Opening Scene of Heart of Darkness

Opening scene of Heart of Darkness

1.Establishes the mood of the novel:

¶2 - "mournful gloom, brooding. . . "

meditative

2.Establishes themes: difficulty in distinguishing between reality and what apears to be. Note the Director (¶3) of Companies appears to be a pilot, but he isn't.

3.Introduces Marlow -- ¶3 - ascetic, resembles an idol, on page 2227 ¶3 he looks like a Buddha

4.¶5 -- Makes a connection to the brooding mood which evokes the past = famous men who have traveled the Thames River.

Extremely important ¶ -- "Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messenger of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire." establishes this sense of idealism in colonialization -- going out from London to the world.

"The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires."

5.¶7 -- then Marlow makes the connection of this place to other dark places in the world -

6.¶7 or the 2nd¶ on page 226 is an important in connection with the theme of existentialism: "For the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole contintent, and generally he finds the secret not worth knowing."

Same ¶ -- "The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut."

"But Marlow was not typical, and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like kernel but outid, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine."

**The meaning, the real meaning is not in knowing the truth, the nut, but in the search.

7.Connection of the Thames River to the time when the Romans came here -- Roman empire -- a new civilization. This connection gives the novel a sense of timelessness.

8.Page 2227 -- the meaning of colonialism -- the race that is more powerful than the other -- what redeems it is the idea only --the idealism of/behind colonialism -- very important as we will discover in Kurtz, the aunt, etc.

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the take it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is ot a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish blief in the idea. . ."

1859 -- The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin -- survival of the fittest -- fits beautifully into this mindset.

Dracula by Bram Stoker - 1897 -- typical literature of the time. This feeling that society, civilization had this right to impose beliefs on an inferior society. Bu notice how tat individual is often corrupted b that society he doesn't understand. Is that what happens in Heart of Darkness?

9.Thus Marlow will begin one of his "inconclusive experiences" -- what does inconclusive mean?