ANALYSIS FILE English Narrative in the 20th and 21st centuries

Student’s name: Karina Savinova Group: A

Title: Heart of Darkness

Author: Joseph Conrad
Original date of publication: 1899
Publisher / URL: https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Conrad/Heart_Darkness.pdf

Structure
(Describe how the book is structured: Parts, books, chapters, etc., and comment on it if appropriate.)
Joseph Conrad's novella was released in 1899.We classify it as novella because it is not as
long as a novel but much longer than a short story. Furthermore, we can claim that it has a
symbolic intention, as the author employs symbols (for example, he portrays the Congo
River as meandering and curling, symbolizing a snake) to enhance the authenticity of the
story. Finally, Heart of Darkness contains internal divisions into parts: it is divided into
three parts, none of which are entitled with a heading; they are simply referred to as I, II, and
III.

Plot (Give the plot of the book in no more than 15 lines.)

The story opens on the steamboat Nellie, where Marlow, a sailor, narrates his story. He was
attracted by the Congo River as a boy, so as he grew older, he decided to join a company of
Belgian origin where he dealt ivory. He became the captain in charge of exporting ivory from
Africa, and he had to travel from station to station. Throughout his voyage, he witnessed
tragic scenes such as black slaves confined, abused, and famished. Eventually, he begins to
hear rumors about a man who had the highest ivory production in Central Africa. On the
other side, the manager and his uncle believe Kurtz is stealing ivory, but Marlow is
constantly defending him since he admires him. When Marlow decides to travel to Kurtz's
station, he is ambushed with arrows by tribesmen. At that point, he thinks that Kurtz is dead
but then he realizes that he does not.When he sees Kurtz and all the skulls around him, he
realizes that Kurtz is a racist who wants to annihilate the black race in order to obtain more
ivory. As Marlow discovers Kurtz in critical condition, he tries to return him home, but the
ship begins to sink on the route. Kurtz flees that night, but Marlow tracks him down and
leads him to a room where they have a lengthy conversation. Kurtz hands him all of the
documents including information on the ivory. The next day, Kurtz dies, and Marlow returns
to England. A Kurtz's cousin pays him a visit and tries to take advantage of Marlows papers.
Finally, Marlow chooses to present this documents to Kurtz's wife, when he meets her, he
finds that she did not know what her husband's real identity was and Marlow decides not to
tell her the truth and he lies about having said her name before he died.
Events (Choose an event which is essential for the understanding of the story and two which are not so.
Explain your choice.)
A kernel would be when the natives attack the steamboat with arrows during the voyage, and
the catalyst would be Marlow's anguish at the thought of Kurtz being killed as a result of this
attack (this event is located in the part II of Heart of Darkness). This episode is significant in
ANALYSIS FILE English Narrative in the 20th and 21st centuries

my opinion because it shows that Marlow cares about Kurtz, and has a certain admiration for
him.

Setting
We can infer that the novella is set in the Thames and Congo rivers. The story takes place
during the colonial period ( African colonization of British Empire). It swings between
multiple time lines, so the narration of the story is told in the past but also in the present, and
in two different continents: Europe and Africa.

Characters and characterization

Main and secondary characters
(Classify the characters into main and secondary)
Main characters:
A. Marlow
B. Kurtz

Secondary characters:
a. Manager of the station
b. Harlequin
c. Kurtz's wife
d. Kurtz's lover
e. The cannibals
f. Marlow's aunt
g. Manager's uncle
h. Director
i. Lawyer
j. Accountant
k. The pilgrims
l. Fresleven
m. Second narrator

Characterization
(Choose at least one character and analyse how he/she is presented in the book; give examples)
A.Marlow
There are no physical details in the story but we do know he is a sailor and an explorer. He
is a very manipulable individual because he is swayed by the opinions of others. For
instance, when people speaks highly of Kurtz, Marlow believes them until nearly the end of
the story. Another aspect of this character that stands out is his innocence, sensitivity and
also empathy. Despite the fact that Kurtz has killed many black human beings to further his
own interests, Marlow decides to help him when he becomes unwell, despite the atrocities
ANALYSIS FILE English Narrative in the 20th and 21st centuries

Kurtz has committed.

Time
(Analyse the use of time –in the book in general or in some chosen fragments– regarding order, duration and
frequency. Give examples.)
The passage of time in Heart of Darkness is essential. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize
since it bounces between the different time lines: past and present. We observe how time is
being shattered and that everything is happening in an unexpected way. For instance, Marlow
tells the story in the present while aboard the steamboat Nellie with his companions, yet he
moves back in time by narrating episodes from his prior life.
Time
1.Order
The story features various flashbacks since it employs both the past and present tenses
(jumps between time lines). An example: “The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us
like the beginning of an interminable waterway”. “Between us there was, as I have already
said somewhere, the bond of the sea”.

2.Duration
There are cases of acceleration in the retrospection. An example: “Next day I left that station
at last, with a caravan of sixty men, for a two-hundred-mile tramp”, “ next year he will be
assistant-manager, two years more and . . . but I daresay you know what he will be in two
years’ time”.

3.Frequency
We can see repetitive patterns in Heart of Darkness. For instance, when the steamboat
breaks down twice, the first time when they go to pick Kurtz up, and the second time when
Marlow decides to take Kurtz home.

Focalization / Point of view

(Choose at least two fragments in the book and explain how focalization works in them.)
We can see a double focalization in Heart of Darkness: Marlow is describing his own
personal experience (internal focalization: first-person), but there is a second narrator who
also speaks in the first person and uses his own perspective on what Marlow believes or says.
He is a listener who makes some considerations about Marlow's ideas and follows the reader
ANALYSIS FILE English Narrative in the 20th and 21st centuries

through the story.

The perceptual facet

Space and time: Marlow is an external focalizer because he narrates his own story and
experience of his life, and he has access to all the story's temporary dimensions (past and
present) whereas the second narrator is an internal focalizer because he only narrates what he
hears of Marlow's story, he is a limited observer, and he is restricted to the character's present
(Marlow). An example: “There were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of
phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in
an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the exposition of a method”, “ A voice! a voice! It
was grave, profound, vibrating, while the man did not seem capable of a whisper. However,
he had enough strength in him—factitious no doubt—to very nearly make an end of us, as
you shall hear directly”.

The psychological facet

Cognitive component: Marlow has unrestricted knowledge of his own life and experiences,
however the second narrator has limited information because he only knows what Marlow
tells him in the Nellie.
Emotive component: Because Marlow is immersed in the story, he speaks from his own
subjective point of view whereas the second narrator uses a neutral and objective focalization
(external focalizer).

Narration
(Say what type of narrator(s) can be found in the book and the degree of overtness or covertness. Give
examples.)
Joseph Conrad uses a frame narrative with two different narrators: Marlow and an
anonymous narrator who is on the steamboat Nellie. Marlow is an intradiegetic narrator since
he is the main character and narrator in his own story (speaks in the first person and he
experienced everything that he is narrating). He is also homodiegetic, as he takes part in the
story or participated in it.
An example: “I’ve done enough for it to give me the indisputable right to lay it, if I choose,
for an everlasting rest in the dust-bin of progress, amongst all the sweepings and,
figuratively speaking, all the dead cats of civilization. But then, you see, I can’t choose”.

The second narrator is extradiegetic because he is outside the story; he is one of the
passengers on the steamer Nellie, and he is also heterodiegetic because, despite narrating in
the first person, he does not engage in the story.

An example: “Try to be civil, Marlow,” growled a voice, and I knew there was at least one
listener awake besides myself.

Speech representation
ANALYSIS FILE English Narrative in the 20th and 21st centuries

(Give at least two examples of diegetic and mimetic speech representation in the book; explain them.)
In Heart of Darkness the speech is diegetic because the events are transmitted by narrator's
voice (he talks about them and sums them up). An example:“I had turned to the wilderness
really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for a moment
it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an
intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of
victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night. . . . The Russian tapped me on
the shoulder. I heard him mumbling and stammering something about ‘brother seaman—
couldn’t conceal—knowledge of matters that would affect Mr. Kurtz’s reputation.’ I waited.

Because the narrator does not disappear and Marlow is constantly present in the story, we
can claim that there is no pure mimetic speech.

Style
(Choose at least a fragment from the book –approximately a page – and analyse its style by using some
elements from the ‘checklist of linguistic and stylistic categories’ provided.)
A. Lexical categories

-French phrases: “Du calme, du calme. Adieu”.

-Latin sentences: “Morituri te salutant”.
-Words to describe the appearance of black slaves: “The black bones”.

B.Grammatical categories

-Sentences that are brief and straightforward: “I am glad.”, “ ‘Do you understand this?’ I
asked”.
-Complex sentences structures: “The approach to this Kurtz grubbing for ivory in the
wretched bush was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an enchanted princess
sleeping in a fabulous castle”.

C.Figures of speech

-Nature is described poetically: “We called at some more places with farcical names, where
the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an
overheated catacomb; all along the formless coast bordered by dangerous surf, as if Nature
herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose
banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted
mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair”, “A blinding
sunlight drowned all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare”.
-Metaphor to describe a woman: “This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed
surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me”.

D.Cohesion and context

ANALYSIS FILE English Narrative in the 20th and 21st centuries

-Connectors: “However, through this glorious affair I got my appointment, before I had
fairly begun to hope for it”, “on the other hand, the steamer Fresleven commanded left also
in a bad panic, “in charge of the engineer, I believe, which is also detestable”.
-Addressee: “Heavens! Well, you see, the notion drove me”.

References used
(If applicable.)