Heart of Darkness Chapter 1

Heart of Darkness Study Questions

1.       There was a boat rest but was soon to be sailing on called the Nellie. The steamship was located in the Thames. On the ship were several men. The Director of Companies, the Lawyer, the Accountant and Marlow. The narrator speaks of the past about knights who left on a trip but came back and made the whole nation very proud

2.       Marlow says that he was to be wandering around but is still a seaman. Marlow says that the Romans were brutes that only wanted to conquer the land and in order to do so; they would have to rob with violence and murder in a great scale.

3.       Marlow asks his aunt to get him the appointment. Captain Fresleven was the one who was in command of the ship in Africa. Captain Fresleven was killed because of a fight for two hens and that is how the spot became available. Because of this Marlow is going to try and find out what happened.

4.       Marlow is uncomfortable because of the people in the headquarters. In my opinion they all try to warn Marlow because he doesn’t understand what he is getting on. The “great man” is the man who greets him and the man who will give him the job. His aunt says that the laborer is worthy of his hire. Marlow feels he is an imposter he feels that he is going to the center of the earth instead of the continent.  

5.       Marlow said that he was belonging to a world of straightforward facts. A man of war ship anchored caught his attention. Marlow thought that men were dying of fever and that the French were in war.

6.       Marlow sees pieces of decomposing machinery all around the outer station. He also sees six black slaves working on a railroad. Marlow describes the bodies of the six black slaves and says that their joints on their limbs were like “knots in a rope”. Marlow is amazed about his sights. He says that he has seen all of these devils and that he doesn’t want to mess with them again.

7.       The chief accountant seemed to be out of place with what he had just seen. The chief accountant was well-dressed with a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. Marlow says that the chief was amazing, and that he respected him. He says that Mr. Kurtz is a class agent and a great person. He is in charge of a trading-post and he sends as much ivory as all the other put together.

8.       He sees complete misery and loneliness. Marlow also sees a man camping alone and he says he is looking after the upkeep of the road. Marlow thinks that is weird because he does not see any road or any upkeep. He says his white companion is not a bad chap, he faints on the hot hillsides, and he was rather too fat. He got a fever and had to be taken on a hammock. But because he was to fat nobody wanted to carry him so he was left behind in a bush.

11     Marlow found out that his ship sank; that the general manager took it and some rocks destroyed the bottom. Marlow thinks that it might have been purposely sunken to prevent him from reaching Kurtz but the manager tells him that he took it to relieve the inner stations. He found out Kurtz is sick.

1    The faithless pilgrims are the white agents in the central station. Marlow calls them this because they wander around all day without any aim. A grass shed was burned down and a black man was being beaten because of this. Marlow heard the conversation of two men who talked about Kurtz and about “taking advantage of the unfortunate accident”.

1    Kurtz painting is an oil painting of a woman who is blindfolded and carries a torch. Because of the light the women gets an evil look and the background is very dark. The man reveals that Kurtz is the chief of the inner station and he says Kurtz.

12.   The man with the moustache is the brick maker of the central station. He is an agent that seems to be of a high class. Other agents say that he is a spy sent by the manager. They had been there for over a year expecting something. The man despises Kurtz because he will get the power and positions he wants. He wanted to be assistant manager but Kurtz didn’t let it happen. Marlow calls him "this papier-mâché Mephistopheles" because Marlow sees him as a toy of the devil.

13.    Marlow wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity looking at us two were meant as an appeal or menace when he is with the wreck of his boat. Marlow kept thinking if they would end up controlling the river or if the river would end up controlling them. As he talked about the forest, he said it was full of ivory. Marlow thought what was waiting for him in the forest.

14.   He needs the rivets to repair the ship. The problem is that there are no rivets in the station, and the time it takes for them to get there is three weeks. The people in the station are more concentrated in the ivory rather than the rivets. The foreman is a man who has six children and a dead wife. He is the mechanic there. The mechanic agreed that they needed the rivets but they got really happy when Marlow said they probably had some. The rivets were not coming and instead an expedition arrives.

15.   The Eldorado Exploring expedition is a lot of white men looking for treasures that would make them rich. Marlow thinks they are selfish and full of greed and that they have no common sense. The captain of the expedition is the manager’s uncle and they talk only in private.