangerous Congo displays "the emptiness" and as the Congo catches its prey, it becomes quiet and the grass halts.
"All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendour, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore. The bushes did not rustle." (pg 85)
ReplyDeleteThe setting of nature in the story was quiet and murky. It led Marlow to think that something wasn't right. He began to question what he was about to encounter as he is finally about to meet Kurtz. With the tales of Kurtz and the uneasy nature happening throughout the story, it doesn't seem like it will be too good of an experience.
"The woods were unmoved, like a mask -- heavy, like the closed doors of a prison -- they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence," (82). This quote shows how much being in the Congo has changed Marlow's perspective of the place. Marlow started out his journey excited, ready to explore an unknown world and learn new things, but after he spends time in the Congo, with it's savages and gloomy fog and murky river, he realizes that it isn't at all what he expected it to be. Marlow's excitement over the freedom of the Congo turns into him thinking of it as "unapproachable" and a "prison." Nature in this part of the book turns into a symbol of an evil and inescapable trap.
ReplyDelete"the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness" (110)
ReplyDeleteHe felt it was a place that was very unforgiving. There was so much that could happen and was represented by Marlow. The wilderness, to him, was a very deep and consuming place. It could be scary to be there alone. It was like he wondered how people survived out there.
"No sooner had we fairly entered it than I became aware it was much narrower than I had supposed. To the left of us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to the right a high, steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes. Above the bushes the trees stood in serried ranks. The twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream. It was then well on in the afternoon, the face of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of shadow had already fallen on the water." (62)
ReplyDeleteHere again "gloom" comes back as Conrad describes another threshold Marlow must cross to get to his objective. Marlow and his mes approach this heavy shadow slowly, indicating that they are cautious of what is to come. This nature is intimidating in a way, with its gloom and trees standing tall, showing no remorse, and giving sight to Marlow on what the Congo really is like.
"The curtain of trees" Pg. 96
ReplyDeleteThis quote shows how Conrad uses the landscaping around Marlow to make it seem as if something else is there. The forest is always hiding something and this makes Marlow start to examine himself. He starts to see another side of himself that he hasn't ever explored. The landscaping makes it seem as if something is always hiding always waiting to get the best of you.
"All this was in the gloom, while we down there was yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, and with a murky and overshadowed bend above and below." (pg 85)
ReplyDeleteDuring the book Marlow usually describes the world and nature as dark and evil. However, in this quote he actually talks about his splendor and beauty of the river. I think this shows that he is beginning to realize that not everything in the congo is dark and ugly; that he is changing his point of view towards it.
"The night was very clear; a dark blue space, sparkling with dew and starlight, in which black things stood very still." (93)
ReplyDeleteIn this quote, Marlow seems to look closely at the nigh sky and at his surroundings. He goes on to say he spots movement in the darkness but is unsure of it. It affects Marlow in a way that he seems moved because of what he can't see outside, it all blends together and so his vision cannot set apart the things outside. It's almost defines what the unknown is like, because he was not expecting his trip to turn out how it did and now he must continue on unknowing of what the future will be like.
"Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world." Pg. 48
ReplyDeleteConrad uses nature here to represent the savagery of the congo. The people Marlow comes in contact with are primitive. Conrad uses the river to describe the extremes of the primitive nature of the people in the Congo, and of the Congo itself.
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the arch of the blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." (80)
ReplyDeleteNature has taken a bad toll on Marlow. He has sunken into a deep depression and the nature surrounding him doesn't help. When a person is depressed, they can find the slightest bit of darkness in anything.The nature makes it easy for him to see darkness and a lot of it. He think the nature is unsympathetic to him. He views nature negatively.
"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, for the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide. The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of the interminable waterway." (page 1)
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of the book is calm, and it has a relaxed feel, as if everything the sailors are doing is at peace. As the book progresses and flashes back to the past, the nature and surroundings become a very vital part of the story. When Marlow reaches the Congo, it is completely different than what he is used to in England, and the land is different as well, and it takes a toll on Marlow. I find the story to be metamorphosing because in the beginning, Marlow is out in the peaceful sea telling a story about how non peaceful the nature, life, and rivers were at some point in his life, as in a symbol that it is all going to be okay in the end, sort of, no matter what may be happening at some point in one's life.
"The Earth seemed unearthly" (Pg.62)
ReplyDeleteThis quote showed that being away from home and civilization, on a completely different continent, had quite an effect on Marlow. It changed his perspective on everything, making him see everything in a way he never expected. The trip changed everything for Marlow.
"The curtain of trees" Pg. 96
ReplyDeleteThis curtain symbolizes the "unknown" past the trees. Much as a curtain does at a play or musical. This puts a sense of fear around Marlow of what the savages could be doing past the unknown curtain. The nature of these curtains is the theme of the whole Congo through the book.
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the arch of the blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." (pg. 80)
ReplyDeleteExperiencing the Congo was much different than anything Marlow had experienced. The jungle was a dark, aggressive place that gave Marlow great fear and depression. The "impenetrable darkness" seemed to consume him, and he had nobody to turn to for comfort, considering the lack of humanity and his dominating fear that resided in him. In this case, Conrad uses nature as a symbol of an evil darkness where no comfort is found.
"It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush." (105)
ReplyDeleteMarlow realized just how deep the Congo was. He saw that it could change a person and it wasn't always for the better. For him, he left enlightened, but not Kurtz. The wilderness took him over and he was no longer able to really function like he used to.