Inner-Outer Circle Discussion

Heart of Darkness– Inner – Outer Circle Questions

DAY ONE: 
 * 1) What is "the horror, the horror" in Heart of Darkness?   How do these famous last words reflect the meaning of the work as a whole?
 * 2) Marlow states at the beginning of the novel, “We live as we dream alone.”   What does he mean by this statement?   What role do dreams and/or nightmare play in an understanding of the novel?
 * 3) Apply the pattern of the archetypal journey, a grail (grail-less) quest, to Marlow’s journey to the heart of darkness.   What can we learn from this type of examination?
 * 4) How does an examination of Marlow as an archetypal hero enhance our understanding of the novel?
 * 5) What archetypal imagery, characters, and/or symbols does Conrad employ?   How do these contribute to our understanding and meaning of the novel?
 * 6) How does black and white imagery both reinforce and subvert racial attitudes?
 * 7) Do any of Conrad’s characters exhibit a high moral standard?   If so what kind of characters stick to their principles?
 * 8) To what extent does Marlow return to Britain physically and mentally altered from his colonial experiences?
 * 9) What role does Kurtz’s African mistress play?   What kind of language is used to describe her?   Is it consistent?
 * 10) Discuss the portrayal of Kurtz’s Intended.   How is she represented?
 * 11) What is Marlow’s attitude toward women?   Is it consistent?   Explain.
 * 12) What is the significance of Marlow’s lie to the Intended?   What is Marlow’s attitude toward lying?   Is his lie justified or not? Explain.
 * 13) How does the structure of the novel relate to the meaning of the work?
 * 14) What effect do the two narrators have on the story?













 DAY TWO


 * 1) How does Conrad use contrasts – places, characters, images, behaviors, etc.? Connect these contrasts to meaning.
 * 2) Conrad’s style has been called impressionistic rather than realistic.   In what ways might this be so?
 * 3) What are two passages you consider key to the meaning of the book?   Why?   How do they reveal the meaning of the book as a whole?
 * 4) How is Conrad’s novel a study of human nature in symbolic terms?   What might the journey, the river, the jungle, and Kurtz, etc. represent?
 * 5) How is the novel a quest for identity?
 * 6) How reliable a narrator is Marlow?
 * 7) What power relationships do we see in the novel?
 * 8) Does the protagonist defend or defect from the dominant values of society? Explain.
 * 9) How much does the fate of the main character rely on the forces of society?
 * 10) What is Conrad’s view of memory and identity?   Explain.
 * 11) If we changed the point of view from Marlow to Kurtz, how would this impact the story?   What would be different about it? Why?
 * 12) Compare how Africans and Europeans are portrayed.   Look at power structures – who has power and how is that power maintained? How is condemned?   Who is admired?   For what reasons?   What complexities surface?
 * 13) Explain the function of images as motifs – light/dark, fog, snakes, machinery, devils, etc.
 * 14) Compare and contrast Marlow’s reaction to the wilderness to Kurtz.   What significance can be found?   How relative to the themes of the story?
 * 15) What evidence supports the denial of Kurtz's existence in Heart of Darkness?   (Kurtz is Marlow’s alter ego)
 * 16) What is the function of the Harlequin?