Heart of Darkness
Chapter 3
Pg. 53
• Marlow is unable to understand how the
harlequin had survived for so long in the
wilderness.
• One explanation for Marlow’s confusion is that
the young man is clearly naïve, almost stupidly so
and seems almost completely unaware of the
danger that constantly surrounds him.
• This is another example of the absurdities
Marlow encounters.
Pg. 53
• “’I went a little farther,’ he said, ‘then still a little
farther—till I had gone so far that I don’t know
how I’ll ever get back.’”
• This quote by the Russian Harlequin figuratively
relates to the psychological journeys that Marlow,
the members of the Company, the Russian, and
especially Kurtz endure during their physical
journeys through the Congo.
• The quote may also serve to explain that Kurtz’s
descent into brutality was not instantaneous.
Pg. 53 – for discussion
• Why would Marlow think the Russian’s
“devotion to Kurtz” could be “the most
dangerous thing”?
Pg. 54
• The Russian believes that Kurtz is not “an
ordinary man.” His devotion to Kurtz seems
almost fanatical, as if he sees Kurtz as a god.
• Previously, Marlow had implied that the natives
had offered up “unspeakable rites” to Kurtz,
suggesting that they, too, saw him in this way.
• Remember Kurtz’s report? The Europeans “must
necessarily appear to them (the natives) in the
nature of supernatural beings.”
• Note the line by the Russian: “…he came to them
with thunder and lightning.”
Pg. 54
• The Russian speaking of Kurtz: “…there was
nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he
jolly well pleased.”
• The Russian’s comment about Kurtz’s freedom to
kill echoes the sentiments of the leader of the
Eldorado Exploring Expedition, when the leader
says, “Anything—anything can be done in this
country” (pg. 34).
• Imperialism has made the powerful (Kurtz)
omnipotent. The essence of the Law of the
Jungle means there is no law at all.
Pg. 54
• HYPERBOLE mixed with philosophy: Event the
“blazing sky” appears “hopeless, dark, and
impenetrable.” The comment fits with
Conrad’s position that nothing is knowable for
certain and that the jungle/universe does not
care about individual human beings.
Pg. 55 – literary device!
• Zeugma: a figure of speech in which a word
applies to two others in different senses (e.g.,
John and his license expired last week ) or to two
others of which it semantically suits only one
(e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).
• The example from page 55: “These round knobs
were not ornamental but symbolic; they were
expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing—
food for thought and also for vultures…”
Pg. 55
• “He *the Russian / harlequin+ protested
indignantly. Mr. Kurtz couldn’t be mad. If I
[Marlow] had heard him talk, only two days
ago, I *Marlow+ wouldn’t dare hint at such a
thing…”
• The power of Kurtz’s voice also seems to hold
a great power over the Russian, just as it had
earlier on Marlow.
Pg. 55
• “The woods were unmoved, like a mask—heavy,
like the closed door of a prison—they looked with
their air of hidden knowledge, of patient
expectation, of unapproachable silence.”
• How is the wilderness “like a mask” and also
“like…a prison”?
• Behind the face of the jungle is the real danger
and, at the same time, the real truth, especially
truth as Kurtz sees it. At this point, all the white
men may as well be within a prison, since
escaping to civilization seems extraordinarily
difficult.
Pg. 55
• What might have been Kurtz’s purpose in placing
the heads on the poles?
• Kurtz is expecting the Company to send men to
remove him, and he wants to frighten them.
• Another possibility is that he wants to impress
any intruders with his savagery and power.
• The heads may also symbolize the fact that Kurtz
knows he is dying.
• The possibility exists that the natives themselves
placed the heads on the poles as a way of
showing reverence to Kurtz, indicating their
willingness to sacrifice their lives for him.
Pg. 55
• Marlow says, “I was not so shocked as you
may think.” (When he sees the heads.)
• Marlow’s lack of shock may indicate that he
has become desensitized to the horrors and
mystery of his surroundings. The sight of
severed heads on sticks should evoke a
stronger response from him, but his admission
indicates that he is beginning to understand
and accept that grisly violence is a normal part
of life in the Congo.
PG. 56
• “In fact, the manager said afterwards that Mr.
Kurtz’z methods had ruined the district. I have no
opinion on that point, but I want you to
understand that there was nothing exactly
profitable in these heads being there.”-Marlow
• Instead of making moral judgments on what Kurtz
has done, Marlow couches his objections in
financial terms: Kurtz’s actions are wrong only
because they damage the Company’s financial
standing.
Pg. 56
• “They *heads+ showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked
restraint in the gratification of his various
lusts, that there was something wanting in
him—some small matter which, when the
pressing need arose, could not be found under
his magnificent eloquence.”
• Kurtz’s morality is based on the “gratification
of his various lusts,” as well as profit, but it is
completely disconnected from right or wrong.
Pg. 56
• “But the wilderness had found him *Kurtz+ out
early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance
for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered
to him things about himself with he did not know,
things of which he had no conception till he took
counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper
had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed
loudly within him because he was hollow at the
core…” –Marlow
• Kurtz seems to be lacking in compassion or even
a conscience; he no longer knows or cares what is
right or wrong, despite Kurtz’s acknowledged
“eloquence.”
Pg. 56
• When the Russian begins to explain how the natives
approach Kurtz, Marlow interrupts by saying he
doesn’t want to know “anything of the ceremonies.”
He then comments that “such details would be more
intolerable than those heads drying on the
stakes…After all, that was only a savage sight, while I
seemed at one bound to have been transported into
some lightless region of subtle horrors, where pure,
uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being
something that had a right to exist…in the sunshine.”
• What do you think about Marlow’s contention that the
“subtle horrors” he has witnessed have a “right to
exist” in the bright “sunshine”? (There is no “correct”
answer…for discussion only.)
Pg. 56
• The Russian says that the heads on sticks were
the heads of Rebels.
• Marlow’s response was to laugh. He says,
“What would be the next definition I was to
hear? There had been enemies, criminals,
workers—and these were rebels. Those
rebellious heads looked very subdued to me
on their sticks.”
• What, do you think, is Marlow’s opinion of the
varying words used to describe the natives?
Pg. 57
• “Kurtz—that means short in German—don’t it?
Well, the name was as true as everything else in
his life—and death. He looked at least seven feet
long.” –Marlow
• Marlow is speaking ironically here; Kurtz appears
to be at “least seven feet long,” which makes his
name ironic. Marlow is sarcastic when he says
“the name was as true as everything else in his
life,” implying that nothing was true about Kurtz.
• Later, it will be seen that pinpointing exactly what
Kurtz was—an artist, a politician, a musician, a
miscreant, a genius—is impossible. The concept
echoes Marlow’s earlier statement that Kurtz
“was hollow to the core.”
Pg. 57
• Kurtz is compared to Jupiter, the Roman name
for the Greek king of the gods, Zeus.
• While Marlow has previously been described
as Buddha—an enlightened teacher—Kurtz is
compared with a jealous, violent, and
frequently immoral god.
Pg. 58
• “And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a
wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman…She was
savage and superb…”
• The role of this woman in the novel is not entirely
clear. The description of her as an apparition recalls
the earlier description of Kurtz, linking the two. Her
physical description and what she wears seem to
indicate that she is possibly part of the native royalty.
• At the end of the novel, it will be seen that Marlow
links this woman and Kurtz’s Intended, suggesting that
the two serve similar functions. It may be that this
woman is Kurtz’s mistress, but her role in life is never
clarified, and even Marlow comments that she has an
“inscrutable purpose,” similar to the mysteriousness of
the jungle.
Pg. 58-59 – More about the woman…
• “And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon
the whole sorrowful land, the immense
wilderness…seemed to look at her, pensive, as
though it had been looking at the image of its
own tenebrous and passionate soul.”
• The statuesque and tragic-looking woman casts a
“long shadow” upon the water’s edge. A “whole
minute” elapses as the woman stands
motionless. She is illuminated from the rear by
the setting sun so that the shadows of her raised
arms “embrace” the boat; however the embrace
signifies something other than fondness or love.
Pg. 59
• Notice the manager says that Kurtz has “done
more harm than good to the Company…The
district is closed to us for a time.”
• What does Marlow mean by “No method at all?”
• Apparently, he now does not believe that Kurtz
had a method or plan. Kurtz apparently followed
his innate, selfish desires and, even in
comparison to the other hideous deeds of the
white colonizers, descended into
incomprehensible brutality.
Pg. 59
• Marlow tells the Manager: “Nevertheless I think
Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man.” The manager’s
response is to drop a “heavy glance” while saying,
“he was,” and to turn his back on Marlow.
(Obviously disagreeing with Marlow’s assertion)
• In forcing Marlow to choose between supporting
Kurtz or the Company manager, two clearly
immoral men, Conrad may be indicating that
questions of morality are inconsequential when
placed in the context of the wilderness—in this
case, a place in which the laws of society have
been abandoned and people are entirely free.
PG. 60
• Note how Conrad relates the “victorious
corruption” of imperialism to “unspeakable
secrets, an intolerable weight,” and “the
darkness of an impenetrable night.”
Pg. 60
• Why would Marlow say that he is somehow Kurtz’s
friend? Why guard the man’s reputation?
• The theme of human duality is seen here in Kurtz, a
remarkable, creative man who is also a homicidal
madman, and in Marlow, a paid agent of the Company
who, at the same time, hates most of what it does.
The manager has lumped the two of them together,
and Marlow detests the brutality, dishonesty, and crass
materialism of the manager more than he dislikes the
actions of Kurtz, who at least is honest about his
behavior.
• In addition Kurtz at least began with good intentions,
which is more than can be said of the manager.
Pg. 60
• Class discussion: How do you think Marlow
will keep Mr. Kurtz’s reputation safe? Safe
from whom?
Pg. 62
• When Marlow “confound*s+ the beat of the
drum with the beating of [his] heart, Marlow
shows himself to be vulnerable to the power
of the wilderness. Unlike Kurtz, however, he
shows restraint an keeps “to the track.”
• He knows he must bring Kurtz back, and he
resists the temptation to remain in the jungle
and become part of the savagery.
PG. 62
• “I saw the danger in its right proportion.” –
Marlow
• He is concerned Kurtz will shout and alert the
natives.
Pg. 62
• Marlow says to Kurtz: “You will be lost…utterly
lost.” Kurtz responds: “I had immense plans.”
• Most critics identify this point in the plot, when
the two main characters fully communicate for
the first time, as the climax of the novel. When
Kurtz wavers and says, in the past tense, “I had
immense plans,” the conflict has been resolved,
and the rising action has ended. From this point,
there is only the denouement, the falling action.
Pg. 62-63
• Marlow says, “I tried to break the spell—the heavy, mute
spell of the wilderness—that seemed to draw him (Kurtz) to
its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal
instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous
passions…this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond
the bounds of permitted aspirations.”
• He continues: “…the terror of the position was not in being
knocked in the head…but…that I had to deal with a being to
whom I could not appeal in the name of anything high or
low…There was nothing either above or below him…He was
alone…”
• He also says, “And I wasn’t arguing with a lunatic either…his
intelligence was perfectly clear—concentrated…upon
himself with horrible intensity, yet clear…But his soul was
mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within
itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad.”
Pg. 63
• (explanation of previous quotes)
• Marlow indicates that Kurtz has broken all the
rules and isolated himself on his own island,
ironically, even while he is surrounded by his
supporters, now including Marlow. Marlow
feels that there is nothing he can say to
convince Kurtz to return because Kurtz no
longer responds to the logic or fears that
motivate normal men.
Pg. 63
• The fact that Marlow is sweating after helping
Kurtz, who “was not much heavier than a
child,” back to the steamer suggests that
Marlow’s struggle is not physical, but
psychological.
• He has resisted his desire to join with the
wilderness, but the struggle has taken much
of his strength.
Pg. 63
• Note how Conrad paints this major scene as if
it were a contest between two kinds of
demons: the mechanical, man-made, “fierce
river-demon” of the boat versus the ancient,
self-decorated demons of the tribe’s spiritual
leaders, with “their horned heads” and
“scarlet bodies.”
Pg. 64
• How is it possible for “more air” to be inside
the pilot-house of the steamer than outside?
Discuss what Conrad is trying to convey by this
contradiction?
Pg. 64
• “Only the barbarous and superb woman did
not so much as flinch, and stretched tragically
her bare arms after us over the somber and
glittering river.
• “And then that imbecile crowd down on the
deck, started their little fun, and I could see
nothing more for smoke.”
• The implication here is that the pilgrims killed
the “superb woman.”
Pg. 64
• “…and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too,
ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of
inexorable time.”
• Kurtz’s life is coming to a close as the steamer
leaves the “heart of darkness.”
• The “sea of inexorable time” is a metaphor
that says the darkness of Africa, of human
emotions, and of savagery and civilization will
exist forever.
Pg. 65
• Kurtz sees himself incorrectly. He dreams of
recognition of his greatness, but only so long
as he remembers the “right motives”—profit
and the advantages of European civilization
over African—the ones he abandoned in the
first place in favor of personal wealth and
ultimate power.
Pg. 65
• “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.”
• Here Marlow repeats an earlier phrase used to
describe Kurtz, especially his voice. (Pg. 46)
The implication is that all human beings have
the same kind of “impenetrable darkness”
within.
Pg. 65
• “I saw on that ivory face the expression of
somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven
terror—of an intense and hopeless despair.”
• Again, Conrad uses the word “ivory” to add
situational irony to the tone of a scene, as he
did when he described Kurtz’s bald head as an
“ivory ball.” (pg. 47)
Pg. 65-66
• “Did he live his life again in every detail of
desire, temptation, and surrender during that
supreme moment of complete knowledge?”
• Marlow has referred to death as a “supreme
moment” before, when describing the death
of the native helmsman. (pg. 49) In many
religions’ teachings, the senses give way to
deep thoughts and memories at the moment
of death.
Pg. 66
• “The horror! The horror!”
• Like the story itself, Kurtz’s dying words are
inconclusive. However, he could be talking about
recognizing the horrible things he has seen and done,
and this realization is an indictment of the whole
system of imperialistic exploitation. Kurtz’s behavior
had descended into the realm of the horrible, and he
only now realizes it at death.
• Kurtz could also be characterizing human existence in
an inhumane world or describing the “heart of
darkness” within all people, the ugly, bestial part of
human nature with which he is very familiar.
• Another possibility is that at his moment of
clarity/death, he realizes what is before him—the
damnation of hell.
Pg. 66
• “I remained to dream the nightmare out to
the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz once
more…Droll thing life is—that mysterious
arrangement of merciless logic for a futile
purpose. The most you can hope from it is
some knowledge of yourself—that comes too
late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets.
Pg. 66
• “I have wrestled with death. It is the most
unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place
in an impalpable greyness, with nothing
underfoot, with nothing around, without
spectators, without clamor, without glory,
without the great desire of victory, without the
great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of
tepid skepticism, without much belief in your
own right, and still less in that of your adversary.
If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is
a greater riddle than some of us think it to be.”
PG. 66
• “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. This is the reason why I affirm
that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had
something to say.”
PG. 67
• “True, he had made that last stride, he had
stepped over the edge, while I had been
permitted to draw back my hesitating foot.”
• This statement has double meaning. It clearly
refers to the fact that Marlow has been permitted
to live, while Kurtz has died; however, it also
refers to the characters’ mental states. While
Kurtz had completely given himself over to the
darkness within, Marlow has not allowed his
more vicious impulses to take hold.
Pg. 67
• “They were intruders whose knowledge of life
was to me an irritating pretense, because I felt so
sure they could not possibly know the things I
knew.”
• Marlow is referring to the people he encounters
after returning to the “sepulchral city.” He feels
the people of Europe, even the Company leaders,
would have no understanding of his experience.
Marlow even says, “I had no particular desire to
enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in
restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so
full of stupid importance.”
PG. 67
• The people who visit Marlow ask for various
pieces of Kurtz’s belongings. None of them
seems to be able to say what exactly Kurtz was.
When Marlow asks the journalist what extremist
political party Kurtz would have led best, the
journalist responds, “any party.”
• Once again, this points to the idea that Kurtz has
no real identity. He could have become anyone,
or—probably closer to Conrad’s purpose in
constructing Kurtz’s character this way—anyone
could become Kurtz.
Pg. 68
• Why do you think Marlow removed Kurtz’s
comment to “Exterminate all the brutes!”
before giving the paper to the Company
official?
Pg. 68
• The description of Kurtz as a painter,
politician, and journalist adds to the common
perception that before Africa, he had been a
“universal genius.” Being there with no
restrictions on his behavior is the element that
seems to have changed him into nothing more
than a voice.
Pg. 68
• Marlow says, in reference to the portrait of
Kurtz’s intended:
• “She struck me as beautiful—I mean she had a
beautiful expression. I know that the sunlight
can be made to lie too, yet one felt that no
manipulation of light and pose could have
conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness
upon these features.”
Pg. 69
• Marlow’s description of Kurtz—“opening his
mouth voraciously, as if to devour all the earth
with all its mankind”—as being almost the
same as he used on page 57 when he first saw
Kurtz on the stretcher—“as though he had
wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all
the men before him.”
Pg. 69
• “He wanted no more than justice…”
• Conrad likely repeats the phrase “no more
than justice” to emphasize the hypocrisy in
Kurtz’s words. Kurtz collected the ivory by
brutal raids; clearly, his actions toward the
natives had been completely unjust.
Pg. 69
• Note the words and concepts referring to light
and dark that Conrad uses in the buildup to
the actual meeting with Kurtz’s Intended.
• “ivory, mahogany, glassy, dusk, windows,
luminous and bedraped, gilt, shone,
monumental whiteness, dark gleams, somber
and polished”
Pg. 70
• The room darkens as Marlow and Kurtz’s
Intended continue their conversation, which may
represent the fact that the Intended is completely
mistaken about Kurtz—she is completely
unaware of his savage actions in the Congo.
• Marlow allows her to maintain her illusions about
Kurtz, keeping her in metaphorical darkness, as
the literal darkness of the room deepens.
Pg. 71
• Kurtz’s Intended is completely oblivious of the
man Marlow knew—the brutal killer; she sees
him as “one who drew men towards him by
what was best in them.”
• This evaluation seems to be saying that
Marlow was drawn to Kurtz because he,
Marlow, recognized a similarity between
them.
Pg. 71
• Description of Kurtz’s Intended: “She put out
her arms as if after a retreating figure,
stretching them back and with clasped pale
hands across the fading and narrow sheen of
the window…”
• This is quite similar to the last view of Kurtz’s
(supposed) mistress from the Congo as she
stretches her arms at the departing steamer.
(pg. 64)
Pg. 72
• Earlier in the novel, Marlow says, “I hate,
detest, and can’t bear a lie,” but he tells
Kurtz’s Intended, “The last word he
pronounced was—your name.”
• Why does Marlow break his own rule about
lying?
Pg. 72
• If Kurtz’s Intended represents European beliefs
that colonists were benevolent bearers of the
light of civilization, Marlow becomes complicit in
the evils of colonization by concealing the truth
from her.
• However, the lie can also be seen as one of kind
intent, as it shields her from the painful
knowledge that Kurtz became an unspeakably
evil man.
• It is difficult to judge Marlow’s lie as right or
wrong, and it is another instance of moral
ambiguity in the novel.
Pg. 72
• At the end of Marlow’s story, the director says,
“We have lost he first of the ebb.” He says
nothing about Marlow’s story; he simply
comments about the tide.
• The Director either does not understand or
intentionally ignores the deeper implications
of Marlow’s story: that the capacity for evil
exists at the heart of every person.
PG. 72
• The closing paragraph strengthens the
associations between England and Africa and
between the Thames and the Congo.
• It is now clear that the “heart of an immense
darkness” is not a geographical location; the
concept must be understood metaphorically.
Further, this statement indicates that the
narrator, unlike the Director, has understood
Marlow’s story.