Directions: Choose a passage from the text that WE HAVE NOT discussed in class. Type or cut and paste the passage. Then, discuss what you notice in the passage (consult the analysis sheet to remind you you), and then explain the significance you see in the passage.
You can comment on each others' analysis, and use the comments to help each other with the passages that you are working on.
Passage: (page 67 - 68) “The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness bearing us down towards the sea […] of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power.”
ReplyDeleteParallel structure - “The brown current ran swiftly…” / “Kurtz’s life was running swiftly too”
Repetition followed by literary device – “…ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time.”
Repetition of an idea (death/light/darkness) in its various forms – 1) “I was, so to speak, numbered with the dead. It is strange how I accepted this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms.”
2) “The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now – images of wealth…”
Literary device – 1) “…to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart.”
2) “…unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.”
3) “…the mould of primeval earth…”
Accent on the ‘my’ through repetition – “…my station, my career, my ideas…”
Binaries (literary device) – “diabolic love”
Significance
It appears that the path of the river is what allows its trespassers to venture into the ‘heart of darkness’. As in Dante’s Inferno, this passage alludes to Virgil and Dante’s crossing of the River Styx, an important phase in their journey. This passage also seems to internalize ‘heart of darkness’ as something more than the African continent in suggesting Kurtz’s recession from a personal and mental ‘heart of darkness’.
Quote (page 29): "No influential friend would have served me better. She had given me a change to come out a bit—to find out what I could do. No. I don’t like the work. I had rather laze about and think of all the fine things that can be done. I don’t like the work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself—not for others—no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”
ReplyDeleteWord choice: calls the steamboat a “friend,” “given,” “find yourself”
Patterns: Starting with “I don’t like the work—no man does…” to the last sentence contains a pattern of the same idea with different phrasing.
Binaries: Not liking the work vs. liking what is in the work (opposing ideas he continually reiterates)
Making the implicit explicit: Explicitly addresses an idea that has been developed implicitly throughout the first part of the text. Marlow blatantly tells the reader that what is in the work = salvation and self-identification and clarity
Structure: Many dashes in sentences (connects the key points into a concise sentence). This keeps the main points emphasized and flowing.
Repetitions: “I don’t like the work,” “like,” “others,” “yourself,” “find,” “man”
Juxtaposition (Literary Device): He juxtaposes himself with other men. He expresses the difference between internal comprehension/definition with other men never being able to see below the surface level of another’s identity.
Significance:
He is addressing the reader directly. He does not enjoy his work, however it is not about what the work is, it is about what it’s meaning is, on a deeper level, below the surface or “mere show.” He speaks directly to emphasize the importance of the message to the readers that regardless of what you spend your time doing, you need to look within for the opportunity to find who you are, to find your identity. He makes it clear that this is an internal, personal process that others cannot understand. In Marlow’s eyes his boat has been a loyal companion, guide and “friend” that gave him the chance to find himself through this journey. His work with this boat and the significance of traveling helped lead him to clarity, salvation and understanding. His journey was not only physical (consisting of traveling the Congo River) but also, and more importantly, an internal journey to discover himself.
Question: If he writes about how this boat serves him well and is his friend and gave him the opportunity to “find himself,” what is the significance of the boat crashing? Does this show his growth and decreased dependency on the strength of the boat that once helped guide him, or rather his lasting struggle with truly identifying and finding himself?
Quote (pg. 39): "The current ran smooth and swift, but a dumb immobility sat on the banks. The living trees, lashed together by the creepers and every living bush of the undergrowth have been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf. Not the faintest sound of any could be heard. You looked on amazed and began to suspect yourself of being deaf – then the night came suddenly and struck you blind as well."
ReplyDeleteObservations:
• Personification of the woods and trees (Literary Device)
• Use of alliteration – “smooth and swift” or “lightest leaf” (Literary Device)
• “Dumb immobility” – some deeper meaning? (Word Choice)
• The diction throughout this passage brings about an uncertain, or even fearful, voice that creates a unique setting and tone (Word Choice)
• Contrast between life and death – “every living … changed into stone.” (Binary)
• Contrast between light and dark (Binary)
• Personification of “night” in the last line (Literary Device)
• Recurring theme where speaker (in this case Marlow) is in a trance-like state where he does not know how to associate with his surroundings (Repetition)
• Passage is told with vivid description followed by blunt depiction (Structure)
• Vivid description also serves to emphasize and underscore the setting (Making the Implicit Explicit)
Significance: This passage serves as the first “real” description of Marlow’s eerie trip into the Heart of Darkness. First of all, the imagery that Marlow presents throughout this passage offers a whole new dimension on the way that the reader envisions the setting of the story at the time. Vivid imagery of the woods and the river invoke in the reader a new understanding of the physical toll that the mission and atmosphere had taken on Marlow and his crew. But beyond this, there’s a second, even deeper meaning, behind this passage. With this passage, it becomes clear that Marlow isn’t just retelling a story of a physical journey or a physical process, but also a psychological one as well. Feeling “deaf” and feeling “blind” are just some of many examples that characterize the emotional strain that the quest must have been placed on Marlow, himself. And thus one can think of Marlow’s journey as one of the mind, one of human nature, as well. This, as a result, allows larger parallels to be drawn between Heart of Darkness and other texts, such as Dante’s Inferno.
“At last we opened a reach. A rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others with iron roofs amongst a waste of excavations hanging to the declivity. A continuous noise of the rapids above hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation. A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. A jetty projected into the river. A blinding sunlight drowned all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare. ‘There’s your Company’s station,’ said the Swede pointing to three wooden barrack-like structures on the rocky slope. ‘I will send your things up. Four boxes did you say? So. Farewell’”(Conrad 15).
ReplyDeleteImportant words- “reach,” “rocky cliff,” “iron,” “waste,” “hanging to the declivity,” “inhabited devastation,” “blinding sunlight,” “drowned,” “Swede,” “barrack,” “farewell”
Binaries- “reach” and “rocky cliff,” “hill” and “declivity,” “people” and “ants,”
Structure- The sentences are very choppy. He is taking in many different sights and making sure they are visualized separately by the reader.
-The Swede sending Marlow to the “barrack-like structures”
Simile- “moved about like ants.”
Significance: This passage shows a small transition of Marlow’s journey from freedom, happiness, and civility to iron roofs (symbolizing shackles and chains), sadness, and savagery. As he arrives at the Congo, he immediately perceives it negatively, with the rockiness and ditches, “inhabited devastation,” and the comparison of people to ants. Marlow can already tell how much power he has over the natives.
Marlow also describes his recurring loss of sight from the sun, which temporarily distracts him from his morose surroundings and makes the prison-like qualities of the land seem less significant.
The European shows Marlow to the high up, uniform structure that he will be staying in. The height of his housing further proves the superiority of the whites over the natives. The Swede then says “farewell,” to leave Marlow to his own journey.
pg 59
ReplyDelete“His covering had fallen off and his body emerged from it pitiful and appalling as from a winding-sheet. I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze. I saw him open his mouth wide - it gave him a weirdly voracious aspect as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him. A deep voice reached me faintly. He must have been shouting. He fell back suddenly.”
Observations:
Binary: White ivory vs. glittering bronze (light vs dark)
Binary: Motion vs. stillness / lack of motion
Literary Devices: personification
Structure: shorter sentences towards end of excerpt
Anomaly: faint voice
Emphasis on bones
Analysis:
With the sheets falling off Kurtz’s body, we suddenly get insight into how sick Kurtz truly is. Representative of corruption, this sickness has taken over Kurtz. It has stripped him of everything human and natural to the point where he is essentially a skeleton. This idea relates back to Dante’s Inferno where nature was divine and everything monstrous and unnatural belonged in hell. That Kurtz appears as if he wants to swallow the earth (and therefore all things natural) shows how corrupt he has become. It is almost to imply that such corruption has the potential to take over earth and all of mankind (which ties back into the idea of corruption being a sickness with the potential of being contagious). In some ways, this event can be seen as Kurtz completing (or beginning to complete) his descent into the heart of darkness or deepest part of hell. The increasingly shortened sentences emphasize how rapidly death approaches Kurtz, to the point where Kurtz seems to become death.
With Kurtz being the only moving thing in an “motionless crowd of men”, it makes it sound as if everyone has stopped and is waiting on Kurtz. In the bigger picture, many people are holding their breaths since Kurtz holds so much significance and power in The Company. His death would particularly please those who desire to take his place. On the contrary, the natives are holding their breaths in fear of losing the person who they were made to worship.
Both binaries serve the purpose of alienating Kurtz. Aside from being the only thing in motion, his “ivory bones/skeleton” stand out in the midst of the “men made of dark and glittering bronze”. In this particular passage, the white ivory is linked to death and the idea of corruption and greed. Hence, this serves as another place where white is not equated with superiority.
Another thing that stood out to me in this passage, was the condition of Kurtz’s voice. Previously, it had been described as being very strong, persuasive, and one of Kurtz’s most dominating features. Marlow had even gone as far to say “the man presented himself as a voice” and that “of all of his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk” (Conrad 49). In this passage however, Kurtz voice is diminished, emphasizing his weakness and near death. Even though he opens his mouth widely, all that comes out is “faint” voice. It is strange however, that Marlow somehow interprets this to be a shout. Perhaps this would imply that Kurtz has managed to rub off on Marlow so much that Marlow is able to understand Kurtz regardless of the situation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMarika Contompasis
ReplyDeleteQuote (Page 36):
The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage—who can tell?—but truth—truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder—the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff—with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won’t do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags—rags that would fly off at the first good shake.
Repetition: “man” / “truth” / “principles” / “rags”
Oxymoron (Literary Device): “pretty rags”
Word Choice/Binaries: Fear and valour have near opposite meanings as well as joy and sorrow. (Line 2)
Fool, devotion
Patterns: Asking questions to the reader
“What was there after all?” (Line 2)
“...who can tell?” (Line 3)
“Principles?” (Line 6)
Irony: It is ironic that Marlow is speaking about how a “man” should act on shore rather than at sea or on a river because he respects seamen and is on a journey along a river. The river plays a major role throughout the story and it is ironic that he goes into much detail about what a man should be, only mentioning a man being upon shore. He does not act like the man he describes in this passage because he is not really true to himself or how he acts throughout the novella.
Significance: This passage is significant because it shows a side to Marlow that really brings out his true colors. He may think that he has all his “true values” in line and is true to himself when in fact he does not. This passage describes how Marlow wishes he was but in reality he is nothing like this. He says the man “knows” what the difference between a fool and a man, like Gabriel in No Exit believes he “knows” what love is. He is a sailor talking about a man on shore which shows even more that he is not like the man he is describing. Overall this passage shows that Marlow doesn’t infact truly know who he is as a man even if he thinks he does.
pg. 38: “The current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed at her last gasp, the stern-wheel flopped languidly, and I caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to give up every moment. It was like watching the last flickers of a life. But still we crawled...The essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power of meddling.”
ReplyDeleteObservations:
-The first portion of this paragraph is devoted to a description of the state of the steam boat with words and phrases that connote uselessness and anxiety such as “last gasp”, “wretched”, and “flopped languidly” (Word choice/Structure)
-Conrad describes the ship using not only the above adjectives but also as a living entity by utilizing simile with “it was like watching the last flickers of light”. The constant motif of light and darkness is somewhat of an anomaly in this passage as Marlow is describing a boat rather than a living being (Anomaly/Literary Devices)
-With the mention of “progress”, it is quickly followed by mention of Kurtz as the ultimate goal (Patterns/Structure)
-Marlow is compared to the manager who holds his composure while Marlow instead “fretted and fumed” (Binaries (opposites))
-The surface of the river is mentioned once again (Important Word Choice)
Significance:
In Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, not a single word is wasted without bringing imperative meaning to the short story. This passage is no exception. To begin, Marlow describes the declining state of the steamboat and the rapidness of the current, underscoring the inability of the steamboat to navigate the river. The adjectives used to describe the steamboat indicate Marlow’s own feelings towards this journey that he is reluctantly guiding. Marlow, like the steam boat, has an apathetic attitude towards the journey into the heart of darkness. Conrad parallels Marlow’s anxious behavior with that of the manager who, as stated, keeps his composure, indicating that perhaps it is not the boat that is faltering, but rather Marlow’s will to continue on this course. The manager’s indifference to the events around him and his “beautiful resignation”, (as an aside, this description by Marlow shows the high esteem he holds characters such as Kurtz who are able to dissociate their actions with their underlying purpose) as Marlow describes it, is enormously significant in this passage. In a sense, Marlow is envious of the manager’s ability to ignore the purpose of this expedition and the actual role of “The Company” in the Congo. Instead, Marlow is left on a gruelingly slow steam boat to ponder his decisions and motives. Since embarking on this journey, Marlow has tried to avoid thinking about Kurtz, mentioning him seldom and keeping him at the back of his mind, as he realizes that he represents the atrocities he witnesses in the Congo from which he feels immense guilt. Now however, Marlow is forced into a moment of introspection ultimately leading to a rather significant realization that is quickly excused by saying that it would not matter what course of action he took, the outcome would be the same. Marlow describes his predicament and inner conflict as something “beyond [his] reach and beyond [his] power of meddling”, “deep under the surface”. This of course is a reference to the motives of the company and the ways in which Marlow justifies these motives to himself as an innocent bystander with no impact on the situation, choosing rather to remain focused on the “surface” value of the operation to which he is responsible-steering a ship.
Overall, this passage heavily characterizes Marlow through his inner conflict and serves to classify him as an unreliable narrator. In addition, this passage foreshadows Marlow’s final encounter with Kurtz mentioning the “last flickers of a life”. The indefinite article “a” serves to reference Kurtz’s death or perhaps the death of the Congo itself.
“She came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning. It was more than a year since his death, more than a year since the news came; she seemed as though she would remember and mourn for ever…
ReplyDeleteThe room seemed to have grown darker as if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead. This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me” (Conrad 73-74).
• Black/white- “all in black, with a pale head”; “fair hair, this pale visage”, “ashy halo…dark eyes”
o Dark eyes are set in a pale face, fair hair is covered by an ashy halo
• Intended is described as pure but sickly- “all in black…floating towards me”; “pure brow…ashy halo”
o Alludes to angels, corrupted angelicalness, perhaps some sort of religious reference?
• Repetition of “more than a year”
• Repetition of “seemed”- intentionally using descriptive literary language rather than straight up describing how the Intended looks
• Important wording: sadness, darkness taking “refuge on her forehead”
This passage is an instance of the recurring theme of dark and light, and what they mean in respect to each other. The Intended has many light qualities about her, but they are not inherently good, breaking the concept that light is good and dark is bad. She seems to be pure and ideal but she is tainted and corrupted by something evil, made sickly and lackluster. The idealism that she, a middle-class European woman, embodies is reflective of the weak idealism that Leopold II hid his imperial slavery behind- it is a beautiful front for something dirty and evil. Conrad also notes that “all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead,” saying that this darkens the room. In various cultures and religious, the forehead is a very meaningful part of the body. It can be a point of congregation and duality (for example, dark and light), or it can be a place where true intentions are shown. In the Bible, the forehead is where one holds either the seal of God or the mark of the Beast. This could be another comment by Conrad on the symbolism of the Intended and how she is depicted here; she is holding sadness on a place where conflicting ideas and truth are held.
pg. 36: “He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather walking on hind legs…
ReplyDeleteHe squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity - and he had filed teeth too, the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks. He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge.”
Word Choice: “devil,” “wool,” “thrall,” “witchcraft,” “parody”
-”Thrall” alludes to the man being not a worker in the same sense as Marlow sees himself, but as a cog in a machine, unknowing of his real purpose. This thrall is similar to the hold that Africa seems to have over Marlow, as well as Kurtz, as he travels deeper in towards the Inner Station.
-The fireman’s “wool” calls back to Marlow’s view of the fireman as an animal in parody of himself, but to a different end. While before Marlow sees the the man as making a fool of Marlow with his “work,” here the fireman becomes a beast of burden, a tool utilized by Marlow.
-The filed teeth add to the animal and devil imagery elsewhere in the passage, devoid of a real “heavenly” purpose, and savage and evil in nature.
Binaries: Comparison of the fireman and where he “ought to be”, as well as portraying the fireman as an animal in parody of a human, full of knowledge as opposed to empty and savage, contrast between the fireman’s “improved” work and his primitive appearance
-Marlow mocks the man for the effort he must put into his work, work which Marlow assumedly takes to easily, putting himself above the fireman.
-Here again, the natives are only described as body parts, even while one does skilled, “improved” work. He is described as “full of improving knowledge”, simply a receptacle for it, working the boiler as an ox would work a plow, still clearly subordinate to the Europeans.
Analysis: This passage highlights yet again Marlow’s belief in the otherness of the natives. While he places a high value on his own work, the passage highlights his own hypocrisies, as he looks down upon the work of the fireman. Marlow’s belittling description of the man weave in and out of his description of the man’s “improved” work. He is careful to distance the fireman’s work from his own, viewing it as a mockery of his own skills. Here, the fireman’s work on the ship becomes one with the labor of the other African slaves, lacking the understanding and purpose that Marlow thinks his own work has. Oddly enough, Marlow assumes that the work has some sort of control over the fireman, not dissimilar to the power it commands over Marlow as he travels down the river.
Taylor Green
ReplyDeletePg. 62 "I had turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for a moment it seemed to me as if I were also buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night... The Russian tapped me on the shoulder."
Key words: Wilderness, buried, vast, grave, unspeakable, secrets, intolerable, oppressing, damp, victorious, corruption, darkness, impenetrable, night.
Repetitions: As through most of the story, the theme of a "darkness" is continued in this passage to describe the impenetrable night time. The word buried is also repeated in this section to describe the physical state of Mr. Kurtz but also the emotional/metal state of Marlow.
Binaries: I thought the words victorious and corruption acted as opposites because when looked at individually, I assume one is positive and one is negative. Victorious being a positively spirited word, and corruption as a harsh, negative word.
Significance: I think this passage is significant because it shows that Marlow has come to the realization that his job and his purpose for being in Africa is actually flawed and unmoral. He has this immense guilt growing over him as a result of what he has learned through Kurtz and his other experiences there. The "unspeakable secrets" are the dark truths he has been avoiding to come to terms with.
Quote p76-77
ReplyDelete“‘But I do not. I cannot – I cannot believe – not yet…It would have been too dark – too dark altogether”
• There was a lot of repetition throughout this passage: “I cannot believe”, “In silence”, “I loved him”, “too dark”
• Also repetitions in which the Intended says something and Marlow echoes it to himself, for instance “’I knew it-I was sure!’” and “She knew. She was sure.” (Its interesting to note that when she says it the punctuation used is more excited, as if she is exclaiming it whereas when he says it, it comes off much differently.)
• Black/white, when describing her “She put out her arms…stretching black and with clasped pale hands”
• Describes Kurtz as a phantom and her as a shade
• Reference to water, which is mentioned extremely often throughout the book, “the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness”
• Takes place at dusk, just when it is getting dark – this is also a time used in Inferno, when Dante was beginning his journey
• Lots of phrases describing falling; “It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head…the heavens to not fall for such a trifle.”
Analysis: Throughout this entire passage Marlow seems to be very uncomfortable and clearly does not like talking with the Intended. We saw a few pages back that she is not the ideal women he was expecting and instead he will remember her forever as a Shade, as he says. This is a complete turn around from earlier in the story when he thought her extremely beautiful. He goes through a wide range of emotions; first becoming angry, then pitying her and lastly becoming frightened when Kurtz’s last words are mentioned. He can’t bring himself to tell her the truth and lies instead, expecting something horrible to happen, some punishment from a higher being for what he had done. He spent his time in Africa searching for truth and standing by the belief that he was an honest person, but in the end he ends up flat out lying to the Intended. He says it would have been too dark to tell her what his actual real words are, but ironically this means he’s essentially leaving her in the dark.
Liam McGrinder
ReplyDeletepage 13
"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 flagpole lost in it, landed more soldiers--to take care of the customhouse clerks--presumably. Some I heard got drowned in the surf, but whether they did or not nobody particularly seemed to care. They were just flung out there and on we went" (Conrad 13).
Diction: "God-forsaken wilderness"
The word God-forsaken holds implications intrinsic to the idea of imperialism, that the imperialists have a divine right to act as they do. It almost is to say that God has put these people in this setting, and sheds the blame and the guilt of the oppressors. Wilderness demeans the people to try to remove their humanity.
Personification: "flagpole lost in it"
Personification of the flagpole in saying that that the flag pole is lost is meant to take legitimacy away from the African land. It shows how Marlow has bought into the idea that his people are superior, and that what he sees does not equate to something worthy of designation as any sort of state. It can be seen as raising the flag above the actual natives, that it must be lost to be among them.
Repetition/Parallel Structure "landed soldiers… landed custom-house clerks… landed more soldiers"
The repetition here serves to make the situation seem standard. The movement into lands belonging to other people, and complete intrusion is described as a normal procedure. This demonstrates how little Marlow questions what he is instructed to do and what the company does.
Anomaly: "Some I heard got drowned in the surf, but whether they did or not nobody particularly seemed to care"
Surely it cannot be overlooked how apathetic the imperialistic workers are to the natives. Not only are they downright nonchalant about natives's deaths, they actively cause these deaths. The natives are not said to "have drowned," they "GOT drowned." It was done to them. And yet, no one bats an eye. This is beyond peculiar behavior.
The passage demonstrates how the language and rhetoric Marlow has been exposed to have altered his perceptions. Marlow demonstrates that he sees the natives as savages who are inferior. His description and word choice indicate how he does not see his surroundings to be true humanity, deserving of decency. Marlow sees the atrocities, which he describes softly. Were you to read quickly you may not even realize what is going on. The lack of emphatic enrapture from Marlow establishes his acceptance with his company's role as imperialists. He has fully bought into the notion that his people are justified.
“ ‘But I do not. I cannot-I cannot believe-not yet. I cannot believe that I shall never see him again, that nobody will see him again, never, never, never!’
ReplyDelete“She put out her arms, as if after a retreating figure, stretching them black and with clasped pale hands across the fading and narrow sheen of the window. Never see him! I saw him clearly enough then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar Shade resembling in this gesture stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness. She said suddenly very low, ‘He died as he lived.’ (Conrad 76)
In this passage, Marlow is describing the Intended, Kurtz’s fiancée, as they discuss the life and death of Kurtz.
Binary: “eloquent phantom”- Marlow says that he sees Kurtz every day in his memory, and describes him as an “eloquent phantom”.
Repetition: “I shall never see him again” – “Nobody will see him again”-“Never see him!”-“I saw him clearly enough then.”-“I shall see this eloquent phantom”-“and I shall see her too”
Marlow repeats the term “see” in response to Kurtz’s fiancée saying that she nor anybody else will see Kurtz again.
Allusion: Marlow remarks that he will “see Kurtz for as long as he lives”. This could be an allusion to Inferno, referring to the importance of memory when retelling the journey. Just like Dante at the end of his journey (beginning of Inferno) recalled the importance of memory, Marlow says that he will never forget Kurtz and what happened on his journey. Also, “the glitter of the infernal stream”. This could be a reference to the river in Inferno.
Theme: Light, darkness, and death are clearly visible in this passage. “…stretching them black and with clasped pale hands across the fading and narrow sheen of the window.” “…a tragic and familiar Shade resembling in this gesture stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness.”
Repetition of an idea: “…as if after a retreating figure…” “…across the fading and narrow sheen of the window.” “…tragic also and bedecked with powerless charms…” “She said suddenly very low…”
The idea of weakness is repeated here, with word choice such as retreating, fading, powerless, and the description of her voice as “very low”.
Significance: In this passage, Marlow is describing Kurtz’s fiancée when meeting with her after his journey. In the passage, Marlow thinks about Kurtz in discuss, saying that he will “see Kurtz for as long as he lives”, and calling him an “eloquent phantom”. Marlow did not follow Kurtz’s path and become Kurtz. He deviated from it and looks back in disgust. Marlow sees Kurtz as an eloquent man, but in a superficial sense. He remarks on page 49 that the report Kurtz had written for the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs was “eloquent, vibrating with eloquence”. In the report, Kurtz talks about the role of whites as some sort of deities, coming in benevolence. Marlow refers to this as the “unbounded power of eloquence-of words-of burning noble words”. However, this was the complete opposite of what Kurtz was. Instead, he was truly a phantom to the native Congolese, working under the guise of his eloquent words and message. The word choice used in the passage relating to powerlessness could emphasize the illness and ultimate demise of Kurtz, who took his evil rule with him. The theme of light, darkness, and death also are in this passage, continuing its overarching presence throughout the novella.