Heart of Darkness Quotes

"I did not betray Mr. Kurtz -- it was ordered I should never betray him -- it was written that I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice." (81)

"I felt I was becoming scientifically interesting." (35)

"After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings." (31).

"The snake had charmed me." (23)

"We live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday." (20)

Heart of Darkness Quotes

“He lived then before me; he lived as much as he had ever lived – a shadow insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow darker than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in the fold s of a gorgeous eloquence” (Conrad 90)
“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 another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness." (93-94)
“I tell you…this man has enlarged my mind” (70)
“I could not tell her. It would have been too dark — too dark altogether…” (94)
“I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge?” (86)

Important quotes from Heart of Darkness

1. "There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it.  He had kicked himself loose of the earth.  Confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to pieces.  He was alone, and I before him did not know whether I stood on the ground or floated in the air."  (83)

2. "The horror!  The horror!" (86)

3. "I was within a hair's- breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say."  (87)

"His was an impenetrable darkness.  I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines." (86)

"I tried to break the spell of the wilderness--that seemed to draw him into its pitiless breat by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions.  This alone, I was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the bounds of permitted apirations" (83)

"his intelligence was perfectly clear...his soul was mad" (83)

"It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief--positivey for relief.  'Nevertheless, I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis.  He started, dropped on me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'He was,' and turned his back on me.  My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped along Kurt as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound!  Ah!  but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares." "I had turned myself to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried." (79)

"The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in i, all the past as well as the future." (52)

"Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegitation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings."(49)

favorite quotes from Heart of Darkness

1. The Earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look upon a thing monstrous and free. 91

2. "who was not his friend who heard him speak once?" she was saying. "He drew men towards him by what was best in them." She looked at me with intensity. "It is the gift of the great" 147

3. Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capabilities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? ... No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is 99

4. I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work,- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it means. 80

Heart of Darkness Quotes

So, last Friday on my assignments notebook I wrote down "Blog. Quotes for heart of darkness." and Im not exactly sure if I meant to blog about quotes from Heart of Darkness or Blog and start looking up critical quotes for Heart of Darkness so I figure Ill just stick with option #1...

Near the end when Marlowe is in the innerstation he reflects that "it was something to have atleast a choice of nightmares"(Conrad 79). This quote, which is a very direct parellel to what the main army guy in Apocolypse Now says, strikes me as being an almost central theme of the novel. When stated, Marlowe means the nightmares to be following the manager's ways or following the ways of Kurtz. But I think that one can even broaden that more and describe the two nightmares as the savage Congo and the civilized England. From the beginning, the reader is faced with the comparison of England and the Congo. As Marlowe travels deeper into the Congo, he travels deeper into what he calls the heart of darkness, and then at the end of the novel they find themselves back on the riverboat on the Thames river heading back to port in England and he describes their path as "seem[ing] to lead into the heart of an immense darkness"(Conrad 95). So he's pretty much saying that the Congo is darkness and England is darkness and wherever you go, you just can't win. Choosing between which country you want to live in, in this case, is much like choosing between two dark nightmares. It seems that Marlowe is saying that all of life is a nightmare and survival all boils down to choosing which one to live through and sticking to that decision-- pretty depressing if you ask me.

One last thing I wanted to point out was that when Marlowe is talking to Kurtz's widower, he lies about Kurtz's final words. The widower remembers Kurtz as how he was before he realized the darkness of the world which drives him to do treacherous deeds. Instead of telling the widower that Kurtz's final words were "The horror! The horror!"(Conrad 94), he tells her that "[t]he last word he pronounced was- your name"(Conrad 94). I found this very interesting that he made up such a lie because it was he who earlier says "I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie"(Conrad 42). He sacrifices his moral affinity not to lie so that he may leave the widower's memory of Kurtz untainted by the effects of the jungle.

Vassey's Favorite Dark Quotes

1) "The offing was barred by a black band of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky - seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness"(Conrad 117).

2) "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 greed phantoms"(Conrad 102-3).

3) everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places.... The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over" (Conrad 73).

4) "And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention"(Conrad 50).

Reading Assignment 1

" 'The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too.' 'Hanged himself! Why, in God's name?' I cried. He kept onlooking out watchfully. 'Who knows? The sun too much for him, or the country perhaps.'

In both Apocalypse Now & Heart of Darkness, there is an underlining theme of self-destruction. What is the cause of this? At what point does the mind break? Are these individuals looked over? Below I posted a link to CNN; it discusses the alarming rate of American Soldiers suicides.

Article

Reading Assignment 1

I am extremely interested in the women in the Sea trade office and their significance.

"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool." (Conrad 24)

"Often far away there I though of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the scrutinising the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te saluntant."

I believe that these women are a mythological allusion; they are the Greek Fates. They weave a dark cloth  the way the fates weaved the futures of the humans. The cloth of the Fates foretells the future of the individual; and the cloth color of the women's is Black with foreshadows the fates of all who enter the office and sign up for this venture into the jungle.

Ani DiFranco Quote

"I did not design this game; I did not name the stakes. I just happen to like apples; and I am not afraid of snakes."
— Ani DiFranco

Heart of Darkness

Evil Students, as you  begin reading Conrad's novel and as we begin viewing Apocalypse Now, I look forward to your posting your responses and questions.  Please remember to place them under the "category" of Heart of Darkness.

Satan and Eve

Satan seeks to turn Eve by convincing her that by eating the apple, her life will be better much like how the snake's life was supposedly improved by eating the apple.  He goes on to say that God would want her to eat the apple and live a better life and he would praise her for being brave enough to do so.  Satan makes it sound like God put the tree of knowledge into Eden as some sort of test for man to see if they are brave enough to risk death to attain a happier life.  Then Satan says that by eating the apple Eve will attain a knowledge of good and evil which she can use to avoid evil.  One main point of religion is faith and submission to God, which is why Satan uses the opposite of blind faith, logic, to convince Eve to turn her back on God.

Wednesday's Posts and Comments

Excellent job so far this evening!  Keep 'em coming!

Loss of Restraint

As Eve justifies to herself eating the apple, she fights against her pure hunger for the fruit which bears the knowledge of good and evil. The one thing of which God has not satiated. She and Adam were told to restrain from this one thing, and they do a good job for awhile. But Eve's appetite soon overcomes her and she tastes of the fruit anyway. After having a taste, her hunger grows ten fold and she continues to eat and eat without any restraint. Eve, upon turning to the dark side, has lost all sense of restraint. The unknowing prey to the wills of the Devil has turned villainous herself, but a bad villain at that. For Machaievelli describes a true villain as having restraint, but she has none. The turned villlains who are prey to the Mephostitillain characters always seem to be terrible in their villainry.

Satan's temptation

satan tempts eve with comments of flattery which she resists thenhe movs to more theological attempts explainingthat if she eats the fruit she will "die" in the sense of becoming divine with the attainment of knowledge ass he the snake became human by eating the fruit and by attaining knowwledge she would  know hoow to be good and how to avoid evil which eve simply repeats in  her  justification which shows eve to be easily manipulatible

Satan Tempts Eve

The serpent's persuasion is very traditional. Praise the subject and entice them. But Eve is completely oblivious to his comments that "all that fair and good in thy Divine/ Semblance" (606-7).  He constantly addresses her as "the sovran mistress" and "resplendent Eve" (532 and 568). To the reader all this praise appears to be useless on Eve because she gives no hint to being flattered by Satan's words, but Milton mentions "Into the Heart of Eve his words made way" (550). Milton emphasizes this fact by his punctuation and italics in this quote. However on the surface Eve is amazed with his ability to speak. Satan's story is flawed. He was the ONLY one that could climb the tree and eat the fruit? What about the birds, the giraffes, the fallen fruit? Eve is just a complete novice in this world if she didn't think about these possibilities. Satan plays an excellent game though because the fruit apparently just made him think of Eve. How romantic!

Milton mentions that the serpent made the "intricate [path] seem strait" (632). This line obviously not only talks about Satan physically guiding Eve to the Tree of Knowledge, but also making his point obvious and easy to accept in Eve's mind. This resembles the persuasions of Screwtape this summer. They always wanted to make their twisted and sinful ways seem like the road straight to heaven. Go to church but do it because a woman is there. I really liked Milton's simile here to the flames in the Dead Marsh in The Lord of the Rings. It is the same idea that if you follow the wrong light during the night, the traveler will end up at the wrong place.

Woman's Inferiority in Paradise Lost

I am pretty sure no guy can make a comment without getting slapped in this topic. This opinion that Milton seems to propose that woman are inferior to men probably comes from the scripture that says Eve was created from the dust of Adam. From this point forward in literature, the point is developed in many different situations .

Reading 9

I can't help but notice that Adam seems like he knows everything in this reading. I'm not trying to be a feminist, but he certainly seems superior to Eve in knowledge and power. He also knows a lot more about life than I would have thought. Lines 610-around 633 when he is talking about God's purpose for them, Adam seems to know why they are there and what they are supposed to do which surprises me. I thought him and Eve would have been equally clueless as to why they exist and what they are supposed to do.

Rding 10 Milton's descriptions of Eve vs. Adam

In this reading, Satan is waiting for his prey in the garden. He hopes to find Eve alone instead of with Adam. Eve is among the flowers. Milton describes her as "though fairest unsupported Flour" (IX. 432). To me, it seems as though Eve is beautiful like a flower, but drooping or not strong enough to think and defend herself. Later, Satan thinks or says, "The Woman, opportune to all attempts,/ Her Husband, for I view far round, not nigh,/ Whose higher intellectual more I shun,/ And strength, of courage hautie, ..." (IV. 481-4). Here, Milton seems to believe that men are a step or several steps above women in strength, knowledge, and instinct. A woman tends to be more gullible and willing to do whatever anyone tells her. Thus making Eve the more attractive prey or fawn to tempt.

Rding 8 Where is Hell?

In this reading Satan is talking about why he felt the need to overthrow God in Heaven. He goes on explaining how miserable he is where ever he flies. "Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell" (IV. 75.). This reminds me of the idea that Hell is everywhere an archangel goes because Hell is in the mind.

Jealous?

Satan finally makes it to the Garden and upon witnessing it feels sad. He doesn't seem to like the fact that Humans were given a Heaven on Earth, and in vengeance seeks to cast them out of it. I think that Satan feels jealous of the first humans. For one, they have access to Paradise, while he's stuck in the Pit. Also, God made them in his own likeness, which means they must be more beautiful than Satan himself. Furthermore, I think he's jealous of their weakness and stupidity. Satan's already lamented being a spirit with power- he partially believes that the rebellion was due to his own power. Furthermore, he wants to feed the humans fruit from the tree of knowledge. It's assumed right now that the humans are stupid; they do not have knowledge of either right or wrong. Without that knowledge, they cant have free will. They can't choose between good and evil because they don't have any idea of what good or evil is. Satan's problem is that he was given the choice between rebelling and keeping the peace, and he chose wrongly. Because the humans don't have choice, Satan must be jealous that they can do no wrong and is thus dedicated to bringing them down. Ultimately, by making humans eat of the fruit of knowledge, it seems to be Satan, not God, who gave humans free will. He's pretty much a twisted version of Prometheus from mythology; his gift didn't make humans better off, it damned them.

Descriptions of Eden

Next Satan finds the Garden of Eden and is described as jumping over the wall as a thief might.  He lands on the tallest tree, the Tree of Life, where he ironically starts to plan how to kill all the humans.  Right next to the Tree of Life grew the Tree of Knowledge which is called our death because when mankind learned about good they also learned of evil, a grave cost.  Milton seems to support the old saying "Ignorance is bliss" because he is saying that any knowledge is bad since it results in the knowledge of evil.

Satan's thoughts

In book four Satan talks about how the sun reminds him of Heaven and then seems to express regret for his rebellion against God saying that praising God was the easiest way to repay his gratitude.  However, his ambition to want to become the highest caused him to only repay God in malice which then led to his downfall.  Also Satan confesses that God is invincible "Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down/ Warring in Heav'n against Heav'ns matchless King" (4:40-41).  Satan claims that even if he was to submit to God and return to Heaven, he would soon rebel against God again because of  his ambition; however, after this time, Satan claims that he would fall to a different Hell that is even lower and worse than the one he is currently in which I find interesting.  Satan also calls himself Hell which can bring up many questions concerning if God is omnipresent and if Hell is just made by our minds.  At the end of the speech, however, is a particularly intersting part because Satan dismisses (says farewell) to all good and fully adopts evil just like Othello did.

Reading 8

Satan says that even if he does repent and return to heaven he will just end up rebelling again because of his ambition.  Satan blames his discontent on his rank in heaven.  He says that had he been a lesser angel he would have been happy but because he was second only to  God all he could think about was how close he was to being the top dog.  This reminds me of how after the olympics, bronze medalists are on average happier than silver medalists because they can be happy about just getting a medal while the silver medalists dwell on how if they had just been a little better they would have won gold.

Hanky-Pankage

This is my attempt at tracking the logic.

Satan --------> created a being that is a physical representation of his mind.

This form was extremely beautiful while in heaven but once sent to hell became a victim to her own circumstance.

Sin-----------> Could Sin be Satan's Portrait; Since he still sees himself as a being of heaven (a being of beauty and light), could his

glimpse at Sin serve as his insight into the magnitude of the situation. (Obviously he doesn't see it this way, but I do)

Would Sin have stayed beautiful if Satan hadn't rebelled? Would their offspring be less hideous? What happen to "sins of the father not of the son" ?

Hanky-Pankage

Satan has a very interesting set of family members. From my interpretation, Sin was born of Satan's mind which makes sense. The best part is that Sin came from Satan's mind and is technically not one of God's creations, merely a by-product. Sin is Satan's Idea and child. Even more interesting, Death itself is born from Satan and Sin.  The bible says that Sin and Death came into the world after Adam and Eve ate the apple, but it never says from where they originally came from. On top of that, Death and Sin create monsters together, so Milton tries to say that Satan, Sin, and Death created everything evil and terrible in the world.

Worshipping Satan?

While I was reading about Satan’s daughter, Sin, it feels as if she is suffering much more than Satan and she is in Hell because of his war. She was punished to be the key holder of the gates of Hell for her father’s crime.  She was raped twice and then forced to live with “…These yelling Monsters that with ceaseless cry/Surround me…hourly conceiv’d/ And hourly born, with sorrow infinite…”(Book II, Lines 794-796). It seems as if everyone’s suffering is due to Satan’s idea for war and yet they are all praising him as if he is their savior. Even though Sin has suffered throughout her time in Hell, she believes , [Satan] wilt bring  [her] soon/ To that new world of light and bliss, among/ The Gods who live a life of ease…(Book II, Line 866-868). She immediately trusts his plan though she has suffered because of him.

Reading 7

As I was reading through this assignment, I noticed the elaborate series of gates that were meant to restrict Satan and his minions from passage into the heavens. Milton explains that three of the nine gates are made of adamantine, an indestructible metal created by God, and each one is guarded by varied demonic conjurations. To me, this does not make sense. Why bother guarding something that can not be passed through or destroyed in the first place and is there really a need for the other eight gates? Could God have simply created them for emphasis, or are the gates a series of tests that Satan and his demonic horde must conquer before God can feel they are worthy of his attention?

Echoes of Satan's Speech

In our fourth reading assignment, Satan gives this heroic speech about the battle they have lost, and how god is at fault for not showing his full power. The interesting line though was when Satan says  "So as neither to provoke, or dread/ New warr, provok't..."(645-646). These lines are echoed by the speeches of Moloch and Belial later. Moloch is all for the next war while Belial prefers not doing anything else to provoke God. Milton must have forgottent to turn the page, or maybe this is an imitation of group dynamics. After Satan's great speech, each demon tries to gain the respect of his peers by pulling parts of the fame.

Even Beelzebub's idea to begin tempting the humans is echoed in the lines following.

Reading 5 Satan = corrupt politicians?

I cannot help but think of Satan as a politician fighting to win the most praise, honor, glory, and respect from all the angels imprisoned by God in order to keep his reign. After the speeches by the top angels, Satan rises to take the challenge to find Earth and start corrupting human kind for everyone's benefit in Hell against God. Satan says that he should take on the travel full of misery because he is the highest in rank and with rank comes more responcibility. So, that makes sense. But then he tells his followers to "Go therfore mighty powers,/ Terror of Heav'n, though fall'n; intend at home,/ While here shall be our home, what best may ease/ The present misery, and render Hell/ More tollerable...While I abroad/ Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek/ Deliverance for us all..." (II.457-467).  Basically, everyone chill and find out ways to ease your pain while Satan suffers terribley for you and our goals to seek revenge on God is what he's saying. By putting all of the hardship on himself, a ONE MAN JOB, the angels in Hell cannot help him and feel the need to praise him. Satan wins. I bet Moloch, Baliel, Mammon, and Beez are rolling their eyes and wishing they stood up to the challenge first like someone else mentioned. I noticed also that Satan still referes to everyone in Hell as princes of heaven. "Oh Progeny of Heav'n, Empyreal Thrones" (II.430). Even though Beezlebub just spoke about why they should find a different name, Satan still calls his "friends" his "peers" worthy of heaven or greatness. Satan is only appealing to everyone well beneath him (not so much Beezlebub, Moloch, Beliel, or Mammon) in order to be "re-elected".

Looking Back and epic Hero Satan

One thing that I noticed when looking back over the readings that I had skipped over previously is that Satan does not claim to be the creator of Hell when he first arrives "and thou profoundest Hell/ Rceive they new Possessor" (1:251-252).  This explains how God is still omnipotent even though Satan "creates" Hell: God had already made Hell.  But then why would God make a Hell if there had been no reason before?  The answer to this could justfy how God is still all-knowing even though Satan "betrayed" him: God already knew that Satan would betray him and created Hell, a place of torture, in preparation for Satan's "betrayal".  Then in our current reading I noticed that Satan is described similarly to an epic hero.  Satan will endure the pain and hardships of being the king of Hell for the other demons, and he offers to go out and find man fr the other demons.  Satan stands courageous while defying God and never backs down like an epic hero.

Reading 5

Lines 430-468, Satan pretty much appoints himself as the savior of Hell by telling all the fallen angels that he will take the task of escaping hell and messing with God's creation. I think its kind of funny actually- Satan lost the limelight because everyone else was focused on Mammon, so to get it back he starts talking as if he will be the savior of Hell by escaping it. I still think the other demons are annoyed with Satan, so when he proclaims himself the hero, everyone else is probably rolling their eyes. Moloch seems to be the strongest one, and Belial definitely seems to be the wiliest one, so where does Satan fit? So far, I get the impression that he's pretty stupid and that he wants to prove himself, given the other smarter and stronger demons. He really does seem to be all talk; he reminds me of Roderigo.

Reading 5

It is interesting how at lines 482 -484, Milton stops narrating and tells the listener that even the Devil has some virtues.  He addresses the reader again at lines 485- 505 and admonishes mankind for fighting amongst itself even though God tells them to live in peace.

Reading 5- Demon Council

In the demon council, Satan speaks first, saying that their loss makes them stronger and will make their victory that much more satisfying. He says that they have to unite against God and invites his followers to speak their opinions.  Moloch speaks first, promoting full-force immediate attack on God and Heaven. His words and argument are made forceful and less appealing because of his uncontrollable and self-consuming hatred towards God and his inclination for brute force.  Belial speaks next. He argues for no war at all but waiting in Hell. He says that they will get to used to the fires of Hell and will prefer them over the wrath of God. He basically says that they are lucky that their punishment was not more severe.  Belial's argument seems more reasonable and appealing than Moloch's because of his eloquent speech, but is unsatisfying because of his laziness and lack of motivation for anything.  Mammon speaks last and has the most persuasive and logical argument. He seems almost more motivated and moving than Satan because of the strength and steadfastness of his position. Unlike Satan, he does not change his mind or switch opinions in order to manipulate the other demons. He simply says what he believes, so one might even say he's more driven and more powerful than Satan.

Reading 4

In this section, Satan is replying to Beelzebub's uncertainty and concern with their decision to revolt against God.  I found Satan's logic very contradictory and almost amusing.  He talks about how all the demons must decide on how best to take over Heaven and overthrow God. But then he says how Hell is better than Heaven because they cannot sink any lower and do not have to live under the control of God.  He also reminds me of Iago how he changes his opinions and makes his "friends" believe certain things. He says that they should vote on whether they should fight head on or fight through tricks and deception then says that deception is definitely the right choice. But he does it in such a sneaky way that makes his followers almost think that the idea was their own.

Reading 5-- The Minions

So we discussed in class how Moloch represents wrath and wants all out war, and how Belial represents sloth and wants to just sit in hell and do nothing with life... so I found Mammon to be more prideful than anything else, preferring making the best out of hell to living in heaven with the God they all hate. I found this interesting because he seems to reiterate what the Devil earlier says about how it's better to rein in hell then serve in heaven and where he says that one can make a heaven out of hell and a hell out of heaven. Mammon simply reinforces these ideas that the Devil has already expressed to the reader.

On a similar note, I had high expectations for Mammon that were not fulfilled. I thought he would be the one to form a compromise between Moloch and Belial and propose not to engage in full out warfare nor to do nothing, but to go out in search of the humans and use them as indirect targets to wound God. His proposition, though, seemed more to be weak and simply agree with Belial's in saying that they should just stay in hell. Disappointing, Mammon... very disappointing.