20TH CENTURY NOVEL

12/1/2019
The Most Important Novelists of the 20th Century

No Name of the novelist The famous works The feature of his work
 His Anglo Saxon Attitude A historian’s life
 The Middle Age of Mrs.
About a woman’s life
1) August Wilson Eliot
 No Laughing Matter ----------
 As If By Magic -------
Rudyard Kipling  The Jungle Book
2) The glory of the British Empire
 Kim
Explores the relation between
 Howard’s End inward feeling and outward
E. M. Forster
3) behavior
The relations between the
 Passage to India
English and the Indians
Autobiographical novel, which
 Sons and Lovers deals about his attachment to
his mother.
D. H. Lawrence
4) Relationship between man and
his environment, men and
 The Rainbow
woman, intellect and instinct
and different generations.
 Dubliners
James Joyce  The Portrait of the Artist as
5) Politics and religion.
a Young Man
 Ulysses
The moral and psychological
 To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf problems.
6)
Containing a considerable
 Orlando
number of private jokes.
The novel gives a picture of a
 Nineteen Eighty-Four
future world
George Orwell
7) It is a political allegory which
 Animal Farm presents wrong political events

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 NOTES
 Marlow is the protagonist of the novel. And he took three journeys:
1. London to Brussels
2. France to Brussels
3. France to Africa. In this journey he passed three stations:
1) Outer Station
2) Central Station
3) Inner Station
 Kurtz is the manager of the inner station.

THE CHARACTERS OF THE NOVEL

Major and the most important characters:
1) Marlow - The protagonist of Heart of Darkness. He has seen enough of the world and has
encountered enough debased white men to make him skeptical of imperialism.
2) Kurtz - The chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow’s quest.

Minor characters
1) General Manager - The chief agent of the Company in its African territory, who runs the
Central Station.
2) Brickmaker - The brickmaker, whom Marlow also meets at the Central Station, is a favorite
of the manager and seems to be a kind of corporate spy.
3) Chief Accountant - An efficient worker with an incredible habit of dressing up in spotless
whites and keeping himself absolutely tidy despite the squalor and heat of the Outer Station,
where he lives and works.
4) Pilgrims - The bumbling, greedy agents of the Central Station. They carry long wooden
staves with them everywhere, reminding Marlow of traditional religious travelers.
5) Cannibals - Natives hired as the crew of the steamer, a surprisingly reasonable and well-
tempered bunch. Marlow respects their restraint and their calm acceptance of adversity.
6) Russian Trader - A Russian sailor who has gone into the African interior as the trading
representative of a Dutch company.
7) Helmsman - A young man from the coast trained by Marlow’s predecessor to pilot the
steamer. He is killed when the steamer is attacked by natives hiding on the riverbanks.
8) Kurtz‟s African Mistress - A fiercely beautiful woman loaded with jewelry who appears
on the shore when Marlow’s steamer arrives at and leaves the Inner Station.
9) Kurtz‟s Intended - Kurtz’s naïve and long-suffering fiancée, whom Marlow goes to visit
after Kurtz’s death.
10) Aunt - Marlow’s doting relative, who secures him a position with the Company.
11) 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.

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 SUMMARY FOR THE WHOLE NOVEL
Five men sit on board the Nellie, a boat docked in the Thames. An unnamed narrator introduces
them to the reader: the owner of the boat, a lawyer, an accountant, and Charlie Marlow, who tells
the story of his journey to the African jungle.

He introduces his tale by referring to ancient times in Britain, some nineteen hundred years ago.
After help from an aunt, Marlow gets a job commanding a ship for an ivory trading company.
Before he leaves, he meets two knitting women and a doctor from the company who make him feel
uneasy.

He sails from Europe on a French steamer. The endless coastline and the appearance of sweating
and shouting black men fascinate him. After more than thirty days, he leaves the French steamer for
a boat captained by a Swede. He makes it to the company’s Outer Station. Rotting equipment and
black slaves chained by the neck appall him. Even when he runs from the sight of them, he sees
black workers starving and dying slowly. He meets the company’s chief accountant, a man whose
neat appearance stands out from the company’s chaos. He waits ten days here. The hot weather and
many flies irritate Marlow. During this time, though, the accountant mentions Mr. Kurtz, a
remarkable man, a first-class ivory agent, a favorite of the Administration.

Marlow leaves the Outer Station with a white companion and a caravan of sixty blacks. Through
thickets, ravines, and paths they travel two-hundred miles in fifteen days to the Central Station.
Marlow finds his steamboat sunk at the bottom of the river. It will take months to repair. He meets
the manager, a man Marlow dislikes because he talks without thinking. He speaks of Kurtz, saying
he is ill, perhaps dead. Like the accountant, the manager praises Kurtz and reiterates his importance
to the company. Marlow turns his back on the manager and concentrates on repairing his steamboat.
Everywhere he looks, he notices “pilgrims,” white men who carry staves and speak of nothing but
ivory. A shed full of goods burns one night. While going to see it, Marlow overhears the manager
speaking with another agent about Kurtz.

Marlow meets a brick maker. He invites Marlow to his room, where he asks him many questions
about Europe. As he leaves the room, Marlow sees a sketch in oils of a blindfolded woman carrying
a torch. Kurtz had painted it, he says, more than a year ago.

They talk about Kurtz, the agent saying he expects him to be promoted soon. He says Kurtz and
Marlow belong to the same “gang” because the same people had recommended both of them.
Marlow realizes this man resents Kurtz’s success.

Marlow tells the agent he needs rivets to fix the boat. When Marlow finally demands the rivets, the
agent abruptly changes the subject. They do not arrive for many weeks. Marlow boards his steamer
after the agent leaves. He meets a boilermaker, a good worker with a long beard. They dance on
deck after Marlow tells him the rivets will come soon. Led by the manager’s uncle, the Eldorado
Exploring Expedition appears. Marlow overhears them speak about Kurtz. He had come downriver

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a few months ago with ivory, but turned back. He had left a clerk to deliver the shipment, instead.
He had spoken of Kurtz’s illness then, with no further word coming in the last nine months.

The rivets arrive, Marlow repairs the boat, and they resume the journey. The manager, a few
pilgrims, and twenty natives accompany Marlow on the steamer. It takes two months to get close to
Kurtz’s station. During that time, drums roll, people howl and clap, and the jungle becomes thick
and dark.

They find an abandoned hut fifty miles below Kurtz’s station. Marlow discovers a faded note, a
coverless book, and a stack of firewood. Eight miles from Kurtz’s station, Marlow and the manager
argue over their navigation. Marlow wants to push on, but the manager urges caution. A mile and a
half from their destination, the natives attack the boat. A spear kills the helmsman, who falls at
Marlow’s feet. They throw his body into the river, a simple funeral. They come upon a man on
shore. A Russian, this “harlequin” speaks admiringly of Kurtz. He tells them of Kurtz’s serious
illness.

While the manager and the pilgrims go to Kurtz’s house, Marlow finds out many things from the
Russian about Kurtz. Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer, he had discovered villages, and
had even tried to kill the Russian over some ivory. Most importantly, the natives worshipped Kurtz,
and offered sacrifices in his name.

They bring Kurtz to the steamer on an improvised stretcher. Physically weak, Kurtz still speaks
with power. The natives line the shore to watch their god leave. A black woman, Kurtz’s mistress,
joins them. Kurtz escapes from the steamer that evening. Marlow follows him, finally returning
Kurtz to the boat. Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers. He dies a few days later. His last words—
“The horror! The horror!”—haunt Marlow. They bury him in a muddy hole the next day.

Marlow returns to Europe. He becomes sick, running a fever. Three people call on him to retrieve
Kurtz’s writings. A company officer, a musician claiming to be Kurtz’s cousin, and a journalist
want his papers for their use. Marlow gives them unimportant documents, saving the personal ones
for Kurtz’s Intended.

More than a year after Kurtz’s death, Marlow visits this woman. At her door, he hears Kurtz’s last
words ring. In a drawing room, Marlow meets her, a beautiful lady suffering over Kurtz’s death.
Marlow never answers her questions directly. He lies to her, saying Kurtz’s last words were her
name. She cries to release herself from the agony of loss. Marlow feels bad for betraying Kurtz’s
memory, but glad for saving the woman from the truth.

With Marlow’s story ended, we return to the Nellie. The narrator describes Marlow sitting in the
pose of a Buddha, then raises his head to the “heart of the immense darkness” in the distance.

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 Quotations of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
Section One
Page 16

 “And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing
white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly,
stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men.”

These lines have been taken from section one of the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph
Conrad. In these lines the narrator described that the light disappeared gradually and the darkness
comes out. When the sunsink, the white light changed into red and then disappeared the weather
changed from cool to cold. Human being is like the sun, when the good side goes away and the evil
side comes out later the evil side controls the person. And this passage represntes/ symbolizes
darkness in the novel.

 “The tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men
and ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea.”

The unceasing surface of the river symbolizes freedom and the novelist is using personification
when he gives the river the quality of remembering. He says that the river has a lot of memories of
man, ship, wars, battles and that river is witness. It represents the theme of imperialism.

Page 17

 “Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the
sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark
from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the
mystery of an unknown earth! … The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the
germs of empires.”

Joseph Conrad is talking about the reality of men. Men have a lot of dreams and ambitions to the
best and those dreams lead the to imperialism.

 „And this also,‟ said Marlow suddenly, „has been one of the dark places of the earth.‟

Marlow is looking over London city which was regarded by the European as the most civilized city.
At the same time, Marlow considerates it as one of the darkest places on the earth. By this statement
he reflects the evilness(darkness) of imperialism, and one of crimes committed in Africa and also
refers to the Roman conquest of England.

Page 18
 “But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the
meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which

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 brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos
that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.”

Marlow is presenting Conrad's philosophy of human nature (appearances and reality). Some people
seem honest, helpful and good people while in reality they are hiding their evil side. To hide that
evil side they are using lies. Marlow is comparing those people to the darkenss; when the light
comes out, the darkness disappeared.

Page 19

 They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force— nothing to boast of, when
you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
.
The Roman were conquerors because the English people were weak. Conrad's emphasizing his idea
of human nature that your strength is based on the weakness of your enemy.

Page 20

 “Flames glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, white flames, pursuing,
overtaking, joining, crossing each other— then separating slowly or hastily. The traffic of
the great city went on in the deepening night upon the sleepless river.”

Marlow is describing the scene after the sunset. It is night time. Therefore, he can see the light of
London city, there are many sort of lights green, red, white and the traffic light. These light were
reflected on the surface of the river. They suddenly separated from each other due to the waves.
The river symbolises the life while the lights symbolizes the different soul of human being.

Page 21

 “But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map,
resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving
afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.”

The Congo River is compared to encoiled snake. Its head is deep into the sea while its tail is lost in
the depth of the land, and its body is curving over a wide country.

Page 22

 “I got my appointment—of course; and I got it very quick. It appears the Company had
received news that one of their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives. This
was my chance, and it made me the more anxious to go. It was only months and months
afterwards, when I made the attempt to recover what was left of the body, that I heard the
original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Yes, two black hens.
Fresleven—that was the fellow‟s 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

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 was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs. No doubt he was; but he
had been a couple of years already out there engaged in the noble cause, you know, and he
probably felt the need at last of asserting his self-respect in some way”.

After he hears that he has gotten the job, Marlow travels across the English Channel to a city that
reminds him of a “whited sepulcher” (probably Brussels) to sign his employment contract at the
Company’s office. First, however, he digresses to tell the story of his predecessor with the
Company, Fresleven. Much later, after the events Marlow is about to recount, Marlow was sent to
recover Fresleven’s bones, which he found lying in the center of a deserted African village. Despite
his reputation as mild mannered, Fresleven was killed in a scuffle over some hens: after striking the
village chief, he was stabbed by the chief’s son. He was left there to die, and the superstitious
natives immediately abandoned the village. This passage show us that the white people lose their
morals among themselves as European agents So they were suffering morally.

Page 23

 “Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black
wool. The slim one got up and walked straight at me— still knitting with downcast eyes—
and only just as I began to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a
somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and
she turned round without a word and preceded me into a waiting-room.”

Arriving at the Company’s offices, Marlow finds two women there knitting black wool, one of
whom admits him to a waiting room, where he looks at a map of Africa color-coded by colonial
powers. A secretary takes him into the inner office for a cursory meeting with the head of the
Company. Marlow signs his contract, and the secretary takes him off to be checked over by a
doctor. The doctor takes measurements of his skull, remarking that he unfortunately doesn’t get to
see those men who make it back from Africa. More important, the doctor tells Marlow, “the
changes take place inside.” The doctor is interested in learning anything that may give Belgians an
advantage in colonial situations. Conrad uses the two women knitting black wool to foreshadow
Marlow's heroic journey into colonial Africa.

Page 32

 „They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not
criminals, they were nothing earthly now— nothing but black shadows of disease and
starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.

This passage describes the natives. As Marlow notices the slaves chained together and indifferent to
their surroundings, knowing nothing but their labor, he views them as being hardly considered
dangerous enemies. Marlow describes it as "greenish gloom" instead of another color because green
emphasizes the connection of sickness and disease, which undoubtedly consumed the Africans. As
Marlow encounters "savages" through the novella we see the true horrors of imperialism and

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conquest: mistreated and overworked slaves who are left to die outdoors, given no food, care ,or
medicine. They are treated inhumanely, and because of this, Marlow sees them as less-than-human.

Page 39

 He sealed the utterance with that smile of his, as though it had been a door opening into a
darkness he had in his keeping.

The manager of the Central station (a British man) didn't allow any ship to carry food to go to the
inner station. Kurtz (the manager of the inner station) was ill and if he dies, the manager of the
Central station will remain to be the manager forever. Therefore, he didn't want any food supply to
arrive to the inner station. The manager smiled but it was an evil smiling that indicates evil things
"darkness". The evil thing here is the death of Kurtz. In this passage is a metaphor of hidden evil.

Page 45

 „… No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life sensation of any given epoch of
one‟s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating
essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone. …‟

Human existence has deep loneliness, this is one of Conrad's philosophy. He means that everyone
wants his life in his own style with no chain. Even he decided to help others, no one can save him
from death; the destiny of human existence he will die alone.

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Section 2
Page 61.

 “We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense matted jungle, with
the blazing little ball of the sun hanging over it—all perfectly still—and then the white
shutter came down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. I ordered the chain,
which we had begun to heave in, to be paid out again.”

Marlow is describing a road of the jungle. ( He says jungle not forest because jungle is more
complicated). He descibes many trees in the jungle and the sun was only like small ball on the trees
and light coming on them. This desribtion is a surface meaning.

The deep meaning, he actually is discribing the situation on that area, that jungle is symbol of
complicated life. There was no civilization, they didn't have education, this Marlow's point of view.
This is not a fact, he respect that they can't say the way should be like white people, they kill others
to get something for them, but native are killing the white people to fight for the life unlike white
people.

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Page 74

 He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had
arrived at, „must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural
beings— we approach them with the might of a deity,‟ and so on, and so on.

Here the speaker is Marlow. He found a piece of paper, and this paper is written by Kurtz. This
qoutation is written by Kurtz, but Marlow was reading that paper.

Kurtz's point of view that " the white people are the super human being" but Marlow says that " the
native see white people as savages, because they killed innocent people. And Kurtz's point of view
is that " all native must be killed". It is a symbol of strength of colonization .

Page 77

 “Along decaying building on the summit was half buried in the high grass; the large holes
in the peaked roof gaped black from afar; the jungle and the woods made a background.
There was no enclosure or fence of any kind; but there had been one apparently, for near
the house half-a-dozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their
upper ends ornamented with round carved balls.”

This passage is describing the palace of Kurtz. Marlow found bones around the palace. The bones
are the head of the native. Kurtz kill the native and put their bones around the palace.

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 Section 3
Page 79

 “The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards
the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz‟s life was running
swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time.”

The speaker is Marlow, he says these words after he sees Kurtz. Marlow is comparing between the
Congo River and Kurtz. For Marlow he thought that both( Kurtz and the Congo River ) were
moving in the same place in the dark area(Heart of Darkness). But they had two different ends. The
end of the river is to the sea(for an open place), from the dark to the light. But for Kurtz his end was
in the dark in the same place that he started his movement with the river (Heart of Darkness).

Page 98

 “It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren
darkness of his heart. Oh, he struggled! he struggled! The wastes of his weary brain
were haunted by shadowy images now—images of wealth and fame revolving
obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.”

This passage is said by Marlow. He is talking about Kurtz. He says that Kurtz is a person of words
not deeds. It means that Kurtz uses his vocal power to control the natives and make them worship
him.

Page 99

 “Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during
that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at
some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: ‘The horror!
The horror!’

Marlow is so influenced by the last two words by Kurtz. Here we have the philosophy of the
novelist (Joseph Conrad) about human being. Human soul is the same even if he gets another
chance. So the evil part of his soul controls his deeds. Marlow asks a question.

Page 100

 “I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz
once more. Destiny. My destiny! Droll thing life is— that mysterious arrangement of
merciless logic for a futile purpose.”

This death changed the way he thinks of life or the way what he is planning to do. That life is an
empty dream( Conrad's philosophy presented throughout Marlow). Life is meaningless , if the one
didn't choose the right way to live his own life. (Life is but an empty dream).

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  “If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us
think it to be. I was within a hair‟s breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement,
and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say.”

Marlow is talking about Kurtz that Marlow decided not to tell anyone this story. So Marlow himself
is a person of words not deeds. He doesn't want to reveal the reality of Kurtz (evil side)

 “Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his
stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the
whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness.”

Marlow is remembering when Kurtz died. This symbolizes the darkness, so Kurtz chose the way he
moved on.

Page 102

 “I admit my behaviour was inexcusable, but then my temperature was seldom normal
in these days. My dear aunt‟s endeavours to „nurse up my strength‟ seemed altogether
beside the mark. It was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination
that wanted soothing.”

He is describing the influence of the two words "the horror, the horror". These two words influence
him physically and mentally.

Page 104

 “Perhaps it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfillment of one of those

ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence. I don‟t know. I can‟t tell.
But I went.”

The unconscious loyalty of the native. The reason, (I can't tell, I don't know) . So maybe they don't
know what to do without Kurtz, to get their own freedom. They feel that they are in need of Kurtz
because the Loss of knowledge and civilization . It shows the negative impact of the European
civilization on the African.

Page 109

 “The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading
to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky— seemed to
lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”

How did Joseph Conrad conclude his novel and the tone of these three lines are darkness,
melancholy, sadness and pessimism.

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 The Forgotten Quotations From Section One
Page 40
 The word „ivory‟ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were
praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some
corpse. By Jove! I‟ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent
wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and
invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic
invasion..

Page 42
 I rose. Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and
blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was sombre—almost black. The
movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was
sinister.

The most important themes are:

 The theme of imperialism.

 The theme of civilization.

Thanks a googolplex H+B ‫كمساميدا‬

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