This is a close analysis of the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. I have never read this novel before, I just saw three passages in a practice exam and decided to write an analysis on them (which I probably interpreted incorrectly). Please give feedback and also a rating out of 10.
Here are the passages:
Passage 1:
Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant but more profound. The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories. And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, 'followed the sea' with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames. The tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and ships it has borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. It had known and served all the great men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled - the great knights-errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind returning with her round flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the Queen's Highness and thus pass out of the gigantic tale, to the Erebus and Terror, bound on other conquests - and that never returned. It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith - the adventurers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on Change; captains, admirals, the dark 'interlopers' of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned 'generals' of East India fleets. Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they had all gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth... The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires.
Passage 2:
We two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring glance enveloped us both. I declare it looked as though he would presently put to us some question in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though in response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black death-mask an inconceivably sombre, brooding and menacing expression. The lustre of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. "Can you steer?" I asked the agent eagerly. He looked very dubious; but I made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once I meant him to steer whether or no. To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. "He is dead," murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. "No doubt about it," said I, tugging like mad at the shoelaces. "And, by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time."
For the moment that was the dominant thought. There was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving after something altogether without a substance. I couldn't have been more disgusted if I had travelled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with Mr. Kurtz. Talking with... I flung one shoe overboard, and became aware that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to - a talk with Kurtz. I made the strange discovery that I had never imagined him as doing, you know, but as discoursing. I didn't say to myself "Now I will never see him," or "Now I will never shake him by the hand," but, "Now I will never hear him." The man presented himself as a voice. Not of course that I did not connect him with some sort of action. Hadn't I been told in all the tones of jealousy and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all the other agents together. That was not the point. The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words - the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness.
Passage 3:
"You were his friend," she went on. "His friend," she repeated, a little louder. "You must have been, if he had given you this, and sent you to me. I feel I can speak to you - and oh! I must speak. I want you - you who have heard his last words - to know I have been worthy of him... It is not pride... Yes! I am proud to know I understood him better than any one on earth - he told me so himself. And since his mother died I have had no one - no one - to - to -"
I listened. The darkness deepened. I was not even sure whether he had given me the right bundle. I rather suspect he wanted me to take care of another batch of his papers which, after his death, I saw the manager examining under the lamp. And the girl talked, easing her pain in the certitude of my sympathy; she talked as thirsty men drink. I had heard that her engagement with Kurz had been disapproved by her people. He wasn't rich enough or something. And indeed I don't know whether he had not been a pauper all his life. He had given me some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there.
"... Who was not his friend who had heard him speak once?" she was saying. "He drew men towards him by what was best in them." She looked at me with intensity. "It is the gift of the great," she went on, and the sound of her low voice seemed to have the accompaniment of all the other sounds, full of mystery, desolation and sorrow, I had ever heard - the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of wild crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness. "But you have heard him! You know!" she cried.
"Yes I know," I said with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her, before that great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness, in the triumphant darkness from which I could not have defended her - from which I could not even defend myself.
Close Analysis Essay:
Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' illustrates the power of nature and the corruption of ambitious 'adventurers'. Rivals of 'the old river' compete against the 'serenity' and 'tranquil dignity' of the environment to become the 'greatness' of the 'dreams of men'. Meanwhile, unsuccessful men die fameless behind a 'black death-mask'.
The 'vivid flush' of the stream of water symbolises the anger and volatility of nature, as well as its ability to simply 'flush' away 'the germs of empires'. In the same way that a toilet 'flush[es]' away its waste, the 'venerable stream' is able to dispose of its unwanted waste through the use of 'flush[ing]'. In this particular case, the unwanted 'germs' are the dead, unsuccessful men who sailed around the river, arrogantly beaming with pride.
By describing the men as 'germs of empires', Conrad belittles the young and naive adventurers and puts an end to the surfeit of confidence that is possessed in each man's loyalty to his empire. The brave and famous heroes that make up a 'might[y]' kingdom are reduced to mere 'germs' which lack any credibility on their own. Instead, they must team together to tackle such a 'profound[ly]' magnificent river.
After the death of Mr. Kurtz, the protagonist was 'morbidly anxious' to change his 'socks and shoes'. Once he finally decided to change them, he did so with a 'mad' 'tugging'. This conveys a sense of fear and urgency on the protagonists behalf. Shoes are worn to run away from something, which is precisely the thing that the protagonist wanted to do to the dead body. The 'mad' 'tugging' of the shoes not only unfolds his confused state, but exposes his urgency and desperation to escape the physical dead body and the mental confusion of his mind.
The protagonist later describes the dead body as a 'gifted creature'. A 'creature' is usually thought of as a primitive animal. Most 'creature(s)' are observed but not fully understood or placed on the same level of status as a human being. Since Mr. Kurz had been killed and reduced to a mere body of flesh, he was just as much a creature as any other life-form. The only thing that separated him from other creatures were the memories that were implanted in the minds of all whom he had met. The 'gift' that he possessed was the 'gift of expression'; his ability to inflict guilt on those around him by just a simple observation of his dead body. It was this gift that allowed Mr. Kurz to carry 'a sense of real presence' with him, wherever his physical body travelled or went.
The fiancee of Mr. Kurz was described in the novel as a 'girl', rather than a 'woman' or 'lady'. This name is consistent with her childish characteristics, such as her sadness and vulnerability that she could not control on her own. The desperation in her voice made it seem as if 'the darkness deepened' in the atmosphere around her. Even as she spoke, 'thirsty men dr[a]nk'. The relationship between her desperation for support and a thirsty man's desperation for a drink is thus portrayed, causing the protagonist to unleash a 'certitude of [his] sympathy'.
The contentment of Mr. Kurz's fiancee was never achieved to a satisfactory degree. Whilst Mr. Kurz was alive and engaged, his fiancee received a lot of 'disapprov[al]' by 'her people', people who should have been supportive of her. Their reasons involved him not being 'rich enough or something'. The lack of prosperity involved in a marriage shows how shallow 'her people' really were. The added words 'or something' emphasises the absurdity of such a petty reason given for disapproval. It was as if their opinions of Mr. Kurz had already been formed from a first impression of him and they were only trying to find the 'something' faulty with him to justify their ludicrous thoughts.
If 'her people' behaved so recklessly to her, then other people would surely have increased the 'sorrow' in her heart.
Mr. Kurz's fiancee described Mr. Kurz as 'the gift from the great'. Just like the protagonist, she acknowledges the greatness of her fiance's gift, however for different reasons. To her, he was more of a present that could be wrapped up and draw men towards him by 'what was best in him'. Her description fits her attitude in the sense that he made her happy, just like a gift, which is what she treated him as.
The ambition and corruption is seen through the three passages presented, where 'tranquil dignity' turns to 'triumphant darkness' in both nature and humanity. The perceptions of each man is altered by the physicalities of another. Often, it is those that have been dead the longest that hold the strongest aura of venerability about them.
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