We started working on these last week. They are due Thursday at the beginning of class. I hope this is helping get a more general grasp of what is happening in the book as you work through it.
PART 3 (pages 71-95)
| 1. | At the Inner Station, continued (71-80). How does Marlow describe the Russian at the beginning of Part 3? What does the Russian tell Marlow to do with Kurtz (71)? How does the Russian describe his relations with Kurtz? How did Kurtz get so much ivory? |
| 2. | What does Marlow see when he turns his binoculars on Kurtz' compound again (73-74)? How does what Marlow sees relate to the idea of restraint? How does Marlow evaluate Kurtz on p. 74? How, according to the Russian, did Kurtz control the natives? |
| 3. | What happens that evening when Kurtz is brought out on a stretcher (75)? How does Marlow describe him? What to Marlow seems to be the most important of Kurtz' attributes? How was Marlow included in the letters that the boat had brought to Kurtz (77)? |
| 4. | How does Marlow describe the woman (77)? Notice her action at the top of p. 78 for later reference. What sort of encounter did the Russian once have with the woman (78)? |
| 5. | How does Kurtz respond to Marlow? How does the manager respond to Kurtz? What is wrong, to the manager, with what Kurtz has done? What does the Russian suggest to Marlow (79-80)? What does he ask for? What does the Russian now think of Kurtz? |
| 6. | Marlow and Kurtz (80-88). What happens to Kurtz that evening (80-81)? What images come to Marlow's mind as he tracks Kurtz? Where was Kurtz going? Why is the moment of their confrontation important to Marlow (82)? How does Marlow think of Kurtz (83)? |
| 7. | What does the woman do as the boat is departing with Kurtz (84)? What do the natives do when Marlow blows the boat's whistle? What does the woman do? Then what do the pilgrims do? |
| 8. | What does Kurtz talk about to Marlow on the boat and how does Marlow respond (85-86). What are Kurtz' last words (86)? How does Marlow interpret them? |
| 9. | What happens to Marlow after Kurtz' death? How does Marlow think of death? How much to we learn of Marlow's trip back down the river and back to the sepulchral city? |
| 10. | Return to the Sepulchral City (88-90). What happens to Marlow back in the sepulchral city? What does Marlow do with (and learn from) his three visitors: the man in spectacles (88), Kurtz' "cousin" (89), and the journalist (89)? What does Marlow think of them? |
| 11. | Marlow and the Intended (90-94). What does Marlow think of as he approaches the Intended's home? What is the setting in which Marlow and the Intended meet, and how does he describe her? |
| 12. | What do Marlow and the Intended say to each other? How is she responding to Kurtz' death? When she puts out her arms (93), what does Marlow see? |
| 13. | What does Marlow say Kurtz' last words were (94)? What were Kurtz' actual last words to Marlow (86)? Why is Marlow surprised when "nothing happened" (94)? What did he expect to happen? What does he think of his lie? (Remember p. 64.) |
| 14. | Consider Marlow's relation to women (especially, in this case, to the Intended). What does his statement (p. 64) say about him: "They -- the women I mean -- are out of it -- should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautifyl world of their own, lest ours get worse." Why might Marlow hold a position like this? Going to the next level: does this seem to be the position of Conrad, of the novel Heart of Darkness, or is the novel aware of and somehow commenting on Marlow's position? |
| 15. | The Closing (95). What is the effect of the closing paragraph, with its return to the ship on the Thames? What is the effect of the repetition of the image of Marlow as a Buddha (as also on pp. 18 and 21)? What do you make of the last repetition of the book's title in the last phrase? Which way are they going? |
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