Name: _________________________________
Date: ______________
Honors 12
Heart of Darkness Study Guide
Mrs. Pratt
1.) What is a frame story?
One narrator tells a story within another narrator tells a story
2.) What effect does frame story have on the reader? What advantage to the novelist?
Shift in chronology disorienting, Unreliable narrator- nothing is certain
Disconnected from the author
3.) What is Conrad’s purpose in using the frame story within Heart of Darkness?
Unnamed narrator hearing the story second hand from Marlow “one of Marlow’s inconclusive
tales”
See shift in Marlow’s perspective from listeners
Story telling gives sense of realism and shifts attitudes of the unnamed narrator and reader
4.) What is impressionism?
Began as an art form in mid 19th century
Reproduction of sensory perceptions, capture moments and appeal to senses
5.) What patterns and themes occur in impressionist literature?
Landscapes, cityscapes
Haze, mist, effects of lighting
Portray of everyday life
Creates a scene/impression
6.) How does impressionist literature change narration?
Change narrative tells stories and captures moments
Emphasis on perception
Adds mystery
7.) What stylistic elements of impressionism are portrayed in Heart of Darkness?
Narration- Marlow’s story telling disorients perception
Symbols change in scale and meaning/ Congo River representing the snake
Frequent use of mist and haze/ Navigating through fog provides uncertainty and doubt/ before
savages attack steamer
Implications of light and darkness –fog white compared to Monet’s blurry images/leaves
audience with impression of a scene/ dark “green” forest kills men
8.) What is the difference between symbol and motif?
An object, picture, written word or sound that represents something else
Motif is a device that represents a symbolic recurring theme
9.) How does Conrad use symbolism in Heart of Darkness? (Provide at least two examples)
Two women knitting represent less than optimistic journey Marlow is about to encounter
Kurtz represents dark side of mankind
Accountant represents the image the company wishes to protect (sophisticated man)
Savages – dying native laborers as a human wasteland/ marginalized people left to die
Congo river is a snake/ entering into hell
Rivets- Marlow is waiting for rivets to fix his steamer and relying on the Manager/ uses his Aunts
upper class friends to his benefit/ symbolize lack of progress deterioration
White sepulcher- the location of company’s headquarters in Brussels implies death and
confinement & dehumanization
10.) Identify two motifs presented in Heart of Darkness and explain the author’s purpose in using
these motifs.
Ivory accentuates greed and destruction those who pursue it become corrupt
Fog motif develops uncertainty
Journey as a motif (quest)
Interior vs. Exterior traveling up the river/down the river (exteriors Marlow faces the river
banks, the forest walls around the station) travels into the forest/jungle finds Kurtz crawling into
madness
Darkness- description of the dark places, Brussels, darkness of the mans heart, inability to see,
description of human being
11.) What are the steps of the Hero’s journey?
Ordinary world, call to adventure/refusal of call, meeting mentor, crossing threshold, Tests,
approach, ordeal, reward, road back, resurrection, return with elixir
12.) How does Marlow complete the Hero’s journey? Use specific details from Heart of Darkness.
Ordinary world- London/ Thames River
Call to adventure/Refusal Call (Supernatural Aid)- Marlow see the map, aunt finds the job
through connection, concerned with the death of Fresleven but does not back down
Meeting Mentor (Threshold/Guardians)- Russian Trader/ Manager
Crossing Threshold (beginning of transformation)- Marlow sails down the Congo
Tests/ Challenges & Temptations- Ship breaks, comes across dead allies, meets the Chief
Accountant who tells him about Kurtz
Approach/Revelation- Marlow fixes his steamer and begins journey to meet Kurtz, finds the
Russian traders hut and old book with secret code “cipher”
Ordeal/Abyss- Death of Marlow’s helmsman
Reward/Transformation- reaches Inner Station and Mr. Kurtz
Road Back/Transformation- Marlow learns about how Kurtz has been treating the natives/ Kurtz
has been separating himself from civilization
Resurrection/Atonement- load Kurtz on the steamer to return to England but Kurtz dies on the
way
Return to Elixir/Return- tell the fiancé Kurtz last words was her name/ Marlow survives the hell
imperialism creates
13.) What is a literary theory (lens)?
The ideas that critics use to discuss and view art, literature and culture/ allow focus on a
particular area or aspect of work
14.) Define one literary lens we have covered in Heart of Darkness (Psychoanalytical, Feminist,
Formalism, Post-colonial or Marxist)
Psychoanalytical- Freudian theories/ reading between the lines
Feminist- critiques or reinforces gender terms/ roles of women
Formalism- looking at part of work to give meaning to the whole
Postcolonial comment or represents ideas of marginalized/ imperialism
Marxist- class relationships, conflict, power, class and wealth
15.) Identify two examples from Heart of Darkness that relate to the lens (same lens defined for 14).
Outer
Psychoanalytical- operations of repression (madness caused by imperialism in the forest, Kurtz
crawling through the jungle/mental isolation) ego, superego, id– represents the stations (outer,
central, inner)
Feminist- (we must help women stay in the beautiful world of their own/ naïve, out of touch
with the world) aunt/ Kurtz intended / two women knitting foreshadows the dangerous
journey/ knitting in the workplace domesticated
Formalism- fog develops uncertainty/ light vs. dark/ narrations & frame story
Post-colonial- Marlow critiques ideas of imperialism/ ivory accentuates greed/ white man taking
from the natives with no regard/ human suffering produced and promoted by imperialism
Marxist- accountant symbolizes the white man and the concept/ideas of the company, savages
are the marginalized population left to die, they are starving because they can not conform to
the white man’s ways, they at one point want to eat people/ human wasteland