The Structure of Heart of Darkness

The novella's panoply of characters reminds one of the demi-gods and demons of Greek milling machineryical: a starched-shirt colonial accountant - "I took him for a separate of vision" (45); a military personnelager who inspires "neither love nor fear, nor so far respect. He inspired uneasiness. ... But he was great" (50); an insolent, black-skinned courier of death who " utter in a tone of vituperative contempt - 'Mistah Kurtz - he dead'" (112). There is even a genus Penelope waiting in mourning clothes for the dead "hero" Kurtz, of whom Marlowe speaks, "She struck me as beautiful - I mean she had a beautiful expression. I k promptly that the sunlight can be made to lie, too" (115).

Heart of Darkness' storyline begins in a Shakespearean setting of light and urban civility. Narrator Marlowe is customer aboard a rich man's sailboat, relaxing a gigantic an position river never far from the city. All is comfort and security. then, as darkness descends, a new mood takes over. Marlowe's narrative begins in darkness, in fact, erupting as a speculation on the darkness of the side of meat river they float upon as it must have appeared two millennia earlier. Then he rambles into his African tale, where anything familiar is lost within minutes. This is how A Midsummer Night's Dream and a score of other unstained English myth-tales begin: first there is the city, where civilization holds bear over lives in an orderly fashion - but the protagonists currently find themselves in t

She said suddenly very low, "He died as he lived."

such(prenominal) a Harlequin in the heart of darkness! sightly as the journey reaches its upcountry goal - the anxious(p) Kurtz - pilgrims fly from roadside attack to con reckon the enigmatic "remarkable man" and his death, suddenly bright splashes of color dance in front of them, "cheerful as you please" (90). It is helpful to note that much in English pantomime tradition the Harlequin plays a duel role as Fool and Hangman, but the ridiculousness of the man's existence stands with its own mythic significance in the Marlowe narrative.

The Harlequin, in his disjointed style, offers something of his own tale-within-a-tale, explaining the reason for the native attack on the pilgrim rescue party: Kurtz - "They don't want him to go" (92).

For the moment that was the governing thought. There was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving later something altogether without a substance. (82-83)

Death has now taken on an "impressive" face, however, and the rescue attempt presses on. If death cannot be defeated, it is now to be confronted differently, at the least. The helmsman's deathmask was "lustrous." There would be a long contemplation of Kurtz' final expressions.

this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die. They were dying slowly - it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthborn now..." (44)

the pilgrims on deck getting out their rifles with an air of anticipating a jolly lark ... that imbecile crowd down on the deck started their little fun, and I could see nothing to a greater extent for smoke (109).

"Do you understand this?" I asked [Kurtz].

like a harlequin ... patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red, and yellow, - patches on the back, patches on the front, patches on elbows, on knees; coloured binding round his jacket, scarlet move on at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshine made him look ext
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