Heart of Darkness Active Reading Guide
1. * Fifteen days after leaving the outer station Marlow “hobble[s] into the Central Station”, which was being run by “the flabby devil”, referring to the greed of the Europeans. There he finds out that his ship had been sunk when they tried to take off before he got there. He also meets the manager of the Central Station who is only employed because he never gets sick, and the brick maker who doesn’t actually make any bricks. He overhears a conversation between the manager and his uncle, who is leading the “Eldorado Exploring Expedition” that passes through the station. They are talking about Mr. Kurtz. This all occurs two months before they reach Kurtz’s station. * Marlow then takes off in his newly repaired boat (Conrad 21). Fifty miles before Marlow reaches the Inner Station where Kurtz is, he comes across a hut on the side of the river. They approach and see a sign on a pile of wood that says “Wood for you. Hurry Up. Approach Cautiously”. Then inside a hut, Marlow finds a book entitled An Inquiry into some Points of Seamanship inside of which are notes written in what Marlow says “looked like cipher” (38). * Eight miles before Marlow and his crew reach Kurtz they get stuck in a heavy fog, and are unable to move for quite a bit of time. Then once the fog lifts they are able to proceed, but find themselves stuck once again one and a half miles before reaching Kurtz. Here they are attacked by the natives. They blow the whistle on the boat and the natives are scared away (47). * Finally, Marlow reaches the Inner Station. The first person that he meets is the Russian/Harlequin, who idolizes Kurtz. He then meets Kurtz who is taken aboard the steam boat. Kurtz dies aboard the steamboat, and Marlow returns to Europe. * In Brussells, Marlow goes to visit Kurtz’s intended. She is distraught over Kurtz’s death, so Marlow lies to her about the reality of what really happened, saying Kurtz was a good and honorable man (75-79).
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Cited: Conrad, Joseph, and Robert Kimbrough. Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. New York: Norton, 1971. Print.