Study Questions for Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Part I
• How would you describe Marlow? His companions on the Nellie?
• What view of modern Western European society do we get from the narrator? From Marlow?
• Of the Europeans we meet in Part I, are any portrayed favorably? In what way? What are the faults of those who are not?
• What view of the "savages" do we get from Part I?
• How are we to interpret the story Marlow tells? As history? As a "yarn"? As some kind of myth? A morality play, maybe? Can we take Marlow to be an impartial, objective narrator? A truthful one?
• How would you describe Kurtz based on what Marlow says in Part I?
• Do you find in Part I a contrast in attitude toward nature and toward the artifice of society?
• How would you describe Conrad's style of writing? Do you find it effective?

Part II
• What are we to think of the natives depicted in Heart of Darkness?
• How do you interpret Marlow's remarks about "the women"?
• What does Marlow think of his companions on the steamer?
• How does Part II change the portrait we see of Kurtz?
• How much credibility to you attach to the remarks of the Russian harlequin?
• How does the picture we get of Kurtz change with the additon of Part II?

Part III
• To what does Kurtz's utterance "The horror." refer?
• How does the picture we get of Kurtz change with the additon of Part III?
• Would the Director of Companies, or the Lawyer, or the Accountant, be affected a term of service at the Inner Station the way Kurtz was?
• If you had to select three words that have special meaning in this work, what would they be? (OK, you can have five, but we're tying to select a small number of key ideas.) What significance do these words have?
• What does Heart of Darkness suggest about society? Do you agree?
• Is the view of human nature that we find in Heart of Darkness one in which the individual is primary, or society?

November 4, 1998