"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)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
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)
“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)
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)
"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
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
Saturday, November 27, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, November 26, 2010
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).
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).
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