Another Lecture from ENG 492

Today's passage finds Marlow deep inside the jungle. As his boat approaches Kurtz's station, natives attempt to ward it off.

The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there--you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were----No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it--this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity--like yours--the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, you--you so remote from the night of first ages--could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage--who can tell?--but truth--truth stripped of its cloak of time.  Let the fool gape and shudder--the man knows, and can look on without a wink.

All throughout the post-arrival phase of the novel, Marlowe describes the jungle, and land itself, as a living, animate being--one that does not welcome the actions of the white men. Conrad does this with some of the most eloquent language I've ever read. In this passage, the natives and the land are symbiotic, revolting in tandem against the presence of Marlow and his compatriots. We also witness Marlow's slow realization of that, in the jungle, the 'great man' Kurtz didn't so much go crazy as listen to that "faintest trace of a response," the primal inside him--and let it take over.

Partially-related Note: The language of Heart of Darkness presents a problem for me. As I said, it's some of the most eloquent I've ever read; Conrad pierces the evils of colonialism with a great economy of words. At the same time, his language is woefully misogynistic and, by modern standards, racist (the "n word" appears more than once, even as Marlow expresses admiration for the natives).  It's a problem. It'd be nice to think that when Marlow says "man" he (and/or Conrad) means "human," but, based on evidence from the text, I can't.

Comments

[Del]

Console yourself with the beautiful thought that he must have believed Woman to be higher and purer. She wouldn't have responded to the primal whatsis. All her epic past, as well as all her foreseeable future, would be wrapped up in gentle nurturing n stuff.

[Susan Elisabeth Roberts]

Ha. Have you read this publication? The only woman Marlow expresses the least bit of admiration/respect for is the native woman who is Kurtz's beloved in the jungle. I believe he uses the word "magesty" somewhere in there. I'll check.

Otherwise, he says his aunt on the continent is foolish and Kurtz's "intended" back home naive. There are other general remarks about women being half-wits, too. I'll have to refer to the text for a good example.

[Del]

Okay, you got me. No, I haven't read Heart of Darkness, at least not since high school. I was assuming he would share the prevailing view of womanhood. OTOH, if he thinks they're halfwits, perhaps they are too idiotic to even feel the "faintest trace of a response"--they would be more worried about tearing a petticoat or something.

But I won't try to continue this conversation without actually reading the book. Sorry.

[Susan]

Good God but I was a bitch that day. I'm sorry, Del.

[Hani]

I think "the man" means Kurtz, not humans.