Heart of Darkness Outline

Heart of Darkness Outline

Thesis: Through Marlow’s story, Joseph Conrad makes the point that civilization is necessary for the moral purity within society.

1.     Before Marlow begins his journey to Africa, he receives several signs that forebode detrimental psychological changes.

a.     Marlow gets the job to captain the ship because his predecessor was killed in a scuffle with the natives: “The original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Yes, two black hens. Fresleven­– that was his name, a Dane– thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. Oh, it didn’t surprise me in the least to hear this, and at the same time to be told that Fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs. No doubt he was; but he had been a couple years already out there engaged in the noble cause” (44).

b.     The doctor asks Marlow for permission to measure his head and explains, “I always ask leave, in the interest of science, to measure the crania of those going out there. […] I never see them, […] the changes take place inside” (47).

2.     When Marlow reaches the outer station, he is informed of the tragic effects that Africa has had on other company employees.

a.     As Marlow talks to the Swede, the foreign captain shares a horrific story of suicide: “The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too. […] The sun [was] too much for him, or the country perhaps” (50).

3.     After hearing of the overwhelmingly negative events that have taken place in Africa, Marlow is impressed by a success story.

a.     The captain is thoroughly impressed when he notices the impeccable appearance of the company’s chief accountant: “I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser’s dummy; but in great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That’s backbone. His starch collars and got-up shirtfronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years” (54).

4.     As Marlow continues to make his way towards the Inner Station, he begins to notice changes within himself.

a.     “I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. […] I flung one shoe overboard […] [and] the other shoe went flying unto the devil-god of that river” (123-124 SCHOOL BOOK)

b.     Marlow later admits that his actions were out of the ordinary when he says, “Absurd! My dear boys, what can you expect from a man who out of sheer nervousness had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes!” (124-125)

5.     After Marlow has finally met Kurtz, he reflects on how the lack of civilization has affected the great and powerful ivory man.

a.     “You should have heard him say ‘My ivory.’ Oh yes, I heard him. ‘My Intended, my ivory, my station, my––’ everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places” (126).

b.     “Of course you may be too much of a fool to go wrong– too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness. I take it, no fool ever made a bargain for his should with the devil; the fools is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil– I don’t know which. Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. The earth for you is only a standing place– and whether to be like this is your loss or you gain I wont pretend to say” (126-127).

c.     “The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too, by Jove!– breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated” (127).

New Essay:

"What saves us is efficiency– the devotion to efficiency" (41)

"You know I am not such used to such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was just as though I had been let into some conspiracy– I don't know– something not quite right; and I was glad to get out" (45)

"She talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit" (48)

"Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech– and nothing happened. Nothing could happen" (49)

"A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. No change appeared on the face of the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on" (51)

"A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints on their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking" (51)

"Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light in all the attitude of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die" (52-53)

"Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. [...] All about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink" (53) 

"Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence" (60)

"I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with moustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everyone was 'behaving splendidly, splendidly,' dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail" (60)

"A nigger was being beaten near by. They said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly. I saw him, later for several days, sitting in a bit of shade looking very sick and trying to recover himself: afterwards he arose and went out– and the wilderness without a second took him into its bosom again" (60)

"The beaten nigger groaned somewhere. 'What a row the brute makes!' said the indefatigable man with the moustaches, appearing near us. 'Serve him right. Transgression– punishment– bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way. This will prevent all conflagrations for the future'" (63)

"You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter thn the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies– which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world– what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do. Temperament, I suppose" (64)

"'We will not be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is hanged for an example,' he said. 'Certainly,' guaranteed the other; 'get him hanged! Why not? Anything– anything can be done in this country'" (72)

"'It is very serious,' said the manager's voice behind me; 'I would be desolated if anything should happen to Mr. Kurtz before we came up.' I looked at him, and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere. He was the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances" (83)

"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. It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: 'Exterminate all the brutes!'" (92)

"'But he had no goods to trade with by that time,' I objected. 'There's a good lot of cartridges left even yet,' he answered, looking away. 'To speak plainly, he raided the country,' I said. He nodded. 'Not alone, surely!' He muttered something about the villages around the lake. 'Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he?' I suggested. He fidgeted a little. 'They adore him,' he said. (100)

"He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man. No, no, no! Now– just to give you an idea– I don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot ne, too, one day– but I don't judge him" (100)

"There was nothing on earth to prevent him from killing whom he jolly well please" (101)

"He had been absent for several months–getting himself adored, I suppose–and he had come down unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance of making a raid either across the river or down stream. Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the–what shall I say?–less material aspiration" (101)

"You remember I told you I had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place. Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and it's first result was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow. Then I went carefully from post to post with my glass, and I saw my mistake. These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling stroking and disturbing–food for thought and also for the vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole. They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house" (102)

"In fact, the manager said afterwards that Mr. Kurtz's methods had ruined the district. I have no opinion on that point, but I want you to clearly understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him–some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence" (102)

"He was not afraid of the natives; they would not stir till Mr. Kurtz gave the word. His ascendancy was extraordinary. The camps of these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came every day to see him. They would crawl... 'I don't want to know anything of the ceremonies used when approaching Mr. Kurtz,' I shouted. Curious, this feeling that came over e that such details would be more intolerable than those heads dying on the stakes under Mr. Kurtz's windows" (103)

"'He is very, very low,' he said [...] 'We have done all we could for him–haven't we? But there is no disguising the fact, Mr. Kurtz has done more harm than good to the Company. He did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously–that's my principle. We must be cautious yet. The district is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade will suffer. I don't deny there is a remarkable quantity of ivory–mostly fossil. We must save it, at all events–but look how precarious the position is–and why? Because the method is unsound'" (107)

"It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief–positively for relief. 'Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis. He started, dropped on me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'he was,' and turned his back on me. My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound! Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares" (107)

"'He suspected there was an active ill will towards him on the par of these white men that–' 'You are right,' I said, remembering a certain conversation I had overheard. 'The manager thinks you ought to be hanged.' He showed a concern at this intelligence which amused me at first. 'I had better get out of the way quietly,' he said, earnestly. 'I can do no more for Kurtz now, and they would soon find some excuse. What's to stop them?'" (108)

"'I had immense plans,' he muttered irresolutely. [...] 'I was on the threshold of great things,' he pleaded, in a voice of longing, with a wistfulness of tone that made my blood run cold. 'And now for this stupid scoundrel––' (111)