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ANALYSIS
Narratological analysis: Frame narrative
Narratological analysis: it is a formalist or structuralist analysis.
• Frame Narrative Story within a story (frame and embedded; or primary and
• secondary, it refers to the order in which they appear in the book, so primary is the
frame, secondary is the embedded). The structure is the one of the Decameron of
Boccaccio, but in this case we have just the story of Marlow. Interruption of the story
The frame here is the sailors on the river Thames in London, waiting for the tide to
• come in and actually go out to the sea and they tell stories.
The framed/embedded (inside the frame) is the story of Marlow
• Meta-narrative: metafiction, that is usually a modernist or post-modernist way of
• writing, so we can say that this is a precursors/anticipation of the post-modernism.
In HoD we have reflections on the meaning of the story, of fiction and of the
narratives (when the third narrator makes comments about Marlow, people who are
listening to Marlow). There is not the immediacy and the clearness of the
omniscient narrators.
Frame can be:
• Single-ended (it compares only once, at the beginning or at the end, usually
• they compare at the beginning of the work, but then they are not concluded)
or Double-ended (it compares at the beginning and at the end, it is a similar
of circular: HoD)
Intrusive (the frame is double ended but also sometimes throughout the
• story: HoD) or non intrusive
Heart of Darkness as a frame narrative
Sailors on a ship telling yarns: Marlow tells his story
• Double-ended frame (circularity)
• Intrusive frame: “Of course... you fellows see more than I could see then. You see
• me, whom you know...” alienation device, breaks the spell of the narrative
Function of frame narratives:
• It draws attention to the limited point of view, it reminds us that what we are reading
1. is just Marlow’s personal point of view, it is fiction, not reality.
It is also an alienation device, it breaks the spell, the magic, of the narrative (it is not
2. reality but narrative).
It anticipates us that Marlow survives. He doesn’t want the readers to be completely
3. within the story, he wants us to be careful, aware, knoledged reader. This is a novel
that requires an aware reader, who knows what he is reading.
The purpose is not to tell an adventure story, but to make the reader reflect about deeper
thoughts than a simple sailor adventure
Unnamed listener, narrator of the frame:
• seems to speak for the reader
Heart of Darkness: symbols – Rhetorical and symbol
analysis
JOURNEY:
• It is a physical journey into Congo, the real adventure of the sailor.
1. It is also a psychological journey, a metaphor for the discovery of oneself, Marlow
2. is travelling also into his mind. The three stations are the symbols of his steps of
knowledge: he is discovering his real nature, his real being.
DARKNESS:
•
1. It can be the darkness of human mind, inside of ourselves, a psychological darkness.
2. It can be also a physical darkness: the one of the landscape in London, it’s dark
because it is night, darkness of Africa, because of the very dense jungle, physical
darkness of the people external darkness of Africa, but then actually we discover that the
real darkness is inside the white people of Europe (ambiguity between darkness inside
and darkness outside)
3. Then we have social darkness: darkness of social corruption, of the greed of the
colonizers society that is in decline, in crisis, darkness as a symbol of general crisis
FOG: It is something that does not allow to see clearly, it blocks the vision, the sight
• and gaze.
There is a physical fog, fog in London that prevents sailors from going out. Then
1. we have the fog in Africa, along the river. In fact, the native’s attack before getting
the inner station is favoured by the fog.
Psychological , mental fog: the fog which is inside Marlow’s mind, Kurtz’s mind and
2. in everyone’s mind, which does not allow us to understand things clearly, the fog
which eg surrounds language (it is no longer transparent, the fog can be a symbol
for the opaqueness of the language, which does not allow us to access to our
thoughts and ideas)
• RIVER:
Physical Congo river
1. It can symbolize life, the course of life. Someone travelling or living of life. It can be
2. also the symbol of the mind: Marlow is travelling inside of his mind and the river can
be actually the flow of his thoughts (eg stream of consciousness – stream of the
river)
Cultural aspects (political, social, psychological) – The main
themes
Colonialism , expression of the crisis of civilization: it is evident in the descriptions
• of the crisis of civilisation, the decline of European society, because of the
corruption, greed.. It is the reflection of the reading of the journey as physical
journey
Madness , expression of the crisis of the individual: it refers to trauma
• Truth , expression of the crisis of language: language is not transparent and HoD
• uses a complex language, not immediate. The purpose is to oblige the reader to
think about what he is reading. // Truth and lies, the function of lies
physical + psychological journey
Heart of Darkness as a physical journey into Africa
Colonialism and imperialism
Conrad reflects on the problems of his time.
Conrad doesn’t write about the British colonialism, but the Belgian one. Why?
1. He doesn’t really want to criticize the British Imperialism too openly, his critics to the
British imperialism is mediated, even if it is implicit that his criticism is extended to all
colonialism and imperialism. 2. The Belgian rule was considered to be one of the most
violent of all.
Africa was mainly colonized by European until the WWI, only small parts were free.
The Belgian Congo is physically in the heart of Africa.
European presence in Congo
1482: European explorers discovered the Congo River
• 1877: the full length of Congo River (4700 km) discovered impenetrable jungle
• that surrounds the area.
Realistic geographical references: the part between Matadi and Kinshasa is
• impassable, it cannot be navigated (in HD: Company Station (Outer Station) and
Central Station).
Ivory trade. The Congo was occupied because of the ivory. (realistic reference in
• HoD)
One of the furthermost stations, Stanley Falls, was the likely inspiration for Kurtz's
• Inner Station in HD
The Congo River
Congo River is very long and it goes from the Atlantic Ocean into the heart of darkness
(Marlow’s journey is up river: it is much more difficult. ). Matadi - (he has to walk) - Kinshasa –
Stanley Falls are the supposed three real stations.
Post-Colonial readings of Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness“ (1975)
• Achebe describes Conrad as a racist, Heart of Darkness as "a novel which
• celebrates dehumanisation, which depersonalises a portion of the human race." He
mentions quotes and punctual examples: description of the natives with the iron
neck collars (this representation dehumanizes them), but also when Marlow
describes a native as a parody of a dog wearing a hat (man that is working with
some kind of engine) and he said that he was trained, words that are usually used
for the animals. For him Heart of Darkness is a racist novel.
Actually probably even Conrad wanted to reader to think about this thing. Achebe’s
• thought is acceptable, because he quotes also parts of the book, he justifies his
words.
…BUT:
• Conrad IS NOT Marlow (author vs. narrator; framed narrative). Distinction
• between narrator and writer. What we are reading is not Conrad’s words, is
Marlow’s words: Marlow is the one using racist words, not Conrad. The fact
that it is a framed narrative, amplifies the distinction between narrator and
writer, he takes distances between him and Marlow’s words he wants to
criticize the racist perspective of Marlow.
Conrad is showing us the racism of Marlow, so that we can criticize and
understand it.
HD also shows the brutality of colonialism: there are some racist
• expressions, but what we see in the novel is the brutality of colonialism. The
most evil protagonists of the novel are the white colonizers are the ones who
commit the worst crimes, they are the ones who treat the natives in a bad
way
Degradation of the WHITE man and the crisis of civilization of Europe. Black
• people live in harmony with their own environment nature (they hadn’t
excuse to be there. The excuse is for the white man, that occupied the
stations taking the resources of the land)
Criticizes the “civilization” of Europe
•
“Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world”, the antithesis
• of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where a man’s vaunted intelligence
and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality.” (Chinua Achebe)
… but whose bestiality is it really???
• Africa is represented as the opposite of Europe Contraposition of Africa and
• Europe. He says that in Africa what we see this bestiality, Conrad represents the
bestiality (lack of civilisation of Africa).
BUT
• Who is the bestiality? The European, who reduce natives to slavery and so on.
• Africa is the opposite of Europe, but also the mirror, the reflection of Europe. Africa
• is the heart of darkness of Europe not because of the natives, but because
Europeans there can abandon themselves to bestiality and brutality. The way in
which Europeans can explore their inner evil and brutality without feeling guilty.
Africa is everyone’s heart of darkness displaced to somewhere outside.
THE DOUBLE: Africa is the negative double of Europe.
• HD questions the binary opposition civilised versus uncivilized, between colonizers
• and colonized: it is not actually a real binary opposition, but more a mirror like
reflection. Europeans can mirror and see their own reflection through the lens of
Africa, so it become a lens for exploring our own crisis of civilization and our own
inner self. It is what happens to Kurtz. None is controlling him: the consequence is
that he abandons himself to the most evil instincts. He is far away from Europe and
so the moral rules are no longer applied. BUT he is still Kurtz and he is still a
European: morality should be inside Kurtz and inside the people, it can’t be an
excuse. This binary opposition is just an excuse.
Frame narrative: a narrator behind the narrator. It underlines the idea that he wants
• to make us reflects.
Who is the Other in HD? Concept of otherness. Natives are not really represented
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