Week-2 Lessons of the course 20th Century Modern Fiction (ENG 1013). This lecture has been made for the students of MA 1 year programme in Summer 2020. The lecture on Power Point slides has been created by Faisal Ahmed, Faculty member, Department of English, World University of Bangladesh (WUB).

1. Week 2
An Introduction to heart of Darkness
ENG 1013
Lecture by
F A I S A L A H M E D
Faculty of English, WUB

2. Lesson 1: Biography of Joseph Conrad
• Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was born
in Berdichev, Ukraine, on December
3rd, 1857.
• Spoke Polish language – English was
not his native language
• Regarded as one of the masters of
Modernism
• Three most important works are –
Lord Jim “Youth” & Heart of Darkness

3. Early Life of Conrad
• In 1861 his family was exiled to Northern Russia as his father involved in
politics.
• In 1869, both of Conrad's parents died of tuberculosis .
• Attended school in Kraków but he dreamed of the sea. in 1870's he joined
the French merchant marines.
• Made voyages to the West Indies and was involved in arms smuggling.
• Eventually joined the British merchant navy and swiftly climbed the ranks.
By 1886 he was commanding his own ship and was given British
citizenship.
• Conrad spent the next part of his life sailing all over the world.
• sailed up the Congo River in Africa. In 1894 at the age of 36 Conrad finally
left the sea behind him and settled down in England. Two years later he
married an Englishwoman by the name of Jessie George, and it was with
her that he had two sons.

4. Later Part of Conrad’s Life
• Conrad spent the next part of his life sailing all
over the world.
• He sailed up the Congo River in Africa.
• In 1894 at the age of 36 Conrad finally left the
sea behind him and settled down in England.
• Two years later he married an English woman
by the name of Jessie George, and it was with
her that he had two sons.

5. Last Part of Conrad’s Life:
Continues writing…
• After settling with family, Conrad still
occasionally traveled, but for the most
part he just wrote his novels, the first
of which, Almayer's Folly, appeared in
1895.
• Wrote Heart of Darkness in 1902 and
Nostromo in 1904. Continued to write
until his death, publishing his last
novel, The Nature of Crime, in 1924.
• He died August 3rd, 1924 of a heart
attack.

6. Lesson 2: The Heart of Darkness
• Genre: Novella
• Written in England, 1898–1899; inspired by Conrad’s
journey to the Congo in 1890
• Published in 1902 under J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
• Setting (Time): 19th Century, sometime between 1876
and 1892
• Setting (Place): Opens in Thames River, London, then in
Belgian’s company offices in Congo, Africa.
• Two narrators: Marlow (Captain) & a passenger on a
pleasure ship.
• Tone: ambivalent

7. Themes, Motifs & Symbols
• Themes The hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a
result of imperialism, the absurdity of evil
• Motifs Darkness (very seldom opposed by light),
interiors vs. surfaces (kernel/shell, coast/inland,
station/forest, etc.), ironic understatement, hyperbolic
language, away from and back toward civilization
• Symbols Rivers, fog, African women, French warship
shelling forested coast, grove of death, severed heads
on fence posts, Kurtz’s “Report,” dead helmsman,
maps, “whited sepulchre” of Brussels, knitting women
in Company offices, man trying to fill bucket with hole
in it

8. Lesson 3: Synopsys
& Introduction to Characters
• Synopsis: Heart of Darkness centers around
Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey
up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be
an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes
a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a
Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo.
The white Europeans’ moral degradation and
brutal behaviour towards the black African is
represented by the major character Mr. Kurtz
who established himself as King & God towards
the uncivilized inhabitants of Congo.

9. Characters in Heart of Darkness
1. Marlow (the protagonist and narrator)
2. Kurtz (The chief of the Inner Station and the object of
Marlow’s quest.)
3. General manager (The chief agent of the Company of
Belgian colonizer in its African territory)
4. Brickmaker (whom Marlow also meets at the Central
Station, is a favorite of the manager and seems to be a
kind of corporate spy.)
5. Chief accountant
6. Pilgrims (The bumbling, greedy agents of the Central
Station. They carry long wooden staves with them
everywhere, reminding Marlow of traditional religious
travelers.)

10. Other Characters
1. Cannibals (Natives hired as the crew of the steamer, a surprisingly
reasonable and well-tempered bunch.)
2. A Russian trader
3. Helmsman (symbol of a lifeless man, a young man from the coast
trained by Marlow’s predecessor to pilot the steamer.)
4. Kurtz’s African mistress
5. Kurtz’s Intended (Kurtz’s naïve and long-suffering fiancée, whom Marlow
goes to visit after Kurtz’s death)
6. Aunt (Marlow’s doting relative, who secures him a position with the
Company. She believes in Imperialism as a charitable activity)
7. The men aboard the Nellie (Marlow’s friends aboard the ship at the
story’s open.)
8. Fresleven (Marlow’s predecessor as captain of the steamer. Fresleven,
by all accounts a good-tempered, nonviolent man, was killed in a dispute
over some hens, apparently after striking a village chief)

12. Lesson 4: Part 1 (Synopsys)
• At sundown, a pleasure ship called the Nellie lies anchored
at the mouth of the Thames, waiting for the tide to go out.
Five men relax on the deck of the ship: the Director of
Companies, who is also the captain and host, the Lawyer,
the Accountant, Marlow, and the unnamed Narrator. The
story begins with a past narration.
• This train of thought reminds Marlow of his sole experience
as a “fresh-water sailor,” when as a young man he
captained a steamship going up the Congo River.
• He recounts that he first got the idea when, after returning
from a six-year voyage through Asia, he came across a map
of Africa in a London shop window, which reinvigorated his
childhood fantasies about the “blank spaces” on the map.

13. Lesson 4: Part 1 (Synopsys)
continues…
• Marlow recounts how he obtained a job with the
Belgian “Company” that trades on the Congo
River (the Congo was then a Belgian territory)
through the influence of an aunt who had friends
in the Company’s administration.
• The Company was eager to send Marlow to
Africa, because one of the Company’s steamer
captains had recently been killed in a scuffle with
the natives.

14. Part 1: Analysis
• Marlow’s story of a voyage up the Congo River that he took
as a young man is the main narrative of Heart of Darkness.
Marlow’s narrative is framed by another narrative, in which
one of the four (4) listeners to Marlow’s story explains the
circumstances in which Marlow tells it.
• For the narrator and his fellow travelers, the Thames
conjures up images of famous British explorers who have
set out from that river on glorious voyages. The narrator
recounts the achievements of these explorers in a
celebratory tone, calling them “knight-errants” of the sea,
implying that such voyages served a sacred, higher purpose
• The passengers on ship represent the glory of British
establishment and European imperialism.

15. Glossary
• “Whited sepulchre” of Brussels:
In the novella, Matthew describes
“whited sepulchres” as something
beautiful on the outside but
containing horrors within (the
bodies of the dead); thus, the
image is appropriate for Brussels,
given the hypocritical Belgian
rhetoric about imperialism's
civilizing mission.
A hypocrite (in figurative
meaning)

16. Week-2
End of the Lesson