Heart of Darkness (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Mr Kurtz: Add a description of this character.
• Carlier
• Hollis
• Kayerts
• Karain
• Makola
• Mahon
• Marlow
• Jackson
• Bankok
• Cartier
• Mrs Beard

Quotes edit see section history

• “He decimated our slender stock; but we did not begrudge him, for when he began, he talked well. He must have been a great Bugis dandy in his time, for even then (and when we knew him he was no longer young) his splendour was spotlessly neat, and he dyed his hair a light shade of brown. The quiet dignity of his bearing transformed the dim-lit cuddy of the schooner into an audience-hall.”

  from Karain: A Memory (comparison to Kurtz' description)

• “But for me all the East us contained in that vision of my youth. It is all in that moment when I opened my young eyes on it. I came upon it from a tussle with the sea—and I was young—and I saw it looking at me. And this is all that is left of it! Only a moment; a moment of strength, of romance, of glamour—of youth! ...A flick of sunshine upon strange shore, the time to remember, the time for a sigh, and—goodbye!—Night—Goodbye...!”

  from Youth: A Narrative

• “I had a white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather too fleshy and with the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot hillsides, miles away from the least bit of shade and water. Annoying, you know, to hold your own coat like a parasol over man's head while he's coming-to.”

• “He was a lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. His aspect was worried, and his head was as bold as the palm of my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down to his waist.”

• “Fine fellows—cannibals—in their place. They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them. And after all, they did not eat each other before my face: they had brought along a provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils.”

• “It was unearthly, and the men were——— No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.”

• “No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze.”

• “The voice was gone. What else had been there? But I am of course aware that next day the pilgrims buried something in a muddy hole.”

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• It was unearthly, and the men were No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman.

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• We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there.

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• It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze.

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• I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.

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• I went no more near the remarkable man who had pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth.

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• 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!’*

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• These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic;* they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing—food for thought and also for the vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but at all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole. They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes,* if their faces had not been turned to the house.

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• The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us—who could tell? We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. We could not understand, because we were too far and could not remember, because we were travelling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign—and no memories.

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• They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from over the sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily up-hill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages.*

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• “Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, but also for humanising, improving, instructing.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Matara
• Gobila
• London
• Judea
• Europe

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Joseph Conrad (Author)
2. Cedric Thomas Watts (Editor)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.912

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › British › Classics › Conrad, Joseph
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › History & Criticism › Literary Theory
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › British › Short Stories
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( C ) › Conrad, Joseph
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories › Anthologies
• Books › Literature & Fiction › History & Criticism › Criticism & Theory
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics