"Curious this feeling that came over me that such details would be more intolerable than those heads drying on the stakes under Mr. Kurtz's window." (153)
Is Marlow under Kurtz's spell when he tells us that the heads on the stakes are no big deal? Perhaps, but after all the brutal and disbursing things along his journey, Marlow tries to channel it out through humour. Conrad puts in these heads to represent Kurtz's lack of being a civil being. He has been away from civilization for so long that he has forgotten what it is like and transformed more into an animal.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
nice -- I like how you discuss Conrad as deliberating using symbolism here (represents)
ReplyDelete