Resumen: Comentario the Textos Literarios and Lengua Inglesa Libro Joseph Conrad: THE HEART OF DARKNESSrn PDF

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Joseph Conrad: THE HEART OF DARKNESS –

He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—“The horror! The horror!”

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Mistah Kurtz, he dead.

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The idea that the Romans conquered the savage Britons parallels Conrad's tale of the Belgians conquering the savage Africans.

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The theme of darkness lurking beneath the surface of even civilized persons appears prominently and is explored in the character of Kurtz and through Marlow's passing sense of understanding with the Africans.

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Kurtz embodies all forms of an urge to be more or less than human. His writing show in Marlow's view an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence and they appeal to every altruistic sentiment.

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His predisposition for benevolence is clear in the statement: we whites... must necessarily appear to them in the nature of supernatural beings... By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded.

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Other themes: – Naïveté of Europeans(particularly women) regarding the various forms of darkness in the Congo. – The British traders and Belgian colonialists' abuse of the natives – Man's potential for duplicity.

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Symbolism: struggle between good an evil (light and darkness), not so much between people as I every major character's soul.

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HoD exposes the dark side of Belgian colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Belgians' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.

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The story centres on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book.

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He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa.

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It is a symbolic story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts

from dusk through to late night, to a group of men abroad a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary, his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during Marlow's narrative parallels the atmosphere of the events he narrates. PLOT: The story opens with an unnamed narrator on board the Nellie, a sailing yacht anchored in the Thames Estuary downstream from London and near Gravesend. He is with three friends, and dusk is falling as they wait for the turning of the tide. The narrator briefly describes the other, all of whom seem to be middle-aged men. One is called Charlie Marlow – the only one who still followed the sea. Marlow makes a comment about London having been one of the dark places on earth, and then begins the story of how he once took a job as a captain of a river steamboat in Africa. Marlow describes his securing of the job and that when he arrives in Africa, he immediately dislikes the other white men he encounters, who work for the company, as they strike him as shallow and untrustworthy; one is like papier-mâché. The company's main business seems to be buying ivory from the natives with beads, cloth an bits of brass. They speak often of the company's most remarkable agent, a man known only as Kurtz, stationed up-river, who has quite a reputation in many ways and who seems commonly regarded with a sense of mystery. Kurts is apparently a completely ungovernable ivory collector, revealed much later to be also essentially a great musician, journalist, skilled painter and universal genius. Marlow arrives up-river at the Central Tradin Station run by a manager who is an unwholesome, conspiratorial character. Marlow discovers one day at the Station that his steamship has been sunk and secretly suspects the manager of causing the accident. He spends three months repairing it, including a frustrating wait for spare parts. His first assignment is a voyage up-river to Kurtz's station to collect ivory and Kurtz himself, who seems to have gone rogue. There is a rumour regarding Kurtz's being ill; this makes the delays in repairing the ship all the more inconvenient. During the delay, Marlow overhears the manager expressing his fearful distrust of Kurtz, who appears to be a threat to the manager's powerful position, and how he wishes to execute a particular one of Kurtz's minions. Eventually, Marlow, the manager, and three other white agents set out, with a crew of blacks from a cannibal tribe, on a long and difficult trip up the river. As they near Kurtz's station they unexpectedly find a hut by the river with stacked firewood and a note saying that the wood is for them and that they should proceed up the river cautiously. Shortly after the steamer has taken on the firewood it is surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is abruptly attacked by an unseen band of natives, who shoot arrows from the safety of the forest. They kill and African member of the crew who Marlow describes sentimentally and whose death he recounts with great sadness. Although Marlow suspects that Kurtz and his

associates have already been massacred, the steamship surprisingly reaches Kurtz's unharmed station, which is eerily surrounded by a collection of natives' severed heads on poles. Marlow and his crew are first met by a guileless Russian traveller, who is reminiscent of a harlequin because of his motley-like clothing. The Russian assures them that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who lived in the downstream hut and left the firewood. The Russian, a lone an aimless trader in the wilderness, came across Kurtz's station unexpectedly and has become something of a disciple of Kurtz, a man who seems to have power to dominate anyone he meets. Marlow and his companions find that Kurtz has persuaded the natives to treat him as a god, and has led brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. Marlow also recounts the brief appearance at the station of an awe-inspiring and enigmatic African woman, who may be Kurtz's mistress. The Russian, learning through Marlow of the manager's prior talk of executing him, quietly flees the station, though not before admitting that it was Kurtz, refusing to be taken away from his god-like throne in the wilderness. Who ordered Marlow's boat to be attacked. Due to Kurtz's ailing condition, however, Marlow and his crew take him aboard their ship themselves and depart. Urtz is lodged in Marlow's pilot-house and Marlow begins to see that Kurtz, although skeletal due to his failing health, is every bit as grandiose as previously described, especially with regards to the enthralling tone of his speech. However, Marlow finds himself disappointed with Kurtz's childish schemes for fame and fortune. During this time, Kurtz gives Marlow a collection of papers and a photograph for safekeeping, as both witnessed the manager going through Kurtz's belongings. The photograph is of a beautiful young woman whom Marlow correctly assumes is Kurtz's fiancée, or as Marlow calls her, his Intended. One night Marlow happens upon Kurtz, obviously near death. As Marlow comes closer with a candle, Kurtz seems to experience a supreme moment of complete knowledge and speaks his last words: The horror! The horror! Marlow believes this to be Kurtz's reflection on the weight of the terrible actions he took in his life. Marlow does not tell the others immediately of Kurtz's death; the news is instead presented to the whole crew scornfully by the manager's child-servant who has peered inquisitively into the room with Kurtz's body. Marlow later returns to Europe and is confronted by mane people seeking objects and thoughts of Kurtz. Marlow visits Kurtz's fiancée about a year later. She is still in mourning and strongly maintains naïve notions of his virtue. When she asks him about Kurtz's death and his final words, Marlow in unable to tell her the truth, instead telling her that he died with her name upon his lips. The story concludes back on the boat on the Thames, with a description of how the river seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness....