Heart of Darkness Close Reading Questions
1.
What is considered “classic” literature?
2.
On pages 6-7 it gives you some “Reading Pointers”. See any potential extended response questions?
3.
Where does one find “the Thames” and what place would Conrad refer to as “the greatest, town on
earth” (9)?
4.
What do you notice about names on page 9? For what purpose would the author do this?
5.
What does “benign” mean (10)?
6.
The narrator says as they head out to see, “What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into
the mystery of an unknown earth!...The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of
empires.” To what historical concept is the narrator referring?
7.
Describe Marlow (9, 11).
8.
To what mythical connection is “yarns” or “spin yarns” referring (11)?
9.
What does the narrator say about the Romans on pages 11-12?
10.
How is the narrator able to relay Marlow’s story (12)?
11.
“…It was not a blank space any more…It had become a place of darkness” (13). What does Marlow
mean by the word darkness?
12.
“But there was…one river…a mightly river…resembling an immense snake uncoiled…The snake had
charmed me” (13) What allusion might this reference?
13.
Keep track of the roles of women in the story.
14.
What two factors allowed Marlow to become a river steamboat captain (14)?
15.
What is a white sepulcher (14)?
16.
What is a somnambulist (15)?
17.
Select 5 tone words out of the paragraph at the bottom of page 15 that starts with “I began”. What
feeling is evoked by these words about the woman?
18.
At the top of page 17, how does Marlow perceive his role within the Company?
19.
“She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways’” (17). To what is the woman
referring?
20.
“We pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom-house clerks to levy toll in what
looked like God-forsaken wilderness…landed more soldiers—to take care of the custom-house clerks,
presumably. Some, I heard, got drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody seemed
particularly to care. They were flung out there, and on we went” (17). What is the tone of the
Company’s expectations according to Marlow’s account?
Heart of Darkness Close Reading Questions
21.
“…the uniform somberness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of things…” (18).
22.
What does the word “lugubrious” mean (18)?
23.
How does Marlow describe the natives at the bottom of page 20?
24.
What does the word “propitiatory” (21) mean?
25.
Infer as to why after 3 years in the Congo the accountant would still be wearing suits and ties (21)?
26.
Based on what is the accountant’s perception of Mr. Kurtz (22)?
27.
“His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall
on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe” (24). What is meant by “usual blue”? In juxtaposition with
the eyes are the bolded words. What tone do these words convey about the manager and his
representation of the Company?
28.
Where was Marlow to go according to the Manager (25)? Why?
29.
On the top of page 26 what 5 words give you a figurative image of familiar place?
30.
What is a “papier-mache Mephistopheles” (28)?
31.
Summarize your perception of the Company and what Marlow has gotten himself into in the Congo.
Heart of Darkness Close Reading Questions
32.
“The climate may do away with this difficulty for you” (33). What can you infer that the manager means
by this?
33.
What is the manager’s issue with Kurtz (33-34)?
34.
“I saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the
river—seemed to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous
appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart” (34-35). What does
this imagery seem to say about the manager’s connection to the land? What is inferred about the Congo?
35.
“…the black display of confidence” (35). To what does “black” figuratively refer?
36.
How is the land described on page 35 as they neared Kurtz? What does this suggest about traveling
upriver?
37.
“I did not see it any more; I had no time…I had to keep a lookout for the signs…when you have to
attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality—the reality, I tell you--fades. The inner truth is hidden…” (35-36). What do you stop seeing? What reality fades? How does the
inner truth become hidden?
38.
“Fine fellows---cannibals…they were men one could work with, and I am grateful…they did not eat
each other before my face…” (36). What is ironic about this statement by Marlow? What might this say
about Marlow’s perception of the natives?
39.
What significant line is mentioned towards the bottom of page 36?
40.
“They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought
of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.
Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was
in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise…” (37). What is Marlow
saying in this passage in simple terms?
41.
Why the message “ ’Wood for you. Hurry up. Approach cautiously’ ” (38)?
42.
What does Marlow mean when he says, “What did it matter what any one knew or ignored? What did it
matter who was manager?” (39).
43.
What was behind the fog on page 40?
44.
What is the problem Marlow sees with how the natives are paid by the company (41)?
45.
Compare the description of the Thames from the beginning of the text to the Congo in the “heart” of the
text.
46.
What tone goes with the passage, “…not because it occurred to me I might be eaten by them before very
long…I perceived in a new light…how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and I hoped, yes, I positively
hoped, that my aspect was not so…unappetizing…” (42).
47.
What kind of literary device is employed in the passage, “I would just as soon have expected restraint
from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield” (42)?
Heart of Darkness Close Reading Questions
48.
“Unexpected, wild, and violent as they had been, they had given me an irresistible impression of sorrow.
The glimpse of the steamboat had for some reason filled those savages with unrestrained grief” (43).
What tone words in this passage lead you to a foreshadowing idea?
49.
What does the steamboat provide that the banks of the river do not, symbolically?
50.
At the end of page 44 what was happening to the steamboat crew? What happened to the man steering
(the helmsman) the boat (46)?
51.
What did Marlow realize that he had been looking forward to (46)? Why?
52.
Who wrote the “International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs” (48)?
53.
What impresses Marlow about the writing?
54.
In the opening paragraph what was the advice given?
55.
What call to action was said?
56.
What was in the post script of the manuscript (49)?
57.
How did Marlow bury his helmsman (50)?
58.
Why does the tone change on page 51?
59.
How does the “Harlequin” describe the natives (51)?
60.
How does the “Harlequin” respond to Marlow’s query about talking to Kurtz (52)?
61.
What does the “Harlequin” say about the savages attacking Marlow and the steamboat crew (52)?