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.
Several very insightful comments here, Holly. Let me work backwards. Why Marlow decides to lie is very important. Do you admire him for this decision? Also, we'll spend time dicussing wha Kurtz calls "The horror!"
ReplyDelete"Choice of nightmares" is a key comment, indeed, and I appreciate your connecting it to the very end of the novel. "Pretty depressing" indeed! Anything potentially positive in Marlow's showdown with Kurtz in the jungle when Kurtz escapes from the boat and heads toward the ceremony? Lots to discuss here!