Agenda:
 Making Sense…
 Setting the Frame
HW:
 Begin Journal
Assignment
 Hand-out books
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Journal Assignment
Take out:
 HW Notes
 Pen/Pencil
 Highlighter
Goals:
 Investigate how
Conrad sets up a frame
narrative
 Introduce Heart of
Darkness & journal
assignment
HoD is a FRAME NARRATIVE:
A frame narrative or frame story: a story in which another
story is enclosed or embedded as a ‘tale within the tale’,
or which contains several such tales.
Prominent examples of frame narratives enclosing
several tales are Boccaccio's Decameron (1353) and
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1390), while some novels
such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Emily
Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847) employ a narrative
structure in which the main action is relayed at second
hand through an enclosing frame story. (Oxford
Dictionary of Literary Terms)
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As you read Heart of Darkness, complete the following writing
activities to help ensure that you read actively.
Your final submission to me should be a numbered (like the list
below), single-spaced, typed document submitted both in hardcopy and on turnitin.com following the completion of our reading
of the novel.
Follow each of the numbered directives below, completing each
writing activity in full.
When I ask that you “keep track of”, “pick”, “cite” or “find”
anything, I expect you to record quotations and page numbers in
your journal document.
When I ask you to “discuss”, “explain” or “respond” to something, I
expect you to do so in at least one well-written paragraph (unless
otherwise noted).
THIS IS A LOT OF WORK – DO NOT LEAVE IT UNTIL THE LAST
MINUTE!!!!!
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1. Keep track of any place that Marlow travels in
the novella. Do this by noting the page number
any time he mentions moving from one specific
point to another. Discuss one specific, important
detail concerning the place he goes and how long
it takes to get there.
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2. Find and discuss three references to work or
keeping busy in Heart of Darkness, explaining
Marlow’s position on the value of work.
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3. Find three examples of the futility
(uselessness, incongruity, stupidity) of the
European presence in the Congo and discuss
what Conrad is suggesting in each instance.
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4. Find three passages (1-2 paragraphs each) from
the novel that show Conrad’s impressionistic
style. Provide a short analysis of each passage,
focusing on those details that clearly reveal
aspects of impressionistic writing.
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5. Find four passages regarding women, explain
what general attitudes about woman are being
expressed in each, and how those attitudes fit into
the novel as a whole.
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6. Pick two of the following motifs (recurring
images and/or ideas) and find at least four
references to each. In this case, you may
incorporate the four quotations, and then discuss
how the idea works into the narrative of the novel
as a whole in one or two paragraphs (not separate
paragraphs for each quotation). The motifs you
are to select from are: “savages”, jungle, disease,
progress, madness, civilization, light, efficiency,
bones/skulls/heads on stakes.
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7. Respond to Kurtz’s final utterance. What is “the
horror” to which he refers, and why are these
words the final words he speaks?
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8. Heart of Darkness is a frame story. An unnamed
narrator begins the story on the deck of the Nellie
in London on the Thames River. List every time
there is a shift between this narrator and Marlow
who narrates most of the story, and then discuss
why Conrad would use the frame story structure
for this novel. In what way does this structure
contribute to or enhance the meaning of the work
as a whole?
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9. The three parts of this book are untitled. Create
a title for each part, and explain why you chose
that title.