Question+2

In the preface to his novel //The Nigger of Narcissus//, Conrad wrote that a novelist "speaks to our capacity for delight, for wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation -- and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts; to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hopes, in fear, which binds men to each other." Which parts of this description of the role of the novelist applies most appropriately to this novel? Which do not? Explain.

In The Heart of Darkness the parts that fit the description are that of the capacity for wonder, a sense of mystery,pain, and sorrow. These fit because throughout the novel it talks about how the land is unknown to Marlow and how at night the savages yell and chant things at them but the pilgrims would never leave or go far away fromt their camp. The ones that dont match are the ones that speak of joy hope and delight because this novel is mostly about hardship, fear and sorrow.

JS

I believe that the novel "speaks to our capacity for delight, for wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation," because if Joseph Conrad possesses one talent, it is a talent for descriptive language. Throughout the work he paints a vivid picture of Africa through the use of imagery and other tools and he does indeed make it seem like a place of wonder, delight, mystery, beauty though Marlow's reverence for Kurtz and through the description of African rituals and other natural aspects of the nation; by elaborating on the situation of the dying and enslaved natives, he manages to create pity and pain. Conrad also makes a point to emphasize the connection between the Europeans and the natives through Marlow's contemplative fascination with them. The work does not speak "to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts; to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hopes, in fear, which binds men to each other," because most of the characters in the work had very different personalities, goals, aspirations and opinions. The Europeans and he Africans, while they possessed some similar traits as a result of their common species, were actually separated by their aspirations, illusions, hopes and fears; indeed, the primary fear of the Africans was the colonists. Furthermore, while Conrad has a power for description, his points are too muddled, his truths to clouded by excessively tedious wording that readers lose interest before they have made the unifying connection that the author considers to be so important. KP

In the preface to the novel, Conrad introduces several aspects that //The Nigger of Narcissus// arouses. Two of which include "the sense of myster surrounding our lives" along with other profound and dismal observation as well as the novel's ability to "[speak] to our capacity for delight" and other lovely thoughts. While Conrad indeed successfully expresses deep and dreary themes, he does not delight his audience whatsoever. The author at one point writes, "Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through that dim stir through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart--its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of it's concealed life" (93). Not only does he create the ominious presence appropriate for the mystery of darkness and reality, but by using the word "one" as opposed to referring to a specific character, the reader feels as though Conrad could be writing to an ambiguous audience--man, himself. As lovely as this connection is, the author also claims to delight his readers. This is false. While his dictionand tone is impressive, his writing is far too complex and thought provoking to be anything less than mental gymnastics. As opposed to this amusement that follows delight, the reader is consumed and possibly troubled by such overwhelming thoughts. RZS

Conrad, in his novella //Heart of Darkness,// applies "to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation -- and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts" when Marlow ventures into the African jungles and sees the savagery of the natives. Although he cannot completely realate to their displays of madness at first, he eventually admits to their similarities as human beings: "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...They howled and leaped and spun and made horrid faces, but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity--like yours--the though of your remote kinship with this wilde and passionate uproar...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 franknes of that noise" (Conrad 36). In this passage the author displays the feeling of fellowship with all people and the connections they can share. Conrad also speaks to the "sense of mystery surrounding our lives' in regards to Kurtz and the incomprehensible destruction of his soul. "He struggled with himslef too. I saw it--i heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself" (Conrad 66). Clearly, here Marlow struggles to see the motives behind Kurtz's decisions and he strives to uncover the mystery within him. Conrad, however, does not speak to our sense of beauty. The author is quite frank in his discription of the horrors he experienced and he has no scruple in giving unpleasant detail: "...they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" (Conrad 17). OS

In the preface of //The Nigger of Narcissus//, Conrad describes what the story should arouse in the reader. For example, he says that a novelist should speak to the reader's capacity of pity. In //Heart of Darkness,// this is done several times. One instance of this is when the narrator describes the fate of some of the helpers: "They were dying slowly--it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now..." (Conrad 82). This instantly makes the audience feel saddened for the men. Since Conrad makes Marlow, the narrator, appear upset over the scene, it makes it easy for the readers to feel pity toward those involved. However, this particular story does not speak to the audience's capacity for delight. The novella is not one that seems to leave the reader happy or hopeful. Numerous tragic scenarios are presented in the work. An example of this is when Marlow is describing the surrounding area and says, "I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness" (Conrad 130). From this description, it seems that trying to make the best of the voyage would be in vain. No delight can be gained from the experiences in Conrad's story.

-Tessa Altman

In //Heart of Darkness//, Conrad fulfills all of the duties of a novelist mentioned in his preface of another work. The novella provides "delight," "wonder," and "mystery" to the imaginations of its readers by taking them on a journey into the jungles of Africa, the "center of the earth" (77), and introducing them to a foreign people. He depicts the "strange world of plants, and water, and silence" (103) to be like "the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings" (102). In the his characters, he appeals to the readers' senses of "pity" and "pain." The first and last capacities are reached with the descriptions of the conditions that the natives were forced into by the white men: "I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking" (80). Finally, the novella provides solidarity in human beliefs across the board, since one of its major themes involves the connection between all human beings, white or black. The way Marlow bonds with his helmsman shows that even the most different people can communicate; readers realize that " in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hopes, [and] in fear," they are never alone. Since literature is almost completely dependent upon interpretation, it makes sense that all of the elements mentioned in the preface could be somewhere found in //Heart of Darkness//. **~JKru**