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EN501: Sample Literary Vocabulary (Fall 2008)

Page history last edited by Tonya Howe 15 years, 7 months ago

 


 

Upload the main text of your 1-2 page illustration of literary vocabulary to this page of the course wiki. You may do this by COPYING the body of your text in Word and PASTING it into this page. To add your text, click the EDIT tab above. Put your terms in alphabetical order. Finally, add a FORMAT (Heading 1) to your term; adding this style to the term itself will duplicate the term in the page's table of contents


 

Alliteration

Stephanie Szkutak

 

Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock uses a variety of literary methods for organization, emphasis on his words and phrases, and to help us read the cantos. One of these methods is alliteration. Alliteration is when sounds of speech are repeated in lines or words that are nearby (Abrams 10). This occurs in the beginning of words with their consonants. One specific type of alliteration is consonance. Consonance is the repetition of consonants, in sequence with one another, in a particular word (Abrams 10). Consonance is done with a few words in the phrase or stanza. A second type of alliteration is assonance. This is when repetition occurs in the vowel sounds in a sequence of words (Abrams 11).  Assonance can occur in the long i sound, or long oo sounds within the words. 

 

Rape of the Lock includes alliteration as well as the two types. Alliteration can be heard with the w, s, b, and c consonants in the phrase, “Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive, / Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive” (Pope I.101-102). The alliteration in Rape of the Lock organizes Pope’s thoughts like in the line “Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux” (I.38). The alliteration is on the consonants p and b and organizes Pope’s thoughts of what is placed on Belinda’s dressing table. It also helps when reading the lines. It organizes the items in a way which is easy to read in iambic pentameter and easy to remember.

 

Pope uses consonance effectively with organization as well. Couplets are paired together with the repetition of consonant endings of the words used. In the line “Caps on their heads, and Halberds in their hand” links back to its pair that ends in the word “Band” in the previous line (III.41-42). Consonance is located in the sounds of ds and d at the ends of “band,” “heads,” “Halberds,” and “hand.”  Another line which Pope uses this method is in Canto V, “While Anna begg’d and Dido rag’d in vain. / Then grave Clarissa graceful wav’d her fain” (V.6-7). The g’d repetition couples itself to the ‘d in the following line.

 

Alexander Pope also uses assonance; lines like “Hang o’er the Box, and hover round the Ring” put emphasis on the o sound of “o’er,” “Box,” “hover,” and “round” (I.44). Another place this occurs is in the line “Are, as when Women, wondrous fond of Place” (III.36). This line emphasis the o sound as well with “Women,” “wondrous,” and “fond” it is also alliteration with the w consonants in “when,” “Women,” and “wondrous” (III.36).

 

Rape of the Lock uses these literary methods throughout the text, and can be found on almost all of the pages. Pope’s use of alliteration, consonance, and assonance organizes thoughts, helps pair the couplets, and provides easier reading of iambic pentameter.

 

 

Allusion

Ian Healy

 

 

Allusion is a device predicated on the target (reader in the case of literary works) having a shared base of knowledge with the author or speaker – note this is not limited only to literary knowledge. An allusion operates as a reference to something within this shared knowledge (a person, place, thing, text, event, specific passage, structure, etc.) without being clearly pointed to. A simple example of an allusion is the usage of “Judas” in regular conversation which is used as an accusation of betrayal – comparing someone to Judas likens him or her to the Biblical character Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. Allusion are generally used in such a literal sense, with the alluded reference designed to add to reinforce the original subject, however allusions can also be used ironically and highlight a dissonance between the alluded and its referent.

 

Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is rich with allusion – clearly he intended his readership to be well versed in literature and literary conventions to full appreciate his work. In fact, the entire structure of the poem as a mock epic is an ironic allusion to the classic epics of the western Canon, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Consider the following excerpt from The Rape of the Lock:

And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd,

Each Silver Vase in mystic Order laid.

First, rob'd in White, the Nymph intent adores

With Head uncover'd, the Cosmetic Pow'rs.

A heav'nly Image in the Glass appears,

To that she bends, to that her Eyes she rears;

Th'inferior Priestess, at her Altar's side,

Trembling, begins the sacred Rites of Pride. (I.121-128)

In this passage, Belinda is getting ready to make herself up and go out in public and contains several allusions to the epic poetic tradition. First, as a traditional epic, it is written in verse, making the structure itself an allusions. Secondly, the presence of the supernatural Nymphs playing an active role in the lives of mortals alludes to the same supernatural interference so commonplace in the Greek/Roman mythologies. Thirdly, the elaborate ritual process as a means of preparation alludes to the trademarked ritualistic preparation for battle of the epic tradition. However, the subject matter of The Rape of the Lock laces all of these allusions with irony, because instead of a being a grandiose ritual preparation on the eve of a great battle, this preparation is instead a ritualized process of putting on makeup to partake in a life of luxury. Where the supernatural forces in the epics were gods themselves playing out their struggles with mortals, Pope's nymphs are guardians of chastity. Where a Priestess owing allegiance to a specific god would aid in this preparation in traditional epics, the “Priestess” of Pope is a handmaiden or maid. The altar itself is not some great holy relic, but instead a dressing table with a mirror so Belinda can admire herself. Throughout The Rape of the Lock, Pope makes powerful use of ironic allusions to add a great deal of depth to his satire.

 

 

Bathos and The Rape of the Lock 

Ed Aymar

 

Bathos refers to pretentious moments in a literary work that are exaggerated for comic effect. Alexander Pope himself is credited with the poetic definition of the word when, in his essay “On Bathos: Of the Art of Sinking in Poetry,” he promises the reader: “to lead them as it were by hand…the gentle downhill way to Bathos; the bottom, the end, the central point, the non plus ultra, of true Modern Poesy!” (Abrams 24). Instances of bathos are sprinkled throughout The Rape of the Lock and serve to underscore the mock-epic nature of Pope’s seminal poem.

 

The title itself is an exaggeration of the mundane–specifically, the suggestion of the horrifically violent act of rape acted upon locks of hair–and serves as a guide for understanding the comic nature of the work. These locks are constantly referred to in a ridiculously important fashion: at the start of Canto II, they are credited with the power to assure “the Destruction of Mankind” (Pope, Canto II 19). The baron is given a pair of scissors to cut the locks from Belinda’s hair, and the act is compared to the medieval action of how “Ladies in Romance assist their Knight” (Canto III 129). And, when Belinda’s lock are finally cut, the language of the poem is overly dramatized to a richly comic effect, particularly in the last two lines, when the death of a husband is compared to a vase breaking:

          Then flash’d the living Lightning from her Eyes,

          And Screams of Horror rend th’ affrighted Skies.

          Not louder Shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast,

          When Husbands or when Lap-dogs breathe their last,

          Or when rich China Vessels, fal’n from high,

          In glittring Dust and painted Fragments lie! (Canto III 155-160)

 

But the poem’s ultimate moment of high silliness occurs in the final canto, when the foppish battle between the parties loyal to Belinda and the baron is fought with weapons made of “Metaphor” and “Song” (Canto V 60). The battle begins with the clapping of fans and rustling of silk, as opposed to traditional war preparations, and a man is struck down by a frown and raised again by a smile. This comedic fighting fashion is ended when Belinda incapacitates the baron by blowing snuff in his nose, and leads to the poem’s final lines, when Belinda’s lock is regarded in the following manner: “This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to Fame / And mid’st the Stars inscribe Belinda’s Name!” (Canto V 149-150). The poem, then, is a monument to bathos, as Pope suggests that its entirely unimportant actions should be conscripted to heavenly heights.

 

 

Burlesque

Nicole Drabic

 

Burlesque is defined as an imitation of a form, style, or subject matter of a literary text, or genre.  The imitation is typically a form of satire that mocks a serious type of literature or one particular work.  The reproduction of the literary work can be re-created in the form or style of high or low burlesque.  “High burlesque” is identified if the form or style of a literary work is distinguished but the subject matter is trivial or low.  However, if the subject is dignified in status but the technique and manner are trivial the literary work is a form of “low burlesque” (Abrams 35-36). 

 

Pope’s Rape of the Lock is an example of a high burlesque parody because it imitates the serious manners and characteristics of the epic genre of literature (Abrams 36).  Pope satirized the trivial qualities of aristocratic society by highlighting various moments in the poem that burlesque the epic style.  This is particularly evident when the Baron is preparing to cut Belinda’s lock of hair and as Belinda acts out her daily rituals at her toilette.  The overly dramatized characteristics of these moments emphasize the satire Pope was using to mock an epic.

 

The humor of Rape of the Lock is created within the detailed structure of an epic poem and is obvious in Canto III when Baron is about to snip the lock of hair, Pope says:

T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide.

Ev'n then, before the fatal Engine clos'd,

A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd;

Fate urged the Sheers, and cut the Sylph in twain,

(But Airy Substance soon unites again)

The meeting Points the sacred Hair dissever

From the fair Head, for ever and for ever! (III.148-154)

These particular lines emphasize how Pope is utilizing trivial things like scissors and referencing them in loaded phraseology like “fatal Engine”.  Pope’s style of writing accentuates the idea that these sheers are a miniscule weapon instead of a machete or something more masculine. Yet, this particular style of writing is what makes Pope’s poem a mock epic instead of a standard epic.

 

 

Character and Characterization

Anab Garab

 

Character and Characterization of the Illusive ‘Horror’ & ‘Heart of Darkness’

 

Colonialism is the topic at the forefront of Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness and Conrad utilizes the Characters to illustrate the moral ambiguity that comes along with exploits such as imperialism.  Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as possessing, particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences, from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it, the dialogue from what they do the action (Abrams 33).   Conrad employs the characters’ attitudes and behaviors’ as discourse on colonialism.  Characters such as the members of the company seemed to remain ‘stable or unchanged in outlook and disposition, from the beginning to the end of the work’ (Abrams 33).  Kurtz, quite the opposite underwent, ‘ a radical change, either through a gradual process of development, or as the result of crisis’(Abrams  33).  Marlowe seemed in between the two extremes, the changed and the unchanged, although there was much unrest in his quest for identity.     

 

Marlowe the protagonist, and anti-hero of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is, “a round character, complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity; such a character is difficult to describe…(Abrams 33).  Marlowe a flawed character, and Conrad’s second narrators’ complexity is illustrated when he describes his journey with great detail while simultaneously being ambiguous as to the role he plays.  As we follow along in his journey we see the inconsistency of his stance on colonization.  Marlowe retelling the story once it already has happened in and of itself illustrates how he is struggling with ideas of the moral responsibility, of what he witnesses and perhaps takes part in.  What makes him the anti-hero is that amongst all of this he is trying to find where he fits, in this discourse involving colonization.   Although complicit to those he is around, he wrestles with his own identity, which is why he attempts to define himself by relating to Kurtz.  Kurtz, although a man of conviction, is a “flat character, one that is built around a “single idea or quality”, and is presented without much individualizing detail” (Abrams 33).  At the same time Marlowe seems to fall between employing the ideas of Kurtz and the company members as well.    

 

“The horror” or “heart of darkness”, is internal.  Marlowe describes the Pilgrims as greedy, and the Cannibals as ---‘Fine fellows --- 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… (Conrad,  35).  A fine example of how Marlowe walks a moral tightrope the entire novella; here he is complimentary to their “temperament”, while insulting them at the same time. 

 

A pivotal moment in the text is his description of the natives, where he says, “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 at 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; “(Conrad  37).  Here he is expressing that the idea of kinship to the natives as horrifying.  Clearly Marlowe is affected by what he has experienced but the question is to what degree, now having experienced it.       

 

 

Cultural Studies

Anab Garad

 

Investigating the “Off'rings of the World” in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock

 

Cultural studies’ concern is to “specify the functioning of the social, economic, and political forces that are said to produce the forms of cultural phenomena, that give them their social “meaning, truths, the modes of discourse in which they are discussed  and their relative value and status” (M.H Abrams 53).   Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock can be viewed within the context of cultural studies.  Pope’s poem allows the modern reader to see the effects of movement toward imperialism in 18th century Britain.  Cultural studies “analyzes the conditions that affect the production, reception, and cultural significance of all types of institutions, practices, products, literature a cultural signifying practices” (Abrams 53). 

 

The Off'rings of the World, the poet refers to indicate the nation’s introduction to Imperialism.  The “Casket India's glowing Gems unlocks”, and “all Arabia --from yonder Box”, “Tortoise and Elephant united--Transform'd to Combs”, and the “Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles” are all items that have been available through imperialist efforts (Pope ,Canto I, 130-138).  This stanza impresses upon the readers the value of ready-made offerings of the world which are now available for Belinda’s use, due to imperialist efforts.  “Now awful Beauty puts on all its Arms”, and with the World’s cosmetics and beatifying trinkets available on her nightstand, Belinda’s Beauty is enhanced, and she is now equipped with an “awe inspiring power”(Canto I, 138).   Belinda’s new found power is an offset of the process within the machinery of Imperialism, and indicates the power the Imperialist gains from expansion.     

 

There are several ways to view Pope’s text in the context of Cultural studies.  For example, Pope exploits the perception of female gender roles, with the categorization of women.  Even in his attempt to create a text that is elevated beyond its subject matter indicates the many facets of the poem.  Cultural Studies also attempts to “subvert the distinctions between high literature and high art compared to what are considered the lower forms that appeal” to the masses (Abrams 54).  Pope’s text being a mock-epic gives him the ability to create a text with a trivial subject matter; such as lock of hair, and by elevating the poem in form transforming it into what is considered “high literature”.   

 

 

Enlightenment

Kate Absher

 

The Enlightenment was a reaction to Medievalism and the Middle Ages in Western Europe.  It began during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth century (Abrams, 96).  The movement placed great emphasis on the idea of reason and its ability to free humanity from “the darkness of superstition, prejudice, and barbarity” and its acceptance of “mere authority and unexamined tradition” (Abrams, 96).  Along with the concept of reason came the notion of progress and the pursuit of happiness.  Many great thinkers and philosophers wrote of the Enlightenment from John Locke to Immanuel Kant.  The American Revolution and the French Revolution were both inspired by ideas of the Enlightenment as it espoused the conception of a government without a monarch and based truly on democratic or “enlightened” principles.  Many enlightened thinkers, however, did not reflect on issues of sex or race and relied instead on a universal concept of mankind (Abrams, 96).

 

Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a product of the Enlightenment Age in which it was written.  It is a mock epic that decries the triviality of the loss of a lock of hair from the heroine, Belinda.  The anger of Belinda and the subsequent “sighs, sobs, and passions, and the War of Tongues” (IV. 84) of her fellow females who decry her loss is satirized by Pope.  There is no reason in her overwrought fury over a trivial object, such as a loss of a curl.  The only voice of reason in the poem is that of Clarissa who states, “And trust me, Dear! good Humour can prevail,/ When Airs, and Flights, and Screams, and Scolding Fail” (V. 31-32).  Clarissa attempts to reason with the crowd that is warring over the snipped hair of Belinda.  Although she is ignored, her argument has weight because it carries home Pope’s point that the inessential cutting of a lock of hair is not a reason for families or all of Hampton Court to war with one another.  In satirizing the Baron’s quest for Belinda’s hair and his consequent obtainment of it, Pope shows that reason, and not human passion, should prevail when a thing so trivial as a snippet of hair is made into something more prominent, causing ruptures and hurt feelings that should not transpire.

 

 

Heroic Couplet

Susan Spina

 

A Heroic Couplet is “lines of Iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs: aa, bb, cc, and so on.  the adjective ‘heroic’ was applied in the later 17th century because of the frequent use of such couplets in heroic (that is, epic) poems” (Abrams, 141).  Heroic couplets were first introduced to English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer and has been in consistent use every since.  An offshoot of the Heroic couplet is “closed couplet” where the end of each pair of lines coincides with the end of either a sentence or a “self sufficient unit of syntax” (Abrams, 141).  The use of the “closed heroic couplet” meant “that two lines had to serve something of the function of the stanza” (Abrams, 142).

 

Our author, Alexander Pope, uses this technique almost exclusively in his poetry.   As we saw in “The Rape of the Lock” every two lines rhyme and in fact also serve in the function of the stanza.  For example at the beginning of Canto III two lines in the middle of the second stanza read

 

“ In various talk the instructive hours they passed;

Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last” (Pope, 65). 

 

These two lines are of course written in Iambic Pentameter & the last words in each line rhyme.  More importantly however these two lines are very important to the function of this stanza. The stanza is describing life in Hampton Court and these lines illustrate how, the women in particular, idly pass their time by disusing trivial things such as parties and their most recent visitors. This, it seems, is the main point of this stanza. Another excellent example can be found in Canto I around line eighty – seven

“Tis these that early taint the female soul,

Instruct the eyes of young Coquettes to roll.” (Pope, 56)

 

This stanza is discussing the role of the sylphs in the poem, so these two lines (which happen to fall nearly in the middle of the stanza) sum up their job very nicely.  The sylphs are there to help Belinda deal with her feelings toward men, and attempt to keep them under control as much as possible.   This idea helps us to see the most ironic aspect of the poem.  The sylphs are unable to protect Belinda from being “raped”  when the Baron cuts a lock of her hair.

The heroic couplet emphasizes “paradox, inversion, and ironic slippage between appearance and reality, as well as a tension between containment and escape” (Pope, 25).  We can see this idea in many aspects of Pope’s poem.   “The spoils of English trade are reduced to ivory combs and jewel boxes, the conquests are social, in card games and flirtations, and the rape is not really a rape  only symbolically so” (Pope, 26).  This idea of trivializing such important events is why “The Rape of the Lock” can be called a “mock epic.” It makes light of some of the important ideas and events that are taken so seriously in true epic poems including the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.” Pope uses the heroic couplet to emphasis this idea.

 

 

Imagery

Ed Aymer

 

The imagery in Heart of Darkness is one of the fundamental aspects of the novel and, as such, serves as the necessary guide for textual interpretation. The use of imagery (and its attendant metaphors and similes) as a means to detail Marlow and Kurtz’s journey was not lost on Conrad, and he employed a variety of applications for this purpose. I would like to begin this short essay in two different directions: the first, as an examination into the text to interpret what Conrad intended to describe; and, the second, as an exploration of the misinterpretations that result when a metaphoric work is viewed through a strictly literal or political lens, as in the critical essay by Chinua Achebe (Richter 323-333).

 

The imagery within the opening pages provides substantial evidence of Conrad’s intention, and of Marlow’s suggested destination–the death of one’s humanity. In fact, Marlow’s story hasn’t even started before this suggestion colors the text. The sails of the barges are described as “vanquished spirits,” the Accountant is toying with “bones” and, in the most obvious example of death, the unnamed narrator and his crew are stationed in the town of “Gravesend” (67). These images serve as signposts of the story’s true endpoint.

 

Consider another scene, and a small gesture that takes on large significance. Marlow and his crew have finally succeeded in locating Kurtz’s station and have survived the attack by his people, and Marlow is interrogating Kurtz’s former lieutenant, an idealistic twenty-five year old Russian. Marlow is questioning why his ship was attacked and is bewildered to learn that Kurtz’s people actually want him to stay. When he asks why, the young man tells him “this man has enlarged my mind” (130). And then the young man “opened his arms wide…” (130). That simple gesture, a suggestion of crucifixion and the Christian passage into death, ratifies the young man’s comment. As a follower of Kurtz, his mind has been enlarged; more to the point, he has been transformed by his journey with Kurtz. Furthermore, later in the text, the young man’s servitude is described as “eager fatalism,” (131) and, more pointedly, as an “ascendancy” (134). When he recalls his conversations with Kurtz, Marlow notices that the young man is “transported” (131).  Finally, and convincingly, he is referred to as “Kurtz’s last disciple” (135). In short, the novel’s true journey is not physical, but metaphysical.

 

Conversely, Chinua Achebe’s literal interpretation of the novel makes little mention of symbolism. Focusing on the fact that the setting is in Africa, for example, ignores Conrad’s attempt to imply that this journey could have taken place in any locale where one people have been systematically brutalized by another. Achebe makes much of the novel’s location in Africa but, tellingly, Conrad never mentions the words “Africa” or “Congo” in the text. That exclusion, for a novel that pays such detailed attention to its surroundings, is not accidental. Rather, it is a straightforward attempt by Conrad to turn the terrain of the novel into a land other than Africa. It is a clear indication that this journey is a universal examination of the destruction of the human spirit.

 

When the imagery of Heart of Darkness is not considered the primary vessel through which Conrad details Marlow’s journey, then interpretations of Conrad’s fundamental, titular purpose are similarly misguided. I would argue, then, that this novel was not a means to disparage Africa, but rather an attempt, through imagery and metaphor, to explore the emotional and physical effects of cruelty upon both the inflictor and the inflicted.

 

 

 

Imagery

Kate Absher

 

A text cannot come alive without imagery.  Imagery in prose and poetry creates a mental image for the reader while he delves into the words written upon a page.  Imagery transports a reader from time and place by reproducing the visual, auditory, tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic (sensations of movement) senses  (Abrams, 151).  There can be one image or a multiplicity of images that make up a work by literal description, by allusion, or in the vehicles of its similes and metaphors  (Abrams, 151).  Imagery makes a text concrete; it brings into being a world separate from the one the reader knows and exposes him or her to a place outside their known existence.  Without imagery, a work would be vapid, devoid of all sensation, and a mental picture of the text would never occur, which is necessary in the act of reading itself.

 

Imagery permeates Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.  Conrad is attempting to depict a land that for many of us is strange, incomprehensible, and foreign.  He is trying to make what he himself experienced in Africa accessible to the reader through the use of imagery.  He describes the Congo from the point of view of the narrator, Marlowe.  Marlowe is not African but English.  His employment as captain of a steamship on the Congo is his first trip to the continent.  His perspective, therefore, is one of an outsider describing the newness of a place with words that are derived from another culture altogether.  Africa is the “other” to Marlowe, the opposite of what he has known as a citizen of Europe, civilized for centuries, a “luminous space” (61) of towns and cities, roads and factories, government and social discipline.  It is easy, therefore, for him to compare and contrast what he has known with the unknown through imagery.

 

Marlow is first tempted by a map of the Congo to embark upon an adventure to Africa.  He describes Africa as a “place of darkness” with a river “resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land” (67).  This image of Africa as a place of darkness and the Congo as a snake creates in the reader the feeling that Africa is a sinister place, unformed, unexplored, and in need of a man like Marlowe to aid in civilizing its dark recesses.  The image becomes a challenge to Marlowe, and he is “charmed” by it (67).  He will travel to Africa and discover if the first image of the place on a map is the true image of the place itself.

 

When Marlowe first arrives in Africa at the station, he does not see a “place of darkness” but a country drowned in “a blinding sunlight” (75).  It is a sun that permits him to see the imagery of the continent he has sailed towards.  He describes the disorganization of the station, where things are left broken and ill-repaired, and the buildings themselves are architecturally unsound with gaps between boards allowing the intense heat and light to enter.  The Congolese have ceased in their own makings of civilization by abandoning their villages.  The only darkness that he finds is in the woods, where men working on the railroad have gone to rest or to die in the shade and repose, but even there, they are in  a “dim light” (77) . The image that Marlowe is forming of Africa is one of the white man or the “pilgrims” bringing chaos to this region of the world in their quest for ivory above all else, and the Africans themselves are waiting for a time when “this fantastic invasion” will end (85).

 

The Congo that Marlowe has foreseen as an “immense snake uncoiled” now glitters in the moonlight (89).  It is treacherous yes with shallow depths, protruding rocks, and hostile natives.  It has become not the image of a snake, but a task before him.  He must ready his steamship that has been sunk in the river, and then navigate its waterways looking for signs that might sink the ship again.  The river has become his road to Kurtz, a man that he seeks to know, who he thinks is civilized above all others that he has encountered in this strange place.

 

Conrad’s use of imagery submerges the reader into the “heart of darkness” that Marlowe experiences.  The land, river, and people who inhabit the place, whether white or black, are described with images.  These images are often contradictory, as they symbolize the contradictory feelings of Africa that grow within Marlowe.  The images of Africa are the “other.”  But they make Africa come alive to the reader through Marlowe’s eyes, and that is the ultimate purpose of imagery itself. 

 

 

Irony 

T. Howe

 

While irony comes in many different flavors—verbal, cosmic, situational, dramatic, and so on—it essentially describes an incongruity or inconsistency between distinct levels of a text: the expected and the actual, the intended and the stated, the reader's knowledge and the character's, one character's knowledge and another's (Abrams 165-166). When we talk about irony, we are interested in questions of intention, expectation, and context—not only those that govern the conventional production of the text, but also those that govern how we as readers approach it. For instance, the opening line in Eliot's The Wasteland—“April is the cruellest month”—is only ironic in certain contexts; for most of the western world, it is ironic because April isn't a particularly “cruel” month. However, it would not be ironic for someone reading the poem on the Indian subcontinent, because April is part of the rainy season. Understanding irony is useful because it helps us understand that meaning is not a static thing that simply exists; it cannot always be controlled. In fact, the reader has an essential role to play in the apprehension or construction of meaning. Understanding irony requires that we look beyond the surface of things and consider how multiple—and often competing—meanings can emerge simultaneously.

 

In Conrad's Heart of Darkness, irony is an integral structural component of the text, and it colors the meanings that emerge throughout. Because we learn that the events Marlow recounts while waiting on the Thames with the unnamed frame narrator have already happened, we know that his perspective has necessarily changed—he recounts his story from an ironic position, one that has changed because of having experienced “the horror!” (148). Unlike the other men on the boat, Marlow knows what's going to happen, what has happened. How we understand the nature of “the horror!” he encounters will dictate how we understand Marlow's descriptions of, for instance, the “noble cause” (74) of colonialization. So, we have at least two levels of irony here; the structural irony, and the irony that Marlow's experiences inject into the story he tells, the traces of we see in the language itself. If we don't see the irony that Marlow employs—that is, if we think that colonialization really is as “noble” an “idea” (72) as Marlow says it is, then we have missed an important, even crucial element of the text. However, we may indeed miss it, especially if this is our first time reading the book, or if we're not paying attention to the other elements in the text that might help us discover it. Like our experience of irony, Marlow “did not see the real significance of that wreck at once. I fancy I see it now, but I am not sure—not at all” (89). Marlow's experiences in the Congo have changed him in profound but sometimes indefinite ways, and that is what we have to struggle with in the text.  

 

 

New Criticism

Susan Spina

 

New Criticism and those who call themselves new critics do not look at a text in historical context or based on other external factors.  New critics look at the text for itself, they see it as an “independent entity” (Abrams, 216).  This theory of literary criticism began to be widely used around 1941 and, subsequently fell by the wayside during the 1960s.  Although there were inklings of the ideas that were to become prominent during the new criticism in the 1920s with works such as I A Richards’ “Principles of Literary Criticism” (1924) and “Practical Criticism” (1929) (Abrams, 216).  Close reading – the detailed analysis of the verbal and figurative components of a work - is a hallmark of the New Criticism. (Abrams,  217).

 

It at first may seem that it would be difficult to read “Heart of Darkness” in the way of a New Critic, and taking it merely for the text that it is, without putting it in any social or historical context.  I would not hesitate to agree.  Marlow’s telling of his voyage up the Congo river and his description and feelings toward the native Africans (calling them savages, brutes, etc) lends itself nicely to talking about the fact that this is how many people felt towards these “uncivilized” people at the time of his voyage, and that the white Europeans who were on the African continent were there (at least in part) to attempt to “civilize” the natives.  I believe however that there is a way to read this text for what it is – a retelling of a man’s hard journey up a wild and unfriendly river .  That is, of course by looking at Marlow and his relationship with his helmsman.  If while reading, you focus as much as possible on their relationship as independent  from  how society during this time generally viewed relationships between blacks and whites you will see that it is a very different sort of  relationship.  Because the Helmsman had learned a trade and was a good worker Marlow had a high opinion of him and was saddened (if only momentarily) at his death.  There is a passage in the text that points to this. It describes how the Helmsman goes about doing his job and also what he should be doing instead of watching the boiler of a steam ship.  That is to say he should be “ clapping his hand and stomping his feet  on the bank.”(Conrad, 108). In this passage the narrator uses what most would consider simple words – such as “devil” “savage” and “improved specimen” that the reader must look at in the context of the text only to fully understand what is being said in this passage, because if the reader does not do this they may miss a great portion of the meaning of the text.

 

New Critics deal with the words in the text as they can be interpreted by not looking outside of the work (text) as a whole.  I believe that the passage described above is a good example from Conrad’s book to illustrate a New Critics point of view could be used when dissecting “Heart of Darkness."

 

 

New Criticism

Kristen Pierce

 

Developed in the mid-1930’s, the New Criticism—a way of treating written texts with autonomy—was an accepted form of literary criticism until the 1960’s.  It stressed literary analysis as a self-sufficient entity, independent of any external references (Abrams 128).  No social, personal, or historical context was brought to bear on the work being analyzed, nor was a discussion of authorial intention allowed.  Any attempt at defining meaning in a work through acknowledgement of the writer’s presence or any effect on the reader only detracted from the formal structure and essence of the text for a New Critic.

 

The principles of New Criticism are directed by a “close reading” that emphasizes the entire structure of a work with the explication of its meanings through words themselves and the symbols or images they represent (Abrams).  Some of the principles are:

 

  1. Choosing a short text, usually a poem

  2. Using the fundamentally metaphoric power of literary language (Leitch 35); how does it inform the poem’s structure?  The interplay of rhythm, theme, and metaphor, for example, create unity.

  3. Avoiding summary and paraphrase outside of strictly poetic meaning

  4. Understanding the text has only one correct meaning which will be revealed after several close readings

 

While the New Criticism’s intrinsic study was valuable for its precision, complexity, and treatment of texts as literary art, it lacked the wider, richer perspective of later critical theories.  Nonetheless, it taught literature students the logic of description and elevated poetry as a pure exemplification of creativity.  Although the New Critics preferred poetry, the technique of close reading has also been applied to other literary forms.

 

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, New Criticism could be particularly useful in understanding his repetitive treatment of certain adjectives, like the words interminable, inconceivable, and impossible.  What, if anything, does the alliteration or definitions of these words tell us about the form of this novella?  Furthermore, couldn’t one also explore the specific meanings of the words horror, black, and darkness as a unifying theme?  The tale is also rife with metaphors to be explored.  From the juxtaposition of the Thames and Congo rivers, to Kurtz’s mistress and his “Intended” (Conrad 152), many topics await a close reading.  Of particular interest is a passage at the story’s end.  “ The dusk was falling.  I had to wait in a lofty drawing-room with three long windows from floor to ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns.  The bent gilt legs and backs of furniture shone in indistinct curves.  The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness.  A grand piano stood massively in a corner; with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a somber and polished sarcophagus.” (Conrad 153-154).  What paradoxes or ironies from this passage serve as unifying structures for the whole?  A New Critical reading of this paragraph might elicit rather interesting responses.   However, as modern-day readers, we must approach such a controversial and rich text as Heart of Darkness from more than one critical approach.  The New Criticism is but a mere starting point for uncovering the complexities contained within the text. 

 

Persona, Tone, and Voice 

Stephanie Szkutak 

 

Characters used in writing take on many different forms, attitudes, and mannerisms; the use of persona, tone, and voice enable readers to identify main characters versus the author and the attitudes and stances they provide within the work. Persona is described as the main speaker, or narrator; in some cases this becomes whoever is actually telling the story (Abrams 257-258). Tone and voice are a little harder to grasp, while persona describes the person speaking these terms are used to describe the attitude that characters and the author have and how the reader is to “hear” these attitudes. Tone of the speaker will show their stance toward their listeners or the information they are supplying to the listeners (Abrams 258-259). Voice can be either described as the authors intended “presence” within the work or the “implied author” which is the character taking on the role that the author writes for them (Abrams 259-260). This “implied author” serves as an illusion to the real author, helping to set up more of a “human presence” within the work (Abrams 259).

   

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, persona, tone, and voice are used as a way to approach the character of Marlow. In the novella Marlow can be considered the “persona” of the story he begins the telling of his adventure and experience of trying to meet Kurtz (64). The difficult part about the novella is that the main speaker could also be considered Conrad himself or even another seaman telling the tale. Heart of Darkness does not begin with Marlow; it begins as men are out at sea, and from the point of view (persona) of one of the men aboard. He describes Marlow as well as the other men including the Director and states “We four affectively watch his back…” (61) speaking about the Director. This man is one of the four and not Marlow who is telling the story of Marlow telling his story. So the persona at this point of the novella changes when Marlow begins.

 

Tone is used throughout the work, starting with the initial seaman’s description of their boat and the men aboard as well as through Marlow’s tale. The tone in the beginning of the novella sets up the attitude of the entire piece, describing the area and its “brooding gloom,” “lurid glare,” and “monstrous town” (63). As Marlow moves through his tale his attitude/ tone continually changes. At first his reflection on his experiences indicates a questioning attitude and tone about the events that occurred (63-64). Later his tone becomes more anticipation than questioning while waiting to meet Kurtz, and his focus shifts and stays on Kurtz (80).

 

Voice in the novella we know is Conrad, he is the author and under all the characters and their experiences his views and thoughts of himself and how the characters should act and behave is prominent. Abrams A Glossary of Literary Terms, also includes the “implied author” in voice as well which is the voice that we “hear” (259); this “implied author” while reading the novella appears to be the voice of Marlow in his tale.

 

Plot

Sarah Shuff  

 

Plot is more than just the beginning, middle and end of a story, there are a variety of configurations contrived to build tension, conflict, and intrigue throughout the entirety of almost all dramatic or narrative work to ensure continuity of a rising action, a climax, and a resolution (Abrams 224-228).  The plot is designed to assist the story as it progresses, each event is carefully organized and motivated to build interest, suspense, and intrigue to keep the reader wanting more.  Gustav Freytag, a German critic, broke down a typical plot into three stages: rising action, climax, and falling action. The beginning of the story, or the exposition, introduces the reader to the potential protagonist, the hero or heroine and the antagonist, sometimes characterized as the villain; it is the job of the plot to create tension to move the story forward.  Rising action introduces suspense, surprise, and complications, which catapults the reader to the climax of the narrative.  The plot is now at the turning point and has nowhere to go but to use falling action to create a catastrophe leading to the resolution.  A story can have a beginning, middle, and end without having a plot; a plot ties the story together and gives the story a focus. 

 

The plot is the power that drives Marlowe to search out Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.  In the beginning, the narrator introduces the reader to the protagonist, Marlowe, who drives the story up river by recounting his expedition aboard a steamboat as a fresh water sailor in Africa.  The exposition sets the stage for what is to come and in this case it is the death of Fresleven, “the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs” (74), which brought Marlowe to the Dark Continent.   The introduction of Kurtz, the antagonist, creates intrigue- who is Kurtz, will Marlowe meet Kurtz, and is Kutz alive?  Each incident of rising action is ordered and organized to create a unity of action that connect the beginning and middle to the eventual end; Fresleven’s death, “in the interior you will no doubt meet Mr. Kurtz” (86),  “wood for you. Hurry up. Approach cautiously.” (109), “my intended, my ivory, my station, my river” (123); all lead up to the removal of Kurtz at the climax. The falling action helps tie up loose ends while still engaging the reader; the papers and photograph, “the horror!”(148), and the reversal of Marlowe always telling the truth.  Comedies and tragedies usually end with a mystery solved or the conflict settled (Abrams 227) yet some end without a happy, case closed, my job is done here ending, in which case one could argue that Conrad demonstrates a reversal of resolution when Marlowe questions whether Kurtz received justice and by writing that “we have lost the first of the ebb” (158).      

 

Without plot, Heart of Darkness is merely a tale of a man going to Africa, spending some time on a river and then returning to England.  Plot enhances the overall experience and directs the reader on a carefully plotted course to an intended resolution.

 

Point of View

Nicole Drabic

 

Point of view is a technique in which the author provides a lens for its readers to look into a narrative they have created.  It allows the reader to "see" and "hear" the narrators story.   The author establishes a means in which the reader is presented with the characters, dialogue, actions, setting and events which continue the narrative in a work of fiction (Abrams 271-272).   In each story the author is attempting to convey a particular opinion, detail, or emotion and to do so they write in a specific point of view to fix the focus of the reader.  Therefore, there are three main viewpoints an author may write from.  First-person point of view is typically used when the character narrates and refers to himself as “I”, acting as a witness, or participant in the narrative (Abrams 274).

 

This technique provides the reader the opportunity to see the story depicted through the narrators eyes but it also leaves a slanted perspective because the thoughts are only based off of one point of view.  In addition, second-person points of view allow the reader an increased connection to the story because it is told in a mode addressed by the narrator to someone he calls by the second person pronoun “you”.   Moreover, a third-person point of view is of an outsider looking in and they refer to all of the characters by name, or as “he”, “she,” “they” (Abrams 272).

 

However, third-person points of view include various styles the writer may choose to write from.  The writer may choose third-person omniscient, in which the thoughts of every character are open to the reader, or third-person limited, in which the narrator tells the story in the third person but stays within the limits of what is perceived, thought, remembered, or felt by a single character within the story—allowing you to hear the authors voice and not the characters (Abrams 273).    Understanding point of view allows the reader to look deep within the text of a narrative and see how a story is being told through the words and tone projected by the narrator.

 

In Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness the story of Marlow is told to the reader through two first person points of view.   This is significant because the reader is provided with the background information from the framed narrator—an Englishmen aboard the ‘Nellie’, and the more detailed accounts as described by Marlow along his journey down Thames River and into The Heart of Darkness.  This style of narration is significant because the readers are provided with two points of view allowing them to hear the perspectives of each person as they were engaged in this voyage.  The framed narrator begins by setting the scene through his introduction of Marlow.  “He was the only man of us who still “followed the sea…” He was a seaman and a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life…But Marlow was not typical, and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel, but outside (71-72).  This description of Marlow helps the reader to gauge the viewpoint of the narrator and see how he may reflect on the character of Marlow.  As the story progresses, Marlow offers his perspective in a more detailed manner than the framed narrators outlook.  Therefore, it is likely the writer is attempting to set the readers focus on specific points when Marlow is narrating. For example, Marlow’s narration of Kurtz’s death on pages 148 and 149 carries a strong tone to the way Marlow has experienced life in the Congo.  “I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz once more…Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose.  The terminology in this sentence appears to carry more weight than that of a sentence by the framed narrator.  Therefore, it is important for the reader to pay close attention to the points of view in which a story is told because it is used as a lens for the reader to look closely through and find the symbolic meanings within a text.

 

 

Theme and Motif 

Ian Healy

 

Theme and motif are two commonly cited and useful elements of literary analysis that are often used interchangeably, but should be understood separately. Motif refers to recurring elements within a text that or number of texts (Abrams 205). It is important to understand that a motif can be any type of recurring element: a repeated set of images, a structural element, or a formulaic and predictable plot line are some simple examples, but the range of potential motifs is limited only by an author's imagination. A theme within a text can be understood as an important idea or concept that an author wants the reader to consider and directs him/her towards, or less frequently, an idea that is inadvertently presented in the text without the author's intent. An author may explicitly state the idea or expect the reader to arrive at it through interacting with the text (Abrams 205). While not the same thing, motif and theme often work closely together. For example, in American action movies of the 1980s, a common motif is an individual or small group of American soldiers slaughtering countless hoards of communist enemies. This motif directs the viewer (aka elite film connoisseurs who repeatedly watch Stallone and Schwarzenegger flicks like myself) to consider the theme of American democratic ideals being superior to those of communism.

  

Conrad's Heart of Darkness is ripe with a wide variety of themes and motifs that have been subject to an equally wide range of interpretations and responses. A motif that shows up regularly within the text is the imagery attached to African natives, a powerful example of which occurs early in Marlowe's experience in the Congo:

 

Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, started at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone” (Conrad 85).

 

This motif can be easily parlayed into contributing to several thematic ideas. One being the idea of confusion and foreignness that the African continent poses to someone experiencing it from a European background such as Marlowe's. Throughout Heart of Darkness, Marlowe is confronted with alien sights and sounds that he struggles to identify with. The above excerpt can be understood as being a deliberate effort by Conrad through the style and language to support the foreignness theme.

 

However, the same passage can be viewed entirely differently as a motif supporting racist ideas that black African people are beneath their white European counterparts. Chinua Achebe argues that this is the thematic impact of Conrad's writing and that regardless of conscious intent or not, “...that Conrad was a bloody racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticism of his work is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely undetected” (Richter 328). These two radically different thematic interpretations of the same motif demonstrates the power and importance of considering context when exploring the relationships between all manner of motifs and themes.

 

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