Heart of Darkness

The structure of Heart of Darkness is myth-pure: a journey from the safety of the known into the unknown world of danger/ death and back out again. An odyssey, of course, denied epic status by dint of the brevity of its recounting - and the fact that its protagonists are not godlike heroes, but a confused observer (Marlowe), a demented enigma (Kurtz) and a sideshow of iconlike characters and locales. Perhaps these characters and locales, not the protagonists at all, are what qualify a story as epic. Certainly, if Orpheus' crossing the River Styx into Hades is of mythic proportions, so, too, is Marlowe's j

. . .
, immensely impressed. "No doubt about it," said I ... "And by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time. For the moment that was the dominant thought. There was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had been striving after 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. Before finding Kurtz, Marlowe and the pilgrims of the rescue party come upon another apparition: a babbling, manic-depressive white man attending to the feverish Kurtz, who looks 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 edging at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshine made him look extremely gay and wonderfully neat... (90) Such a Harlequin in the heart of darkness! Just as the journey reaches its upcountry goal - the dying Kurtz - pilgrims escaped from roadside attack
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Approximate Word count = 3258
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)