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Note on the character of kurtz in heart of darkness
Psychoanalysis of dr faustus
Note on the character of kurtz in heart of darkness
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Doctor Faustus - Analyse the extract closely. In the course of your
writing, compare and contrast the presentation of Kurtz with that of
Faustus in Marlowe's play.
Doctor Faustus: Model answer
Analyse the extract closely. In the course of your writing, compare
and contrast the presentation of Kurtz with that of Faustus in
Marlowe's play.
Initially, one could be forgiven for thinking that a novel written in
the early 2oth Century would have little in common with an Elizabethan
play yet "Heart of Darkness" and "Dr Faustus" are both the stories of
men who achieve great things using "unsound methods", methods that
ultimately condemn them. This essay will compare and contrast the
presentation of Kurtz in an extract from Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"
with that of Faustus in Marlowe's play.
From the first scene of the play Faustus is a condemned man, signing
away his soul to the Devil in return for temporal power, "This night I
conjure though I die therefore" Kurtz is also presented to us as a man
in the final stages of his life, rapidly approaching death, "Kurtz's
life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into
the sea of inexorable time".
Faustus is presented as a flawed character whose intellect and
ambition seal his own fate. His ambition to achieve God-like
omnipotence whilst living on Earth is made possible by his
intellectual perception of the world. In the first scene Faustus lists
the discoveries and ideas of all the great authors he has studied:
theology, philosophy, logic, medicine then law. He finds reasons to
dismiss each discipline and, although he reconsiders theology, he
ultimately disregards it because he logically believes that all human
beings must sin and die....
... middle of paper ...
...pair; but he
still seems convinced that he can win when he violently shouts that he
will "wring your heart yet" into the wilderness. Maybe, like Faustus,
Kurtz must follow the path he has chosen until its terrible end.
In conclusion, Marlow and Conrad deal with similar themes in very
different ways. Both writers present characters who use "unsound
methods" to achieve temporal power yet their approaches to
characterisation and narrative are in contrast with each other. This
can, perhaps, be largely attributed to the fact that Marlow wrote
Faustus in the early sixteenth century whilst Conrad wrote his novel
in the early twentieth century. "Dr Faustus" was intended to be
performed on stage and would have shocked an Elizabethan audience in
its atheism and the unspeakable horror of "Heart of Darkness" would
have had an equally disturbing on Conrad's readers.
He talks about purpose, and how tragedy effects the audience. In the book, Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad writes about a character, Marlow, who is on a journey through Africa to find a man named Kurtz. Kurtz is a man who not many people have met or seen but he is spoken very highly of. To be a tragic hero, Aristotle says that it should be clear that the person is an important character and held to a high standard but not perfect. The character must be relatable. Marlow heard things about Kurtz that made it sound like people adored him. On page thirty, "Mr. Kurtz was a 'universal genius.'" One encounter that Marlow had with a Russian trader who was close to Kurtz described Kurtz in a sense of awe. " 'We talked of everything,' he said, quite transported at the recollection. 'I forgot there was such a thing as sleep. The night did not seem to last an hour. Everything! Everything!... Of love, too.' 'Ah he talked to you of love!'" (Conrad, 54) Before meeting Kurtz, the things Marlow heard of him, made Kurtz sound like a great man. Furthermore, Aristotle says that the hero's downfall is self-inflicted. The character makes some mistake that effects them in the long run, but the consequence is sometimes far-fetched. Kurtz was obsessed with ivory which drove him to do evil things. He would even kill people to get ivory. His obsession made him insane. "You should of heard him say, 'My ivory.'
from Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War, to Richard III of Shakespeare’s play. A prominent,
Romeo and Juliet has many themes which are fate, death and love, these are all intertwined. At the very beginning of the play, before we even know the characters, we know that ‘death-marked’ ‘Star crossed lovers’ will ‘take their lives’ which already brings in the major themes. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play and builds up the tension until Act 3 scene 1 where death starts to play a role. The Prologue also informs us about the Montagues and Capulets dislike for each other. The theme of love is also there thought the play. There are different types of love, the unrequited love the Romeo feels for Rosaline and that Paris feels for Juliet. There is also the love between friends such as with Romeo and Mercutio as Mercutio dies to protect Romeo’s honour and then Romeo avenges his death, and then the romantic love Romeo and Juliet share. I believe the Mercutio is one of the main characters in this play. His speeches tell us a lot about him and his actions have a large affect on the ending of the play. Mercutio’s name means mercurial meaning “an unpredictable and fast changing mood” which is an accurate description of Mercutio's personality because in Queen Mabs speech at the beginning he is joking and seeking attention, but at the end he becomes serious and angry.
Marlowe, Christopher, and David Scott. Kastan. Doctor Faustus: A Two-text Edition (A-text, 1604 ; B-text, 1616) Contexts and Sources Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Print.
Good friends show support for most, if not all, of their friends during times of need. In the famous play Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, Romeo and his lover have a tragic ending due to many characters; although, Mercutio was a major influence. The disrespect of Romeo’s concerns, the flippancy towards Romeo’s love life, and acting childish pushed Romeo to his fatal decision at the end of the play. Even though Mercutio was a close friend of Romeo’s, he didn’t act like one, which led to Romeo feeling less appreciated by his “friends”.
Conrad, like Heideggar sheds a more positive light on nihilism, with the implication that in spite of a deep void, one may find meaning in the complete knowledge of a hollow society. Conrad incorporates Nietzsche's nihilistic views closely in Kurtz, showing the tragic destiny of narcissism, while Marlow more strongly represents Heideggar's ideas of a 'saving power' in learning from Kurtz's dark experience and maintaining his own sense of morality and will. The effect and consequences of self-realization is contrasted through Marlow and Kurtz. Marlow's participation in imperialism exposes ...
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, many questions can be drawn from the reader. However, one that stands out is the question of one of the main character’s Kurtz. Kurtz is not present physically throughout most of the novel, but is there consciously and spiritually throughout Marlow’s journey. Kurtz is a character that has been through a lot in his life including being physically ill in his time in Africa; therefore his illness and new environment caused his madness.
In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is Romeo’s best friend and confidant. He often gets into trouble with Romeo and his other friend, Benvolio. Throughout the play, he is portrayed as wild and very reckless, and often unaware of the consequences for his actions. Also, he was the little bit of comedy the play had, and his death signified the turn of the play from a comedy to a tragedy. Some of the actions he took and things he said ultimately led to his untimely demise. There are three major things that ultimately led to his death.
While I was reading the short story “Heart of Darkness,” by Joseph Conrad, I recalled an essay I read back in Korea, titled “Why Do We Read Novels.” The writer of the essay states that the most common reason why we, as people, read novels is that it makes us ask ourselves how the justice or injustice of the real world relates to that of the author’s words. In this way, the short story “Heart of Darkness” portrays the experiences and thoughts of Conrad through the tale of two important characters, Marlow and Mr. Kurtz. His work forces the reader to ponder questions of the morality, humanity, and insanity which takes place in our human lives.
Although the actual date is unknown Christopher "Kit" Marlowe was likely born in February 1564 in Canterbury, England. His parents were John Marlowe, a shoemaker, and Katherine Arthur, the daughter of a clergyman. Marlowe had eight other siblings, and was the eldest son. He attended King's School, Canterbury, as a Queen's Scholar. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, educational benefactors were common, and his fees may have been paid by Sir Roger Manwood.
Kostić, Milena. "The Faustian Motif in Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus." Facta Universititas 7.2 (2009): 209-22. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
Facets of a character help reveal the character’s inner self along with what they believe should happen. Within Romeo and Juliet, there are various uses of facets to help the audience learn things about different sets of characters and their views on society. In the play “Romeo and Juliet” Shakespeare helps express the use of a conversation between Mercutio and Benvolio to reveal different sets of facets of the character Mercutio through the uses of similes, imagery, and personification to help portray this. While using these, it also allows the character to express themselves.
he vows to 'keep as chary as my life,' and uses his twenty four years
In the play Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is based in the early sixteenth century. It is about a German doctor, Johann Faust, a protagonist character who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge of all things and magical power. His terrible even is that he refuses the kindness of other people and removes himself from the community of man; he no longer wanted to be apart of people living together or just sharing in general. In fact, if his ideas and idiocy behavior is what causes Faustus’ tragic fall, it is the abandoning of his own God-given human soul that allows the accomplishment of such idiocy behavior in the first place. Without mankind and faith to give his life any meaning, Faustus is left without any sort of motivation
Austen, Glyn. “The Strange Ambiguity of Christopher Marlowe and Dr Faustus: Glyn Austen examines the powerful paradoxes of Dr Faustus in the light of its literary and intellectual context.” The English Review 14.1 (2003): 2