Whited Sepulcher
Throughout the excerpt from, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses many forms of imagery and figurative language to reveal the mood. The imagery used is a key factor to get the reader involved in the novella and truly understand the excerpt. The figurative language used demonstrates an ominous and uneasy mood through the metaphors, similes etc.
The imagery Conrad uses is essential in revealing the ominous mood. Marlow is in the Company's office and as he arrives, he is greeted by two women: "[One who] wore a starched white affair on her head, had a wart on one cheek, and silver-rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of her nose." The detailed descriptions construct the image of a woman who represents darkness and projects
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As Marlow continues on to observe the two women who are "knitting black wool"(11) It is being suggested that the black wool represents darkness so since these women are knitting it, it can only mean that they are evil, waiting to determine the destiny of Marlow as he walks through that door. Conrad suggests that these women decide the fate of those who enter through the doors of darkness. The two women allude to the three fates in Greek Mythology who decide whether someone gets to live or die. They are the women "guarding the door of Darkness" it then can be implied that the people who enter the Company's office will likely not return after their hazardous venture. So when it is stated "MORITURI TE SALUTANT" its saying that those who are about to die salute you. They are showing a sense of respect but are also expecting you to die soon. It, therefore, is haunting the reader as to what may occur. As Marlow encroaches upon the Company's office he begins to describe the area as " A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow... a dead silence, grass sprouting right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar"(11). This imagery is contributing to an …show more content…
He uses this simile to develop the idea of what the stairs looked like. Comparing the stairs to a desert shows how empty and eerie the place is because a desert is bare, dirty and plain. Additionally Marlow notices that "[he] arrived in a city that always makes [him] think of a whited sepulcher."(11). A sepulcher is a tomb for the dead, which carries an ominous or morbid connotation. In the bible a "white sepulchre" is someone who appears beautiful on the outside "but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness."(Matthew 23:27). This comparison gives the reader an uneasy feeling about the offices and assuming the people who work there are malicious. Marlow sees the Belgian town, where the Company is and compares it to a tomb. While it is light and bright on the outside, within it contains horrors and darkness. Marlow has negative and death-like memories in the Belgian city so seeing this building gives Marlow a sense of uneasiness. The combination of "whited" and "sepulcher" demonstrates the hypocritical connotations that Conrad is trying to suggest, and he explains here his dislike of the Belgian companies that operated in the Congo. So it can be inferred that this will be one of those companies that are shady. So, therefore, this excerpt gives an ominous and uneasy
What is the important message, or theme, in this book? Why do you think the author felt this message was important? Support your answer with three specific quotes or pieces of evidence from the text.
At the beginning of the protagonist’s journey it seemed as though the "two women . . . knitting black wool" (Conrad 13) in the trading center office were there to foreshadow the mortal death of Marlow. One may have drawn this conclusion because this is an obvious reference to the women who knitted while watching aristocrats executed by the guillotine during the French Revolution. I believe it meant something much more deep. A good writer, one of Conrad’s caliber, does not place superfluous scenes, words, or phrases in his or her book. He writes only what he needs to write. With that in mind, because Marlow did not die at the end of his journey, therefore the women then had to represent something else. They foreshadowed the death of Marlow’s soul. They knew he was without a spirit guide because they were aware the Trading Company had not offered him one. They also knew Kurtz hadn’t had a guide either.
...o, while the novella’s archetypal structure glorifies Marlow’s domination of Kurtz. These two analyses taken together provide a much fuller and more comprehensive interpretation of the work. Conrad presents the idea that there is some darkness within each person. The darkness is is inherited and instinctual, but because it is natural does not make it right. He celebrates – and thereby almost advises – the turn from instinct. By telling Marlow’s tale, Joseph Conrad stresses to his audience the importance of self-knowledge and the unnecessity of instinct in civilization.
Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is the author’s most celebrated work. The book conveys the story of Marlow, who is a sailor on the ship. Marlow narrates the story describing particularly what he came across during his journey and experienced. When we look at the events that take place in the book, it is unquestionable that Women do not occupy a significant portion of the story; the story is predominately male dominated. However, does women’s lack of appearance make them minor characters? Or do women have a minor effect in the story? Having analyzed the book under the scope of “Feminist View”, we can answer these questions and say that women play considerable roles even though they occupy a small portion in the story. In my essay I will
Many features of the setting, a winter's day at a home for elderly women, suggests coldness, neglect, and dehumanization. Instead of evergreens or other vegetation that might lend softness or beauty to the place, the city has landscaped it with "prickly dark shrubs."1 Behind the shrubs the whitewashed walls of the Old Ladies' Home reflect "the winter sunlight like a block of ice."2 Welty also implies that the cold appearance of the nurse is due to the coolness in the building as well as to the stark, impersonal, white uniform she is wearing. In the inner parts of the building, the "loose, bulging linoleum on the floor"3 indicates that the place is cheaply built and poorly cared for. The halls that "smell like the interior of a clock"4 suggest a used, unfeeling machine. Perhaps the clearest evidence of dehumanization is the small, crowded rooms, each inhabited by two older women. The room that Marian visits is dark,...
Conrad uses light and dark imagery to help create the setting for the story; light represents civilization while darkness suggests the uncivilized. The novel opens on the deck of a boat called the Nellie, as we are introduced to the passengers we are told how the sun is slowly fading, and soon darkness will engulf the area. This image is Conrad?s first use of light and darkness; he uses it to foreshadow the ultimate darkness Marlow will face. Conrad is warning his readers to be careful, lest they let down their guard and allow the darkness to come them. The other character in the book, Kurtz, is taken over by the evil embodied in the darkness. During Kurtz?s journey into the heart of darkness the isolation, darkness and power all made him lose control of himself and allowed the darkness to take over.
Joseph Conrad created a character called Marlow. Marlow narrates the journey that he was taking. However, it is through this journey that the entire story of Heart of Darkness is narrated to us. This book is not entirely a fictitious story because the reader partly gets to know the authors own experiences. This book mainly talks about colonization and is often taken as a voice against colonization. However, the book is on many levels a story about ambiguity because of the words used, the incidents, narration and the mixed feeling of Marlow.
As Marlow assists the reader in understanding the story he tells, many inversions and contrasts are utilized in order to increase apperception of the true meaning it holds. One of the most commonly occurring divergences is the un orthodox implications that light and dark embody. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness brims with paradoxes and symbolism throughout its entirety, with the intent of assisting the reader in comprehending the truth of not only human nature, but of the world.
middle of paper ... ... Conrad and Masculinity” are all very persuasive essays that suggest there is in fact a gender theme throughout Heart of Darkness. Smith, Watson, and Bergenholtz give both Marlow and Conrad a different voice that some readers may miss. Works Cited Belsey, Catherine. A. Critical Practice.
Every story has a plot, but not every story has a deeper meaning. When viewed superficially, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a tragic tale of the white man's journey into the African jungle. When we peel away the layers, however, a different journey is revealed - we venture into the soul of man, complete with the warts as well as the wonderful. Conrad uses this theme of light and darkness to contrast the civilized European world with the savage African world in Heart of Darkness.
When read at face value, Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, is a portrayal of white, imperial, oppression of the African natives of the Congo. However, when we view the writing through the lenses of psychoanalysis and feminism, a story focused on one character, Marlow, emerges. Each theory presents a new way of interpreting and understanding the character development and imagery within the story. Psychoanalysis provides a look into the mind and dreamlike setting of Marlow. Feminism examines the binary gender roles of the characters, Marlow and Kurtz. Both theories examine how these two characters are in some way the same person.
From the very beginning of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad traps us in a complex play of language, where eloquence is little more than a tool to obscure horrific moral shortcomings. Hazy, absurd descriptions, frame narratives, and a surreal sense of Saussurean structural linguistics create distance from an ever-elusive center, to show that language is incapable of adequately or directly revealing truth. Understanding instead occurs in the margins and along the edges of the narrative; the meaning of a story “is not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze” (105).
Literature is never interpreted in exactly the same way by two different readers. A prime example of a work of literature that is very ambiguous is Joseph Conrad's, "Heart of Darkness". The Ambiguities that exist in this book are Marlow's relationship to colonialism, Marlow's changing feelings toward Kurtz, and Marlow's lie to the Intended at the end of the story.
In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, Marlow’s view of women embodies the typical 19th century view of women as the inferior sex. There are only three relatively minor female characters in Heart of Darkness: Marlow’s aunt, Kurtz’s mistress, and Kurtz’s "Intended." Marlow mentions these female characters in order to give the literal aspect of his tale more substance. While they definitely play specific roles in the story, they do not relate with the primary theme of the story. The primary theme focuses more on how Marlow’s journey into the heart of darkness contrasts the "white" souls of the black people and the "black" souls of the whites who exploit them, and how it led to Marlow’s self-discovery.
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a great example of a Modernist novel because of its general obscurity. The language is thick and opaque. The novel is littered with words such as: inconceivable, inscrutable, gloom. Rather than defining characters in black and white terms, like good and bad, they entire novel is in different shades of gray. The unfolding of events takes the reader between many a foggy bank; the action in the book and not just the language echoes tones of gray.