Notes: 2/7 - 2/18

Heart of Darkness

• Geography
• Inner station and outer station- Dante's circles of Hell.
• Hell v. Paradise
• River as a serpant
• Women in Heart of Darkness:
• Fates - two women knitting
• Marlow's Aunt - intelligent?  Marlow (and maybe Conrad) want to deny it. 
• Kurtz's betrothed. Marlow's lie.  
• Man in patches
• Joseph??
• or court jester
• ..both of which mean Kurtz = evil king?
• Frame story
• Can we trust either narrator? The frame story make it more reliable
• sitting on the Thames  telling story - parallels the Congo? This setting wouldn't be there if there wasn't a frame story. 
• The story also wouldn't have Marlow's reflection. 
• Kurtz's mistress?
• She's never called his mistress, we just presumed. And why does Marlow never learn anything about her? What accounts for her power? Why the mystery?

•  The Intended:
• why does Marlow lie to her, especially when he no longer thought so highly of Kurtz and we know he abhors lies, why???

•  In conclusion: 
• Irony or Romance? I think irony. The fact that Marlow is setting out on a similar journey points at irony.  It only makes more ironic that Marlow learned stuff and is still blindly continuing...stupid guy

Apocalypse Now:

• Based off Heart of Darkness but lacks the merit. 
• Set in Vietnam
• Poor representation of Kurtz
• Different ending- it implies Marlow/Willard does not escape the jungle